Playlists: The Sixth Love Language

Welcome to The Enthusiast, the newsletter that's all yum, no yuck! Every week I share five(ish) things I'm loving right now. From the latest in pop culture to seemingly random esoteric ephemera, everything in this newsletter comes to you personally vetted and highly recommended.

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Keep on reading to find out why now is the best time to get back into network sitcoms (okay, really just one), how haircuts are good for the soul, why playlists are a love language, and more!

Abbott Elementary

Why in the Earth, Wind and Fire aren't you watching yet?

Nerd alert: I loved school. I really did. If I could just get paid to attend classes and write essays and never have to take an actual test, I would be a student for the rest of my life. And Abbott Elementary is an objectively good, sweet series that reminds me of the inherent joy of learning, and how important teachers are in making that process successful.

It feels highly necessary to have a show like Abbott doing well in these times; it doesn't downplay the stakes public school teachers deal with daily, but it does adhere to a traditional sitcom formula that keeps it from getting too heavy. And Abbott does feel familiar, as a single-camera workplace sitcom with an excellent ensemble cast of kooky characters: an energetic & optimistic lead, a cute coworker with lots of chemistry, a gruff but tenderhearted elder, an inept but hilarious manager, etc. (It’s Parks & Rec; Abbott is basically P&R with less absurdity and more diversity).

Quinta Brunson, Abbott’s creator/showrunner/writer/star, is the heart of the series as Janine, an exuberant Millennial newbie teacher. OG Dreamgirl Sheryl Lee Ralph is absolutely perfection as Barbara, one of Janine’s own former teachers, earning every single award she’s already won for this role (and then some). And Tyler James Williams, formerly young Chris in Everybody Hates Chris, is adorable as the stiff, straight-laced former-substitute Gregory (he doesn’t like pizza?!). He and Brunson have AMAZING chemistry, and as usual, Abbott is taking their sweet time getting them together, which is both realistic and extremely aggravating. Add in a soupçon of kids' color commentary (but not so much that they distract from the rest of the show) plus modern technology, and you get a delightful blend of sweet humor, snappy writing, and tidy 20-minute narratives that don’t feel forced. It’s a great palate cleanser if you’re weary of violent prestige shows, unlikable anti-heroes, and every iteration of the Real Housewives/Bachelor(ette)/90-Day Fiancée universes.

Haircuts

A crisis of identity, but in good way

When you have short hair, there is a very specific moment when your hair goes from looking great to hideous, but you can rarely predict when that instant will occur. And when your next appointment comes well after that changeup, getting even the tiniest trim feels like a new lease on life.

I’ve had short hair most of my life, and haircut days are my favorite. By the time I get to the salon, my cowlicks have become sentient, my neckline has grown into a weird shelf of hair creeping down my collar, and a strip down the center of my head is somehow always more overgrown and heavier than the rest. I’m a little shocked and a little gleeful at the amount of hair on the floor afterwards each time, giving me the pruning I need like a shrub coming into springtime. I always feel better, lighter, fresher, newer after a good haircut.

After decades of different styles and failed growing-out attempts, I’m learning to embrace my cowlicks and work with them instead of trying to make them behave. I've learned my hair will be a little rowdy the first few days after a cut until it settles into the right shape. I know my hair is fine, but wavy, and responds ridiculously to product, and that sometimes dry shampoo isn’t enough to shake out my intense bedhead.

Real talk: there are times when I feel like I still don’t truly know myself all that well. What am I doing with my life? Am I ever really going to do anything with it? I’ll probably still be wondering years from now, maybe always, but whenever I get a good haircut, I know for certain that’s how my hair needs to be. And sometimes, that’s all the reassurance you need.

Apple Music Playlist Sorting

Baby steps!

When I switched from Spotify to Apple Music early in 2022, I had already been on Spotify for full 10 years and created 300+ playlists. Almost a year later, I still miss Spotify’s Discover Weekly playlist, as well as the social element (really just being able to see what friends listen to in real time), but it finally feels like Apple Music is making an effort to catch up, in just the most basic ways.

I am INORDINATELY excited to finally be able to sort Apple Music playlists by Artist/Album/Title/Etc. Like, texted my spouse in all caps excited when I realized (he was nonplussed)! I’d been manually organizing by artist or song title, one track at a time, and it got really wonky really quickly on larger playlists. Also: I just like to listen to playlists by song title or artist sometimes. Most of my personal playlists are shuffle lists, but sorting helps me feel a little more organized with what I consider to be one of my true love languages.

I think that's what I miss most about Spotify: sharing songs and playlists directly, along with finding wild playlists based on intricate sub-sub-sub-genres (where my fellow Escape Room fans at?!). My sister asked for a playlist a while ago to shake up her Spotify algorithm from too much similar-sounding stuff and I was only too happy to oblige. I still have a free Spotify account, and I use FreeYourMusic to import/export playlists, so I was actually able to build & stress test (that's right, I stress test all playlists I make for others to ensure quality song transitions) my sister's birthday playlist this year in Apple Music, then port it over to Spotify, but good lord it felt so convoluted. We currently have Apple Music as part of a bigger package with News+ (my most-used Apple App), AppleTV, iCloud, etc., but if Spotify ever dumps Joe Rogan and better vets/moderates podcasts in general, I’d go back in a heartbeat.

Aubrey Gordon

Fat lady about town, speaking up loud and clear

I don't know about y'all, but it’s been hard for me to find new heroes as an adult. I have my favorite writers, actors, artists, directors, musicians, etc., but I’m not sure how much I actually look up to them as, like, good people. And then I started reading Your Fat Friend, a column written by an anonymous fat person on the frustration, discrimination, and direct harm fat people experience in our culture. The essays are tender and vulnerable, gorgeously written and deeply affecting if you’re someone with a body that doesn’t fit the extremely narrow confines of an increasingly fatphobic world.

I am a “mid fat”—over US size 20 and can rarely find clothes my size in standard retail—and just having this crystal-clear, deeply resonant voice breaking into conversations around “body positivity” and eventually making it to a mainstream women’s publication gave me a shred of hope that maybe things could actually start to change. When writer and activist Aubrey Gordon revealed herself as Your Fat Friend before the publication of her first book, What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat, I was so glad she felt safe enough to put her name beside her work. Having such a knowledgeable, empathetic expert in this discourse is a big deal; not just for fellow fat people, but for thin people to see and hear as well.

I pre-ordered Aubrey’s first book and am kicking myself that I didn’t pre-order her new one, "You Just Need to Lose Weight" and 19 Other Myths About Fat People, which is currently sold out pretty much everywhere. She’s been making the podcast promo rounds, and she also co-hosts an excellent ad-free podcast with journalist Michael Hobbes called Maintenance Phase, which I have listened to and enjoyed since Episode 1. They debunk diet culture and health scammers, delve into public health and history, break down popular but questionable studies, and much more—but the best episodes are when they clearly, succinctly break down anti-fat myths and narratives with actual data and solid common sense.

Basically, I highly recommend Gordon's entire body of work, no matter what size your own body happens to be at the moment. Here are some good places to start:

• Articles: Aubrey Gordon on Dealing With Aggressive Fatphobia, Such a Pretty Face
• Excerpts: Fat People Usually Have to Buy a Second Plane Seat. That Has to Change., How Body Positivity Got Hijacked by Brands & Influencers
• Maintenance Phase Episodes: Snackwell's Cookies, Anti-Fat Bias, The Body Mass Index, The Obesity Epidemic, Is Being Fat Bad for You?, The Daily Harvest Food Poisoning Scandal
• Self: The Freedom and Joy of Fat Acceptance, I'm Done Trying to be a "Perfect" Fat Person, We Have to Stop Thinking of "Being Healthy" As Morally Better
• Your Fat Friend: The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI

A Little More Love (As a Treat)

• 🎼 Tàr continues to slay: Cate Blanchett was in W's Best Performances (duh), Todd Field got deep in The New Yorker, (inevitable, boring) "cancel culture" discourse continues on multiple sides, and Kentuckian author Silas House wrote a great piece on it and Banshees of Inisherin. Blanchett and Field have been winning awards right and left, so here's hoping it keeps up that momentum.
• 🤑 Do yourself a favor and follow former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich on Twitter or subscribe to his Substack, because ol' boy is spitting fire. He recently broke down the US labor shortage myth in the Guardian, then got really real over on his 'Stack. The solution, he says, is simple: pay people better wages. 🤯
• 🥽 Oof, speaking of labor, I am #blessed to not have been forced to do anything in the Metaverse for work, and I hope I never am. It sounds just as terrible as I imagined.
• 🤴 I have not read Spare, I have no intention to read Spare, and much like the aforementioned Metaverse, I hope I never am required to experience it in full...Especially when there are so many good articles already delivering the dirt without having to read the book at all!
• 🪩 And I guess now all things Aughts really are back in style, per the usual 20 year fashion trend cycle: the Going-Out Top has made its triumphant return!

Thus concludes this edition of The Enthusiast! Thank you for reading and if you're not a subscriber, you should most definitely sign up (it's free!). Make sure you confirm via the email link to start receiving every edition direct to your Inbox. And if you've been enjoying this newsletter, why not send it along to a friend and spread the love?

Until next time, reconsider adulting as something worth achieving and green powders as something worth drinking, come join the cult of analog planners, and take a deep dive into the anti-aesthetic of The Most Popular App in the World™️.

Yours in playlist perfectionism,
LKH