✉️: Welcome to November, 2024

The Intersection of Zen & Depression, Top Jokes Of October, Podcasts, Interviews, and Recommendations!

— This is a longer post than usual, so if you’re reading this via email, you might want to hop on over the web version here to read the full thing! —

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Table of Contents:

• November Letter From African America:

  • The Intersection of Zen & Depression

• Last Month Right Now!:

  • The Top Jokes of Last Month!

• Stuff You Might’ve Missed:

  • You Are The Genre Episodes + Yub Nub & more!

• Current Obsessions:

  • TV, film, audio, and text recs!

• Somethin’ Else:

  • A [TEXT MESSAGE] Interview With

    Andrew E. Colarusso

• Song of the Month:

  • Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin

Letter From African America (November, 2024)

Dear readers,

You know, I typically scramble to write these letters at the end of the previous month so that they’re ready for you at the top of the next. I also typically release these letters to paid subscribers first so that free subscribers have to wait a week. But since we’re halfway into the month of November as I type, and I already know the election results, this one is for everyone, everywhere, all at once.

Oh yes… my anxieties surrounding the presidential election take part to blame for the delay. But on a deeper level, I just needed a moment to grapple with a strange new feeling that’s been bubbling up — like I’m standing at the intersection of zen and depression.

If this year has taught me anything, it’s how to accept life’s unwillingness to bend to a preconceived plan (I feel like I compose a new version of that sentiment in each of these letters). And while there were small victories that made October fly by (and 2024 as a whole not a total bust) I spent my rare free time trying to understand what this year means on a grand scale. And now, with the knowledge of who our next president will be, that meaning has certainly revealed itself like Jack out of the box.

The dread doesn’t set in until I step out of my home, down the elevator, and into my vibrant Brooklyn neighborhood where, as if placing goggles from the future over my eyes, I can see how much of that vibrancy will be killed in four years’ time.

Donald Trump’s re-election says less about him and more about the nation. We don’t need to parse through statistics to acknowledge that every person in this country knows someone in their family or social circle who has tip-toed, and in many cases leapt, into his orbit of thinking. But is it because of who he is (Donald Trump)? Or because of what he represents (self-interest at all costs, the false security of male dominance, and the bizarre implication that white supremacy is somehow a post-racial endeavor)?

I’ve also been thinking a lot about the purpose of comedy in these times and how the genre has been co-opted and diluted by the fractured internet and larger political machine. Oddly, my frustration with this makes me less tethered to the future of the medium and more interested in its past, which feels wrong, right? I mean, am I be basically wearing a philosophical ‘Make Comedy Great Again’ hat? Of course, I’m referring to incredibly specific elements of yesteryear’s comedy. We certainly don’t need more Al Jolsons.

One of the best things I stumbled upon in October is the 1991 TV special A Party for Richard Pryor. Pryor was an incredibly flawed individual but loved by many. And while watching this special, it struck me that the fractured nature of entertainment these days may never allow us to see this level of love poured over a comedic presence again. Considering that that made me quite sad, especially when this video of Gene Wilder appeared:

That clip is simply one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen or heard and is a reminder that what we seek and give to others through comedy is in fact love. It’s just harder to see that in the world of algorithms.

Though the jade is quite tempting, I’m trying to get back on track with the love behind my creative pursuits.

And I’ll be using the weeks ahead of Trump’s inauguration to study up on authoritarianism, prepare to defend myself and others who will be caught in his political crosshairs, and become stubborn about the things I care about because, I assure you, the largest deceptions in the coming years will be packaged in the form of a loving gift — most prominently to white people, but also to anyone who thinks a return to “normalcy” over the perceived sinister “wokeness” of women’s liberation, caring about Black lives, and gender expression, won’t evolve into a further pursuit of “normalcy” that doesn’t fit them into the equation either.

There is no greater example of this than the Vance/Walz debate, where our next vice president continually trapped Tim Walz with performative kindness only to reveal the bomb he held beneath the ribbons and wrapping paper.

I urge you to keep your mind sharp and not fall for the okie doke. And I pray that none of us ever look as flummoxed as Tim Walz did during that debate:

Stay vigilant out there.

Best,

-Tim

last month right now! (best jokes)

Each weekday, I email five jokes and subscribers vote on the ones that make them laugh the most! Here are your favorite jokes from October, 2024!

FRIDAY : 10-4-2024

• Spirit Airlines is exploring a bankruptcy filing. The news comes as a shock to customers, who were under the impression that the airline was only bankrupt on a moral level.

[read the other jokes from that week here]

MONDAY: 10-7-2024

• Manufacturers are cutting back on their orders for robots as business slows and labor shortages ease. Naturally, the out of work robots have set up accounts on OnlyFans.

[read other jokes from that week here]

MONDAY: 10-21-2024

• Alien: Romulus is getting a VHS release — the perfect gift for saying “Hey, here’s a box.”

[read the other jokes from that week here]

MONDAY: 10-28-2024

• A spokesperson for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is attempting to distance the candidate from a racist joke about Puerto Rico made by comedian Tony Hinchcliffe, who spoke before the former president at his Madison Square Garden rally. In fact, Hinchcliffe just received a bill for the wall that’s being built between them.

[read the other jokes from that week here]

stuff you might’ve missed

• Listen to the latest four episodes of You Are The Genre from October!

  Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get podcasts!

  

  

  • [Hoff Matthews] Is The Genre: How digital sketch creator Hoff Matthews channels his comedy through multiple platforms while staying true to his natural creative impulses.

  • [Claire Willett] Is The Genre: How novelist and playwright Claire Willett allows reality to clash with fantasy in her personal life and work.

  • [Tim Platt] Is The Genre: How comedian Tim Platt melds music, jokes, and characters in his comedy album, 'TEETH LIKE BEEK'

  • [Anita Flores] Is The Genre: How an early interest in screenwriting guided podcast producer/host Anita Flores toward audio.

• There’s also a new episode of

  Yub Nub
  (the Star Wars podcast that I co-host with Jim Fagan and Greg Iwinski) where we talk about the election through a Star Wars lens.

current obsessions

Note: Since time has become a flat circle for me over the past few weeks, this is a briefer summary than usual. Next month’s letter will have a more accurate and in-depth approximation of my MOST current obsessions!

SIGHTS:

• DOCUMENTARY: Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War

  I had a great time freaking myself out a getting paranoid while watching this docu-series leading up to the election!

• TRAILER: Skeleton Crew

  Can’t wait to see it!

• TV: A Party for Richard Pryor (1991)

  Worth watching in full as a wild time capsule of comedy in the early 90s.

• TV: Agatha All Along (2024)

  Wow, talk about a great show. There is a beautiful level of detail and fun that shines in each episode of this series. And I’m in awe of the care taken with each member of the ensemble cast. Agatha All Along shows of how important it is for comic book stories to move beyond gimmicks. More TV like this, please!

somethin’ else

A throwback to my text message interview with

Andrew E. Colarusso

, who in addition to having the newly released book, Black Body Index, is also kinda my boss at Taylor & Co Books where I work a few days a week!

song of the month

I went on a bit of an Aretha Franklin kick in October. Mostly playing “Rock Steady” over and over again while walking the dog. It has such an infectious balance of groove, lyrics and vocals in a way that almost propels it outside of the confines of genre. It’s funk, soul, rock and roll and gospel wrapped into one — exuding a confidence I’m not quite sure I have at the moment but hope to feel a bit more of soon!

🎶 LET’S CALL THIS SONG EXACTLY WHAT IT IS…🎶

Until next time, remember YOU ARE THE GENRE!

✉️(PAST LETTERS)✉️