Octavio Rettig wants you to smoke the toad and much more!Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ Νβ€Œ 
James Pillion
 

MY FAVOURITE THINGS | Going To A Go-Go

β€œIt’s like dying and being reborn. It’s an experience during which your mind will remember that your ego isn’t the most important part of your brain. You create your own reality.”

β€” OCTAVIO RETTIG
 

For the past two months, bar a few quick logins to share a new trilogy of music videos for my friend Jack Ladder, I’ve been on sabbatical from my social feeds. The media ban has not only drawn attention to other bad habits β€” like my mindless snacking (and incorrigible sweet tooth) β€” but helped me figure out why I can’t focus like I used to. As Johann Hari makes plain in this deeply illuminating conversation with Sarah Wild, Silicon Valley is wreaking havoc on our memory banks and effectively turning us all into senile octogenarians. That my daily Instagram and Twitter use, scrolling through vacuous memes, mindless advertising, and endless cat reels almost always left me more irritable and depressed is a chilling self-realization.
 

Getting High With A Hallucinogenic Toad Prophet πŸ–₯

The alluring aura of Octavio Rettig was brought to my attention after devouring Kimon de Greef’s damning portrait in the New Yorker. While it’s hard not to be concerned with some of the antics described in the piece, I found myself won over by this VICE short and his own self-willed recovery from a debilitating addiction to crack cocaine through β€˜smoking the toad’. The Sonoran desert frog first came to my attention while reading Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind and listening to Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin’ podcast. Though it’s disconcerting to think that this poor little critter may well become yet another victim in the cartel wars, it’s hard to dispute the breakthroughs that the psychedelic substance has wrought in treating addiction and trauma. 
 

The World-Record-Breaking Sheep Shearer Turned Outback Cop πŸ“»

It was the the eye-catching title of this ABC Conversations episode that hooked me. How and why did a prize-winning sheep shearer decide to give it all up for the uniform? As I soon discovered, Laurie Bateman’s life decisions were spurred by a hunger to learn and a desire to give back along the way. The remote Queenslander is a quintessential Aussie bloke, a man who innately shrugs off tall-poppy syndrome yet whose drive and persistence are unrelenting. The fact that Bateman still holds a Guiness World Record for shearing 708 merino wethers in an eight hour shift is mind boggling. That he made the decision of his own volition, engaging a sports psychologist and nutritionist along the way, makes this story all the more remarkable.
 

Falter πŸ“š

While Saul Griffith’s The Big Switch fired me up last month with his very achievable action plan to electrify life Down Under, Bill McKibben’s latest book has forced me to recognize the dangers of further inaction. Falter actualizes the theoretical proclamations made in his 1989 publication The End of Nature. To think that the American environmentalist’s first book recorded the hottest years on record (1988, 1985, and 1983 in that order) is concerning. That they’ve since been trumped by the past decade’s heatwaves (2016, 2019, and 2020) is positively distressing. This 2019 release contains some deeply disturbing truths, most evident being our compulsion to keep kicking the can down the road (with the can being any global attempt at genuine damage control). That productivity levels continue to best self-preservation has spurred me to join and donate to McKibben’s global foundation 350.org.

β€œThe extra heat that we trap near the planet because of the carbon dioxide we’ve spewed is equivalent to the heat from 400,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs every day, or four each second.” β€” Bill McKibben
 

Edgar Wright’s 1000 Favourite Films πŸ—ž

Edgar Wright’s comprehensive chronological list of film classics, a veritable filmmaker’s wet dream, has had me returning to some foundational pillars of cinema. Films like Don Siegel’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (#152), John Frankenheimer’s Seconds (#277), John Boorman’s Point Blank (#291), and Peter Yates’s Bullitt (#306). Yet it was a viewing of Robert Altman’s M.A.S.H (#352) that takes the cake. How such a subversive black comedy was ever green-lit and went on to become a box office smash is almost unfathomable in today’s tentpole era. Donald Sutherland and Elliot Gould head up a team of enlisted doctors operating on the front lines of a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (I always wondered what the acronym stood for!) and using their off-duty hours to flout every single rule in the military playbook. That their unruly behavior not only goes unpunished but is seemingly celebrated by journey’s end marks a fleeting moment when the β€˜long-hairs’ and β€˜kids with beards’ held the reigns taut over the studios. 
 

An Unmarried Woman πŸŽ₯

Watching Paul Mazursky’s 1978 classic in the aftermath of a break-up was not only tortuous but positively riveting. As the American filmmaker unveils, the true potential of an individual can often only be discovered in the face of unimaginable loss. Jill Clayburgh is a most excellent audience surrogate, a proud intelligent woman with an innate self-belief in her right to a life well lived. Mazursky crafts a compelling story out of the minutia of modern life, taking aim at the patriarchy by accusing its middle-aged subjects of being far more emotional, impetuous and dramatic than their better halves. That I found myself rooting for a middle-aged stranger’s happiness and independence proves the power of this heartwarming story.
 

Winning Time πŸ“Ί

I’m no basketball nutter but after getting hooked on The Last Dance, I was left with a newfound taste for juicy tales from the NBA vaults. Ths new HBO series is just what the doctor ordered and follows the adventures of Dr. Jerry Buss, chemist cum real estate mogul with dreams of turning the Los Angeles Lakers into a cultural phenomenon. Adam McKay spearheads this premium offering and captures the dawning of a new era through a curious blend of digital, grainy film stock and camcorder footage. Passion cuts deep in this laugh-out-loud dramedy and is exemplified through John C.Reilly who slam dunks every single scene. That Reilly, a Hollywood veteran (and my favourite living character actor), stepped into the lead role a week out from production is reason enough to tuck in.

 

Bob Dylan’s Malibu πŸ“š

Quaint and disarming vignettes make up Martin Newman’s self-publication that document an unlikely friendship between a precocious upstart and a musical behemoth in search of sunshine and new start. I was struck at how quickly this young California native ingratiates himself into the personal life of a reclusive celebrity in 1970s Malibu. As Newsom regales stories from the Rolling Thunder Revue, documented in Martin Scorsese’s 2019 doco of the same name, it left me to reflect on Dylan’s proclivity for welcoming a curious assortment of creative oddballs into his orbit. Individuals who moved to the beat of their own drum. It also turned me onto the Adamson beach house, which has the honour of being the first mansion to grace that stretch of the Pacific coastline. 
 

Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore πŸŽ₯

Every time I work up the courage to scroll showtimes at my local cineplex I’m bombarded by a litany of sequels, prequels and remakes of well-worn IPs. As much as it makes the blood boil, taking time to entertain some of these four-quadrant pictures can often be surprisingly worthwhile. The magic of this third installment, an origin series from the hallowed Harry Potter universe, rests on the shoulders of J.K. Rowling’s richly imaginative mind. In the wake of Johnny Depp’s forced departure (and his very own courtroom soap opera), Mads Mikkelsen picks up the pieces and lends the fantasy flick a refreshing gravitas. David Yates (The Legend of Tarzan) unearths the magical mystery with impressive visual feats and treats that indulged the inner child in me.
 

Dawn FM πŸŽ™

An orgy of synths and vintage samples consumes this new concept album from the Weeknd. After passing a billboard outside Universal Music for the umpteenth time I decided to stream the Canadian mogul’s fifth studio album on a drive out of town. Comprised of eighties bangers, romantic ballads, and interludes voiced by fellow Canadian Jim Carrey, it is a treacly delight to escape into. What makes Abel Makkonen Tesfaye stand apart from his contemporaries, at least for me, is his unwavering commitment to honoring his musical heroes. I also found myself drawn, like a moth to the light, to his open-ended questions around the impermanence of everything we value most.

 

Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order πŸ–₯

Scott Pape’s sardonic weekly newsletter turned me onto Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order, a brilliant stroke of video marketing in promoting Ray Dalio’s new book of the same name. Over the past year I’ve been tuning into the American billionaire’s Linked In newsletter where he shares his thoughts on the rising tensions between his homeland and China. Wisely opting against prophetic statements, the animated lecture instead takes aim at the last five hundred years to better explain the present moment. It’s eerie to think that a rising divide between the haves and have-nots is a notable symptom of a superpower in decline. As Dalio makes plain, this inequity not only sows social dissent and growing malaise but foreshadows an empire’s imminent demise.

 

Elmer Valentine πŸ‘€

Steven Van Zandt’s Unrequited Fascinations turned me onto the life of this crooked cop turned entrepreneur and sybaritic mogul. I was oblivious to the fact that the infamous Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip of Los Angeles was a direct rip-off of a Paris discotheque of the same name (opened by Paul Pacini in 1947). That the Chicago native β€” whose name is right out of an Elmore Leonard novel β€” inadvertently invented the go-go girl at the Whisky’s grand opening after a cigarette girl started dancing along to Johnny Rivers in a suspended perspex cage, and inspired one of my favourite Motown songs is some kind of special. Valentine’s live-music establishments, alongside the opening of The Roxy in 1973, would make music history with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s 1975 Hollywood debut that launched the New Jersey native into a global phenomenon.

β€œBob Dylan dropped by to play pool, Jimi Hendrix to jam. When the Beatles arrived in Los Angeles in 1964 on their first American tour, the Whisky was the place they wanted to see. At the urging of his daughters, President Lyndon B. Johnson made a reservationβ€” but never showed up.” β€” Douglas Martin
 

The Long Goodbye πŸŽ™

Aneil Karia’s deeply unsettling short film was the straw that broke the camel’s back in spinning Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye from end to end. The raw vulnerability of this 2020 release is loaded into The Breakup (Shikwa), a terse spoken word opening track that throws shade on his homeland. As resurgent nationalism runs rampant across the globe, Ahmed takes aim at this new level of intolerance in the British isles. I love the courage and execution behind this concept album, as the Wembley native takes a cold hard look at the stories we tell ourselves. Far from your typical break-up album, Ahmed’s pain and pent-up rage channels a clarity and purpose that has sparked my own internal debate about what it really means to be Australian.

β€œA massive thing running through the album is actually the self-hate. How you internalise that voice. The turning point in the album is this idea of, who was I before that? Before I had to perform for others, before I had to fit someone else's idea of what a human being is. Who was I, who am I, when no one's watching?β€” Riz Ahmed
 

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WRITING | @jamespillion
FILM | @jamespillionfilm

8 Stephen St
Bondi, NSW,
Australia

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