Current Obsessions: 'The Gutter,' Colbert, + more!
Things move so fast these days. It’s nice to sit down and track what you’ve been focusing on.
What a month this week has been. In a rare moment of mental relax I recalled a few past things that brought me joy yet forgot to mention in one of the posts. So, let me tell you the tale of two documentaries I watched on a flight…
First, the 2024 documentary Electric Lady Studios: A Jimi Hendrix Vision —
—which got me back in tune with the serious Jimi Hendrix fandom of high school years. In my town, so many high school personalities were defined by. Of all the rockstar fandoms, I find the Jimi Hendrix strain to be the most interesting. He’s an elaborate character to most, but the real ones know all of these strange nuances about the man. This doc managed to reveal an even realer side of him which I found fascinating to watch as an adult who has had his time trying to make some sort of statement as an entertainer. I loved this glimpse of him as just a guy who wanted a fun studio to record in.
And second, the 2023 documentary A Disturbance In the Force about the infamous Star Wars holiday special that George Lucas wishes we all forgot:
This post is my faulty attempt at molding the sludge of content I consume into a presentable sculpture. Things move so fast these days. It’s nice to sit down and track what you’ve been focusing on.
And this week, I’ve obsessed over…
FILM: The Gutter (2024)
This movie honestly made me believe in comedy films again. It captures a certain peak 90s Nickelodeon feeling while being very current and very adult. It’s perfectly cast. And, most importantly, it’s not doing too much. The Gutter, written by Yassir Lester and directed by his brother Isaiah Lester, is a fun hangout movie with a competitive edge and I wish it existed in a better media ecosystem.
TV: Stephen Colbert Announces The Cancellation Of “The Late Show”
Watching this made it clearer than ever that the snake of capitalism is eating own tail because it’s run out of other things to consume. Instead of delight, my obsession with this clip stems from a great deal of concern, as it feels like the official marker of a certain kind of media’s end. Which also marks the end of certain kinds of aspirations from certain kinds of comedians and certain kinds of writers. Yes, the cancellation is shady as hell but it’s also representative of the larger trends we’re all forced to move along with.
Personally —
Given its history, I imagine The Tonight Show will be the last man standing for a while until one day, Jimmy dramatically turns around in his 30 Rock cave and says —
YOUTUBE: The Disappearance of Third Places by Chon Digital
The algorithm has been serving up a lot of work from a guy who… well, I assume his name is Chon, I’m really not sure. The first I saw was this piece on how an old internet aesthetic is on the rise, and that started a casual deep dive where every now and then I’d just look forward to watching his take on something else.