December is for (Cat) Lovers

Happy December, beautiful babes! Before we get to this week’s rundown, I have a quick update for you...

Starting today, The Enthusiast will arrive in your Inbox on Thursday nights to get you through Friday and onto the weekend. Plus, comments are now open to subscribers on every post. If you got any recommendations or obsessions of your own, please share them!

Cat Lover's Month

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, babes! No, not just the holiday season, but December is also (apparently) Cat Lover’s Month, which you know I celebrate all month, every month, all year long. I was a cat person before I ever had one of my own but when I finally did bring a kitten home, it was almost by accident, and she eventually became the family pet we didn’t know we needed. My spouse has always been a cat person too (which honestly could have been a dealbreaker), and at the moment we have a tiny sassy tortie and a giant grey fluffball who may or may not be a Nebelung.

To me, the best thing about cats are their uniqueness and individuality. Our cats have their own personalities, their pet peeves, their favorite skritch spots. No two experiences with any given cat are the same, but when they love you as much as you love them, they can be extremely good at returning it. Ours welcome us when we get home, and snuggle up to take care of us when we don’t feel well. Not to mention the purrs and head butts and kneading and snuggles–these are just some of the many ways a cat can make your life a little bit warmer and fuzzier. If you're interested in helping out or bringing a home a feline friend of your own, check out your local rescue or foster organization, or support local TNR programs for feral/stray cats in your area.

Side note: You should absolutely cat-proof your Christmas tree for your cat's safety and for your own sanity.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

This movie is coming up on its 30th anniversary in 2023, and I’ve watched it once at least once a year for these past three decades. Every time I watch, usually after Thanksgiving but before December because it’s both a Halloween AND a Christmas movie and then also a third kind of in-between thing, I’m grateful to have grown up with this gorgeous non-traditional fable in my psyche. It helps ground me as something simple and sweet I can hold onto as the Holiday Season keeps morphing into a multi-month commercial behemoth with no end in sight.

Yes, it gets a little dark (“Kidnap the Sandy Claws” still fills me with dread to this day), and it’s a core IP in the Disneyfication of mass culture for year-round exploitation, but I can't imagine not watching it every year. The last 20 minutes brings me intense joy, with Jack’s melancholy-to-triumphant song “Poor Jack,” after his dreams have literally blown up in his face and sent him crashing to earth. He feels pain and rejection, deep sadness and shame at the harm he caused, but then he remembers just who the fuck he is, what he loves and stands for, and immediately goes to set things right:

Well, what the heck, I went and did my best
And, by God, I really tasted something swell‌‌
And for a moment, why, I even touched the sky
And at least I left some stories they can tell, I did

The Nightmare Before Christmas, to me, has always been about the importance of discovering and trying new things, but not at the cost of losing yourself trying to become someone you fundamentally are not (and may never be). Maybe I should watch it more than once a year so I can get that reminder myself...

Justice for Todd and Margot

Speaking of holiday misfits, I must also state for the record that neighbors Todd and Margot Chester in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation do not get a fair shake. They’re vapid, materialistic yuppies, sure, but they also deserve to enjoy their holiday without a psychotic neighbor obsessed with lights and his equally insane family emptying their RV toilet in the street sewer. I don’t think that’s asking too much!

Their windows and stereo get broken, they get attacked by animals, blinded by their neighbor's lights, their carpet soaked—all because they have the unmitigated gall to not put up blinding, energy-draining lights and drag their entire extended families to their house for the holiday? Spare me. They're a cute, smart, successful couple who love each other and have really interesting interior design tastes! You know Clark Griswold was probably the worst neighbor ever, and he brings most of the ills he experiences upon himself due to (surprise!) misplaced nostalgia and toxic Midwest-Nice masculinity.

Also, Christmas Margaritas are genius, and you will never convince me otherwise.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Cool It Down

I didn’t connect with a lot of full albums this year—so while my heart set itself ablaze when I heard Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the defining band of my college and early adulthood years, were releasing their first album in nearly a decade, I had to douse that flame a bit with a dose of skepticism. Fortunately, Cool It Down packs just as much punch into eight tracks with their trademark electric urgency now softened through the haze of twenty years of life in the interim.

We get the full spectrum of Karen O—wild wailing to wistful whispering and every level in between. Guitarist Nick Zinner blazes through each track, sculpting mazes of dense reverb to drummer Brian Chase’s steadfast, driving beat. This is not an album to be dissected and theorized because Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sound demands to be experienced above all. Cool It Down is some much-needed advice for us approaching 40 from the coolest kids who've already hit it: to chill out a bit, to return to creativity, to take all that power and passion we thought we had to abandon with time and age and use it to keep going, even as the world blazes around us.

Severance

Y’all, I was not prepared for Severance, but I don’t think anyone was. The premise is deceptively simple: Mark works for a massive, mysterious conglomerate and has opted for a brain implant that completely separates his work self from his non-work self (his “Outie”). He only knows his coworkers within the office context; if they ever see each other IRL, they are complete strangers. Naturally, it goes much deeper and becomes much more unsettling as we learn more about the world inside the corporation and what it has wrought on the outside.

As with most excellent shows, the premise is only as good as the cast, and Severance's is golden. Adam Scott is no longer our nerdy Husker Dü hottie from Parks & Rec—Mark is a deeply depressed widower with no sense of purpose, so severing made perfect sense for him to try to avoid his pain. Patricia Arquette is his sociopathic middle manager, struggling with cryptic company policies and her own need for control. John Turturro and Christopher Walken are achingly sweet as older coworkers from different departments finding common interests, but for me, it’s relative newbie Tramell Tillman as company man / enforcer Mr. Milchik, bringing a sly, simmering ruthlessness to every scene he’s in (and looking REAL GOOD shaking maracas in a slim-fit white turtleneck).

Severance’s production design is also essential: office interiors are framed in oppressive midcentury flatness, the computers are chonky beige 80’s models, the Lumon building is a hulking brutalist monolith in a parking lot carved into mountains, and the outside world is drab and grimy compared to the office’s antiseptic clean lines. This impressive level of detail cements the differences between the two worlds, right down to the branded office supplies and corporate art. Severance debuted back in February, so all of season one is available to stream on AppleTV+, but it was one of the few shows we “tuned into” every week instead of waiting for them all to drop (same for Pachinko, which I also HIGHLY recommend, both book and show). The second season has only just started production with no premiere date yet, so who knows when we’ll get more Severance, but I have a feeling it will absolutely be worth the wait.

Have another helping...

✍🏾 Get to Know Octavia Butler: I came late to Octavia Butler, but once I read her incredible Xenogenesis series, I was hooked. Butler is a writer’s writer, and on what would have been her 75th birthday, there are tons of interesting and insightful articles celebrating her and her work. Vulture has an in-depth profile, but I’m digging the deep dives into her iconic journal entries and how she's inspired so many other writers to this day. NYT also has a stunning interactive, immersive article on her life and work, best viewed on mobile.

😮‍💨 My Body is Ready: New music from both Kelela AND SZA is apparently coming in 2023! Both are long overdue for some fresh tracks besides the occasional single every 15 months, so fingers crossed that these new albums can be the dreamy, grown and sexy soundtrack we’ve all been needing in our lives for a while now.

🚫 Reject Diet Culture: It seems impossible but you can indeed divest yourself from diet culture—and the holidays can be a good place to start. The language of indulgence and celebration is often offset by shaming and scolding, capped off, of course, with the New Year, New Me myth. Talking about everyone’s current diets around the dinner table is the most boring and useless topic–and you are allowed to enjoy your favorite treats without tracking calories or paying penance in future restriction. Even if it’s just baby steps towards body acceptance, just trying one of these tips can help you leave diet culture in the dustbin where it belongs.

🎅🏼 You Read It Here First:  Literally  the same day I sent the last newsletter, Vox posted this excellent article about the need to update holiday traditions for today’s times. It’s a good thing—you should try it!

And that’s all for this edition of The Enthusiast! Thank you for reading, and if you're not a subscriber, now is a great time to sign up (it's free!). Be sure to click the confirmation link in your email to start receiving the newsletter. If you've been enjoying this newsletter, why not send it to a friend?

Until next time, read this great interview with Warwick Davis as the new Willow series premieres, live your best life with this easy morning routine, and feel the magic of Christmas through a cat's eyes (you're welcome).

In love and fluff,
‌‌LKH