How’s everyone’s weekend going?
Thanks for spending a portion of your Sunday with the Six.
Let’s get right to it.
A STATE OF DISOBEDIENCE
Over last weekend, I watched a movie titled “The Holdovers.”
Fans of Alexander Payne-directed films will recognize the films aesthetic, plot and characters. Set in 1970, Paul Giamatti (fabulous in this role as always) plays a curmudgeonly professor at an east coast all-boys boarding school forced to supervise a group of students over Christmas vacation. I won’t give away too much of the plot (you can read about it online or watch it; high recommend marks here) but over the span of the two weeks of time the film encompasses, Giamatti’s character––named Paul Hunham––evolves from pessimist to optimist, his underlying humanity exposed.
It’s a classic coming of age film with loads of dark humor.
The characters are old, young, middle aged, black and white. Regardless of age or race, a consistent catalyst for the film’s plot lines: rebellion against authority.
We expect it from teenage boys, their interactions the source of many of the film’s funniest moments (there’s a hilarious raunchy line related to Cobb Salad. I may never order one again). But at the heart of “The Holdovers” is Giamatti’s eventual metamorphosis.
At first, he grapples with the morality of a student’s request to take a “field trip” off-campus into Boston (the school, titled Barton Academy, is set in Massachusetts). For most of his adult life, Hunham has cloaked himself in the code of being a “Barton man,” stated to be “always tell the truth.” But slowly as the movie unfolds, he realizes truth as he saw it for so long is nothing more than a school-issued marketing construct. What’s real is what’s happening right in front of him and over the holiday break, he opens his heart and develops authentic connections with the people in his life at that moment in time.
The fact the film is earning critical acclaim is not hugely significant (can you remember the Best Picture winner last year?) But I think it’s turning into a mild box office hit because Americans relate to the film’s traditional themes of family, relationships, humor and, here it is, disobedience.
There’s no recent shortage of examples of authoritarian rule from our public institutions in America. This being an election year, we’ll see escalation in absolutism everywhere; from our government, courts, public education and health. In response, storming the capital of our respective homelands, while fun to dream of, is not the best course of action. That only works in West Africa.
But we can engage in––and encourage––small acts of rebellion. I don’t have any specific advice on what those would be. Personal choice. As a loose guide, I’d offer this exchange between Jack and Miles, the two main characters from another terrific Payne film, “Sideways.”
Jack: If they want to drink Merlot, we're drinking Merlot.
Miles: No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!
At the conclusion of “The Holdovers,” Hunham pays a steep price for his act of nonconformism (a final scene includes an especially hysterical line by Giamatti’s character directed towards the boarding school headmaster). The brilliance of the writing and acting is how we believe Hunham will be a better person because of it.
Yes, “The Holdovers” is a work of fiction. Life doesn’t work out as it does on film.
But on the other side of defiance is truth, a lesson worth pursuing with as much gusto as we can muster.
Let’s proceed with the Six.
1. The Presidential Money Machine Running Dry.
Political campaigns are big business. Presidential campaigns even more so, due to their national scope. This election cycle, the coffers aren’t as stocked as in previous years, according to this article via Politico: “Together, Biden’s $56 million in cash on hand heading into this month and Trump’s $30.5 million are less combined than Trump alone had this time four years ago, $92.6 million.” The impact won’t be fully felt until the summer and fall when Biden and Trump hit the road and “could force the campaigns to target a smaller-than-typical list of battleground states.” Not known is how much of Trump’s cash crunch is a direct result of paying all those lawyers for all those legal problems.
2. Hamburgers Will Decide America’s Future.
The hamburger was once a grand emblem of American cultural and economic dominance. Nothing symbolized world dominance like a Super Bowl ad showcasing a U.S. citizen chomping down on a 99-cent Big Mac. Those days are over (certainly the Dollar Menu) according to this writer via UnHerd. Today, hamburger ads remind viewers of the costliness and decline in the U.S., as its fast food industry faces an affordability crisis. “Once, Russians queued up to get a taste of Pizza Hut or Burger King; now, Americans marvel on social media at how cheap the hamburgers in Moscow seem compared to their own.” The crack research staff at the Six found a Big Mac Meal costs $9.16, not including tax or gratuity. A Whopper meal sets you back $12.49. That’s a steep price for a flame-grilled piece of beef and competitors around the globe are catching on.
3. What Really Happened to Baby Christina?
This week’s best true crime-related story comes via Esquire. The writer, Matthew Bremner, masterfully tracks the emotional, decades-spanning legal drama that followed the horrifying tragedy of a three-year-old found dead in the night. It may take a few sittings to consume it all but well worth the time.
4. A Love Letter To Public Libraries.
This first person essay mourns the loss of public libraries to budget cuts. Libraries are more than a place to get books, they are an example of the “ever-rarer third place”—spaces other than the home and the workplace vital to any flourishing community. Their disappearance exacerbates the epidemic of loneliness, argues the writer via 34th Street: “Even if I knew no one’s name, being in a room full of people affected how tied I felt to the community around me.” Lest we forget the free bathrooms, one of the remaining luxuries of suburban living.
5. Unwinding The Many Lives Of The Cassette Tape.
Here’s one in the category of how there are no new ideas, just the repackaging of old ones (I think Mark Twain said something to that effect once). Last year, 436,400 cassette albums were sold in the United States, steady with the 439,700 sold the year before. There are two artists responsible for a vast majority of those sales: Taylor Swift (duh), who could sell her music on a wax cylinder and still find a way to take it platinum. The other is the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack compilations, arguably single-handedly introduced mixtapes to a younger generation. This article from Billboard takes a look at the ups and downs of the cassette tape form in our culture, and how while enjoying a slight uptick in popularity, will likely drop again soon after Swifties and GOTG fans buy up all the tapes and have to wait for new releases.
6. When Mixing Genres Was Cool.
It turns out people like listening to Beyonce’s new country song. I suppose she deserves credit for stretching her musical chops but Beyonce could probably belch Mozart into a microphone and get 1M Spotify streams. There was a time when crossing genres was risky business and produced rad records. Watch and enjoy this mid-80’s mash up between one of the baddest rock bands of all time and a hip-hop legend.
Thanks for reading everybody and have a great rest of your weekend.
Have a suggestion for The Sunday Six? Send email to jonjkerr@gmail.com.