Author: Sam

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Steve Lacy’s Demo

Steve Lacy, guitarist for the Internet (one of my favorite new bands), released this little ‘demo’ at the beginning of the year and I just found it. It sounds fucking great and we get to hear a distinct style from someone we’ve only really heard collaborating in a group. And this truly is a one man demo. Lacy recorded vocals and instruments through his iPhone, drum patterns on Ableton, and mixed it himself. The music being made by young, new artists is extraordinary, encapsulating influences from early 2000’s hip-hop to old school soul and funk, and the ways in which they’re doing it are even more impressive. I’m late to the party but I’m glad I found it.

I found this in an interview with the group on Pharrell’s Beats show. I only wish they released the entire interviews, there’s a lot of great guests on there.

P.S. Spotify’s running a sale until the end of the year, $100 for a year of premium as opposed to $10 monthly, so you’d save $20. Check it out if you’re interested.

 

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My Year in Music 2017

This year’s new albums never quite grabbed me like the new releases in ’16 did (Frank, Solange, Chance, Schoolboy, Kanye), but there were certainly some gems. And in that void of new music, I ended up going back and exploring a ton of different music from all over the place, which was really fun and enlightening. Check out my favorite albums of the year, new and old, and the top songs I listened to in 2017, below.

2017

First of all, you can check out the top songs I listened to this year here. Now let’s get to the albums.

Kendrick Lamar – DAMN.

SZA – Ctrl

Do I really need to write about these two albums? Probably the two best albums of the year, both coming from Top Dawg Entertainment. Two of my favorite albums that came out last year were also from TDE. They know what they fuck they’re doing.

Tyler, the Creator – Flower Boy

I liked Odd Future and Tyler when they were first coming out and I was in college. I liked the brash punkness of it mixed with some Jackass vibes. But besides helping usher Frank Ocean into the world, I kind of lost track of them. After hearing Tyler’s production on Blonde. (Skyline To), and then one of his new singles off the album (911/Mr. Lonely), I added it to check out. And I only really got around to it about a month ago, but I’ve been playing it ever since. There’s some great features on this album and both 911 and Where This Flower Blooms feature Frank. I went back and listened to the albums I missed by him and I’ve loved his progression away from abrasive punk to more beautiful, vulnerable music, culminating with this album.

Thundercat – Drunk

JAMS! Soft rock R&B is maybe the best way to describe it? I don’t even think it’s describable though. He’s singing about Dragonball Z, Michael McDonald, the plague of social media, and much more, all in catchy, up-beat grooves. Thundercat is the man and yet another connection to TDE: he played bass and helped produce Kendrick’s last 3 albums.

Steven Universe OST

I fell in love with Steven Universe this year, and have already talked about the show. The show is so good, in part, because of how phenomenal, catchy, and emotionally moving the songs are. The soundtrack came out this year and it’s always a joy to listen to, especially if I need a pick me up.

Honorable Mentions

Jay-Z 4:44

Vince Staples – Big Fish

I love Jay-Z and Vince Staples, and liked their new albums a lot, but after playing them each for a week or two, I promptly forgot about them until I started putting this list together. So while I’m happy they released new music (especially Jay-Z putting something out that good for the first time in awhile) I  have to leave them as honorable mentions.

Pre-2017

I pay $10 a month for Spotify, and it’s probably the best money I spend. I love being able to find basically any song or album and queuing it up to check out. I did that a lot this year, adding a ton of albums I’d never listened to. I watched a lot of What’s in My Bag and Crate Diggers towards the end of this year too. What’s in My Bag opened up a ton of obscure recommendations from some of my favorite artists, while Crate Diggers dove into the process of sampling and making beats, which opened me up to all the old funk and soul records they used. These are all albums I discovered or re-discovered this year and played the hell out of.

Nirvana – Unplugged

Loved this when I first heard it as a teenager, love it now.

Kamasi Washington – The Epic

Epic is right. Out of this world jazz, pulling from all sorts of different influences. Hard to describe this one, but I’m pretty sure it’s a masterpiece.

Blackalicious – Blazing Arrow

Banging rap, sick samples. Never heard it before and it blew my mind.

Blondie – Parallel Lines & Autoamerican

I have both of these on vinyl and wanted to revisit them after seeing Blondie’s early influence and appreciation of the emerging hip hop scene in Hip Hop Family Tree. Both are great.

Brian Eno – Apollo

Beautiful ambient music, to relax to, to write to, to clean the house to, and more.

Common – Be

One of Kanye’s best produced albums, and Common’s best album.

Isaiah Rashad – The Sun’s Tirade

I missed this in 2016 but played the hell out of it this year. Another great rap record from last year, and another TDE production!

Noname – Telefone

This one I did enjoy in 2016, but continued to listen to this year and enjoyed it even more.

The Internet – Ego Death

What a great fucking band, that plays real instruments, yet can seamlessly transform their sound into hip hop beats with their instruments. This was one of my favorite discoveries of the year. Their other album Feel Good is awesome too.

Marvin Gaye – Here, My Dear

I’d always heard this was maybe Marvin’s best, and after listening to it again this year it really hit me. Beautiful, raw, honest. And sounds so damn good.

Steely Dan- Can’t Buy a Thrill

JAMS! Every single song on this album is a soft rock masterpiece. I have this on vinyl and played it a lot. Steely Dan’s also been sampled a lot by hip hop, from De La Soul to Kanye. Speaking of samples…

Gangstarr – Daily Operation

Skull Snaps – Skull Snaps

Ohio Players – Pleasure

After watching Crate Diggers, I was going back and forth between a lot of old rap and then the older funk records they pulled samples from. DJ Premier is obviously a legend, but I never really listened to Daily Operation. Both the beats and the lyrics from Guru blew me away. The next two are some of the most sampled records of all time and for good reason. Pleasure was a perfect introductions to the Ohio Players. Skull Snaps bangs, if the name didn’t tell you already.

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Keep your ears open, and if you think I’d dig something based on this list, let me know!

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Staying Sharp in the Dark

We’ve entered November, it’s dark before most of us leave the office, and bad news just seems to keep on coming. I can feel the S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) hovering over me. But it hasn’t quite taken hold yet, in part because of the routines and practices I’ve made a habit of over the last few years. It used to hit me much harder in years past, before I cut back on unhealthy habits and started practicing healthy ones, but I’m still definitely not immune to it, especially if I’m slacking on those healthy habits. These healthy habits are listed below, and I try to do them everyday in order to give myself the best chance to have a great day. Some of these include locked in routines I’ve been doing every day for years now and others are newer things I’m trying to introduce to make sure I stay at my best. So this is more of a reminder for myself, as much as suggestions for you to try out if the change in seasons gets you down.

Meditation and Mindfulness

Every morning after I shower I meditate for 10 minutes. This doesn’t mean I sit and reach zen enlightenment. Usually I have to continuously pull myself back from thinking about the day ahead and what I have to do, and return to the moment, to my breath, to the mantra, over and over again. That’s why it’s called a practice. Some days are great, other times it’s a struggle. But every morning I do it. It lays the foundation that allows me to be calmer, happier, and more present and in the moment throughout my day. It’s challenging to describe the practice and effects of meditation. I never feel that I do it justice, but I want to try to in a future post and get as in depth and practical as I can with it, so stay tuned for that.

Outside. Water & Tea. Breakfast. Supplements.

After I meditate I let the dog out and I find it really helps to stay outside even for just 30 seconds, to feel the cold and breathe in the fresh air. It helps me wake up and feel alive. While breakfast is getting ready, I’ll drink a glass of water and make some tea (with a little bit of apple cider vinegar and coconut oil splashed in). Then I’ll have breakfast, which is usually oatmeal and peanut butter, or some bacon and eggs. After breakfast I’ll take supplements. Sean (and Tim Ferriss) got me into taking supps, and they’ve done wonders for both Sean and I. He’s written before about his own supplement routine, as well how diet can effect your mood. Almost every day I take cod liver oil, and rotate between potassium, magnesium, garlic, and Vitamin D (especially this one with the time change and lack of sunlight). Not only do these boost my mood, I hardly ever get sick anymore, which I think is due to the cod liver oil in particular. Now that I’ve said that, I’m sure I’ll get sick within the next week.

Practice Gratitude

I’ve written about my gratitude journal before, but in short, the first thing I do at work when my computer boots up is open Evernote and jot down a few things I’m grateful for. That’s it. It’s incredibly simple and I think you’d be surprised at how much it can change your mood and how you look at things throughout the rest of your day.

Go for a Walk

Every day, at 11am and 3pm, I get up from my desk at work and take a nice, mindful walk around the block. It doesn’t take more than 5 minutes each time, and I think it’s vital not only for my health, but my mood as well. Go for a walk. You’ll feel better. 

Limit or Block Information Overload

Working at a computer all day, I have a bad habit of continuously clicking on news sites and Twitter, compulsively and repeatedly, even if I know there is absolutely nothing new, let alone anything I need to know. I’ve tried a number of different tactics but always end up backsliding. This month I started a new tactic. I can check those news sites and Twitter one time, usually in the morning, and then I am done for the day. I block them on my work computer after that one time check-in, and I have Freedom on my laptop set to block all news sites and Twitter after 6:00pm. It’s still early, but I’m off to a good start and I feel much, much better because of it.

Exercise & Sauna

I try to hit the gym at least twice a week, if not three times. It’s a lot harder to do in the colder months, but it’s even more important that I get there. I ALWAYS feel better after a session at the gym, even if it was light. And at the end of each session is a reward, and probably my favorite part of the whole process: I sit in the sauna for 15-20 minutes. It always feels good to sweat it out in there, especially when it’s cold outside. Sauna use has a host of health benefits, and is also just relaxing and pleasurable for its own sake, so if you have one at your gym, I highly recommend it.

Stretch & Music

At the end of my day, I blast music and do a stretch routine that takes about 10-20 minutes. This is where I where I process my day and begin to relax and enjoy my evening. It usually means my day is done. It’s glorious.  

Marijuanna

In the immortal words of Memphis Bleek, “I gets high…I can’t lie” (not while I drive though). Marijuana absolutely helps me unwind and relax in the evenings. I take a couple puffs and put the day behind me. I throw a record on, cook up and enjoy some dinner, write in my journal, then settle into a book, TV or movie. I know it’s not for everyone, and it can be a double-edged sword even for me. If I indulge too much, it can easily launch me into laziness, so less is usually more. But for the most part, it relieves me of unnecessary stress and anxiety, lifts up my mood, and allows me to take life and myself a little less seriously. I feel like I’d be lying by omission if I didn’t include it here.

Conclusion

That’s a brief overview of the regular actions I take that help keep me happy, productive, and at the very least, sane, during the cold, dark days of winter. I focused more on my daily routine, but it’s also of course crucial to get out and be social, have fun, see friends, laugh, and maybe have a deep conversation or two if you can. But some days I’m really dragging ass and I do fall into the pit of junk food and Netflix. And that’s okay too; some days you need to just take a break. But what’s important is you pick it back up the next day. Small, simple actions are what gets us out of our ruts. So if you’re really feeling down but want to get back up, start small. Clean your desk. Bundle up and go take a walk around the block. Try to meditate for 5 minutes. And if it’s just not happening, dive into that favorite TV show for some laughs, and get after it again tomorrow.

All of this is simple advice but it might not be easy for you. My form of seasonal depression is pretty mild, and these things help, but this isn’t to say any of these things would cure a serious case of depression. Please seek out more experienced, professional help if you need it. These are just meant to be some helpful tips if you’re prone to feeling down in the dumps in the fall and winter.

Stay sharp and stay healthy this winter my friends!

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Recommended: Hip Hop Family Tree by Ed Piskor

Hip Hop Family Tree is an extraordinarily ambitious comic book series made even more impressive by the fact that it’s made entirely by one man, cartoonist Ed Piskor. He writes, draws, colors and formats the whole damn thing. The series is a deep dive into the history of hip hop starting in the 70’s and is currently up to the mid 80’s, presented in a beautifully old school style in a large format book, much bigger than most comics today. It’s fascinating how he’s able to weave through so many different characters and places to really tell the history of how hip hop began in an incredibly engaging, fun way. I found it to be such a refreshing way to learn deeply about a topic while still being entertained by all the smaller stories and details  throughout each panel.

The early days of hip hop are littered with stories of creativity, failure, community, hustling, getting ripped off, and creating your own path. Through these journeys we see the origins of the MC’s who one day reign supreme, like Run DMC, Chuck D, Dr. Dre, LL Cool J, and KRS-One, while also giving lots of love to the early founders like Grandmaster Flash, Melle Mel, and Afrika Bambaataa, just to name a few. My favorite parts so far were the slow beginnings of Def Jam, following the Beastie Boys as a teenage punk band, Rick Rubin as a spoiled college kid obsessively interested in both punk and the emerging hip hop scene, and a lisping, drug-fueled Russell Simmons managing many of the early stars of the day (every panel with him is hilarious).

Ed fuses his love of comic books and hip hop with flair and a precise attention to detail. Young legends are introduced by their real names first so you might not know who they are, or who they go on to become, as they develop into the best MC’s of their generation. It has the same feel as a young Scott Summers (Cyclops) or Jean Grey struggling with their newfound powers in the early days of the X-Men. Which is a great sign considering his next project is yet another massively ambitious, historically sweeping project: X-Men Grand Design.

I first heard about Ed when that project was announced earlier this year and I picked up Hip Hop Family Tree to check out his work, and because of my interest in both comics and hip hop. Needless to say I was pretty floored. He’s doing something very similar with Grand Design, taking decades of X-Men comics and retelling it in his own unique way. I am so fucking stoked for it, and the first one’s dropping at the end of next month. But until then, check out Hip Hop Family Tree if any of this sounded appealing, and click through to peep some dope panels. 

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Confession

Confession, for a few thousand years now, has consisted of entering a closet with a screened window, and telling a stranger with some type of moral/religious authority your sins. But like many things established in religious practice, this form of confession wasn’t explicit in the Bible. The origin of confession in the religious practice comes from the Epistle of St. James: “Confess your sins to one another”. This was then taken to mean, confess to your priest, who, appointed by God, can forgive you of your sins, so you can go to heaven. But I think the original message is much more important than the way it was co-opted as a form of authority and religion, strictly for the gain of an eternal afterlife after you die. What about right now?

I found this origin of confession in a throwaway line in a book on philosophy. While doing a quick check for accuracy, I found the wording a bit different, but the same message: “Confess therefore your sins one to another”. But, directly below that came a footnote from someone else, I’m assuming much, much later:

         Confess your sins one to another… That is, to the priests
          of the church, whom he had ordered to be called
          for, and brought in to the sick; moreover, to confess to
          persons who had no power to forgive sins, would be useless.

Hm. This person seems to say that without the promised afterlife you “win” through confession, the act would be pointless. But why the hell should a pure and noble act, admitting our mistakes, be re-purposed solely as a gesture  to purchase real estate in a place no one can guarantee exists? Aren’t there good qualities to admitting wrongdoing that could change our lives now, as we live them?

I think so. In the last 3 years, I’ve found that the act of ‘confessing’, to ourselves, to one another, to the people we care about, is an incredibly freeing, valuable, essential exercise.

Calling it confession might weird you out because of the overtones. I didn’t think of it as confession when originally recognizing and thinking about this topic, but confession seemed like an interesting, historical parallel to enter through. The concept’s been around for ages. In our own lives and the way we might practice it though, I think it can more aptly be described as being vulnerable, and sharing your vulnerabilities. Sean and I have tried practicing this through these essays, which can be very freeing to write. Dumping out your inner thoughts and secrets is liberating, and you might end up finding out more than you even knew about yourself. Sharing them online is scary; I’m admitting things I don’t like about myself or past self, and posting them online for anyone to see. But it’s still removed from face to face human interaction. That’s a whole different ballgame, and one we experimented with during our ‘porch sessions’.

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Take a Hike! The Healing Power of Nature

Here’s an excellent essay by Rebecca Lawton on the Healing Power of Nature, both in the spiritual sense, and  in the scientific evidence based sense.

As you may know, the Post Bros love nature: hiking, climbing, mountains, rivers, trees, fresh air. Anytime I’m able to be out in nature, surrounded by it, even if only for a few hours, I feel better. I feel restored. This essay explains, through personal experiences and science, the very real healing power nature has, from Iraq war veterans and river guides, to the Japanese government in the 1980’s, and even Russian scientists in the 1920’s. I love when what I feel to be true is backed up and explained by science. And there’s a whole lot of that here, with evidence showing that time spent in nature can:

reduce levels of the stress hormone cortisol, prevent and reduce depression and anxiety, reduce blood pressure, reduce inflammation, reduce cardiovascular disease, reduce migraines, boost immune function, enhance autonomic control of heart rate and blood pressure, help us recover from heightened stress, help maintain a healthy microbiome of essential skin and gut bacteria, protect against heart disease, obesity and diabetes, along with anti-cancer and anti-viral effects.

Y’know, just to name a few. So go take a hike (or ‘forest bath’) sometime soon. I’ll be trying to get out there as much as I can before winter really sets in, so reach out if you’re interested in a little day hike. 
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In Praise of the Cartoon

Four of my favorite TV shows currently running are “silly cartoons”. But behind their apparent silliness is some of the deepest, most complex, emotionally, philosophically powerful art I’ve seen on television, up there with any prestige drama you could name.

The first two both feature alcoholic, narcissistic anti-heroes struggling to fix their lives, or at worst, reveling in their own filth. And it’s not Don Draper sexy-filthy either. One’s a reckless, constantly belching, grandfather mad-scientist who’s known as the smartest being in the multiverse. The other is a washed up actor who also happens to be a horse. I’m speaking of Rick and Morty and BoJack Horseman of course. Rick and Morty has a cult like following and is given heaps of praise, deservedly so, but I’m honestly not sure if many people watch BoJack, probably because it’s an even harder sell. Both shows are hilarious and billed as animated comedies. But both shows also routinely remind us of the meaningless of life and the existential dread that seeps into our everyday lives and actions. Rick and Morty is certainly nihilistic, while BoJack painfully depicts what it is to be human (or horseman), struggling to try to fix ourselves when we’re already so far gone. BoJack’s most recent fourth season featured one of the most harrowing psychodramas I’ve seen in just 30 minutes, as we watch BoJack try to right his life while cutting back to the absolute horror-show of his mother’s upbringing, threading the trauma through the generations. Our trauma may be our parent’s fault, but we’re reminded that they were also traumatized as children, in even more brutal a fashion than we may have been. In the most recent episode of Rick and Morty, Rick once again espouses the meaningless of life to his daughter Beth, as she comes to realize how alike she is to her monster of a father. These seemingly silly cartoons actually grapple with the darkness we all live through, in even more creative, poignant ways than some of the best cable dramas of the last 15 years.

While those two shows are absolutely aimed at and are primarily made for adults, the next two are absolutely not, which makes them even more impressive and profound.

I’m speaking of Adventure Time and Steven Universe. Each show follows a young boy as he comes of age, trying to be the best person they can be, defending their homes from evil, facing off against aliens and cosmic entities right alongside the constant challenges adolescence throws at us. Both air on Cartoon Network (not Adult Swim) and both certainly started out as just kids’ cartoons, and can still definitely be enjoyed by kids. But as they’ve progressed, they’ve both managed to confront similar themes: the struggles of growing up, recognizing how trauma shapes us and can morph into evil, and the forces we can use to fight it, including empathy, compassion and sometimes force.

I’m lucky enough to have had my brother Sean basically force me to watch these. While I’d heard of both, and thought they looked cool and interesting, I doubt I would have ever really invested the time to give them a proper viewing. There are usually anywhere from 30 to 50 episodes in a season, but episodes of both shows are only 11 minutes long. The emotional power, the depth of narrative, the laughs that are packed into just 11 minutes is truly astounding and I still have trouble wrapping my head around how they pull it off. I could write whole essays on each of these shows, but I’ll try to just pitch what I find so enthralling about each.

Adventure Time has one of the deepest mythologies and world building I’ve ever seen in any form of storytelling. It’s set on Earth, roughly a thousand years after a nuclear explosion wiped out (almost) all of humanity. Now all sorts of messed up creatures, including slime princesses, candy people, and an evil entity named the Lich roam the Earth. And Finn the Human does his best to answer the call of adventure and protect his community from harm, and when he’s not busy doing that, he’s playing around with his best-friend/dog/shape-shifter Jake and trying to find love. It’s hilarious and heartbreaking and has some of the weirdest, off-beat little moments of strange beauty and melancholy sprinkled throughout each episode.

Steven Universe, as Sean pitches is it, can be described as “3 lesbian aliens raising a half- human, half-alien boy”. Steven Universe was created by Rebecca Sugar, formerly a writer on Adventure Time, and the composer of the best songs done on that show. She brings her gift for music (and more) to Steven Universe. The way she ties songs into the emotional arc of the story is sublime. This show primarily focuses on the power, transcendence and toxicity relationships can bring into our lives. What also makes this show so beautiful to me is how Steven deals with people (and aliens), whether they’re friend or foe. Apparent threats, who state their malicious intent, are usually turned by Steven into allies. Not through manipulation or force, but with empathy and kindness. He asks them questions and his charm and compassion shines through. This is another show that deals deeply with trauma and how that trauma infects our entire worldview. Yet grand speeches, demands, and threats are never how you actually change a person. You change them by your own example, by asking questions, and listening with an open mind to the answers.

I’ve teared up more times than I can count while watching episodes of Adventure Time and Steven Universe, and I wonder how they are able to get to me in such deep ways, in such short amounts of time. I know it’s because of the strong emotional depth they explore with each character and the long standing narrative arcs they continue to return to. But why are they so god damn affecting? Pixar movies certainly deserve a mention here, as they’re the prime example of complex animated storytelling pulling at your heartstrings. I still remember seeing Toy Story in theaters, absolutely crushed when Woody and Buzz just miss getting on the moving van. Or, of course, the first 15 minutes of Up. For some reason, I think it’s easier for us to let our guard down and empathize when we’re watching animation. Whether it’s a child, an alcoholic grandpa, or a narcissistic horseman, as we watch them struggle, overcome, and struggle again, through joy and pain, victory and defeat, the story is removed just enough from reality that we allow ourselves to become fully absorbed by it. As we grow older we may scoff at the idea of sitting down to watch a cartoon to be moved, but it may be the best thing we could do to maintain that relationship with our inner-child, to maintain a sense of awe and curiosity towards the world. And it only takes 11 to 22 minutes an episode to get that shot of wonder, joy, and catharsis we so rarely get elsewhere.

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X Marks the Spot

If you want to create, change, or eliminate a habit, do this:

Identify your goal. What do you want to do differently each day? Make this a simple yes or no question. Did I eat junk food today? Did I write 500 words today? Did I go for a walk today?

Now get a monthly calendar that you can mark X’s on. Hang it up where you can see it regularly each day.

Each day you accomplish your goal, mark a big fat X on that day. If you don’t do what you’ve set out to do, you leave that day blank. Eventually, those X’s create a chain, and it makes you feel good. You want to keep the chain growing. When you can’t write an X and the chain is broken, you feel bad, and motivated not to slip again.

This is one tool I used to cut out bad habits and create new ones. This is what my friend used to quit smoking cigarettes. This is what Jerry Seinfeld used to make sure he was working on new jokes every day. He’s the one who ‘created’ this system. This simple advice has been recommended on probably thousands of blogs by now, by writers such as Warren Ellis, Austin Kleon, and Ryan Holiday.

So I thought I’d pass it along here. Because it works.

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Recommended: Life Itself and My Favorite Thing is Monsters

Today I’m recommending two different pieces of art born from Chicago.

Life Itself

By the time this documentary of Roger Ebert is made, he is in his last year on Earth and struggling to stay. By the time it’s released, he is gone.

Cancer in his jaw necessitates its removal. He’s robbed of his ability to speak. He can’t eat or drink. He types out what he wants to say and a robotic voice speaks. And he is still hilarious, and warm and open. He is courageous in the face of failing health and then death.

After losing his voice he turns his attention to writing on his blog and sharing his regrets, passions, and memories from his long, fascinating life.

But this documentary isn’t just about his fight at the end, or just about his movie criticism. It is a portrait of his entire life and all that he learned and shared. His struggles and joy. It’s a beautiful movie and it’s available on Netflix.

“We all are born with a certain package. We are who we are: where we were born, who we were born as, how we were raised. We’re kind of stuck inside that person, and the purpose of civilization and growth is to be able to reach out and empathize a little bit with other people. And for me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us.”  – Roger Ebert

My Favorite Thing is Monsters

This a gorgeous, gripping, emotional graphic novel like I’ve never read before. Taking place in Chicago at the end of the 1960’s, My Favorite Thing is Monsters is 10-year-old Karen Reyes’ graphic diary. Every page is drawn as if it was in a notebook, yet it’s done in exquisite detail, with beautiful drawings of monsters, classical paintings, and human beings. Karen is obsessed with B-movie monsters, her struggling family, and figuring out who murdered her upstairs neighbor, Holocaust survivor Anka. I was floored by this book not just because of the story, but because I found myself lost looking at one page at a time, absorbed in all the details. Emil Ferris wrote and illustrated the entire book. It is a tremendous piece of art.

Click through to check out some sample pages.

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Recommended: American Tabloid by James Ellroy

I read American Tabloid at the very end of last year, and I’m still constantly thinking about it. It was that good (and right up my alley, interest wise). It follows three men intertwined with the FBI and the Mob leading up to the Bay of Pigs and JFK’s assassination. I struggled to put it down and finished it in something like 9 days. If you like crime stories, spy stories, and the seedy underbelly of U.S. history (especially the 1960’s, like me) you will love this book. His writing style is quick and brutal, like a knife to the gut. I’m starting the second novel in the Underworld USA trilogy (badass, right?) today, and as you can tell, I’m excited.

James Ellroy calls himself the greatest crime writer to ever do it, and somehow I don’t shake my head in disgust at his ego. I just nod. He’s probably right.