3 Things: Jon Batiste, Jo Firestone, and Ruth Asawa

Hey there,

Every time someone learns that I'm color blind, we spend the next five to four hundred minutes playing a game where they point at a color and I try to name it. When I get it right, they're mildly disappointed. When I can't see it, they're amazed. "You can't tell that's coral? This is so clearly coral!" Or "You seriously don't see lilac?!"

On my end, I often suspect that everyone has agreed to prank me and that no one can actually see lilac or coral. Maybe they're not colors at all! It's just a very elaborate joke. Of course, there's also the infamous colored dot test, where there are a bunch that are just dots. (The rest of you claim they all have numbers, but I'm not so sure...)

Anyway, all of this is to say that I took the test online again and learned that I am a "Strong Deutan." I am a strong, proud, independent Deutan. Then Mollie and I watched a bunch of videos of colorblind guys using these new glasses and seeing the world in color for the first time. In every video, the guy is amazed. Sometimes he cries. We ordered some. They arrived yesterday. I put them on and... everything looked the same. I did not cry. I was not amazed. I am still a Deutan. Deutan 'til I die.

We returned the glasses. I still don't believe coral exists.

Upcoming Events

LIVESTREAMS:
- TODAY Saturday, August 15th at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET
Today is the final weekly COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE ALREADY HERE! I've been doing my Zoom game show for five months now and we're going out with a bang. We've got a whole slew of celebrity guests, international correspondents, and a giant rabbit. Catch the final extravaganza here: Link

- Wednesday, September 30th at 5 p.m. PT / 8 p.m. ET
HIDDEN EXPERT. I’m hosting this new storytelling series for LabX and the National Academy of Sciences. They're currently looking for story submissions, so if you've got a five minute true story and want to participate, apply here: Link

This week’s list

GREAT:
Jon Batiste is one of my favorite musicians. You might know him from his Grammy-nominated albums or as the bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. But in addition to making beautiful music, he's also a really fascinating deep thinker. I watched a Zoom event where he had an hourlong conversation with the writer Suleika Jaouad about creativity and the healing power of music. So much of what he said has stuck in my head. "Your body is a bowl of sensation. You have so many different ways that music can tap into your nerve endings and give you an internal transformation. Music can change your behavior, change your thoughts, and ultimately change who you are." 

You can read more about how Batiste is trying to use music to change behavior (and support the current civil rights protests). You can listen to his great new album with the guitarist Cory Wong. Or his cover of "Ohio." Or you can hear him talk and play piano while Terry Gross seriously fangirls out on Fresh Air. 


FUNNY:
Jo Firestone is so funny and unique. We are lucky to have her comedy. And we're also lucky to have her grandma's Summer Chowder recipe. Watch as Jo and her grandma get together on Zoom and cook this "milk based soup, like cereal but with corn and potatoes."It's so funny and so heartwarming. Making Summer Chowder with My Grandma


INTERESTING:
I learned about Ruth Asawa for the first time this week, when a friend recommended I buy a sheet of her new USPS stamps. At first, I was mostly interested in saving our democracy by funding the postal system. But as a side benefit, I got to admire Asawa's incredible work. And her life story is equally remarkable. She honed her drawing skills in a Japanese internment camp. She was refused a teaching degree due to anti-Asian racism, but went on to co-found the Alvarado School Arts Workshop. With almost no initial funding, she grew the program to more than 50 public schools in San Francisco. And while she was often ignored by the art world, she never stopped making work. Now, her sculptures sell for millions. For Asawa, it was simply a matter of never giving up. “Sculpture is like farming. If you just keep at it, you can get quite a lot done.” The Enduring Legacy of Ruth Asawa’s Mesmerizing Sculptures


Ok, that's it for this week. Thanks for reading! if you're enjoying 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.

Stay safe,
Chris

3 Things: Setsuko Thurlow, Hannah Einbinder, and Hee-Sook Lee

Hey there,

Right now I have 1000 tubes of toothpaste in my closet. It's not because I've suddenly become an oral hygiene prepper or that I got conned into a multi-level marketing scheme. It's because I was inspired by my friend Mitra to make hygiene kits that can be given out to our neighbors experiencing homelessness. There are lots of important policy positions to advocate for and obviously voting is crucial, but it's also nice to put together something tangible that will show another human being you care about them. More information on exactly what a hygiene kit is and how you can help organize a build of your own (wherever you are) here: DIY Safe-At-Home Hygiene Kit Build.

My kits are going to be distributed by the awesome volunteer-run organization SELAH Neighborhood Homeless Coalition here in LA. If you're in LA and want to get involved  with this current build or you're anywhere in the world and want to donate to support, respond to this email and I'll let you know how. 

And then on a completely unrelated but hilarious note, I have been laughing all day at the photos from this story: Wild boar steals laptop from nudist in Berlin

Upcoming Events

LIVESTREAMS:
- TODAY Saturday, August 8th at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET
COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE ALREADY HERE! A remote Zoom game show featuring audience correspondents from across the continent, celebrity guests, and potentially even you. Watch and laugh from the safety of your home or request to be a part of the show here: Link

- Sunday, August 9th at 10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET
EMAIL PRO LIVE  You can watch Ivan Anderson and his comedian guest (me) write and send emails to strangers in real time. (I've written about and recommended Email Pro before, but it's wild and I love it. No one makes laugh harder than Ivan or makes me more nervous). Link

This week’s list

GREAT:
Setsuko Thurlow is a Nobel Peace Prize winner who has dedicated the past 75 years of her life to advocating for the end of nuclear weapons. She was thirteen years old when the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, killing more than 150,000 people. “I am one of those who can tell a firsthand story of human suffering that the bomb caused,” Thurlow says in this incredible profile of her work. Seventy-five years later, we need to push all world leaders to listen to Thurlow's story and eliminate these weapons. Witnessing Nuclear Carnage, Then Devoting Her Life to Peace

Related: Sarah Kay's poem Hiroshima 

FUNNY:
Hannah Einbinder's standup set on Colbert combines cool jazz, perfect stage presence, and some killer jokes. It's such a unique performance and it really made me laugh. She's great. Hannah Einbinder


INTERESTING:
I love soondubu jjigae, a Korean tofu hotpot, and BCD Tofu House is a legendary chain specializing in it. Hee-Sook Lee, the woman who started BCD and helped bring Korean food to the world, died this week. Lee not only created an international restaurant chain based on a dish that few others knew or respected, but she also worked to feed low-income seniors and led an organization to provide relief to mothers and children in need. You can read all about her impressive and inspiring life here: Hee-sook Lee, who built an empire with BCD Tofu House chain, dies at 61


Ok, that's it for this week. Thanks for reading! if you're enjoying 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.

Stay safe,
Chris

3 Things: John Lewis, Marcia Belsky, and Adrian Tomine

Hey there,

I tend to go through phases with reading. Some months, I'm just tearing through book after book. Others, I can't seem to build up the momentum or focus to get engaged. I'm coming off a stretch of no books and just all READING STRESSFUL NEWS, which I gotta tell you, is not a great way to get ready for bed. So it's been a pleasure to remind myself of how nice it is to get caught up in a book and not want to put it down. I read Adrian Tomine's newest book in one sitting (more on him later) and now I'm halfway through Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman's Big Friendship.

It's cool to read a book that takes friendship, and the work required to stay close, as seriously as romance. It's rare for friendship to get recognized as so important. But it really is. And reading their book has made me even more grateful for my own friendships and the people who, despite distance or pandemic, make it so clear that they care. In the past few months, I've had friends help me with scripts (cut the first three pages), resumes (send it to me, your formatting is a disaster), bread that wouldn't rise (did you try the windowpane test?), protests (put on a mask and follow @inthistogether_la), illness (check the mail, I sent you tamales), and legal advice (don't sign that). In a time when it frequently feels like the world is falling apart, it's so comforting to remember that we don't have to put things back together alone.

(Also this is neither here nor there, but Ann Friedman's weekly newsletter is so good and this week she reminded me of this video which I cannot stop laughing at.)

Upcoming Events

LIVESTREAMS:
- TODAY Saturday, August 1st at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET
COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE ALREADY HERE! A remote Zoom game show featuring audience correspondents from across the continent, celebrity guests, and potentially even you. Watch and laugh from the safety of your home or request to be a part of the show here: Link

This week’s list

GREAT:
John Lewis was a great American. He was the kind of leader that we needed and continue to need so badly. One of the things I've been most struck by, hearing the stories about him on the radio and at his memorial service, is how he always made people feel like he had time for them. Even when he was an important and busy congressperson. He made people feel seen. But he also saw the injustice and bigotry of America and he refused to believe that it was too late to change it. I'm guessing you've already read his remarkable final essay, but if not, here is a link. He wrote this in his final days and asked for it to be published on the day of his funeral. Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation


FUNNY:
This week, I performed on a Mars-themed Zoom comedy show for the American Museum of Natural History. You know, just a regular old week. Things are normal! One of the other comics on the show was Marcia Belsky, who I have admired for a long time and who has only gotten funnier and funnier. But I didn't realize she could also sing! This song she wrote about NASA's male engineers trying to prep Sally Ride for the Space Station brought down the house. Here's her performing it for Comedy Central Marcia Belsky - 100 Tampons (I cued up the video to the right spot for this song, but you should watch her whole set because she's hilarious).


INTERESTING:
Adrian Tomine is a cartoonist and illustrator. You might know him for his New Yorker covers or for his award-winning graphic novels. He writes stories about people trying and failing to figure out the world. He uses the medium of cartoons to convey those awkward silent moments in ways that a novel alone never could. His most recent book, The Loneliness of the Long Distance Cartoonist, is a memoir that's a collection of his most humiliating and embarrassing moments. And like I said up top, I couldn't put it down. It's incredibly vulnerable. Some stories were very funny. Some were infuriating. But he manages to weave them together into a powerful narrative about him becoming a husband and a father. Here's an excerpt: Brooklyn, 2006


Thanks for reading! if you're enjoying 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.

Stay safe and take care of each other,
Chris