As the summer went along, a certain narrative began to form. Everywhere I looked, one conversation emerged. Often this season has been romanticized as a period of freedom and discovery, but I found that a lot of older individuals have become jaded about this time of year. A lot of it could just be that the heat is a miserable place to be. There’s only so much protection one can have from the immersion one faces when stepping into the furnace. Even then, I feel like 2025 has been going so poorly that people in general have been dismissing the summer as the worst time of year. I get it on some level, but, as a Cancer, I could never hate this time of year. There’s always something going on, and I can imagine for those with more pertinent ticking clocks that it’s the gasp of air one needs before returning to the doldrums of uniformity.
That is all to say that August has always had a reputation for being the “dog days.” Every year it arrives, and I want to believe that it’ll be better than the last. However, obvious things keep happening. Everyone is in fluctuation between freedom and career to the point that it’s winding down. There’s something beautiful in that, but it’s always placed alongside some painful reminders that the summer can be a sizzler. Even if Long Beach never got to 100°, it was still close enough to feel my body give up some days. As a result, I don’t know that August felt like the “fullest” month it could be. I don’t like sweat. I often drink enough tea to the point I get headaches. So much feels off-kilter right now, and the best that can be said is that it’s not as bad as it was last year. For one, I didn’t get COVID-19 (happy anniversary!). I didn’t get to see Coraline (2009) in a packed theater either, but you take your wins where you can.
More than anything, I think this August is the one where I felt the most exhausted. I understand that 36 is young, but there are days when you feel like you have to strategize about when you want to go out and do stuff because the heat could mess with your muscles too much. I’ve postponed writing projects until the evening when it’s cool, just because I’m in a better headspace at that hour. Even then, it’s wild to see how much the heat impacts agriculture. Weeds spring up, and you have to keep that in check. I’m sure some people are cool with it, but I like a good aesthetic, so I have to sometimes suck it up and just go for it. Still, those days when cleaning up the kitchen gets your back wet are unpleasant. I get why Spike Lee made a whole film about people getting mad during heatwaves. It’s a real thing.
Which is to say that, yes, I have been spending some days over at the local cineplex. Even if certain things aren’t so good right now, the movies have had their moments. I am especially a fan of Highest 2 Lowest (2025), which is currently my movie of the year. It’s a damn entertaining ride and one that finds Lee in top form. I love how the very idea of being an arrogant New Yorker is built into the fabric, where you get to hear characters on the subway announce their animosity towards Boston DIRECTLY TO CAMERA. Did I mention that the chase scene is amazing? I’ve been a fan of Lee’s recent run of work, but this may be his best film in a minute. It even does a great job of creating its own sonic landscape.
Similarly, there’s Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s Honey Don’t (2025), which is a less aspirational work and a lot more messy (in a bad way?), but I think gets to the heart of Coen’s bizarre tendencies. Years ago, I saw his dramatic anthology A Play Is A Poem and found myself realizing what separates the two brothers in real time. While it’s become a running joke between me and my guest, the stories were messy and sometimes incoherent. You don’t realize how much goodwill The Coen Brothers have until you see one of them flounder on their own. It’s maybe why I wasn’t as down on Drive-Away Dolls (2024), though it could also be because I am generally someone who prefers characters over stories… and Coen & Cooke at least have that going for them.
Taken as a larger narrative, Honey Don’t is bound to annoy audiences. It’s not a complete story nor one that compensates in a satisfying way. It’s at most about the experimental nature of life, where things just happen, and it’s up to you to determine what matters. So many loose threads emerge that I was reminded of sitting at the end of A Serious Man (2009) and wondering what the deal with the tornado was. The Coen-isms are wonderful, but I think they lack focus here. At most, it’s another great Margaret Qualley performance, who, I am surprised to learn, I have seen her last five movies on the big screen. I feel like most actors with fluctuating non-franchise output always have a streamer that throws those numbers off – I’m not counting Happy Gilmore 2 (2025) because that’s closer to a minutes-long cameo and was never sold on her involvement.
But, if we want to be real, Honey Don’t will never be the worst movie of the year. While it never quite gets to the brilliance of being the Central California (Bakersfield, what up?) answer to Under the Silver Lake (2018), it has a lot of fun characters. If you want to see a bad So Cal crime movie, go see Pool Man (2024) – or not, that one pissed me off with how dishonest it was. To finally get to my point, I suggest those calling this the most incompetent movie of the year to spend some time watching War of the Worlds (2025), which is in the pantheon of great bad movies. It’s a modern classic alongside Madame Web (2024) and Hurry Up Tomorrow (2025) that I’ll likely be thinking about for some time. Even then, Ice Cube’s legendary performance puts into context how much better Qualley and crew are when compared to that cobbled mess.
I am a bit saddened that Honey Don’t isn’t better because the world it creates has the potential to be more interesting. Outside of the movie, I was impressed with the music component. Apparently, Qualley is in a band called Lace Manhattan, and they provided the soundtrack with Carter Burwell on score. During the closing credits, I was surprised to hear her singing in a style that felt like “Honeymoon” era Lana Del Rey. Maybe it’s the Jack Antonoff production, but it felt pristinely produced and makes me curious to know if this is going to be a real project or just one of those movie creations that will have its own mythic place in pop culture. Either way, I love it and would love to think this is how Qualley gets a Best Original Song Oscar nomination.
Though speaking of Lana Del Rey. As longtime readers will know, I do adore me some LDR. This was shaping up to be her year with the album formerly known as “Lasso” set for some summertime release. However, things never happened and are now currently scheduled for January 2026. I will welcome this delay if the album delivers – and it almost always does – but it does become disappointing to think that my album of the year isn’t on its way.
However, that hasn’t stopped her from sharing some vocal opinions about my other highly anticipated album of the year. As I’ve discussed previously, Ethel Cain’s “Willoughby Tucker, I’ll Always Love You” is a record I love. Even if it hasn’t yet hit me on the level that “Preacher’s Daughter” has, it quickly became a staple in my playlist. With that said, this month has found Lana releasing a diss track calling Ethel out.
It's a bit surreal, given that I got into Ethel Cain largely because of the comparisons (which, in hindsight, don’t work beyond marketing), and now to see them fighting is bizarre. I’d have never taken them to be collaborators, but I still wanted to believe that there was a mutual acceptance for their place in pop culture. Nobody could touch Lana at this point, so why go after someone with a modest following who has mostly formed every fan through independent hustling? I get that criticism could be lobbed at Ethel for being a transgressive teenager (she has since apologized for it), but it’s still an odd point to bring up. Still, the most bizarre detail – and I have to question how true this is – comes from the fact that Ethel had an exposé written on her called “The Most Famous Girl At The Waffle House,” which in turn inspired Lana to work at one out of spite. That sort of ruins the endearing opinion I had of Lana trying to be in touch with the working class, but it’s still one of the rare celebrity dramas that I find fascinating.
For the most part, it looks to have died down for the immediate future. Ethel is out on tour and getting accolades for her latest. Lana is being featured in W Magazine, talking about living in Louisiana. Everyone has calmed down and gone about their day. Maybe this chapter is over, but who knows?
I will say that it has been an odd month for drama in general. I’ve also been privy to the falling out of Brad Taste in Music, who has been spiraling out of control. It’s heartbreaking in part because his downfall embodies so many of my fears of being codependent on the internet to replace any serious mental health treatment. If nothing else, it also speaks to why certain things should be left off the internet so that you’re not having a paper trail of your most vulnerable mistakes for the entire world to scrutinize. I probably won’t support him ever again, or not without some convincing redemption arc, but my fear of him getting worse transcends the animosity. I just want to believe it’s not too late for him to get things back in order.
The same could be said for our current state of affairs in the larger government. I get that there is a need to feed reactionary culture, but at the same time, I do feel like we’ve reached a breaking point where bitching online has revealed its limitations. As a Californian, I have a complicated relationship with our governor, Gavin Newsom. On the one hand, his claim to fame was as mayor of San Francisco, where he became the poster child for gay marriage by welcoming everyone to wed there. He is seen as the progressive leader of a liberal mecca, and it’s been painful to watch the holes start to be poked in, whether it’s giving in to transphobic talking points or almost exclusively using his influence to platform right-wing ideologues instead of welcoming outside opinions.
I won’t get into everything because I fear that my frustration with current events has led to some online grumbling that’s annoyed people. However, I am against redistricting (or seceding from the union) and think it’s a cheater’s way to get anywhere. I don’t like it when Texas does it, and I’m hoping California feels the same way. The petty spite on display makes me worried for where the country is going because so much will be lost if we keep making laws out of antagonism. What happens when the redistricting builds a new problem years later? Where are the long-term solutions we vote these people for? I am even less enthused about the recent praise of him as an online troll, if just because it’s counterintuitive. No amount of suggesting that you need to get in the mud to wrestle the pigs will convince me that this is pathetic. Having seen both sides “own’ the other for a decade now, I am annoyed that we think any verbal bullying gets us anywhere. It just gives them permission to respond. Nobody will be persuaded. If they do, then I’ll call Newsom a genius, but for now, he’s wasting his time with this distracting form of satire. DO YOUR JOB.
Other than that, it continues to be rough all over. Protesting has become satirical as people throw sandwiches at officials to make a statement. I get that the police state is getting worse and the presence of I.C.E. is ultimately harmful for our national morale, but there has to be a better way. Then again, I’m just as scared as anyone, and it looks like civility is not going to return anytime soon. People are overstepping their boundaries to pass laws that they deem worthwhile, and it sucks. I’ve struggled this whole year with the idea that diplomacy was a shield against larger corruption. I’ve believed it my whole life. How is it not being fixed now? Why can’t anyone recognize the abuse of power?
Though finally, it’s bizarre to notice how Florida has changed. While I’m not sure that it would ever be called the most progressive state, it at least had the courtesy to establish a memorial for the Pulse Nightclub shooting. The simple design of a rainbow sidewalk was poignant and captured a beautiful expression of the community. To know that the people behind Don’t Say Gay are now pivoting away only nine years later reflects the unfortunate ways that bigotry has grown. Some stated that they would never turn their back on LGBTQIA+ individuals, and the simple memorial was a sign of *some* effort. For what it’s worth, protestors have taken to painting in the missing colors, and it’s maybe the closest I’ve come to noticing the value of pride this year. Sorry, June, but August beat you this year.
I’ll admit that it’s hard to transition out of political conversation, especially when it’s as charged as this. I’m aware that a lot else is going on in the world that I’ve probably overlooked. However, I still wish some sense of diplomacy would emerge in all of this and not some sidestepping that looks like a solution but is really nothing. Still, I must move on because my month had a lot more going on than watching the news.
I also have been hyped for The Los Angeles Sparks this past month. A major reason is that I saw them play against The New York Liberty, and boy, what a game that ended up being. In 2024, things looked much different with an unbearable blowout emerging in the third quarter. I was convinced that this year would be more of the same, especially with the repeat Finals winners. However, enough was working against them that The Liberty came up short. Breanna Stewart was absent, for one. The Sparks were also on a hot streak, having won 8 of the last 10 games and being on the cusp of playoff eligibility for the first time in three years.
Watching The Sparks can be tricky because I have been a fan through a lot of their recent rebuilding. It’s been rough to see the falling out, where the star player moves to Seattle, and a lot of the stars turned out to be some of the league’s most notorious figures. But I want to believe that we’re in a sweet spot where everything is turning around. I have been especially impressed with Julie Allemand so far, and the supporting cast remains strong. I, of course, love Kelsey Plum and think she’s doing a lot of great work with Dearica Hamby. Rickea Jackson continues to be the steal of The Draft. I even loved seeing Cameron Brink back out there. Alissa Pili is also on the team (for now), which is really cool.
There’s too much to get into, but what I can say is that this is the closest I’ve come to being excited for my home team in a long time. It’s unlikely that things will go far, but I’ve been watching the standings every week and get a bit too giddy at the prospect of them breaking into that Top 8, possibly even bumping The Golden State Valkyries from their perch. I know there’s still some time to go and anything can happen, but I hope things stay together long enough for me to see them play The Las Vegas Aces once again and see Plum and Hamby stick it to their old boss.
Also, because there’s nowhere else to put this, I am very happy with how The Atlanta Dream have turned things around. I’ve long been a fan of Rhyne Howard and have been thrilled to see where her career has taken her.
We are also officially at the start of the women’s volleyball season! There’s not a lot to report on at this time, but just know that my support of The Big West is as strong as ever. While I have been biding time by watching the kickoff tournament (Nebraska continues to dominate, which is good for them. They produce a lot of talent), I am eager to see how Long Beach does in the wake of losing most of their best players from the past three seasons. It’s always good to mix things up, and I hope the coaching staff has a good eye. I’m also curious to see if Fullerton will escape their little bubble of woe and win a few. They have a new coach, and I imagine that will boost morale. I love the school, but some of those games last season were rough to watch just because the enthusiasm wasn’t there. As usual, I’m expecting Cal Poly to pull through because they’re the best opponent Long Beach has. If you haven’t watched the sidelines during the games, I encourage you to. When I went to a game, they were doing the worm and getting into dance battles.
Other than that, I figured that I’d start wrapping up by highlighting some art that I enjoyed. August has been a big cast recording month. I’m not sure why, but a bunch of heavyweights have come out in close proximity, and they’ve all been hitting the sweet spot for me. While I think that Jeremy Jordan’s work on The Great Gatsby is more exciting, I do enjoy the artfulness with which he does Floyd Collins. It’s also among the more underrated Tony performances of this year, so check it out. It is also hard to overstate how much I love Dead Outlaw, especially as a David Yazbek fan whose previous two shows rank as some of my favorite albums. The study of mortality through a dark comic lens reminds me of Ride the Cyclone, though maybe more accessible and funny. Finally, I am not one for jukebox musicals, but Just In Time has been a sweet spot as of late, and I love Jonathan Groff’s vocal work on it. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen two productions of Spring Awakening this year, but I am becoming a fan slowly but surely. His performance as Bobby Darrin is so alive, and I love how he mixes youthful naivety with deeper emotions.
The same could be said for A Beautiful Noise. While I’ve written about the show extensively, I found myself curious to see what Neil Diamond’s big deal was. I ended up listening to a handful of records, including "Stones" and "Moods." I wanted to see what his appeal was, especially given that he claimed to be a much more complex lyricist than he let on. What I can say is that he’s kind of amazing as a pop singer just because he never takes himself seriously enough to stay in one lane. He can dive into the darkest emotions imaginable, to some of the most infectious orchestral strings I’ve heard. However, those albums can feature some truly oddball choices like “Porcupine Pie” that makes you wonder where this guy came from. Overall, I wouldn’t call him a favorite, but he seems more genuine and passionate for art than I would’ve expected. I love how there’s a sense of discovery every time I press play.
I also loved HBO’s documentary on Billy Joel. While I saw it too late to mention in last month’s entry, I wanted to give it a shoutout here. It’s roughly five hours of him discussing his entire career, and he’s one of the most candid and entertaining personalities for that type of role. Like Diamond, I wouldn’t say this converted me wholesale, but he has a personal touch. My mother and I have bonded over his music in the past decade, and I think that’s a big reason that this worked as well as it did for me.
I’m also going to try and make a new feature for this series where I highlight my updated Top 25 albums of the year. This is where things currently stand, with really only the Top 10 guaranteed to be near the top. Still, what a year. I hypothetically could end up with a Top 100 and have a lot of gems in there.
Another thing that can be pulled up from my past is King of the Hill. While I’ve already written about the revival, I want to say that it’s one of the few exceptions that gets everything right. I’ve been skeptical about reboots because they never feel right. Even with the recent Happy Gilmore 2, I recognize the ways that things can go awry. Still, it understands the humanity of its characters and makes you want to learn more about how a normal family is adjusting to life in the modern age, when Texas seems more divided than ever before. If anything, King of the Hill is a series that feels primed for this time, even if it’s not the flashiest show on the market.
Whereas I thought that it would be my most beloved animated family show of the month, Netflix came out with one that I loved even more. Long Story Short is the latest from the creator of BoJack Horseman, another favorite. The show explores a family coming to terms with their Jewish identity across decades. It explores key moments of their lives and how the complicated relationship with their parents ultimately shaped them into who they are. What attracts me to this show is how human and vulnerable everyone is. Even when there are touches of zaniness, it never strays too far from the core emotions. At the end of the day, they all want to be normal, functioning people. They don’t want to be dysfunctional, and I love that about them. It’s one of the few shows in 2025 that has managed to make me feel something deeper. I’m tempted to watch it again because it just moved me so much, and I want to believe there’s more depth to be found.
Also, I finally saw K-Pop Demon Hunters (2025). Not a lot to say other than I get why it’s a phenomenon. I am more intrigued with it as a return to art having a long shelf life. The idea that it could play in theaters this long after the fact and draw a considerable audience makes me excited for where cinema could go. I know this is probably a fluke and mostly a byproduct of children’s animation not having many great alternatives – sorry, Elio (2025) – but I want to believe that we can return to a world where cinema lasts for more than two months, because almost every film disappears when it leaves theaters nowadays. It may be on streaming, but who’s to say it’s there forever? Anyway, support physical media.
Now that I’ve run unbearably long (I told you August was eventful), I can start to conclude by saying that September is looking to be an even more exciting time. There are WNBA games, and I’ll likely be glued to my seat every Friday watching volleyball. It’s the start of prestige movie season, and I’m sure there’s even more entertainment where that came from.
I’m hoping this Fall presents a chance to be more positive for me than it’s been. I feel like I’ve been regrettably at odds with the festivities in recent times, and I’ve wanted to change that. October, especially, is a month where I want to not feel so trapped in a state of misery. Sure, I do feel like the culture is passing me by, and it doesn’t hold the same appeal it once did (I’m becoming so square that one of my favorite albums of the year is a pastiche of in-house massage parlor music), but there’s always time to stop and appreciate the world around me. Who knows. Maybe the temps will go down and I’ll be able to appreciate frivolities again.
It’s been a rough year for us all, and it does feel like everything grows increasingly chaotic as time rolls on. I’d like to think next month is when things start to heal, but we can only really take care of ourselves and cherish what matters to us. If you don’t like A.I., don’t use A.I. I’ve been thankful to talk to like-minded people online (Fads has a really good video on psychosis) and discover that the past few years have been rough. Maybe we all need a reset to consider what truly matters. I’m getting there. I did a lot of macramé projects last month. It gave me a chance to tie a string while watching a lot of Paul Giamatti movies. Life is good in that way because I know I created something. It may not hold anything, but it’s still my flaws made into something great. I’m happy to try and get better. I hope you are too.
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