Hey friends and other human beings! And you thought you had to wait a long time for Vol. 3!! This week, I am back with another edition of Five Things Friday. This is a list of five things that have been buzzing around in my head this week — be they podcasts, books, news articles, hobbies, games, whatever. This week I talk about every basic person's favorite season, the deal with Twitter and a song I dare you to try to get out of your head by the end of the day.
Without further ado, here are five things for this Friday:
1. Autumn — the best season ever
Of course, I risk sounding like what we used to call "basic" but the change into fall has been especially welcome for me this year. It was a hot, hot summer. It was also very filled with some very trying and difficult times for me personally. This transition into mornings with a crisp chill to evenings with soft sunsets and perfect walking weather are much needed. I've been walking around so much and sitting on every single patio I can find. I hope you are, too.
October also mean an exciting month of sports — some of which I will actually watch! The MLB playoffs, football is here and even some basketball gets thrown in there! So as for me, I'm going all in on autumn this year. Bring me all the pumpkin spice, the harvest wreaths, the Halloween decorations, the vest-and-pullover weather you can find. But please, keep winter away as long as possible.
2. What's the deal with Twitter?
This whole acquisition by Elon Musk debacle hit a dizzying pace this week it seems. It's been off, it's been on, it's been off again. They've been going to court, then they're back to a deal.
Fans of the deal want Musk's uninhibited and laissez-faire free speech approach to reign. They want it to be the free-speech public commons that Musk believes it to be. Opponents of the deal recognize the terrible harm that this kind of unrestricted free speech causes, especially when powered by algorithms that quickly amplify and disseminate the most attention-grabbing content — whether it is true or not. They say they will abandon the platform if Musk's philosophy takes over the platform.
Ultimately, I think I've come down to a passing nihilism about the whole thing. It is a private platform and is dictated by its policies, which are decided by the board or leadership or whatever. This has always been the case. And so there is no "right to free speech" on these forums — that is only a right that the government is prohibited from infringing upon. Also, there is no "right" to the platform for those who like the platform as it is and are resistant to a Musk acquisition.
It is certainly the platform I've enjoyed the most on social media, especially as it was one of my only early-adoptions of new technology, maybe ever. I remember in college a professor telling us about this new thing called Twitter and how in just five years, this is the way we'd get our news, sent to us in real time by regular people. How ridiculous I thought that was!
Two thoughts are guiding me to this nihilistic feeling. First, Twitter has a documented history of being a population that is considered "more progressive" than the general public, and these are opposed to Musk's philosophy. So I find it pretty unlikely that Musk would go to these lengths to make this insanely expensive acquisition, only to tick off the majority of the users. I imagine most likely, he would manage some very small changes that he could pretend were a really BIG deal.
However, the second thought is that Musk has proven to be kind of a rogue, with lots of money to throw around. Perhaps he will charge forward with this single-minded approach. If that were the case and much of the user-base abandoned the platform, leading to a very quick or slow death, then I would be sad. But social media platforms pass hands through very rich people with weird ideas or agendas all the time. And they die all the time, too. Anyone still on MySpace?
It helps to remember that as much as our lives are now woven into social media, that social media is not our real lives. And we're inventive, creative people! We'll figure something out.
3. Rings of Power: Episode 6 (Spoilers, probably)
I am certainly no Tolkien expert. I've been a fan of the movies since they came out in theaters and, for a brief time in school, even had a ritual of heralding the end of finals week with back-to-back-to-back screenings of all three Lord of the Rings extended-cut movies. But with the exception of The Hobbit, I have only recently taken to reading the books in anticipation of this series.
For me, the series got off to a great start but has been declining since. I loved the early introduction of the world of Middle Earth in the Second Age, Galadrial's surprise rejection of the Undying Lands, the quirky kinship between Elrond and the dwarves of Khazad-dum, the pastoral pilgrimage of the Harfoots and their mysterious magical stranger. But I didn't really love the wayward pit stop in Numenor. It just seemed like they were waiting around, trying to do some character development and waiting until Ep. 6 to really kick things off. And meanwhile, they didn't do a whole heck of a lot to flesh out any of the other story lines.
Ep. 6 seemed to at least help me get better oriented to what the series hopes to accomplish in this season. What it lacked for fans who love lore and storytelling, it at least made up for a little bit in some much-needed action and direction.
So now we know what Galadriel knew some time ago — the Southlands certainly look to be the place where Sauron will set up his kingdom of Mordor. But of course the questions remain: Will Sauron make an appearance now? Is Sauron anyone we've met so far? Is they mysterious magical stranger Gandalf, Saruman, Sauron or none of the above? And what role does Adar play in all of this?
Last note: While the last three episodes have been lacking for me, I am very eager for this week's episode to focus on Durin, Elrond and our wayfaring friends, the Harfoots.
Of course, by the time you read this, you will probably have already watched it and know all these answers.
4. While we're on the subject: Reading Lord of the Rings
As I said, I've been a longtime lover of the movies. In college, I found what I thought to be a wonderful three-volume set of the books at a used bookstore for only $12! I didn't even try to read them until probably 2014 when I moved to Charlotte. That was probably by most earnest attempt but ultimately it didn't last. I'd try again every now and then but....sigh....Tolkien is just one of those writers who really likes to take his time. And it was a different time he was writing in. And Tolkien doesn't care what you want or need as a reader. He wanted to build an entire world and fill it belaboredly with lore, history, language and myth.
Well, at 35, I think I'm finally at a point where I can appreciate his masterpiece. It's something about going from Lord of the Rings and then traveling all the way back in time, thousands of years before in the Rings of Power that has me insanely curious in how Tolkien builds his world and tells the stories of these people and lets the perpetual battle of good and evil unfold.
And so I'm actually doing it this time. I've made it further this time than any other attempt in the first volume of the trilogy. There's a couple of things that I think really help me to appreciate it more, so I pass it on if you find yourself also struggling to get into this dense mythological world.
First, they are children's stories. I think Peter Jackson did a masterful job of adapting these stories so that they were gripping and exciting, and for both young and old people. But Tolkien's writing is whimsical, the stuff of fairytales. And it helps me just to remember to smile every now and then, and appreciate the whimsy.
Second, it really does help to lean into the lore, and Rings of Power is helping a lot. When Tolkien starts going off on the genealogy of hobbits or the history of Bree or the making of the rings — well, it helps to pay attention and wonder how that might play a role in the bigger history Tolkien wants to tell. And it helps to have the show, that may or may not touch on some of these exciting tidbits of lore and history for Middle Earth.
And if nothing else, it just helps when the real world is so hard to escape to a fantastical world where things are also very hard and dark. But at least I get to see what a few brave little hobbits, the tiniest of creatures, can do against such difficulty and find just a little bit more hope to hold onto.
5. Narco by Blasterjaxx and Timmy Trumpet
So I first heard of this when Kentucky Sports Radio host Matt Jones talked about it on his show one day. It is the entrance music for New York Mets pitcher Edwin Diaz and I seriously cannot think of a better song to walk out to. It was recently brought to my attention because a certain college football team, who will remain nameless because they are bad, is using it in their football stadium to hype up fans.
Well, it's just catch as hell, so enjoy having it stuck in your head all day!
That's all for now. Happy Friday!
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