In some sense, April is far from over. With six more days, I recognize the inadequacy of having this entry compile the entire happenings of my month. However, I have stuck to the rule for roughly five years of getting this out on the last Friday of said month. Then again, it always feels like I’m missing out on a topic on the day of publication, anyway. Like, did you know that the end of May brought amazing albums from both Courtney Barnett and Snail Mail? How about I throw in Slayyyterr, Robyn, and Flea for extra measure? In short, there is no good way to encapsulate everything I’d ever want to talk about, even at the overlong length of this piece. But hey, at least we can try.
To kick things off, I thought I would give a personal update on how I’m doing. Given the state of geopolitical actions as of late, I hope you’ll understand why I’ve been too frustrated to be online. I’m not wishing to suggest that I’m “ignoring” the truth so much as moderating the levels at which I consume it. This past decade has been especially rough, and I think my obsessive mindset would’ve gotten caught up in too much toxic gossip while attempting to formulate a reason. As it stands, California is not that far out from a gubernatorial election… and I have no idea who to vote for. I’m aware that Tom Steyer has bought a lot of ad space and another guy dropped out, but I’m still not convinced that the ill-conceived redistricting votes of last year are going to produce their desired effects. I’m looking for any confidence here.
Then again, I hated Gavin Newsom’s campaign of crank-texting everybody. I guess it works to spread awareness, but there has to be a better way that separates politics and entertainment marketing. I hate that these worlds have collided so succinctly in the past decade, especially given the dissociative nature of watching a State of the Union that is driven by insufferable catchphrases and cliffhanger language that would make the 1966 Batman narrator blush. I suppose I want diplomacy, to not turn on the news and see the president buying into his own delusions of playing hockey with Team USA or what I’ll just call “The Jesus Thing.” When you know it’s all a distraction, it feels more depressing, realizing how little the major goalposts have been moved.
Then again, I’m writing this the day after watching an episode of Last Week Tonight where John Oliver explores companies like Kalshi and Polymarket. If we thought The Running Man (2025) was dystopian and beyond the pale, having people bet for every piece of real estate in humanity’s existence is deeply uncomfortable. I’m already in a complicated conversation around the art/commerce debate, and believe we should have room for self-expression that is not tied to your living wage. Yes, you can work towards that, but a beginner should be more attracted to improvement over virality. The fact that we’re rewarding people for predicting misery and word selection makes me embarrassed to be alive.
Then again, maybe Uncut Gems (2019) was secretly the omen for our times. It’s honestly bizarre how sports gambling has become normalized, where Shaquille O’Neal is in commercials saying, “BET!” Like, I get there’s logistics, and I do wager on games to make it fun (not to brag, but I took UCLA winning March Madness), but that’s not habitual. It stops for me at game level, never reaching Howard Ratner's levels of going to your child’s theater performance and only being fixated on the character shilling out money. It’s fun, and I imagine some gamblers are good at it. I even get the rush but, maybe because of my own fear of impulse, I don’t push further, believing I’m more likely to lose the farm than win a barn. I still remember going to Las Vegas and being so beside myself at slot machines, not feeling any rush, and carelessly feeding the preset total into the machine just to keep my fellow travelers from calling me a wet blanket.
Of course, I don’t fully blame people who have turned to these means in a post-capitalist society. Given that most people pay off healthcare through GoFundMe’s, there’s already a disparity between what we should be putting our collective financial means to and what is actually being impacted. To give the lazy answer… how do we have money to bomb other countries “back to the stone age” but can’t afford healthcare? How long will we accept gas prices going up, up, up?
I’ve technically been aware of the brunt of it since I got my license in 2008. Even still, compared to the stretch between then and the previous gas shortage crisis in the 1970s, I feel like things have been way too exacerbated, and we need a better solution than “raise wages” because the greedy among us will just use that as an excuse to “raise cost of living.” It’s bad enough that a lot of the luxuries I had as a child have gone out of business and can’t be passed on with the generational fondness that my parents liked to give me. Having this conversation with my sister, I’m aware we personally have kept that trend alive in different ways (instead of concerts, it’s lots of live sports and performing arts), but I’m always fearful of the cost becoming unbearable at some point, where suddenly we stop, and the fun stops, and then we don’t go anywhere and remain miserable forever. It’s unlikely to completely demolish, but given how I lost my mind in 2020 because there was no theater or cinema to escape to, I’m aware that simple pleasures matter.
It’s also important because it’s one of those moments where you see a world beyond yourself. It’s a time when you can recognize that other people love the same art you do, and some even see something different in the same piece. Maybe it’s a laugh line you never noticed or a slight turn of emotion that suddenly makes sense. That, and it welcomes diversity. I was seeing In the Heights at The Carpenter Center. I love that show and have seen it four times now, but the one thing that stood out was that, in the lobby, there were pride flags. Not just the typical rainbow or progress number. They put in the effort to recognize the entire spectrum, including asexual, transgender, and bisexual.
You may ask why that’s a big deal, but it feels like the world that attempted to make this sight blasé only three years ago has largely disappeared, replaced with nonstop culture wars and sidestepping from bigger issues. It’s easy to get caught up in the shame of others trying to oppress people you like, and I think it’s why I see those flags and both feel relief but also nervousness because of what it accidentally associates with in my mind. Pride is important, and I’m thankful that Long Beach is closer to the right side of history on this one, but we’re near Orange County. The Facebook pages let us know that the LGBTQIA+ community is full of sinners and heathens. That, and they’re still attacking the WNBA as if it hasn’t had a major boost in the past five years.
On a side note, I am proud to say that despite being a dyed-in-the-wool skeptic of The Indiana Fever, my sister has scored tickets to see them this July ON MY BIRTHDAY. I am hoping for the best possible humbling of my life. They got pretty far in the previous playoff run, so it’s not like they’re not due some credit.
Then again, I should feel a little bit thankful for having a loving family that still has the means to enjoy life. During Easter weekend, we were all assigned a chance to buy tickets for LA28. Whereas I thought we would put most of it down on men’s volleyball tickets (lot of CSULB alumni overlap), there was enough in the collective pot for a few other things. I mostly say this because there was controversy early on that the pricing had gotten out of hand. Promises of $28 tickets were quickly questioned when people past the first day struggled to find as many options. The most I’ll say is that we didn’t choose any of the “major” days of events, so we lucked out there. However, I did notice the fine print after the fact that there were limited quantities of $28 seats. In theory, I assumed Los Angeles, of all cities, could forgo the higher expense, but I’m also not an economist. At this point, I’m more curious to see how they’ll “fix” everything in a little over two years. Then again, I want to say someone on Pod Save America mentioned that certain arenas wouldn’t be completed in time and mostly had to settle for “Olympic-ready.” Anyway, construction is going on everywhere, so I’m seeing a lot of rubble, LA28-related or not. I’m at most stuck in a state of either anticipation or remorse for what we lost.
To provide a full rundown, my family’s rundown of sports for the Olympics (and I’m happy to see so many) is: men’s volleyball, handball, canoeing, and rugby. That should keep us busy for a few weeks.
And speaking of staying busy, April is a pretty good month for sports in general. Along with The Olympics, there was the tail end of March Madness. I also got to watch, as I do every year, The WNBA Draft to see who the new people are. What makes this year particularly special is that I saw The Bruins play at The Pyramid two years ago, and the ones who were drafted in the Top 10 were all starters in that game. I know publicly my thing is to denounce UCLA, but they had an overqualified team even then. I’ve been especially fond of Lauren Betts, though I hope she makes The Washington Mystics the least bit interesting. Long story short, I ride for The Beach, but we lost that game by 51 points, and over half of the room was wearing Bruin blue. It was a weird, ostracizing day on my home turf.
The rivalry also continues in the realm of volleyball. On the day that this is published, Long Beach will be competing for a spot in the tournament. I’m unsure who they will be playing (money is on UC Irvine), but it should be a fun match. I’m confident they’ll be playing Hawaii in the next round, which I’ll miss as a Big West foe, but I’m sure will have the chance to watch simply because we’re talking about numeros dos y tres in the national standings. You can’t keep those guys apart for too long. Also, their fan base is too much fun and brightens up The Pyramid every time they stop by.
With that said, I recognize that I spoke critically of them the last time I wrote one of these. Having seen them play most of the season, they have exceeded my expectations, given how great last year’s class was. However, I have noticed the strengths of UCLA and Hawaii to be more consistent and have fewer obvious Achilles. Maybe it’s a byproduct of those four games making up their entire loss percentage, but I worry that Long Beach is just not primed for another championship. They’ll come close. They’ll play the tournament, but I learned recently that no Number 3 has won The Big West Tournament in its entire existence. This could be unprecedented territory, but I’m also going in cautious. Still, as Tammy Wynette would say, stand by your man. I’m never rooting for UCLA. Go Beach!
Finally, before jumping off of sports entirely, I want to touch on The NBA Playoffs. For the second year in a row, I haven’t been an active viewer of regular-season games. Part of it is scheduling conflict, though Adam Silver’s need to play every game on a different platform (coming soon to Quibi!) really makes it hard to care. I get the convenience on some level, but Netflix used to be the top dog because it was the only alternative for cord-cutters. Now it’s just as inconvenient as buying up to ESPN 8 or whatever.
It also doesn’t help that I don’t personally have any stakes in the home teams. I may reconsider liking The Los Angeles Lakers on the day Lebron James retires, but for now I couldn’t care less how their season goes. I am also annoyed at The Los Angeles Clippers for basically investing entirely in Kawhi Leonard when he hasn’t done enough to warrant his golden child status. Maybe this is all a byproduct of going to see them play over two years and him always sitting out, but I can’t stand him in any Clippers conversation. As Kobe Bryant once suggested, he plays every game for the one person who is there for the first time who came to see him. As dumb as it sounds, that’s why I’ve always respected Paul George more, just because I could assume he’d be ready to go when the buzzer goes off.
So yeah, it’s hard to care about The NBA when there’s no home team to guide your experience. That’s more of a me problem, sure, but I am at this point mostly tuned into the regular news on how every month goes down than actually watching. I am so much the case that I got to predicting the playoffs and was gobsmacked that The Milwaukee Bucks weren’t there. I’m sure someone who actually paid attention would’ve been able to tell me why beforehand, but that caught me off guard. Then again, we are in a fun time where the new class is rising up, and I’m happy to say The Charlotte Hornets really impressed me during that play-in game. I don’t have a lot to assess so far, but the level of new talent gives me hope that I can find new lanes. Anyway, I’m rooting for The Oklahoma City Thunder. Those guys seem like they got it figured out.
Another thing I’ve been watching is Rooster. I want to like it more as someone who stumps for academia, but I am actually going to side with the critics who argue that it doesn’t understand the world of universities. I’ll accept my experience was not Ivy League nor did we have a campus that was conveniently laid out, but it feels like it’s more reliant on eccentricities than authenticity, which is fine, but lacks the groundedness I would desire. Then again, I am a sucker for the Netflix series The Chair in terms of representation, if just because I believe the English department teachers would try to convince you that Chaucer was cool. As someone who had to read “Beowulf” for a class, I know how annoying that can be.
Then there’s the show that’s on everybody’s lips… or so I assume. I haven’t been as online in recent months, so I cannot speak to how true this is, but the sentiments around Euphoria and its return are that it has lost its charm. Part of it may simply be that Sam Levinson has finally moved them out of high school and avoided the surreality of Stranger Things and Riverdale. However, it’s also that the two episodes currently available have been complete curveballs from what I would expect. Drug mules and OnlyFans? Maybe The Idol distracted Levinson too much.
Given that I’ll probably write an article on the show further down the line, I won’t expound too many details, but I do remain a defender. In a time where entertainment feels a tad stagnant, there’s something to the transgressive and sometimes frustrating nature of a show that draws me in, where there’s clearly passion from a vulgar artist trying to tell a story that takes risks and forgoes your comfort zone. I don’t know how much is shock or just feeding some meta Sydney Sweeney storyline, but it’s creating something provocative. Sure, I think the earnestness might be veering too far into camp lately, but it still is searching for its meaning. That isn’t to say it’s a great one, but it’s a perverted vision of Southern California hedonism, and frankly, it’s doing a decent job on that front. Also, how have Colman Domingo and Jacob Elordi gotten Oscar nominations since the previous season? Time does not exist.
Venturing off into other territory, I want to clarify that another highlight of April is that I haven’t watched any film. Part of it is a lack of passion to sit with something for two hours right now. I might be persuaded to change that if Sophy Romvari’s Blue Heron (2026) makes the rounds, but for now, I’m fine getting to the end of the day and just sitting in nothingness. Maybe I’ll read for a few hours, who knows. Anyway, I’ve been fine with this complacency. I’m not sure when I’ll return. This is probably the longest I’ve gone without watching a film in many decades, but it just means I’ll have more to peruse when I go back. For now, my evenings are relaxed. Maybe I’ll watch a YouTube video or two, but there’s not much holding me down.
Thanks to a few reasons, the extra hours have also found me reading an extensive amount of Thomas Pynchon, who, except for “Shadow Ticket,” I haven’t read closely in many years. I have been looking for an excuse to reread his primary books for a while now. Given my allergies to just revisiting a text for fun, I needed a good excuse to sit down and process just what’s going on in those pages. It’s safe to say that I’ve fallen more and more in love with him in the past 12 months, and it may be even more of a hopeless case after this time.
Thanks to the great people at Pynchon Pals, I am taking this opportunity to reread selected works from him. The podcast is going in chronological order through his work, starting with “V.” and continuing through the more popular hits. I tend to read their selected chapters and catch up a few days later. It’s intimidating given that I’m reading another book on top of that (and, for Short Stop, an additional short story collection), but it’s such a rewarding experience. We got through “The Crying of Lot 49” and, while I didn’t have enough time to process it fully, I did love getting immersed in one of the best late-60s literary comedies about the paranoid nature of Southern California, where everything is a mess, and everyone is doing their own hairbrained schemes to get ahead.
And right now we’re on the head honcho, the one that I was most excited for and felt would need the most “accompaniment.” That’s right, they’re reading “Gravity’s Rainbow,” and it’s allowed me to challenge my assumptions of the text. I read it early in my Pynchon journey, and I’m sure it was an intellectual fortress at the time. I mostly remember overprocessed jargon that sounded big but was really a lowbrow passage. My new read, at least of about 100 pages, is something more approaching slapstick farce with the biggest mess of a conspiracy thriller. I’m not saying it makes total sense, but Pynchon makes more sense this time around if that makes sense. I’m laughing more and picking up on small details. It’s brilliant both in execution and audacity, but also the fact that, like James Joyce before him, I’m not above thinking Pynchon wrote some parts solely to push the limits of sensible literature.
It’s too early to say how I would feel about “Gravity’s Rainbow” as a collected work, but it does seem primed to move up the rankings by the end of this. It’s such an amazing work of literature, I don’t care what anyone says. As for reading along to Pynchon Pals, I am considering going up through “Vineland” (my animosity towards One Battle After Another (2025) convinces me I need to revisit and confirm that they’re nowhere as instinctually similar as everyone says), though who knows how far things will take me. Also, on a side note, I am thinking of reading “Against the Day” over the course of this summer. Should be fun, though I imagine having two competing texts at my disposal is going to get confusing. As a writer, I don't always have a clear direction. I may go crazy by the end of this, but in a good way, perhaps.
Anywho… I have spent a considerable period of this time enjoying music in its place. Maybe it’s because it’s a portable medium, but I’m able to just get lost in the orchestration and think about life while doing various chores and activities. At the time of writing this, I have just listened to Pink Floyd’s great four-album run that spawned “The Dark Side of the Moon” to “The Wall.”
Something that should be stated is that they were a band I was against as a teenager. A lot of that may simply be trying to find your own voice from your parents, but there’s also the idea that they were the anti-punk, and I preferred loud and fast. I had no time for introspection. Also, and this is not a joke, the day I finally listened to “The Wall” for the first time, I put on headphones, and between start and finish, Michael Jackson had been sent to the hospital and died. For the longest time, I thought it was a curse to listen to them after denouncing them for so long.
A major reason I was interested in this was because of NASA and Artemis II. It’s been fun watching the broadcasts online and, given that I have relatives who are into astronomy, it was a great chance to experience this phenomenon for the first time through their eyes. It was a chance to be in the moment and enjoy manmade achievements that I’ve only really read about. Sure, I grew up regularly watching Apollo 13 (1995) on TV, but I don’t feel like there was a moment of accessibility quite like this. To have them be so down to Earth (no pun intended) as well only made the ride all the more fulfilling.
But knowing that they would be going to the dark side of the moon, it only made sense to flip on that record and finally see what the deal was with one of the most sold band t-shirts at Target. Let me just say that I was immediately hooked. A lot of it could be that my music tastes have grown since then. I’m into more orchestral and jazz compositions (I even listened to King Crimson the week before this), along with simply appreciating music exploring heavy themes in artful manners. Off one listen, I’ll say it’s a home run of a record that may be boosted by how familiar over half of it has been throughout my life. I also want to shout out “Wish You Were Here,” which is definitely a grower.
But along with the music, it’s gotten me curious to see how life influences art. In this case, I became curious about the life and times of Syd Barrett, who I get the impression left the band before their peak, yet remains crucial to their success. It’s amazing already that Pink Floyd didn’t break through until roughly 10 records in. However, it’s even more impressive that the more you learn about Barrett and his unfortunate circumstance, the more you understand the lyrics to their biggest songs and how it informs something like “The Wall.” I should say that I’m mostly basing this off of an essay Nick Kent wrote in “Dark Stuff,” but it’s fascinating what friendship can do for people, even if they don’t look like they deserve that peace.
I’m not sure how eager I am to peruse the remainder of their catalog, but I get the appeal of those records now, especially as headphone experiences. What’s funny is that I spent a lot of my life assuming it was stoner rock, and I’m not unconvinced it’s mostly because of the Barrett factor and their association with 60s psych rock. The four albums in question may or may not be enhanced by doobies (I am not one to contribute to that conversation), but they work so much better with clarity and patience.
My mind will continue to wander, and I am currently curious to embark on a trip through The Who, whom I’ve had the opposite impression of most of my life. Maybe it’s just that “Tommy” is similar to my name, but they always seemed cool and rebellious in ways that spoke to me. I never listened beyond the big singles, but you could tell they had this drive and eccentricity that made them stand out. A lot of this may just be because Pink Floyd is obsessed with concept albums, and I’m now interested in that strain of 70s music. However, I don’t have much to add other than this may be what it takes for me to finally listen to “The Who Sell-Out,” which has been sitting on that proverbial shelf for way too long, given how much it sounds like my speed. There’s also a decent chance The Kinks aren’t too far behind those blokes.
Also, a crazy detail that’s been a bit existentialist lately is running across articles about The Nostalgia Critic’s much-maligned video on “The Wall.” Given the conversation around ethics and whether art needs to be good, it’s broken my brain a little to read how one of the actors got over the backlash because, as of a few years ago, it was still paying for his phone bill every year. That’s awesome, I guess, but it also makes me realize how uninspiring a life in pop culture can be if you have “the style” figured out and aren’t too motivated to challenge yourself. A lot of criticism can be lobbed at this story, but it doesn’t excuse the fact that they don’t care and, to quote Don Draper, “that’s what the money’s for.” Honestly, making mediocre art sounds like a personal nightmare, but I’m not in a comfortable position to make every piece of whimsical bullshit that comes to mind profitable.
On a quick note, I also want to shout out Earl Sweatshirt and Mike. They’re generally good rappers, but this plug is more for their interview cycle than their new Surf Gang collaboration. They have hilarious chemistry, and I’m relieved that Earl is more than the humdrum personality he’s built for himself since leaving Odd Future. I personally suggest you get on the Pitchfork Over/Under video, which is the most joyful collection of ideas I’ve seen since that Jane Wickline sketch about collecting buttons.
And finally, the good news is that I am officially knee deep in writing Novel4. I wrote at the start of the month, which, quite unfortunately, was April Fools Day, about it, and I’m not sure if people took me seriously or not. This is my chance to publicly state that it is. Not only that, but I am over 120 pages into the draft, and I haven’t felt this engaged in a long time.
I’m not totally sure why that is. Maybe it’s because these ideas have been sitting in my head sometimes for eight months just waiting for their context to be made clear. The overeagerness to put them to page has been exhilarating and, given that it takes roughly 2.5 hours to write a chapter, it allows me to really dig into their meaning and expand on their significance. Part of me is concerned that the brevity with which I’m writing (especially compared to “Lava Lamp”) is a sign that I’m not spending enough time on the right things, but I’m also less than a third through the outline. There’s still room to expand and even go further on the next draft. For now, this is a proof of concept to prove why I need to make it. It’s such a cathartic experience and something that I’m sure most writers long for.
Because I had nowhere else to include this, I also want to quickly shout out the new albums for the shows Chess and The Last Five Years. I have long been a fan of the original for the former, so it’s a relief to hear the bombastic nature fully intact and the singers doing over-the-top perfection. It’s not yet on the same level for me, but I long to see the show one day and believe that even if it comes up short, it will be a one-of-a-kind experience. Right now, it reminds me of Lempicka, if anyone remembers that one. As for The Last Five Years, I got to shout out my boy Ben Platt. Always happy to see him doing his thing.
Yadda, yadda, yadda… Coachella has been fun to watch. The Slayyyter set was phenomenal, and Jane Remover gave me an existentialistic heart attack. Oklou put me to sleep. Oddly enough, I was a big fan of Blondshell’s set the most if just because of how simple and grounded it was. That second record may not have hit me as emotionally as the first, but she continues to be one of the most promising newer singers. Also, it goes without saying, but shoutout to Ethel Cain. I don’t know how you packed so much atmosphere into under an hour, but it was transcendent, and I’m happy to vibe out with you any time. I also wonder how “Ptolemea” played at the venue because that scream must’ve been wild.
And there you have it. That’s roughly how I feel about April as a month. I recognize that even more is on the horizon. I haven’t even talked about the new Dorian Electra album (which, frankly, knowing it’s a covers album kind of makes me feel milquetoast about it). However, I’m happy to say that I’m riding into May with high hopes and a decent disposition. The weather’s been all over the place, and I’m trying to get over a cold. However, it’s been a good time to go outside and enjoy life. Everything is growing again, and you can always put on baseball in the background so that you have an excuse to walk in and out of the house.
Other than that, I don’t really know what to say. I’m happy to have my novel in the works, and I’m hoping it becomes something even greater very soon. Given how I feel at this point, it’s been a lot more positive than the last round… though “Lava Lamp” was also the exorcising of a dark time in my life. It was needed to get to where I am now. But hey, we’re a third of the way through 2026, and some good has come of things. I hope much more is not too far off. For now, I’ll return to those 70s albums to find what I’ve missed out on and discover a world more analog and in the moment (I also recommend Abigail Devoe’s videos to enhance your appreciation). I may sound Boomeresque there, but I promise I like new stuff too. Anyway, feel free to bet on how soon I watch movies as well. That could be a fun game. But for now, I need time away from everything to appreciate what it is that makes life worth living. I hope you have your own escape too. Take care.
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