Hello there,
Like seemingly everybody else, I tried my hand at baking sourdough bread during the past months of social distancing. Who doesn't love a good slice of freshly baked bread? And we all had plenty of time on our hands.
The first time Mollie and I tried to bake a loaf, it came out flat and dense but still tasted okay. Same with the second attempt. On the third, we switched things up and ended with a fully inedible and extremely heavy brick. It was not recognizable as bread at all. At that point, we gave up for a few weeks. (Did you know you can just... buy bread? It's not even very expensive! And it never tastes like concrete!)
But then we had even more time. So I tried again. And again. And I finally cracked the code (with a lot of help from my friend Sandy's Breb Class). It turns out the secret is that sometimes the processes you need take longer than you want. You can't just force the bread onto the next step. You have to wait and evaluate (does the leaven float? Does the dough pass the windowpane test?). And only when it passes the tests, can you move onto the next direction. The whole process ends up taking longer than I would have liked, but now I consistently end up with bread that is recognizable as bread.
That's both a true story about baking and a metaphor I've been thinking about for this particular time in our country. Are we doing the work and passing the tests? Or are we just getting impatient and heading towards an inedible block of stone?
Upcoming Events
LIVESTREAMS:
- TODAY Saturday, June 20th at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET
COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE ALREADY HERE! Today's Zoom game show will again be raising money for the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network. You can play a round or just watch and laugh from the comfort of your home. Free, but with donations suggested. Link
AROUND THE INTERNET:
- WYATT CENAC'S PROBLEM AREAS: HBO made the whole series free on YouTube (in the US). We spent the whole first season looking at solutions to policing in America and the second season on education. Link
- CELEBRITY SUBSTITUTE: This Youtube Original Series pairs high school teachers with celebrities to make remote lessons. I helped produce this episode where Janelle Monae explains the Electoral College. Link
- SMALL BIZ GONE VIRAL: My friend Grant LeBeau runs a small business making organic energy bars. But in the age of coronavirus, he's also started a fantastic podcast about how small businesses are trying to survive. I was his guest on an episode where we talked about the business of comedy during quarantine. Link
This week’s list
GREAT:
Jon Laster is an incredible standup. He's got that immediate presence that commands the room and his jokes are so funny. I've seen him crush in the basement of an Italian restaurant and in the best comedy club in the country. It's amazing to me that he's not a household name yet. Especially when you hear how thoughtful and gracious he can be while talking about the serious stuff as well. I've been loving all the episodes of Mike Birbiglia's new podcast, but the one with Jon Laster is the best so far. Working It Out with Jon Laster (also available anywhere you listen to podcasts)
FUNNY:
Eric Andre's comedy is intense and confrontational. It's extremely strange and in your face. It also makes me laugh in a way that nothing else does. I'll be wiping tears off my cheeks while saying "What is happening? What is he doing!" There's no one else like him. One of my all-time favorite bits on a talk show is when he interviewed James Van Der Beek and hired body doubles who tried to speak at the same time as them. Or this brilliant joke from his new special about how offensive the COPS theme song was. There's a great profile of him in the NYT too: Eric Andre Isn't a Prankster, He's a "Benevolent Attacker"
INTERESTING:
On the other end of the comedy spectrum, the Lucas Brothers are understated and cerebral. They're also hilarious. (Check out their set on The Tonight Show). They wrote a piece about a man they grew up with in Newark and the very different path that his life went down. There are no easy answers, but they write about the complexity beautifully. "He would be called a murderer and a domestic terrorist. But to us, he was family. Our struggles with systemic racism were the same." Our Brother Kaizen
Thanks for reading! if you like these emails, please forward to a friend or spread the word. If someone forwarded you this email but you're not yet on the list, you can subscribe here.
Take care,
Chris