Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 100!
Thoughts on 100, Return to the Ross Bolen Podcast, random highlights from the past 100 weeks, and more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week. We made it to 100!
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
Check out the archive of previous newsletters here.
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Thoughts on 100
Wow. That’s a lot of newsletters and a lot of time. Almost two years. Things have changed a lot. Some things haven’t changed.
Today we’ll take a random look back at the history of this newsletter. There have been some highs and some lows (seriously, don’t go back and read Vol. 1. It stinks.).
To everyone who’s told me they enjoy the newsletter, thank you. I’ve received overwhelmingly positive support. I like the rhythm, the challenge, and the (moving target) Monday deadline.
Again, thank you for reading. And if you’ve made it this far, please take a moment to share with a friend or co-worker. And while you’re at it. hit that heart button above too.
Thanks, and here’s to another 100.
M
Return to The Ross Bolen Podcast
Speaking of things from the past, last week I had the opportunity to join Ross Bolen for the 500th episode of RBP. It was fun. We recorded the episode inside a Polaris Slingshot inside of Ross’s garage. It was very hot. Neighbors passing by were quite confused about why two grown men were speaking into microphones from a parked 3-wheel vehicle.
Ross and I did more than 150 episodes of the show together but hadn’t recorded together since the end of our previous employer, Grandex. Give it a listen HERE and follow Ross. He’s a talented and funny guy and he’s built an impressive business around his show.
5-star review of the week
Yes, it is the same review as last week. I am Certified Mortgage Advisor and I want to help people experience home ownership. If you or a co-worker are considering buying a home this year, contact me today. Schedule a risk-free consultation today at micahwiener.com.
Some random highlights from the past 99 volumes
Vol. 12: Here are some fun stories from John Oates
It’s no secret, I’m a huge Hall & Oates guy. I’ve seen them several times and the fellas always put on a tremendous show. They are the best selling duo in music history, yet because of their timing as stars in the 80’s, their legacy is often overlooked. The period of their greatest success wasn’t a historically great time for pop music, and much of the work from that era doesn’t age well, especially on video. The rise of MTV lead to a lot of regrettable images.
But the music? The music endures. H&O are defined by their great pop songs, master musicianship, and groundbreaking genre-bending. I’m a huge fan.
Anyway, this interview with John Oates from British rock mag NME is fun.
What was it like to hang with Andy Warhol?
“Enigmatic. It was almost like he was playing the character of Andy Warhol. I remember visiting his Factory and he had all his paintings lying against the wall, and he said: ‘If you see anything, just tell me’. I bought a couple of small pieces which were inconsequential, but now I think: ‘How stupid! I could have had this incredible private collection of Warhol pieces for a song!’”
“He took pictures of me in nightclubs and would come to our shows. He snapped a picture of me in a ‘War Damn Eagle’ t-shirt which was the motto of Auburn University in Alabama. When I’d play colleges in the old days, I’d always buy the local T-shirts. I’d totally forgotten about it but when my son was looking at colleges, we visited that university and in their art museum was that picture of me! I’d never even seen it before. My son didn’t end up going there – maybe that’s why!” (Laughs)
How about Hunter S. Thompson?
“When we were looking at the property, we heard a shotgun blast and bullets hitting the cabin’s metal roof. We went: ‘What the hell is that?!’ and the real estate agent said: ‘That’s your neighbour – Hunter S. Thompson.’ We got to know each other well and it was a comfortable relationship. He was a lot like Andy [Warhol] – he liked being the character of Hunter Thompson.
“I’d written an article about him and I didn’t want to publish it without his approval so I went up there during Monday night football. He had a salon and would have the sheriff and his cronies over to get high and watch football. He’d control the remote and when the commercials came on, he’d click mute – and that’s when you’d have a discussion about politics or whatever. But as soon as the game came back on, we’d stop and watch.”
“I handed the article to him and he demanded: ‘No! Read it aloud!’. So I had to read it aloud in segments during the commercials of the football. I was intimidated and reading it quietly, and he kept poking me in the ribs with his giant Bowie knife saying: ‘Top notch! Speak up!’ So that was his tacit approval.”
Oates also talks about what it was like to tour in the 80’s.
Hey, listen, I don’t remember a lot about those days! It was a blur. Everything in the ‘80s was exaggerated and overblown and money flowed like proverbial water. The average person on the street assumes that because we had our biggest commercial success in the ‘80s, that would be my favourite time. It was my least favourite because the demands on our time were unbelievable. Between 1979 ‘til 1986, I had no life other than writing, recording, making videos and touring. The ‘70s were more fun because everything was new – the process of becoming it is more interesting than the victory lap.
There’s also some great stories about ‘We are the World,’ George Harrison, David Bowie, and Lou Reed. Enjoy.
Vol. 20: ‘We Basically Smoked Austin Out’
The Dazed and Confused cast remembers what it was like at Richard Linklater’s “summer camp.”
This oral history of Dazed and Confused is excerpted from a book on the subject. This portion focuses on the general vibe around the film’s production.
When they weren’t shooting, they were swimming, boating, running around barefoot, and getting into trouble. Linklater didn’t try to rein anyone in. No one did. Dazed was about ’70s kids coming of age at a time when adult supervision was sporadic, and behind the scenes, these kids were unleashed. It was summer camp, for sure. But it was summer camp with alcohol, weed, and locked doors.
Adam Goldberg (Mike): Everyone was just drinking and getting stoned the entire time.
Cole Hauser (Benny): As you get older, you can’t get smashed on a Sunday from 1:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., fall asleep, and wake up at 6:30 p.m. and feel good. But at 17 years old, you’re like, “Give me a bottle of water! I’m ready to go.”
Adam Goldberg (Mike): I got so high one time in Jason’s room, I didn’t recognize myself in the mirror. I think that was the last time I smoked pot while we were shooting. I went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror and thought, I don’t know who you are.
Jason London: We basically smoked Austin out of all of its weed, and the person who was the worst was Milla [Jovovich]. The rest of us were like, okay, we just have to wait till we can get more weed. She just went into full meltdown mode.
It might’ve been just her getting into character, but there was a certain point where people were like, “There’s no more weed! I gave you all we had! It’s not like this shit is growing in the backyard. This shit comes from Mexico.”
There are also some great stories about a young Ben Affleck:
Jason Davids Scott (unit publicist): Ben Affleck got a baby Siberian husky, but he had to keep it in the hotel room and not let them know, so he just didn’t have them clean his hotel room, and it smelled.
Ben Affleck: Only when you’re 20 do you think, “I’m broke, I have nothing, maybe I can be responsible for an animal?”
Peter Millius: Ben liked to be the alpha male. He was definitely one of the guys who was like, “Yeah, let’s go to the gun range!” Him and Cole.
Cole Hauser: We’d shoot all kinds of guns: .44s, 57s, shotguns. Man, they would give you anything. If they’d had a bazooka in there, we would’ve shot it.
Peter Millius: One time, we all went out drinking. At 9:30 in the morning, we get back to the hotel, and someone says, “Hey, let’s go to a shooting range!” I thought, “Guys! We’re all hammered as hell. There is no way anyone’s gonna give us guns.” We get to the gun range, and everyone’s so excited, they all run in ahead of me. When I walk in, half the guys already have guns in their hands, shooting! And I can’t believe they’re giving all of us guns! It’s a Texas thing. They’re like, “You want a cup of water, or you want a gun?”
I think Ben and Cole actually bought guns.
And of course, there are some McConaughey tales:
Adam Goldberg: I thought McConaughey was just a bartender who got a kitschy, nonsense role. He directed me in the last scene we shot together, like he was telling us what to do. I was just like, “Oh, I’ll let this local have his little power trip.” I mean, that’s Matthew.
Cole Hauser: Matthew was like, “C’mon guys, get out of your hotel room, let me take you down to the river.” You’d have these tubes, and you’d just throw a big cooler of beer in the middle, and you’d just float. It’s muggy and nasty in Austin during the summer, so to have a cool spring with a beer in your hand and beautiful girls cruising by? It was heaven on earth.
Renée Zellweger (extra): They were bonding as a cast, and I wasn’t part of that. But the stuff they were doing? That was my life! We were always at the lake on the jet skis, or tubing, or whatever. That’s just Austin.
Alright, alright, alright.
Vol 30: God Bless H-E-B
H-E-B is the best grocery store chain in America. Facts. A few months ago we detailed how the grocer was more prepared for COVID than the federal or state government. This week, in the midst of the crisis, something wonderful happened.
Tim Hennessy remembers a “collective groan” on Tuesday as the lights went out in his local grocery store in Texas. He and his wife quickly grabbed their last items and pulled up to a checkout line 20 carts deep.
Around him were a couple hundred shoppers, some with only credit cards, trying to stock up during a statewide emergency. The power had been going on and off in this Austin suburb as cold weather overwhelmed the Texas grid. But no one told shoppers to put their items back if they couldn’t pay cash.
When Hennessy got to the cashier, he said, she just waved him on, thanked him and told him to drive home safely.
“And it hit us — like, wow, they’re just letting us walk out the door,” the 60-year-old man recounted. Ahead of him, shoppers were pushing carts piled high with diapers, milk, jumbo boxes of crackers — all free. He began to tear up.
The mind-set, he said, seemed to be: “You’re our customers. You probably need this stuff. Go ahead and have a nice day.”
Pay it forward.
Vol. 33: Remember last March 11?
How could we ever forget? The author of this opinion piece takes us back.
“Y’all make some noise for Gov. Sarah Palin!” Nick Cannon, host of the reality competition “The Masked Singer,” announced to wild applause as a not insignificant chunk of my mind shuttered its lights.
For me, the hour the country crumbled came on March 11, 2020, and it all kicked off with the 2008 vice presidential candidate’s reveal as “Bear” in the final minutes of Fox’s 8 p.m. time slot.
Nearly concurrent with Palin’s performance was a special announcement from President Donald Trump, formerly of “The Apprentice,” wherein he took potshots at China and barred all incoming travel from Europe. He assured us that no nation was better prepared for the pandemic than these, our United States; it would take roughly days for this proposition to be thoroughly disproven.
Fifteen minutes later came more breaking news: Tom Hanks, avatar of America itself, had tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The information disseminated in my circles in the form of an image with Hanks and wife Rita Wilson on the red carpet, smiling as though covid-19 were a prestigious award. By 9:40 p.m., the National Basketball Association took its cue and canceled its season’s remaining games.
For decades to come, we’ll all ask each other, in the way of the JFK assassination or 9/11: What were you doing when the truth broke through?
Even with hindsight, I can’t wrap my head around it now. It’s too large, too unruly a thing for me to “get.” So, a year out, I still look back at Sarah Palin. I see her in her nightmarish Lisa Frank bear costume, and she is my mascot of this strange time we’ve endured, my horse(woman!) of this armageddon, the hellmouth from which everything flowed. She rides alongside Donald Trump, Tom Hanks and 259 unplayed games of basketball, rapping, urging me: “Dial 1-900-MIXALOT and kick them nasty thoughts. Baby got back.”
I remember that day well. And for some reason, I had “The Masked Singer” on in the background as well. It was a moment I’ll never forget. What a year.
We’re out of space for the week. We’ll be back with fresh content next week and we’ll continue the best-of content another time. Thank you for reading.
Did Micah practice yoga this weekend?
No. Moving all weekend. No time for namaste.
That’s 22 in-person weekend classes in 25 weeks this year. Really need to get busy.
More Micah
Podcasts: Mind of Micah, Back Door Cover, Too Much Dip
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