💎MY FAVOURITE THINGS💎 || What’s Love Got To Do With It

A few weeks back, I begrudgingly scheduled an appointment with my old therapist, ashamed at myself for having slipped into despair. After an hour consult last week, I had an about face, accepting the fact that we can all use a leg up once in a while. Not only did our chat shed light on my existential woes but her list of video and audio references helped to remind me that the answers (as always) lie within. This two-hour conversation with acclaimed guru Eckhart Tolle in conversation with Russell Brand really resonated, reinforcing the power of our inner world or the Kingdom Within as my therapist lovingly refers to it. Our ability to construct the reality we want is instrumental in actualizing our dreams and ultimately vital in connecting with our truest selves.

The Hacking Of The American Mind 📚

Aristotle once argued that “the pursuit of happiness and the avoidance of pain” is tantamount to a life well lived. As Dr. Robert Lustig makes plain, we’ve seemingly sacrificed the former in service to the latter. As I wrote on my blog last week, The Hacking Of The American Mind has been nourishing my mind and filling in so many pieces of the puzzle to our current moment. As Lustig makes clear at the outset, the primary aim of the book is to clearly differentiate the essence of happiness and pleasure in the hopes of realigning our priorities. The simplest definition I can muster for the two notions is that you have to pay for pleasure while happiness comes free of charge. Or to put it in more simple terms; spending quality time with the ones we love versus the fleeting joy of a brand new car. This age old battle between dopamine — a.k.a. pleasure — and serotonin — a.k.a. happiness — lies at the crux of Lustig’s treatise, an underlying tension that continues to do my head in.

“Money never made a man happy, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has, the more one wants.” — Benjamin Franklin

The Mustang 🎥

B and I rented this new release for 99c recently and were enthralled at the heartwrenching story that plays out between a recalcitrant inmate and a defiantly proud mustang. I was fascinated to learn that the story is modelled after a unique rehabilitation program practiced at certain Nevada correctional facilities. Namely, inmates working with, and breaking in, wild horses to sell at market. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre helms this enthralling drama with quiet assuredness and accurately captures the startling similarities in man and animal. The film is such a refreshing take on the modern prison drama and offers one of the best portrayals of grief I’ve ever seen. I was fascinated to learn that the film was produced by Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold, whose new film The World To Come debuted at the Venice Film Festival this year. I have a genuine soft spot for American narratives with a notable European twist and found much solace in this subtle masterpiece.

Watson, Jeopardy and Me 🖥

Jacques Perretti’s The Deals That Made The World turned me onto this curious TED talk with Ken Jennings. The final chapters of Perretti’s hard-hitting investigative book looks at our precarious relationship with technology and the future of AI. He details a historic episode of the game-show Jeopardy where Watson, an IBM super computer successfully destroyed Jennings, mankind’s most successful participant. Listening to Jennings lay bare his fall from grace is both funny and deeply disconcerting. While his concerns for the future of humanity are rather stark, I personally love his passionate plea for the power of knowledge. His message reminded me why I started this newsletter, ensuring that I never got too comfortable with my personalized algorithms. On that note, Jennings’ posits that our deepening reliance on technology — studies have found that our use of GPS navigation systems are directly shrinking our muscle memory! — may well usher in our obsolescence after all.

“It’s always better to know a thing, than not to know.” Samuel Parr

Lovecraft Country 📺

Jordan Peele’s return to the TeeVee universe has left me soaring. Partnering with Misha Green, a talented TV show runner and Hollywood heavyweight J.J. Abrahms, the trio deliver on this action-packed adventure that offers pure escapism alongside some deeply painful history lessons. The end result is unflinching and mesmerizing. Streaming the first few episodes back to back, I was moved at the racial undercurrent, presenting a stark look at what it meant to be African American in nineteen-fifties America. I’ve been keeping a close eye on the nascent rise of Jonathan Majors, a California talent whose screen presence leaves me with goosebumps. Much like his magnificent turn in Joe Talbot’s The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Majors excels at embodying the complex nature of being a black man in a white world and channels the uncomfortable tensions underlying this premium offering from HBO. Thanks to my amigo Wilk for the hot tip.

Acute Misfortune 🎥

I came across this curious little write-up on Joel Edgerton’s reflections on the future of our little film industry. Edgerton is a work horse, a multi-talented filmmaker who stretches himself across writing, directing and acting in the pursuit of good storytelling. He is also set to star in Thomas M. Wright’s new film this month, producing alongside See-Saw Films, in what will be one of the first Australian features to resume production. The news left me hungry to seek out Acute Misfortune, Wright’s critically-acclaimed debut on the final years of Adam Cullen. I’m ashamed to admit that I’d never heard of the Australian artist, a prodigious painter and craftsman whose final years were overshadowed by addiction and depravity. Based on Erik Jensen’s best-selling book, the story is shown through the eyes of a hungry teenage journalist (Toby Wallace disappears into the role!) and offers a refreshing look at the bitter realities of creative self-destruction.

Remember My Name 📹

My brother Joel Mevissen — the Pickle King of Down Under — turned me on to this new documentary on the life of David Crosby. Cameron Crowe, the teenage Rolling Stone rock critic turned Hollywood heavyweight, spearheads this heartbreaking narrative on memory and loss. Crosby is one of the titans of American rock n’ roll in the twentieth century, his musical contributions embedded within the annals of time. He was a founding member of both The Byrds and Crosby, Stills & Nash (alongside CSNY), groups whose fame would typify the boomer generation. To think that the septuagenarian no longer has any connection with his bandmates, in large part due to his bad behaviour and bloated pride, was downright depressing and made this doc that much harder to swallow.

The Admirable Clooney 🗞

I came across this wonderful early-noughties Vanity Fair profile by Ned Zamen on the Kentucky heart-throb. Inspired by a recent Popcorn Therapy chat on George Clooney’s infamous spats with David O Russell on Three Kings — he famously took a stand on Russell’s toxic tantrums — this profile left me decidedly in Clooney’s camp. I remember hearing him talk with Alexander Payne during awards season for The Descendants in L.A. and guffawing at his irreverent wit (he joked to have bumped a line of blow during a bathroom break). Come to think of it, I’ve always admired Clooney’s choices, from his ability to land off-kilter comedies (Intolerable Cruelty) to deeply moving dramas (The American) and more mainstream arthouse fare (Syriana being one of my faves). If you’ve never seen his directorial debut Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind you’re in for a treat.

Mangoni 🎙

An email alert from Awesome Tapes From Africa turned me onto the enthralling voice of Nahawa Doumbia and this iconic LP from the early nineties. There is something so warm and comforting to the percussive foundations of these tracks, leaving me all cosy on a particularly rainy workday. Doumbia is one of the most beloved singers from the Wasserlou region of South Mali and has become one of the most celebated manding singers ever since the release of her debut LP Didadi in the late eighties. Mangoni, a follow up album, is richly textured, its underlying sound both exultant and festive. Ever since, I’ve been listening to her latest 2020 single, Blonda Yirini, on repeat. The woman can do no wrong.

I Am Woman 🎥

In advance of our chat with Unjoo Moon on Popcorn Therapy last week (you can listen to the episode here) Kane and I attended the Sydney premiere at the Ritz. The heartfelt bio-pic, which is now streaming on Stan Australia, follows the life of Helen Reddy and her explosion into the cultural zeitgeist in the early nineteen-seventies. Rising talent Tilda Cobham-Harvey helms the lead role and imbues Reddy with an organic sense of self. While I was hungry to get a better understanding of her backstory, I found Moon’s directorial debut to be a moving examination of an Australian icon. Reddy’s iconic single would stand as an anthem to a generation, branded into the hearts and minds of women the world over.

End Of The Game 📚

In April of this year (which feels like a lifetime ago!) I wrote about the passing of Peter Beard, the acclaimed wildlife photographer whose incredible body of work was partially eclipsed by his Don Juan personal life. Having purchased a second-hand copy of his acclaimed book from the nineteen-sixties, I’ve slowly been making my way through the visual tome and have been moved by Beard’s poignant reflections. To read through his diary entries in Africa is both profound and heart-wrenching. Beard offers an incredibly comprehensive accounting of the white man’s burden on the natural landscape of the African plains. The accompanying imagery of mutilated elephants and disemboweled lions a poignant reminder that mankind is the greatest threat to planet Earth’s survival.

“No one dreamed that the game could ever be depleted by a handful of immigrants with maps and gun powder, however immoderate they might be. And yet, within a matter of years, this paradise would become part of the modern world, a battlefield desert littered with the carcasses of elephants beyond number, a flatland boneyard, a treeless, bleached-out dustbowl, something climactic and conclusive.” — Peter Beard

Minor Cooper Keith 👤

This incredible Throughline episode — There Will Be Bananas — on the banana’s introduction into Western life left me shaking my head in fascination. I had no conception that this particular fruit, a rather commonplace staple in my diet, was once a rarified luxury. Long persecuted by society for its phallic overtones, its explosive adoption across the globe is primarily due to this Brooklyn native. Minor Cooper Keith was born into comfort but was driven by an innate need to make his mark on the world. When an uncle invited him down to work on the railroads of Central America, Keith would befriend the upper echelons of the Costa Rican government, striking a deal to build a railway line through the heart of the rainforest. Keith’s dream was both grueling and dangerous work, taking the lives of hundreds of migrant workers, including his own brothers. It was in the depths of the jungles that Keith first came upon the banana and the subsequent execution of his vision would make him one of the most powerful moguls of the industrial age.

El Camino De Mi Alma 🎙

I gave Dan Simmons a helping hand bottling the latest vintage of his delicious Balmy Nights range (you can treat yourself to a bottle or three here) a couple weekends ago. On the drive up to the Hunter Valley, Simmons turned me onto Hermanos Gutierrez and this phenomenal collection of rich instrumental tracks. Falling head over heels with the album art — I used to own a 1989 Ford F-150 — the soothing sounds of this 2018 release helped to offset the angst of Friday gridlock, imbuing a calming sense of contentment in the process. In the age of the Internet, I was stumped to discover very little goss about Alexandro and Stephan, except that the duo hail from CDMX (Mexico City). Having listened to all their releases, it’s clear these boys are moving from strength to strength and I can’t wait to see where they go next.

MY FAVOURITE THINGS |What’s Love Got To Do With It