The Netflix Effect,

Today seems to be a day of small projects and while I have been working on them I have been listening to podcasts (I’ve been actively trying to cut down on my TV time lately), but something terrible and horrible just happened: I listened to all the episodes.

This keeps happening lately!

Literally this is the THIRD time this has happened this week. All of the new podcasts I’ve started are current and ongoing and my brain has been trained by Netflix binges to want 12 full hours of content! I don’t have cable anymore and watch everything through an Apple TV and it is a good thing because I don’t think I am capable any longer of being happy with ONE episode of something. I am an American after all. I want ALL OF THE THINGS RIGHT NOW!

Thank god This American Life has been on for 300 years and has a virtually inexhaustible archive of shows. That Ira Glass always knows how to make me happy.

In case you’re curious, these are the podcasts I started listening to this week. I recommend all of them:

Serial, Season Two (only 4 episodes so far!)

After the cultural juggernaut that was season one, you don’t need me to explain to you what this is.

The West Wing History Class (only 4 episodes so far!)

This is really wonky, but so is my love of the West Wing, a television show that has been off the air for like a decade. Each episode of the podcast is just two guys talking about each episode of The West Wing. They are wrong about all kinds of stuff and I should be a guest on this show so that I can set them straight.

The Minimalists Podcast (only 3 episodes so far!)

If you’re unfamiliar with The Minimalists, they’re sort of the rockstars of and standardbearers of the resurgent minimalist living cultural movement. Their website is kind of a big deal in certain circles and they finally have a podcast. If you’re unfamiliar with this minimalism idea it can sound kind of cultish sometimes, but really it is about removing all the stuff from one’s life and I think we could all use a little less stuff.

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Unavoidable Irony.

I hate to be a proselytizing, new-age hippie, but this is the trailer for a documentary about two of the guys whose blog I read. They’re - like - THE Minimalist guys.

I’m SO EXCITED to get a GIANT bucket of popcorn and go to an over-priced, arthouse theater in LA and pay $30 bucks to watch this thing!

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My MIA FYI.

What is up, The Internet?!

So I have not posted here in like several years or something. I have a good excuse though! I am moving this week and it has taken quite a lot of time and energy to get everything squared away and packed up. (See!)

You might ask: what the hell has taken so long?

Well the truth is that I have been using packing as an excuse to go through everything I own and get rid of more stuff. And did I succeed in getting rid of stuff? Yes, yes I did. Just the other day I took eight boxes of stuff to the Goodwill. EIGHT BOXES! Among other things I have gotten rid of nearly half of my books. That was one of the hardest things I have thus far done. I’m trying to be all nonchalant about it, but I totally cried like a little girl the whole drive to Goodwill. I tried to explain to them, “It isn’t that you are bad books and it isn’t that you aren’t worthy of being read and loved, I just want to release you out into the world so that OTHER people can discover you and read you and love you.”

It didn’t matter what I said though because I still felt like the mother in A.I. and the books didn’t believe any of it. By the way, if you’re looking to rescue some books, the Goodwill in Northridge on Reseda is lousy with them now.

Alot of life editing took place as I packed, but I still own WAY THE FUCK too much stuff. You know, for awhile I was feeling as though I had done a very good job narrowing down what I own to the (more or less) essentials, but this past week or so - with most of my stuff already packed - I have been realizing that the things I actually use are very very few compared to the amount of things I actually own.

About a million years ago, when I started reading about this whole ‘minimalism’ thing, I remember coming across a post by one of the guys at The Minimalists about how he once organized a “packing party” and had all his friends come over to pack up his stuff. Then he only unpacked things as he needed them. It was his way of learning what he really used.

There is a part of me that wants to do that. I’m not going to do that, but it is extremely tempting. I’ve done enough backpacking to already know that virtually everything I own is a waste of time and not exactly necessary for living. I guess I could unpack slowly just for fun, but the more OCD aspects of my personality aren’t going to allow me to live out of boxes for more than a couple of days. So I guess that what that means is that as I unpack, I am going to keep editing. I haven’t even moved yet and I’m already 50/50 as to whether or not I really need this TV stand/entertainment center. Do you want an entertainment center???

I will likely be without the internet for a few days as I move, so don’t expect a lot of posts in the next week, but after that, get ready for a super awesome July! Among other things I am going to be in both Las Vegas and New York and you know how much of a whore I am for writing deep thoughts while on the road.

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