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How Russell Brand learned to lean in to a life of love and much more! $$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
MY FAVOURITE THINGS |Ultralight Beam
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“It's difficult to believe in yourself because the idea of self is an artificial construction. You are, in fact, part of the glorious oneness of the universe. Everything beautiful in the world is within you.” — RUSSELL BRAND
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I’ve been doing a whole lot of soul searching of late, burying my head in the history books in search of answers to our current moment. As much as the past can offer some illuminating predictions, we’re living in an unprecedented age, the rising surge in technological innovation continuing to weave a radically altered social and economic future. Coupled with rising global temperatures, surging populations and melting ice-caps and you’ve got one hell of an existential cocktail. Yet the fact that 2020 also stands as mankind’s most progressive year to date is something we’d do well to remember. If we can work to overcome our instinctive tribalism, to unite in the face of global pandemics like COVID-19, we may just have a fighting chance to ring in the year 3000 with great cheer and jubilation.
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I’ve been embracing the power of serendipity with ever greater consistency, leaning into these special moments whenever they come round the bend. When my power posse happened upon Russell Brand at the Mullumbimby markets last week, something told me to make myself known. After bumbling my way through an introduction, (with my boy Daniel Simmons by my side) Brand shook our hands with warmth and genuine affection before graciously inviting us along to his upcoming live show. Recovery Live, a fusion of stand-up and self-help, channels the power of Alcoholics Anonymous’ twelve-step program in helping to confront our deepest fears. I loved the way he broke down the idea of addiction, helping the entire audience accept the simple truth that we’re all addicts in our own unique way, however innocuous they may be. I’m grateful not to have an addictive personality, to intuitively know when I’m burning the candle a little too brightly. All the same, I know what it means to hide behind a few too many glasses of wine, to inure myself from the ugly realties of daily life with all the wrong antidotes. The fact that Brand (who has been cold stone sober since ‘02) has given birth to an idea that allows each and every spectator to accept our unique flaws, while offering up steps to help face them head-on is a special thing. To acknowledge that he did so all while leaving the audience in stitches is altogether sublime. As the show came to a close I suddenly understood why I’d approached him in the first place, his energy reminding me to never stop shining light on the darkness and to do it all with a smile on your dial.
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While battling a particular nasty hangover in Bangkok a few months back, I tucked into a phenomenal Actors Roundtable in The Hollywood Reporter over breaky, a conversation featuring some of Hollywood’s touchstone thespians. For those rarefied minutes, the fog lifted as I was transported by the confessional ideas shared by the likes of Robert De Niro, Adam Driver and Shia LaBeouf. Yet it was a rather simple exchange between Adam Sandler and Tom Hanks that stuck. As the moderator probed the table about the group’s predilections to comedy, Sandler offered up a comment from Josh and Benny Safdie — the virtuoso minds behind Uncut Gems — who begged him to pass on their compliments to Hanks for his performance in Punchline. I’d never seen (or heard) of this late-eighties comedy but after renting it this week I suddenly understood what all the fuss was about. The film, written and directed by David Seltzer, is a revelation. Much like a comic routine, the narrative is timed to perfection and evokes the varied personalities of this New York club with genuine love and care. Yet it was the unlikely relationship between Sally Field (who also produced the Columbia gem) and Hanks that took the cake. The pair are electric to watch and Hanks, who has interminable ants in his pants through the film (I’m beginning to understand where the Safdie brothers get it from), is a laugh a minute. This film is the perfect showcase for the California native, a monumental talent who put in his 10,000 hours (he spent three months cutting his teeth in comedy clubs for this role) on the road to infamy. This is the perfect movie for a lazy Sunday afternoon and I can’t wait to show my lady.
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It’s easy to fall into a pit of despair these days. A quick scroll of your daily paper prompting you to break out in a sweat before stockpiling an irrational amount of canned goods and dunny rolls. Yet in such moments it’s integral to take a step back and a deep breath. While global politics would have us believe we’re slipping back into a pre-historic age, there is so much to celebrate, so many reasons to savour our present moment. As Steven Pinker — the celebrated Harvard psychologist and renowned talking head — notes in his most recent publication, we have a whole lot of dead white men to thank for our enlightened times. Thanks to the writings and dissertations of these learned philosophes, society took the unprecedented step of distancing itself from religious fervour in favour of self-determination. Pinker backs up his mission statement with cold, hard quantifiable data. Researched graphs and readily digestible logic that shines a light on just how far we’ve come in an unbelievably short space of time. I even found myself nodding along to some his most contentious ideas, including a return to nuclear power in helping to reduce our carbon emissions (according to Pinker they’re the best solution we’ve got). In doing so, he infuses a sense of optimism into each and every facet of the global conversation, a reality that is ultimately missing from so much of the mainstream rhetoric. As someone who is always searching for reasons to look on the bright side of life, this book has given me reason to smile. This conversation between Bill Gates and Pinker (they’ve been bromancing since 1994) offers up a tasty introduction to the book. “You can say the same fact two ways. Extreme global poverty has been reduced from 90 percent 200 years ago to 10 percent today. That’s great! Or you can say: More than 700 million people in the world live in extreme poverty today. They’re the same fact, and you have to be able to describe them to yourself both ways.” — Steven Pinker
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It’s no small coincidence that I started diving into a re-read of Peter Biskind’s seminal Down and Dirty Pictures — a hair-raising tell-all on the rise of Sundance, Miramax and the emergence of independent cinema through the nineteen-nineties — days before Harvey Weinstein’s conviction rocked the world. This landmark decision against a former tyrant and his predatory antics is momentous, a clear sign to Hollywood and beyond that the times they are a changin’. For those that haven’t had their head buried in the sands of Hollywood for years, this fall from grace is ever more remarkable for another reason. As this fascinating 2001 article attests, Weinstein was one of the most important producers of the modern age, a man who single-handedly brought indie fare into the cultural mainstream. Written by the late great David Carr (a titan who went on to become a legendary reporter at The New York Times) he offers such an immersive look into Weinstein’s orbit, helping to paint a picture of a man who demanded an unhealthy level of fear and reverence from the creative community. The fact that his time at the top of the pyramid, together with his younger brother Bob Weinstein (the former head of Dimension films) brought so many fascinating stories into the zeitgeist (many of which gave voice to the most marginal of stories), is one that makes this story all the more complicated. As Gwyneth Paltrow’s quote shows, people are complicated, none more so than Weinstein himself, his rise and fall serving as a reminder that nothing lasts forever. “I think that for every bad story you hear about Harvey, there are three great ones. People are complicated, and nobody’s all good or all bad. And I think Harvey is a prime example of somebody who has a temper and is also incredibly loving … He’s a human being, and all of his acts can be just sort of magnified. He’s larger-than-life in every way, so his good qualities are maybe more pronounced—as are some of his bad qualities.” — Gwyneth Paltrow
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I was enjoying this Airmail article on Kanye West’s recent Sunday Service during Paris Fashion Week when I learned of this album (released on Christmas Day last year). I couldn’t believe I slept on this release but after diving into it this week I’ve been filled with so much joy and goodness. There is so much happiness in these tracks (Count Your Blessings is profound!), an ecstatic sense of revelation with this room full of voices, whose skill and talent is apt to leave you with arms full of goosebumps. Listening to many of the tracks takes you back in time, helping piece together some of West’s seminal tracks from his most recent releases. In fact, this album seemingly acts as a compendium to West’s Jesus Is King, released a few months earlier in October, filling out some of the spaces in that rather sparse LP. While the Chicago native continues to divide the mainstream media, I for one am enthralled at his commitment to embracing his curiosities, leaning into the winds of change in search of answers. He is one of the most stubborn personalities I’ve ever come across, unwilling to be boxed into any one category, his talents forever expanding into far-flung territories. Listening to this album reminds me of a balls to the wall interview on Big Boy’s Neighborhood from last year and West’s uncompromising position on the power of God to overcome and heal one and all. Jesus Is Born delivers on this promise, letting you wash off the ugliness and anxiety and offering up a soothing antidote to these complicated times.
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After catching up with Mama Pillion for a coffee this week, she alerted me to the fact that the founder of Trader Joe’s had recently passed on. The Southern California grocery chain had been my lifeline during my years in the City of Angels. It introduced me to so many culinary delights and tasty treats, many of which were produced exclusively for the chain. Since moving back Down Under, I’ve often fallen into a nostalgic funk when doing my weekly shop, saddened by the fact that its just not as fun. Every trip to one of their outposts felt like an adventure, as I marveled at the extensive array of mouth-watering products, packaged and marketed with joyful irreverence. There was a very real sense of ingenuity and charm underwriting the chain, right down to the interior design and carefully crafted in-store signage. Coulombe’s underlying vision of a supermarket catering to an over-educated, under-paid clientele was an exacting and fascinating combination and it’s ongoing success (the chain boasts over five-hundred stores today) stands as a testament to its success. We can all learn a thing or three from the California native’s magnanimous gift to the world, helping to remind us that even the most mundane tasks can be a source of joy. The former magnate died peacefully at home with his wife of 67 years (yes, you read that right!) and children by his side. He was eighty-nine.
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Thanks for tuning in. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to someone who’d like it. Until next time. Xo
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