Welcome to 5 Quick Things that I saw since last month that I thought were interesting enough to share with you. None of them are particularly timely so feel free to just enjoy 🙂

>Number One<

All the Pulp You Can Take

I grew up with plenty of pulp magazines laying around the house but most of them were in poor condition and none of them survived through a few more moves so it’s great to have something like The Pulp Magazine Archive hanging around with plenty of Amazing Stories and Strange Tales to keep you entertained. If you’ve never had the pleasure of reading a pulp magazine I’d suggest taking some time to snuggle up in a blanket and read some of the worst, best, and bizarre tales of the 18th and 19th centure.

>Number Two<

The Choke hold of Big Calculator

In high school I had to buy a $100 calculator that I used only for the one year and on the AP test. I remember struggling to afford the calculator but like all school related things, it simply had to be done. Turns out that was kind of a new thing…and a big deal. This was a super interesting read since I haven’t thought about the TI-84 calculator since I sold it back to someone else who no doubt needed it for the exact same math class as me starting the cycle all over again.

>Number Three<

“Who’s Afraid of Modern Art”

I find myself in a lot of bad faith arguments these days, especially around art. I like art. I sometimes (all the time) struggle with art but even when I don’t understand a piece or the nature of events that led to a piece I try to approach it from a mindset that the person making it knows something I don’t and that the piece has something to teach me, to tell me about art and nature and people and connection. This isn’t the mindset of most and for a certain set of people it’s the antithesis of how they approach art. This video gets at some of the attitudes I’ve been seeing crop up around the art world (or movie world or book world) for a while now.

>Number Four<

Excess Makes Us Feel Bad

I don’t follow anyone who is an influencer. I don’t think I do this on purpose but I know that many people do. People like para social relationships, people like seeing new trends, people want to feel connected and informed and whatever else they may get out of these feeds where people fault their beauty, their style, and increasingly, their wealth. But like beauty instagrams, these types of content have a real effect of how we see ourselves, our lives, our ambitions, and our place in their world and it turns out that if you see someone having more than you the outcome is pretty clear: you feel bad.

>Number Five<

Pop Culture IS Culture

The world is on fire, why are you talking about Star Wars? Well imaginary person I am arguing with the truth is that the world IS Star Wars. Pop culture is part of culture which is part of the world. Yeah, Star Wars isn’t about to change the fact that the world is on fire but it can influence how we feel about each other, how we feel about society, how we interact, and even how compelled we feel to deal with those other problems. So yeah, I’m going to talk about Star Wars alongside all those other important things.

And maybe as a bonus, talking about Star Wars will help me feel something other than crippling devastation and give me back some valuable willpower to fix the world with.

Anyway, that’s all for now, see you next month!