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Derren Brown's wants to spill the secret tea and much more! $$PLAIN_TEXT_PREVIEW$$
MY FAVOURITE THINGS
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
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“All the things about ourselves that we think are so terrible—to other people, it’s just a bit more information about us. We’d worry a lot less about what other people think of us if we realized how seldom they do.”— DERREN BROWN
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It’s my thirty-first birthday this coming weekend and while this day comes but once a year I usually find any excuse to wallow in a puddle of self-pity. While this sentiment might strike some (all) of you as excessively dramatic — I’m inclined to agree with you — the reflective funk thankfully helps me to cherish and better savour the next 364 days to come.
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After coming upon the recipe to Derren Brown’s secret sauce in this amazing article by Adam Green, I found myself gallivanting down memory lane. When I was a young laddie living in London, my roommates and I would while away hours in front of YouTube, drinking cans of cheap lager and guffawing at an endless stream of ridiculous content. It was during this year that I was introduced to Brown’s talents. Brown has made a career out of pulling the wool over audience’s eyes and upon doing so guiding them through his breadcrumb trail of deception. What was most elucidating about this recent New Yorker profile however was Brown’s struggle with his sexual orientation, a conflict that tormented the entertainer well into his thirties. It was startling to read about Brown’s early years, a young man who was brought up secular yet became obsessed with theology, if only to better protect his dirty secret. In his upcoming Broadway debut, the forty-eight year old reflects on his life to date and in doing so seeks to go deeper into himself in order to better educate his fans. I particularly love how he chooses to infuse his message with certain tenets of stoicism, namely that “we are disturbed not by what happens to us but by how we react to what happens, that we should let go of the things we can’t control”, notions that capture my imagination with fervent gusto.
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I’ve got a real soft spot for this nineteen-eighties tragicomic farce and proudly streamed it for my lady last weekend. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, the prolific brother team that have consistently brought their A game to the silver screen, the absurdist comedy stars Nicolas Cage as an inveterate outlaw who winds up falling head over heels for a police officer, marvelously portrayed by Holly Hunter. When the newly married couple discover that they can’t have any children of their own due to Hunter’s own fertility issues they take it upon themselves to ‘relieve’ the pressure off a furniture mogul’s fresh batch of octuplet boys. This film always manages to get me giggling and paints such an honest look at the banal drudgery of adult life and the unexpected highs and palpable woes of living on the bread line. I’ve always had a special soft spot for Cage (née Nicolas Kim Coppola), a man born into film royalty and who counted Francis Ford Coppola as his first uncle, yet changed his last name in order to prove that he had the chutzpah to make it on his lonesome. This film was the follow up to the Coen bros fascinating debut, Blood Simple, and features so many tropes that the pair would continue to build upon in years to come.
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I remember soaking up The Everything Store a few years ago and being astounded at the vision and determination of Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon. This brainiac kid from Albuquerque had a dream to change the world through the creation of the world’s largest online bookstore and has the honour of single-handedly collapsing the commercial brick and mortar model across the world. Charles Duhigg captures a fascinating portrait of the world’s wealthiest person and his gargantuan accomplishments. As Duhigg cleverly explains, Amazon is a process company, one that devotes itself to the creation of products that inspire their employees. Indeed the company’s core leadership principles ensure that its workers devote themselves to putting bold ideas front and center. While I’ve been troubled by some of the critical press in recent years, I find myself instinctively agreeing with the company’s mantra. Principles like economic thrift and the power of momentum, putting your dreams to the test no matter the outcome. On this point I was blown away to discover that Bezos himself his more than happy to write off millions in R&D so long as his employees learn from their mistakes and embrace their failures when moving onto bigger and better things. While the company has found itself within the crosshairs of government, withstanding blows from both sides of the aisle, the fact remains that its continued rise comes back to one simple notion. Trust. People trust the online behemoth to deliver the best products at the most competitive prices and until that changes the Seattle powerhouse will continue to monopolize the competition.
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This Goop conversation with Gwyneth Paltrow and Barry Michels came at just the right time, with so many of the expressed sentiments echoing ideas that have been gestating within me. Michels is a celebrated psychologist in Los Angeles and author of The Tools and Coming Alive, two self-help manuals that have both enjoyed time on the New York Times bestseller list. Michels launches into a fascinating examination of the gender dualities that lie within us all, explaining that we are all equipped with a contra sexual energy. While most folks are unaware of this duality and have most likely been raised to repress any trace of its urges, Michels aims to help clients harness and restore a sense of balance between these two notions. For when we achieve an equilibrium between the two we can learn to live in greater harmony with the world around us. When I began writing my book last year, I found myself shedding light on my feminine side. By reducing my hunger for conquest and creative domination (my masculine energy) I made room for greater harmony and empathy within my life and in doing so effectively broadened my ability to be more efficient and prolific in my work flow. Michel’s final words from the conversation prove the icing on the cake, explaining the importance of confront our fears on a daily basis in order to tap into the depths of our potential.
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When my lady handed me this copy of Lisa Taddeo’s debut non-fiction book, there was something in her gaze that left me curious to know what all the fuss was about. Taddeo has done something rather remarkable, having documented the stories of three distinct women across the continental United States. Profiling their unique lives and diving deep into their emotional anguish and latent desires, the thirty-nine year old journalist captures something special in her rigorous accounting, infusing language and metaphors that sweep away the facade of everyday realities to reveal a fundamental truth about female desire. Investing more than eight years of her life, Taddeo immersed herself in the daily lives of these women, often transplanting herself to become closer to her subjects. As I came to know these three personalities, I was left ruminating on a far deeper notion about women and their relationship to love and relationships. Namely, that they channel so many conflicting emotions and desires in any given second that they would most likely short-circuit the male brain. Certain heart-wrenching sections left me swallowing some uncomfortable feelings from my own past relationships. It helped me appreciate just how wide the gap can be between the sexes and reinforced the fact that us blokes need to get a whole lot better at listening to our better halves.
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There is something so haunting and tragic about Nick Cave’s latest album, released just over a week ago. While I was terrified to really listen to it, for fear of falling into an emotional funk, the opposite has come true. I feel lighter than ever, grateful for the courage that Cave has poured into this record. Ever since the death of one of this twin teenage boys four years ago, Cave has worn his heart upon his sleeve with genuine humility. I struggle to imagine the grief and trauma that befell Cave and his family following the incident but have been floored at Cave’s open-book agenda. I’ve loved peeking into the interior life of this Australian legend with The Red Hand Files, a weekly newsletter where Cave generously answers the endless curiousities of his fans. I came across this article by Tracey Thorn, shared via Twitter by Warren Ellis, Cave’s life-long collaborating partner. In her review, Thorn gets to the heart of the album, a meditation on love and loss that allowed the author to experience a catharsis that elevated her to tears. “Certainly this record is the sound of a man whose whole being has been altered, possessed even, by what has happened.”
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When I tuned into The Daily’s examination on China’s war with the N.B.A this week, I wasn’t expecting to have my mind blown open. The podcast provides a half-hour autopsy report on China’s recent boycott of the National Basketball Association, a geo-political clusterfuck that all came about over a single tweet. "Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong." tweeted Daryl Morey, the GM of the Houston Rockets who was subsequently disparaged for supporting the Hong Kong protestors a couple weeks back. While the controversy was shocking in and of itself, I got sucked into the history of China’s love of basketball and more specifically its founding father. Did you know that one of the most lucrative sports in modern history was invented by a Canadian-American physical instructor in 1891. James Naismith is the founder of basketball, having developed the rules of the game at the age of thirty (what have I done with my life!!) believing the sport to be less injury-prone than football. A devout Christian, he set about spreading the good word with the help of his fellow YMCA missionaries. The fact that its success within mainland China led to Mao Zedong’s adoption of it as the preferred sport of the Communist Party is amazing in and of itself. “Basketball doesn’t build character. It reveals it.”
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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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