Another round for me and my chums
Oh Messy Life #34
Welcome to Human Pursuits, the column that features need-to-know names and stories in media and other creative spaces. Today, a day trip to Bowen Island, and updates from Friends of the Newsletter, including Amanda Mull, Max Tani, Kate Lindsay, Delia Cai, and more.
Maybe it was the news, or maybe it was the weather. Either way, a sense of June gloom had set in amongst the friend group. A feeling that, if we weren’t careful, we’d lose the whole summer. Wake up in the fall and wonder where the last twelve weeks went.
So we made a plan. We took the ferry to Bowen Island. Hiked around Killarney Lake. Ate lunch on a patio with the heater firing. Fish and chips. Beer. No sun the whole goddamn day. New Haim in the car. Five-minute drive. Cider house. Flights of four. $13. Another round for me and my chums.
The ferry home was delayed thirty minutes. Nobody cared. The only thing waiting for us on the mainland was what we were trying to outrun. A 70 per cent chance of rain in the forecast. A clock ticking faintly in the background.
Oh Messy Life
ICYMI: Last week’s interview was with Talkhouse co-founder Ian Wheeler. We discussed his bi-regional lifestyle, embracing your outsider perspective, how to properly scale an artistic project, finding success amid a nearly constant array of failures, and How Long Gone’s respect for old media.
This week’s reading included Jason Zinoman’s profile of Larry Charles, Amanda Mull on GAP’s last-ditch, tariff-addled turnaround push, and a lovely piece from on stealing.
Cannes do: Our pal Max Tani was on Day One FM discussing the evolving media presence at Cannes Film Festival, Substack’s will-they-won’t-they dance with advertisers, and more.
has helped launch a new bedtime podcast. It’s called Pillow Talk and it drops seven nights per week on Hatch+ Restore.
From the screen to your Substack: I really enjoyed ’s foray into video for Embedded. “Screen Time Diaries” shows what’s happening across her screens as she lives it. Talk about a tricky (and revealing) edit.
is featured in an upcoming panel at McNally Jackson Seaport titled “How these journalists wrote novels”. It just so happens to be moderated by Friend of the Newsletter Kevin Nguyen. Tickets here.
Heat around the corner: Thom and Charlie from LA Explained are hosting a rooftop screening of Heat at The Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood this weekend. Tickets here.
Oh, and from Style Toast made a playlist to soundtrack your heat wave. It features what I consider to be a pretty underrated Owen song!
Proper Chune
Once again listening to 2000s pop-rock. Liz Phair took a lot of shit for her self-titled album when it came out, but it’s got some hits. Frankly, few artists have the versatility to go from lo-fi indie to polished pop the way she did.
My next guest is…
Yang-Yi Goh, Senior Style Editor at GQ. He dresses well and has great taste in music. We have much to discuss.
Meme Machine
