Mid-Summer
A Rundown, A Recap & A Reset
It’s Wednesday, the first one of the month, on this side of 2023, and it’s been a while. Don’t worry, I’ve been busy watching, reading, listening, getting braids, shopping, and bookmarking my way through the season. This summer has been mid, so today’s title has two meanings, both in timing and emotional location. It rained like every day, the air is poor, the hot is too hot when it’s hot, and there’s no summer anthem. And still I don’t want it to end. I figured in lieu of an essay I’d share some of what I’ve been up to.
What I’ve Been Watching
In tandem with being a bibliophile I am on obsessive TV watcher, and this friggin writer’s strike is a bummer because with this unpredictable summer climate I’m just tryna to watch some shows and there’s now a summer programming void. TV has always been a friend/companion, and I hope that the negotiations come to a close soon, and the writers and actors can get back to work with fair pay and generous residuals. I’m thinking too about all the crew (the blue-collar folks who make shit happen behind the scenes) who are out of work right now. So on my off days, I’ve been searching the vacuous streamer algorithm for things to watch. I’m not a TV snob but there’s something so pathetic about watching a show because the streamer has recommended it. Maybe that speaks to some kind of my millennial culture classism, that wants to gate-keep new shows, but whatever. I felt a lil embarrassed clicking on the for you recommendations, but not embarrassed enough not to watch. Not everything was bad, in fact most of it was not bad!
Full Circle
I just finished the Steven Soderbergh, Ed Solomon (whispers HBO) Max limited series, Full Circle with CCH Pounder, Zazie Beetz, and Jharrel Jerome – the three reasons why I even bothered to check in. Claire Danes is technically the star of the circuitous 6-episode drama, that revolves around two families linked by mysterious events taking place over the course of 20 years in Guyana, a murder, human-trafficking, real estate, insurance fraud and organized crime. I’ll probably watch anything with CCH Pounder in it, but I had to read two reviews (here & here) to realized that a) episode six was in fact the finale, and b) to get a grasp of what the hell I actually spent 6 hours of my life on. Pounder’s role was an interesting if not a truncated character, she played a Guyanese crime boss with a superstitious fixation on Obeah, but it was never really clear how she got to be the way she is. Frankly with the exception of a young protagonist played by Sheyi Cole, there were too many people to keep track of narratively. And still I kept thinking this would have been a good movie. Visually, the film had arresting scenes with lots of movement, plus I’m a sucka for anything depicting NYC, especially lower Manhattan. Watch it if you want to, but I don’t want to hear anything about it if you didn’t like it.
They Cloned Tyrone
There was a lot of well-deserved buzz about this Netflix film starring (Denzel Washington’s illegitimate fine ass son) John Boyega, (freshly cloned) Jaime Fox and the darling Teyona Paris. On first watch, I was tired and more preoccupied with my phone, but my boo who put it on was laughing so much that I decided to watch again- and it was a fun, nuanced, Black Sci-Fi comedy that managed to do some heavy lifting with its social commentary. No, the commentary was not perfect, but I don’t watch something called They Cloned Tyrone, to get educated, nor do I expect to. I watch to see Jaime Foxx be a comedic genius and to try to hear Boyega’s bri’ish accent slip through (it didn’t). It was directed Juel Taylor and written by Taylor and Tony Rettenmaier. There was minimal cringe and I think as far as cult movies are concerned this fits the bill.
The Stroll
Directed by Kristen Lovell, The Stroll was the best documentary I’ve watched this year so far. It’s mix of archival footage, first-hand accounts, illustrations laid over the Trans history of New York’s meatpacking district. It was so compelling, agitating, and at times deeply emotional. This film did the rare and important work telling an insightful story about sex work and its intersections with race/class/gender/gentrification in NYC. The films is successful because the woman who was at the helm of this project is an interlocutor and centered her experience -taking the life of a Black Trans-woman – putting it at the center, and reframing the context. There should be more filmmaking like this, and I hope to see future works by Lovell.
I saw Barbie too and loved it. I would suggest listening to the Vibe Check episode where they devote an ENTIRE episode to the film, it was such a good listen!
Three Line TV Show Reviews
Survival of the Thickest
Yes, to Michelle Buteau being a stylist, who gets to have sex in all these funny and sexy ways. Tone Bell & Tasha Smith’s chemistry as her bffs was great, and I am doubly excited for Tasha’s character’s bisexual storyline. Who knew Black Italian men could be rendered so tenderly?
Muscles & Mayhem
Of course so many of the women of American Gladiator were queer, of course I loved that show growing up, of course I go by Jet just in case there is casting for a version of American Gladiator meets Shop Till You Drop. This doc proved that a white man can pitch ANYTHING in Hollywood and get millions of dollars to just trial-n-error his way through a project. If it wasn’t so boring halfway through, I could finish this review.
Good Omens
I nearly forgot about this show, which I binged during the lockdown era of this pandemic. It was a fun ride with two funny ass actors who took an old trope and turned it on its head. The first 20 minutes of season 2 I realized that magic was lost.
What I’ve Been Reading
PERCIVAL EVERETT. I’m determined to get through all 30 of his novels, so far: The Trees, Telephone, & Dr. No. I’m looking at a copy of So Much Blue right now, but I’m going to have I am not Sidney Poitier delivered to my vacation spot, so I can talk about it with a homie who too has taken on the task of reading this man’s catalog. BRILLIANT. GRIM. EXPERTLY SATIRICAL. DANZY SENNA’S HUSBAND.
Also taking my sweet time reading and re-reading Christina Sharpe’s Ordinary Notes. I’m a believer of her theory. In The Wake, somatically disturbed some internalized racism in my body, and this hybrid form of annotation, is interrogative, at points poetic, academic and troubling to the status quo. LOVE.
Good Woman: Poems and A Memoir, 1969-1980 by Lucille Clifton was how I started my mornings last month, I definitely recommend. The memoir at the end was a haunting ode to generational ties, bloodlines, love and family. I will have to read it again and again.
The Book of Forms: A Handbook of Poetics by Lewis Turco, is a craft classic and I since I didn’t pay attention in grade school or college, I’m learning a lot about the forms found in Poetics. I don’t read it in bed, or I’ll fall asleep, but it’s great inspiration.
Trinity by Zelda Lockhart
In my attempt to be a social media book influencer, I’m reading some titles gifted to me by the HarperCollins Publishing imprint Amistad. Lockhart is an OG, and this novel is her return to fiction after some time, this is my first time reading her work. The storyline is emotionally taxing, with an opening fraught with renderings of domestic violence and rape, so I’m taking my time with this one.
Conventry by Rachel Cusk
Cusk is a solid if not problematic English writer who both recognizes her class and privilege but does very little to interrogate it -beyond the confines of her identity, despite that annoyance I enjoyed re-reading this collection of essays.
There are several other books, so you can follow me on Storygraph if you want to keep up with my reading. I’m JettyReady on the Goodreads alternative. Also, after overhearing two white men bond over listening to conservative radio, I’ve decided it’s time for me to start reading Toni Morrison. I knew the time would come; I just didn’t know what would be the spark.
Music
Much to the chagrin of anyone who has to ride passenger side with me, I’ve been playing JT’s No Bars & Curious by Eric Bellinger nonstop. My BFF Britney put me on to Pinot Noir by IDK, Jucee Froot, and Saucy Santana, not to be mistaken for Peeno Noir made famous by Titus Andromedon. Kwenzekile by Blxkie, almost anything by Larry June, Janelle Monae’s newest album, BigXthePlug, is all the newish music I play when I’m not playing them same songs that I’m always listening to (Hello Bilal & Mary J Blige).
A group of 25 of us went to see Beyoncé at MetLife Stadium the other day. Folks showed up and showed out with they’re lil oufits. I shopped my closet, shit it’s Bey’s job to wow us, ya know? She kilt it, and so did the soul she crowned, Blue. Such a darling mother-daughter moment to witness on stage. Can’t wait to see her again, next month.
Hair & Nails
I got my hair braided. It took seven days. 12 hours each day. I’ll have to write about that experience another time, but needless to say I’m traumatized and don’t have anything to show for it other than my enviable microbraids.
I couldn’t get a nail appointment with my favorite nail pros, which is fine because I’ve been struggling with the fact that I need to take a break from getting my nails UV’d. My nails were looking horrible, so I went to the place where I get my pedicures to get the gel removed. During my nail service I encountered that anti-black bullshit that I used to be so accustomed to tolerating when I was younger and less wise. It didn’t go well for shorty who decided that she wanted to speak Vietnamese when I complained about her being rough and careless with my precious nailbeds. I encouraged her politely to get someone else to help me, or she and I were going to have a problem. One of the veterans at the shop helped me out, until the original tech gathered herself. At the end, she got her shit together, but the moment was ruined. This is your sign to book your nail appointment in advanced! This is also your sign to acknowledge and call out poor treatment during your services! I am learning so much about myself through the framework of what I will tolerate in order to feel beautiful. So yeah, thinking about that.
Shopping
Ssense had this crazy sale, crazy as in there wasn’t a damn thing marked down enough for me. But I did score a bunch of Kika Vargas finds for the lowlow, some dope ass (at least in my mind) Henrik Vibskov shades and couple of pieces. I am proud to report that all of my returns happened within their appropriate window, and I can pay my light and internet bills with the money returned to my account. I also joined the Nia Thomas club with my very own Chi Chi Top (thanks Lou & Diamond for the intro)!
Bookmarks
I’ll save the bulk of these for a To Be Read post but here are a few:
Some Poems
Four Black Dream Poems at The Attic
Some Birders
[Black & brown] Birding Group in NYC
Some Breaking News
Is Lizzo the next Tar? (obviously not the headline but should be!)
Writing Update
Writing about the body is hard. In so many ways I have avoided my body in the context of my work. I was having a long overdue conversation with a friend/mentor of mine who called me out, rightly so, about my failure to bring my A-game on a collaboration, and in the midst of our fruitful dialogue I got to the root of it. I’m at odds with my body for a number of reasons and that tension is one that is hard for me to render on the page without employing rhetoric or platitudes. Often, I feel that what I am writing is insincere. I’m in journaling and research stages of this discovery now, but I’m eager to see what is illuminated. Sometimes I forget that I’m not a trained writer per se, but someone who is writing towards and through and around the act of writing as an artistic methodology. This is something that has been hard for me to distinguish in my storytelling but it is something I am confronting. I’m writing my book now and I’m searching for my body in the essays therein and need to sort that out soon, I think it will help me capture an organizing principle for that body of work. I HOPE!
I hope you’re enjoying your summer. I’ll be on vacation in a few days but I do have a Tiny Violences post in the queue for my loyal readers, it is Black August after all!
Thanks so much for reading – let me know you made it through with some emojis: 📺📚🛍️. Better yet, tell me about your summer.
Ohkayyy loved this newsletter. Nice touching base with you a la été 🌞📝💅🏾🧖🏾♀️🫧🍵
JT No Bars!! Non stop!