Welcome to July, 2023

Sci-Fi, Contracts, Abstract Thinking, Genre, & more!

Jul 03, 2023

July Letter from African America: The End of Genre
What You (May Have) Missed: Eliza Cossio, Contract TK & more!
Recent Pods: This Is Your Afterlife & Yub Nub!
Consider Consuming: A documentary, a book, & two TV shows!
Upcoming Shows: The Good Dog Show!
Something(s) From The Vault: Uncertain Life & Maurice on Mars!
Song of the Month: Hint, it’s by the Isley Brothers!

Letter from African America (July, 2023)

Dear readers,

Wow! June was just as chaotic as it was hopeful — much like the cake topper my fiancée and I purchased for our wedding cake.

Feels a bit like our society is melting, doesn’t it? The AMPTP has forced the easily resolvable WGA strike to go on for over 60 days, artificial intelligence is disrupting every industry, we’re all experiencing the awful butterfly effect of Clarence Thomas getting teased for a bad haircut in grade school, and so far in 2023 — not a single hip hop song or album has charted number one.

It’s all a part of the churning ooze of restructuring taking place in every sector. What’s really going on here? Have the robots already taken over? Are they simply using our executives and political leaders as pawns in a bigger game we can’t even comprehend? Has the 1% realized that Earth isn’t gonna last another decade and just said, “Screw it! Let’s not even pretend we care anymore?” Is humanity’s true purpose turning the planet into one conscious supercomputer that’s actually the child of two other planetary supercomputers?! Or, have I just spent too much time reading and writing science fiction stories?

Hard to tell.

But I do wonder if there’s a correlation between the hip hop charts dilemma and the the recent wave of NPR Tiny Desk Concerts featuring artists like Trina, Juvenile and Symba.

It’s not like the NPR series has avoided hip hop over the years, but something about the 2023 selection seems to have solidified the general acceptance of the music. For instance, the possibility that Terry Gross bobs her head to “Back That Azz Up” on her way to work is funny, yes, but these day — not all that shocking. More of a chuckle than a belly laugh. Which is great! Right? I often think of what Duke Ellington tasked Quincy Jones with by writing, “You be the one to de-categorize American music.” What if the hip-hop charts issue is just a part of that de-categorization? These days, I think it’d be hard to find a new chart topper outside of the “hip hop” genre that is devoid of its influence. Perhaps the charts issue isn’t really an issue at all. Perhaps it’s simply time for the genres… to end.

That being said, if hip hop truly needs a new chart-topping hero, I’m willing to step up to the plate.

Best,

Tim

P.S. There’s a lot more to read below!

WHAT YOU (MAY HAVE) MISSED

A [Text] Conversation with Writer/Director Eliza Cossio
I had a great, three-day convo with my friend Eliza Cossio that you can read here. I was most shocked to learn that before working at The Daily Show, she drove an ice cream truck in New York.
My guest appearance on Contract TK!
Contract TK is a semi-weekly series of jokes and hot takes created by striking writers. I was lucky enough to appear on camera for episode 3 with Greg Iwinski (who I happen to co-host Yub Nub with!) and each episode is a delight forged through trying times.

Short Stories!
If you aren’t already familiar with Alternate Timeline, don’t worry, because the next sentence will start to explain it. AT is substack I’ve dedicated to writing short speculative fiction inspired by current events. The stories are free to reed, but for bonus content like “Behind The Story” where I showcase the development and research that goes into writing them, you have to either be a paid subscriber to Letters from African America or Alternate Timeline. Here are two stories from June!—
Watching Ghosts — Loosely inspired by the June 5, 2023 unveiling of Apple’s Vision Pro goggles, Watching Ghosts follows tech journalist Morgan Stern as she attempts solving the mystery of her father’s death through goggles that let her witness the past in real time.
Foreign Document — Loosely inspired by the June 9, 2023 indictment of Donald Trump, Foreign Document is the story of gig worker, Victor Rose III, who becomes obsessed with a mysterious symbol that he finds on the job.

RECENT PODS

This Is Your Afterlife with Dave Maher
I got deep about death with comedian and storyteller Dave Maher.

Yub Nub w/ special guest Krystina Arrielle!
Yub Nub — the Star Wars podcast that I co-host with Jim Fagan and Greg Iwinski is still going strong. A recent episode worth highlighting is our conversation with Krystina Arrielle, which highlights the incredible humor, talent, and thoughtfulness that she brings to the world of fandom in general but specifically to the fandom of Star Wars: The High Republic.

CONSIDER CONSUMING

Book: “Burn It Down” by Maureen Ryan
Burn It Down is one of the greatest pieces of writing about Hollywood, and as the subtitle on the cover explains — it explores power, complicity, and a call for change. But it isn’t just a list of atrocities. It’s an in depth dissection of what makes the industry tick and why so many of its gears are rotting. If you need an extra push to believe how good it is, consider reading this excerpt from the chapter about the ABC series, LOST (and then buy the book).
Documentary: Shiny Happy People (Prime)
Not gonna lie — this doc will ruin a few days of your life (depending on how long it takes you to finish it). It starts off seeming like a surface level exploration of the Duggar Family’s fame, but winds up exposing the nefarious layers of Bill Gothard’s “Institute in Basic Life Principles,” which has managed to infiltrate many Christian households as well as the halls of American government. I think it’s healthy to explore some of the dangers of doctrine. So much of faith is about letting go, and in the wrong hands — that requirement can be used against you. This documentary reminded me how important it is to balance faith with skepticism.

TV/STREAMING: “FROM” (Prime/whatever MGM+ is)
FROM is an enthralling horror series that seems to have slowly bubbled up in the greater public consciousness. Harold Perrineau does some of the best acting of his career as the troubled Sheriff Boyd Stevens who tries to keep his townspeople safe from the slow-walking, murderous… things that come out at night. Perrineau’s challenging experiences on LOST are extensively documented in Burn It Down and it’s great to see him having reached the point of playing the lead in a similar “mystery box” show, only this time under better circumstances. What I appreciate about this show is that (outside of a few fashion model-esque outliers) it features a cast of mostly realistic looking characters.
TV/STREAMING: Silo (Apple TV+)
Is there something in the Hollywood air that’s giving us so many Black Sheriffs in television lately? I’m not complaining, but it feels like an odd coincidence that three sci-fi shows (Resident Alien, From, and now — Silo) feature them. Maybe its due to our collective longing for the stewardship of Barack Obama. Or, perhaps it’s prepping us for the presidency of “top cop” Kamala Harris? I digress… Silo is yet another great sci-fi thriller from Apple, which has proven itself to be a great home for speculative stories (examples being Foundation, Severance, For All Mankind, and The Big Door Prize). Based on a series of books by Hugh Howey, the show follows characters who live in a high-tech silo and believe the world outside of it is dangerous and full of unbreathable air. To me, Silo feels like the show we should have gotten years ago about Zion from The Matrix trilogy.

UPCOMING SHOWS

“The Good Dog Show” - JULY 23, 7:30PM @ Putnam’s Pub & Cooker, Brooklyn (TICKETS)

SOMETHING(s) FROM THE VAULT

Uncertain Life, issue #62
This is one of my favorite issues of Uncertain Life because it connects all of the things that are constantly on my mind: family, media, and the passage of time.

Maurice on Mars Character Design
This June also saw the one-years anniversary of my Maurice on Mars animated web-series — which caused me to take a trip down memory lane. In doing so, I found the various character designs that lead up to the final product. If you enjoyed the series, you might also enjoy seeing this evolution of Maurice’s design by artist Ucheomaaa.

SONG OF THE MONTH

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when published

Song Title Fight the Power, (Pts. 1 & 2)
Artist: The Isley Brothers
Album: The Heat Is On (1975)

WHY?: A beautiful energy emerges when Black people come together for a good cause. The recent Juneteenth WGA themed picket was full of moments of hilarity, joy, purpose, and strength — accompanied by a constant stream of music blasting from the speakers. While walking in that circle and bobbing my head to the tunes, it dawned on me that we’ve basically created protest anthems for every imaginable vibe. Nothing reminded me of this more than the moment “Fight The Power” by the Isley Brothers started playing. First of all, The Isley Brothers are one of those rare groups that has a hit for every era. They’re true chameleons of the American genre game — having been rock and roll, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, psychedelic rock and beyond (part of which makes it no surprise that Jimi Hendrix once graced the group as rhythm guitarist)!

In the Isley’s “Fight The Power,” there is a hard-driving, funky bass riff that later becomes part of the quintessential west coast hip hop sound, a rhythm guitar riff that ramps up to the speed of Hendrix, and lyrics with the anger of the 60s but the groove of the 70s — all of which makes it a song of its time, yet also timeless. It’s one of the those jams that you know someone like Steve Harvey might break a hip dancing to.