Three Things: Heat
Hi! I took a little break to bake in 107-degree heat, have contractors rip up my living room floor, and undergo a root canal. Never say I don’t know a good time when I see it.
Anybody want to talk about the weather? Because it’s getting a little freaky up in here. It’s unsettlingly hot in Austin and has been for several weeks. We’re used to heat of course. Back in my day, kids, we weren’t allowed to wear shorts in elementary school, and I can still feel the unbearable discomfort of walking home from the bus stop in jeans in May.
The current heat is unrelenting though. The forecast has been one steady stream of red bars, nary a drop of rain within.
Its constancy is terrifying, if you allow yourself to think about it for longer than 30 seconds. This is the best it’s going to get. What will it feel like in 3 years?
Let’s move on to the recs.
📖 To Paradise
This is a 700-page novel. So know that going in. It’s too damn long. But it is good. It’s nowhere near as good as her epic A Little Life, but you need something to do while sitting in air conditioning, right? The reason I’m recommending it is primarily for its final section, which is set in a future world in which the planet is so hot that you have to put on a cooling suit to walk around outside. So, you know, next summer.
🎥 Asteroid City
It’s Wes Anderson, so you already know if you’re going to like this. (But also, movie theaters have excellent air conditioning.) I loved it. It’s his most layered film yet and I will see it many more times to dig into it. The cast is seemingly everyone in Hollywood and the whole thing is wrapped in the most beautiful color palette. I want to eat it for dessert.
📺 Silo
I’ve only watched the first episode but I am in, man. Another flavor of dystopia, this one a world in which everyone has to live underground due to a mysterious climate affliction up top. Rashida Jones is in it, which was all I needed to hear, but the story sucked me in quickly on its own. I’m considering it homework, taking notes for when we all have to burrow into the earth like moles.
Thanks for reading. I wish you a weekend filled with cold water and frosty drinks.