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Good morning! Welcome back to Stupefy, a shortcut through media chaos. It's written by me, Matthew Gardner.
This week we've got a preview of Kanye West's big "Joe Rogan Experience" appearance, a meeting of the two heavyweight champions of wrestling with the problem of content creation when not talking would be better.
Then there's The Shorter Stuff, featuring Zuck, Mayor Pete, Cuomo, Tom Petty and Peloton. Talk soon.
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There’s nothing to talk about. Enter Kanye and Rogan.
You know things are slow when podcasts start doing movie episodes.
Three of my favorite podcasts recently closed the October 2020 tab and opened a new one for "remember when this happened."
There's never been such crazy shit happening at a higher frequency or volume. But that stuff, like, say, the President getting completely fucked up off experimental drugs to combat a life-threatening disease a month before an election, happens on screens.
And anything that happens on screens is just an exhausting continuation of five years of exhausting content, a stupefying standstill.
Off screens, nothing much is happening.
Talking about an old movie on an otherwise topical show is an admission that there's nothing new to talk about. It's a popular one. "SNL" has even sped up their nostalgia cycle to a disconcerting two days.
But there's another way of dealing with the problem of having nothing to talk about during the most eventful moment imaginable: logorrhea. Uncontrollable, unchecked talking.
On Friday, Kanye West will, supposedly, guest on "The Joe Rogan Experience."
Just in time. A conversation between Kanye and Rogan will be the perfect example of just-talk-anyway, a meeting of the two heavyweight champions of wrestling with the problem of content creation when not talking would be better.
It's going to be a big moment for rambling incoherently. Let's dissect what may come up.
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Politics
Joe Rogen loves to ask his guests questions. In fact, he's one of the only interviewers who actually listens to what his guests say and then asks thoughtful follow-up questions, a freedom he enjoys thanks to his insanely long podcasts and seemingly unlimited content creation.
But that sometimes sends him into some pretty sketchy territory, like suggesting "left-wing people" started the raging wildfires in Oregon this summer and wondering if young people are being into transitioning by YouTube.
Rogan is a devourer of links, swimming in internet headlines, taking them at face value and then using them as jumping off points for his guests to elaborate.
This makes him the perfect foil for West, who has an opinion on everything and is actually running for president.
Kanye's recent interviews suggest an extreme talkativeness bordering on a kind of trance, something that Rogan actually alluded to in a recent podcast, catching Kanye's attention.
Rogan's openness and Kanye's excitement are going to create a wind-him-up-and-watch-him-go dynamic that will probably touch on some of Kanye's more troubling current obsessions.
They will be the only two celebrities with more to say than just, "Vote!"
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Religion
Kanye has allegedly been spending time in a planned Christian community called Trilith that is on the site of what was recently Pinewood Studios outside of Atlanta.
Its terrifying and vaguely sci-fi web site no doubt appealed to Kanye, who's famously into 70s prog rock.
The CEO of Trilith actually told Fast Company that the town is modeled after the one in "Truman Show," and it's where Kanye staged his walking-on-water stunt with Joel Osteen recently.
He's really into Christianity right now!
Urbanism
But the biggest wild card, the great source of crackpot riffing, might be the state of American cities. Rogan just moved to Austin because LA is too crowded and he was frustrated by the lockdown in California. He wanted more "freedom."
I have a feeling Joe is going to be super curious about whatever the hell Kanye is building. It's nonsense, but they won't shut up about it.
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The shorter stuff
🌀
- Jeffrey Toobin flew too close to the sun. (Vice)
- Gavin McIness hits on this white supremacist YouTuber in an unforgettable opening to a great story. (The Atlantic)
- Some guy named Bruce Golding refused to put his byline under the Post's Hunter Biden laptop story. (NYT)
- Nick Paumgarten: "The first time I met Cuomo was in 2014, at Billy Joel's house in Oyster Bay." (TNY)
- Mark Zuckerberg sometimes discusses politics with Ben Shapiro. (WSJ)
🌀
- Sonia Saraiya: "Like the majority of series that have been vying for our attention over the last year or two, they're plagued with problems: a slipshod affect that indicates a rush to the screen; too many episodes and not enough story; a cast and a mood, but no actual plot." (VF)
🌀
- Not feeling the Mayor Pete rebrand as "Slayer Pete." (Yahoo)
- "The Vow" was renewed for a second season. Here's why it makes sense. (Vulture)
- Luc Sante, who wrote the classic "Lowlife," is the latest host of these excellent walking tours. (NYT)
🌀
- Lindsay Zoladz on Tom Petty's "Wildflowers," his best album and one I remember owning on CD in 5th grade, plus all the rarities. (NYT)
- Miles Surrey on Frank Langella's Oscar-worthy performance in "The Trial of the Chicago 7," an extremely Netflix-y movie. (The Ringer)
- Wesley Morris: "The first time I saw a wet suit was on Corey Glover, who sang in the Living Colour, four Black guys who built their hard rock on a base layer of rhythm and blues...I inspected this music for a Blackness that comported with mine and every time felt the thrill of pure identification." (NYTMag)
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