PVT Chat is on Mubi; August Links
It's a charming and dark trip of a movie [writing like a normal person for once]
Hi. Life’s been so crazy lately. Too much of my mental space has been occupied by the gallant efforts of Peter Vack in defending his sister from an evil shrew who committed emotional terrorism by saying her movie was bad. Two annoying types of guys battle but one wins out of virtue of just being “on the right side” and also by doing the normal thing. A guy sees a movie and he writes about it. In response - which, boom, they lost. Why are you responding to critics like you’re fucking Billy Walsh? Anyway, Peter Vack has a new movie he’s working on and he tried to incorporate Crumps into it in the most unhinged way possible, and it made his whole squad look gay as shit. Though Dasha had some sort of point; Peter Vack’s acting can definitely go to bat with Crumps’s writing or whatever. His directing, or anything Betsey does, maybe no. But I would probably trade all that stuff about doing psychedelics with Zola Jesus and Honor Levy’s boyfriend looking like another guy for another season of “I Just Want My Pants Back,” easily. It’s easy to like Crumps when he’s put in relief beside Walter Pearce and Curtis Yarvin. A lot of the stuff is too nplusone for my paygrade. I’m not gonna celebrate art getting locked away, even if it’s cruel and definitely sucks and even if it seems that the theater they worked with were cowards and Betsey and Curtis might be too stupid to navigate this stuff. Just kidding. I’m writing a longer piece about it; feel free to ignore it if scene drama about ~indie movies~ and ~fascist art~ doesn’t move your needle.
PVT Chat is on Mubi; I recognized a frame from a Mubi ad on the train. It’s good and you should check it out.
Though every market is wrecked and crypto as regular people understand is going to implode in beautiful wreckage, I am bullish on a few things. One of them is “Out For Smokes,” did-Conan-8-years-ago Brooklyn comic Mike Recine’s podcast, dedicated to the mentorship of his recently-born son. I listened to the last year or so of his last thing, “The Sitdown,” which began as a podcast about the Italian mob, morphing into a general history thing eventually. In lockdown, his paywall became a 5-or-so a week 20-minute episode feed of catch-ups and interviews with friends.* This weird parasocial thing developed for me as I witnessed his dynamic with his wife, Deb - “mike recine wife” autofills when you Google him - and his family and friends shift and develop through Covid. And he’s been a Cum Town regular for half a decade. So now my brain thinks he’s my friend. One cohost Sean P. McCarthy, a frequently-banned-from-Twitter standup with a mind like a steel trap and a penchant for conspiracy theories and dumb, touchy jokes. (Both men are cornerstones of Nick Mullen’s famed Boy’s Chat.) The wildcard is Scott Chaplain, a very funny comic I know from that roast battle with Evan Williams where they dog each other for their respective dead parents. He’s the “Stav” of the show, as in he has a newcomer’s approach to drugs and alcohol and he’s really into rap music. Often Mike and Sean explain simple things like taxes or sex or court, ostensibly for Mike’s little boy, directly to Scott. It’s a good podcast and a worthy Patreon.
In skateboarding (for the uninterested, everyone mentioned is hot): 917 alum Cyrus Bennet speaks to Farran Golding about life and the Sombrero. 917 alum Stu Kirst, who hopefully washes his pants more often nowadays, has a new part from Johnny Wilson, who looked great in that Supreme cycling kit on Bill Strobeck’s IG. Friend of Bill’s Efron Danzig talks to Heckride about how transitioning changes your recovery time from skating and Violet after skating to best-band Everything But The Girl in the brand’s promo. Other 917 alum and new Limosine pro Hugo Boserup walks about Denmark with pro surfer wife Frankie Harrer** and their beautiful little baby in tow. He rides for Nike and she rides for adidas. So sick! His stuff in 917 1 is probably my favorite, honest.
The new Greenberg video is killer. Gotta watch it on a TV. RIP Noah skate team. One time, Bobby Dekeyzer came into my work up in Tivoli because he was shooting a lookbook at Blithewood.
The third 917 alum and second Limo rider in this roundup is Genesis Evans, who recently dropped the album 8 SONGS under his new moniker, GENNY!. That’s a lot easier to tell people than foghornnleghornn. It’s insanely good, sample-flipping in the space between 454’s stuff on NTS and the last couple Earl releases. “hostess” and “FEELING” dropped in a video a little bit ago under the title “EVERYBODY IS THE SAME” and Hugo actually skated to the hostess bit in his pro debut part. “FEELING” is looking like the song of the summer for me :).
More rap: Tisakorean flipped AG Cook with Zeelooperz last year and I missed it? mrsillyflow is a banger record with great punchlines and stripped down Southern beats. (warning: Spotify link)
More comedy: I went and saw Pod About List and Friends at Life.World and it was ill. No Caleb though. I didn’t ask. Spoke with Patrick about Venture and Ace trucks and he’s deadass just like me.
Just got a pair of the Lakai Dunk Telford Low and I love them. Slim cups are always hit-or-miss for me because they’re often too narrow (like my highschool Nike SB Lunargatos) or the grip too gummy (like the Crocketts, unfortunately. Weirdest consistency on those.) What always hits for me are Chucks and Chuck-a-likes. Last Resorts and those Onestar CCs go crazy. Sturdy but floppy, y’know? I learned a lot of tricks in my Last Resorts, but the suede gets hot as shit in the summer and I can never find my size in canvas.***
I’m getting figuring open secrets about heavy music. First off, all the bands you see bearded guys at the airport wearing are good. I’m listening to Eyehategod and Bolt Thrower for the first time. Also, bootlegs are readily accessible on Etsy. I just got a Dystopia hat from Malaysia and I wear it to work in my suit.
From the hip: The new Beyonce is disasterous, Juul is over, mesh shorts under your jorts, contemplate Youtube Red, remember Youtube Poop, fakie flips are easy it’s the riding backwards that’s hard, Nope is fun and movies are back, and t-shirts about your mental state and the contraband on your person or with fuck and shit on them are way way better than anything downstream of Online Ceramics or Undercover.
Stay hydrated.
*Mike seems to be friends with every popping girl comic and writer on both coasts. This series put me onto Jordon Jensen, Sarah Sherman, Emmy Blotnick, Laura Peek, Chloe McGovern, and a whole heap of others. My intro to sarah squirm was a short chat about how Marvelous Ms. Maisel is “Jew-face,” which threw me for a loop. I saw an episode or two and her not being Jewish makes no sense whatsoever. It’s not like Shiva Baby where Rachel Sennot isn’t IRL but the shiza blonde is and there’s a bit to it. Or Aya Cash playing a Nazi on The Boys. It’s just weird.
**She’s a tasteful contest-kid a la Dylan Rieder or Jed Anderson. Maybe Louie Lopez vibe, I’m trying to figure it out.
*** Semetary voice* Learned a lot of tricks in my Last Resoooorts/Cut some holes with my drill so they’d breath moooooore