Over the course of a week, I saw three shows– Bruce Springsteen at Nats Park, the movie Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, and Weezer at The Anthem– that all induced varying levels of nostalgia for me.

Bruce Springsteen is a long-time favorite of my family’s and I last saw him 12(!) years ago in Philly. Springsteen’s music itself leans heavy on imagery and nostalgia, but never to the detriment of a hopeful vision of the future. His shows reflect this well– there’s a core group of songs that he typically plays on a given tour, but there’s a lot of changes around the margins from show to show. The pure energy he brings is unparalleled: everyone can get something out of them whether you know every word by heart or have never even heard of the guy.

I don’t have the same affection for the movie Beetlejuice as I do for some other movies of that era, but I have distinct memories of watching it as a kid. I rewatched the original a few days before going to see the sequel and it’s just as deliciously weird as I remember it. But this sequel just completely missed the mark– it wasn’t bad–but it could have been great! I kept hoping for a movie that focuses on just how forever death is and how thus how little meaning time has. Which could be perfectly encapsulated by Beetlejuice himself! One of the strengths of the original was how little the character of Beetlejuice was in it– but the sequel couldn’t resist showing him within like the first five minutes.

My brother was the bigger Weezer fan and though the Blue Album was a bit before my time, the Green Album was on complete rotation during high school. As a person who still listens to albums as a whole, it was impossible for me to pass up hearing a band I really like play what is definitively their best album. But the show was designed around a schtick: Weezer is here on Earth and they need to board a spaceship to “voyage” (i.e., play some of their other material) to the “Blue Planet” (i.e., the section of the show where they play the Blue Album).

So three shows– all rife with emotions and memories from my childhood–why did Springsteen work when Beetlejuice and Weezer didn’t quite hit the mark?

There’s a half life to what nostalgia can provide. No matter how well something is crafted, there’s a limit to how good it can be if it doesn’t introduce anything new or fresh. Springsteen realizes this: he used earnestness, spontaneity, and inclusion in addition to nostalgia to put on an amazing show. And while Beetlejuice and Weezer weren’t just pure nostalgia– there was more they were trying to do– they leaned heavily on quirkiness to fill the gaps that nostalgia couldn’t.

Nostalgia itself is not a bad thing– there’s a lot to be gained from reflection on positive memories. But in our age of everything old is new again, there has to be more than reflection: there has to be introspection of how the things from our past defines the us of the present.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: the world and cast are left (mostly) intact, so it would be very difficult for this to be a bad movie. But wow– it did its damndest to be completely forgettable: no new ideas and nothing to say

The world and cast are left (mostly) intact, so it would be very difficult for this to be a bad movie. But wow-- it did its damndest to be completely forgettable: no new ideas and nothing to say

A few photos from the Saturday Weezer concert. They were good, but…

All the pre-recorded “Voyage to the Blue Planet” schtick just sucked all of the energy and spontaneity out of the show. It felt like a light show set to a pre-recorded album of Weezer’s greatest hits

The Bear, Season 3: this was the vibes season. Not bad, but it just didn’t have the propulsion that previous seasons had. Still one of the best on TV

Welp, there’s Taylor Swift’s endorsement

“I have concepts of a plan” is the most relatable thing trump has said all night

Yeah, but what is her golf handicap

(I’m remembering too)

Happy y’all are remembering how good she is at debating

I’m also 100% convinced that Kamala Harris would win 538 electoral votes if we could somehow just get everyone to go to a Springsteen show the night before the election

It’s been twelve years since I last saw Bruce Springsteen and he still puts on the absolute best show. Nationals Park was completely packed– I’ve never seen it it like that before.

I was skeptical at first of Project Tapestry/new Reeder, but I’ve come to really like it. I still use my RSS app to keep up on headlines, but all must-read stuff goes into Tapestry/Reeder.

I was in the beta for both and had been using Tapestry, but switched over to Reeder with the 1.0 yesterday.

Alien: Romulus: a mashup remake of Alien and Aliens that was much more successful for the former.

I get the urge to remake these movies together–I do! But the success of both these movies is that they were allowed to be what they were.

Still, Alvarez “gets” the Alien franchise, so that’s a win

A mashup remake of Alien and Aliens that was much more successful for the former.

I get the urge to remake these movies together--I do! But the success of both these movies is that they were allowed to be what they were.

Still, Alvarez "gets" the Alien franchise, so that's a win

You could do a lot worse than focusing on earning Aeroplan miles for travel: many partnerships, good availability, some good saver redemptions, and have Chase, AmEx, and Capital One as transfer partners.

We booked for four roundtrip tickets to Quebec City from DC for 20K miles each (80K total).

Currently Reading

Currently reading: On the Edge by Nate Silver 📚

Currently Watching

• The Bear, Season 3

Currently In Queue

• Challengers
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Furiosa
• The First Omen
• Skinamarink

Currently Listening

Currently Planning

• October: Eastern Shore
• November: Palm Springs for Eric’s wedding (maybe Vegas on the back end?)
• December: post-Christmas trip to Kentucky
• January: Ski Trip to Québec Charlevoix

Concurrently

• I was going to write about the shit show that summer is, but Annie Mueller–per usual– does a much more elegant job of it than I ever could. Summer is fun, but I’m glad the kids are back in school and we can finally get back to our normal lives.
• The stars aligned and we were able to book our annual ski trip. Heading back to Quebec Charlevoix at the end of January! One of these years we’ll go somewhere else, but this is not that year.
• We’re going to see Bruce Springsteen at Nats Park and Weezer at The Anthem a week apart! Been a long time since I’ve gone to two concerts in a week!

Finished in August:

A Quiet Place: Day One: I’m probably higher on this series than most, but this story plays to the strength of the film medium. So while it may not be breaking new ground, every filmmaker in the series knows enough to get out of the way and let the movie do what the story does best

Trip: West Coast: Portland, Bay Area, Los Angeles, Disneyland

Slow Horses, Season 3: Spy stories tend to either be an intricate puzzlebox (ala John le Carré novels) or straight-forward action (ala James Bond). This season somehow pulled off both. Couldn’t be more excited for Season 4 next month

Finished reading: How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur 📚 From the creator of The Good Place, an easy-to-digest summary of the major moral philosophies. I have a few quibbles with some things that he left out, but I appreciate how Schur ties all of these seemingly disparate concepts together.

House of the Dragon, Season 2: at its height, there were so many characters I cared about on Game of Thrones. But this just lurches from one thing to the next– it’s like my four-year old telling a story

Still the production values are so high, it’s worth watching. There’s nothing else like it on TV

Previously, in Current Things…

August 2024
July 2024
June 2024
May 2024
April 2024
March 2024
February 2024
January 2024
December 2023
November 2023
October 2023
September 2023
August 2023
July 2023
June 2023
May 2023
April 2023
March 2023
February 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022

The stars aligned yesterday and we were able to book our annual ski trip. Heading back to Quebec Charlevoix at the end of January! One of these years we’ll go somewhere else, but this is not that year.

Currently reading: On the Edge by Nate Silver 📚

A Quiet Place: Day One: I’m probably higher on this series than most, but this story plays to the strength of the film medium. So while it may not be breaking new ground, every filmmaker in the series knows enough to get out of the way and let the movie do what the story does best

I'm probably higher on this series than most, but this story plays to the strength of the film medium. So while it may not be breaking new ground, every filmmaker in the series knows enough to get out of the way and let the movie do what the story does best

Probably going to need to book these oasis tickets early on in the tour before Noel inevitably punches Liam on stage and the rest of the shows are cancelled

Slow Horses, Season 3: Spy stories tend to either be an intricate puzzlebox (ala John le Carré novels) or straight-forward action (ala James Bond). This season somehow pulled off both. Couldn’t be more excited for Season 4 next month

Finished reading: How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur 📚 From the creator of The Good Place, an easy-to-digest summary of the major moral philosophies. I have a few quibbles with some things that he left out, but I appreciate how Schur ties all of these seemingly disparate concepts together.

Ezra Klein did a great interview with Tim Walz on Saturday. It’s a good introduction to him:

Is Tim Walz the Midwestern Dad Democrats Need?