Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 13
RIP Jerry Jeff Walker, Beef of the Week, Why Moderation is the Worst Weight-loss Advice, Recipe Corner, one last piece about Q, and more.
Hello, and welcome to Micah’s Read of the Week.
This is a newsletter filled with things Micah Wiener finds interesting.
Check out the introduction post here, and the entire archive of previous newsletters here.
Please, subscribe and share with a friend.
Rest In Peace Jerry Jeff Walker
Jerry Jeff is a legend. An essential Austin musical icon. Gone. It was a sad weekend.
He embodied the Austin musical ethos. Before Willie moved back in the early 70’s, JJW had already established the Austin Gonzo scene. He hated the polished Nashville sound and music industry. He and his wife established their own label and handled everything themselves. His raucous live recordings and shows set the template for generations of musicians. He was also a kind man and a good friend.
If you’re unfamiliar with his music, start here:
From the New York Times:
Jerry Jeff Walker, Who Wrote and Sang ‘Mr. Bojangles,’ Dies at 78
Jerry Jeff Walker, the singer-songwriter who wrote the much-recorded standard “Mr. Bojangles” and later became a mainstay of the Texas outlaw movement that catapulted Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings to fame, died on Friday at a hospital in Austin, Texas. He was 78.
A native New Yorker, Mr. Walker began his career in the 1960s, hitchhiking and busking around the country before establishing himself in Greenwich Village and writing the song that would secure his reputation.
The reception Mr. Walker received in Austin, he often said, signaled the first time he felt truly validated as an artist. “Texas was the only place where they didn’t look at me like I was crazy,” he told Rolling Stone in 1974, referring to the freewheeling ethos he cultivated with fellow regulars at Armadillo World Headquarters like Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys and Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen.
“Viva Terlingua,” recorded live in Luckenbach, Texas, included other tracks that became signature recordings for Mr. Walker: among them are a dissolute take on Michael Martin Murphey’s “Backsliders Wine,” and “London Homesick Blues,” a tribute to Armadillo World Headquarters, written and sung by Gary P. Nunn of Mr. Walker’s band, with Mr. Walker on backing vocals. With a memorable refrain that began, “I wanna go home with the armadillo,” “London Homesick Blues” later became the theme song of the long-running PBS concert series “Austin City Limits.”
Mainstream radio programmers nevertheless didn’t play Mr. Walker’s music, perhaps because of his gruff, braying singing voice and his reputation for being intoxicated onstage or failing to show up for performances altogether. Further jeopardizing his commercial prospects, he eschewed the glossier sensibilities of Nashville and other recording centers in favor of releasing raucous albums, recorded both in concert and in the studio, without the benefit of editing or overdubs.
“The mid-’70s in Austin were the busiest, the craziest, the most vivid and intense and productive period of my life,” Mr. Walker wrote in his memoir.
“Greased by drugs and alcohol, I was also raising the pursuit of wildness and weirdness to a fine art,” he wrote. “I didn’t just burn the candle at both ends, I was also finding new ends to light.”
My favorite song of his was always “I Feel Like Hank Williams Tonight.” It’s a sad song. It’s a haunting, old-school, dancehall waltz delivered with great introspection. I found myself listening to it a lot this weekend.
Lately I've been thinkin'
I just might quit drinkin'
Now I don't know all in all
I just might stay home
And get drunk all alone
And punch a few holes in the wall'Cause when I'm real high I play rock and roll
I play country when I'm losin' control
I don't play Chuck Berry
Quite as much as I'd like
I feel like Hank Williams tonight
Rest in peace.
One last piece about QAnon (I promise)
Last week, I dumped all of my thoughts about QAnon all over this newsletter. To be honest, it felt extremely therapeutic. I put it to bed. But I found one more story that gave me some hope, and shed light on how dangerous these conspiracy theories can be.
He’s a former QAnon believer. He doesn’t want to tell his story, but thinks it might help.
This piece tells the story of a now 32-year-old Sydney, Australia resident named Jitarth Jadeja. He fell into QAnon in December 2017, and says that for the next year and a half he followed the movement closely, spending hours each day devouring Q-related content.
Jadeja would anxiously await each new “Q drop” — they felt “energizing,” he said. “The world didn’t seem like a dark place. It seemed like a simple place. It felt like everyone else was living in a dream world, and I wasn’t. Even though it was the other way around.”
But, as Jadeja said, that theory is “like the skin on the body of QAnon. It’s a taut, tiny, small layer. But no one who believes in Q just believes in that."
“Every single conspiracy theory you’ve ever heard — including some you’ve never heard — are somehow part of the Q movement,” he added, citing the beliefs that the Earth is flat and that some celebrities are actual shape-shifting reptilian aliens from space. They fit into the “grand unified theory of” Q.
“Really, it’s like an existential battle between good and evil. That’s how it’s framed,” he said. “Everyone is very okay with the concept of martial law. And I was part of this. I was so far in it. If Hillary Clinton had been executed publicly, I would have cheered. That bothers me to this day.”
So why did Jitarth stop following Q?
Eventually, he realized the things Q would predict weren’t actually playing out.
“He’s just always wrong,” Jadeja said. There was no martial law. Comet Ping Pong doesn’t even have a basement.
“If I didn’t have family that loved me I probably would have committed suicide,” he said. “It was really a terrible feeling to know that you are this stupid and this wrong.”
His advice for how to talk to those in the clutches of QAnon:
“Accept what they’re saying. Take them seriously, as hard as that is,” he said. “Try to focus on their behavior. Forget the whole Q aspect. Just accept that’s what they believe for now. … Don’t even bring up Q. Say, ‘Fine, but how does that solve the issue that you’ve been sitting in front of your computer for the last two weeks and haven’t gotten up?' ”
OK. We’re done with Q forever in this space. Thank you.
Beef of the Week
Today’s episode of Mind of Micah is a good one. I talk to Ben West, the founder, and CEO of Spark Grills. Spark essentially takes the best elements of gas and charcoal grills and combines them into one sleek machine.
The Spark is capable of getting temperatures between a low 200 degrees all the way up to a ripping hot 900 degrees. The grill also has an accompanying mobile app that lets you monitor the temperatures of your cooking cavity and the food you’re cooking.
Ben has a fascinating personal story as well. Check it out.
Listen to the episode on iTunes here and Spotify here. Check out Spark Grills here.
Read of the Week
Coming later this week on Mind of Micah, a look at the downfall of Quibi. A few months back on the podcast, we took an extended look at Quibi, the short form subscription streaming service from some Hollywood powerbrokers.
Last week, Quibi shut down. It’s over.
Post mortems are underway on both coasts, questioning everything — from the decision to launch a service geared to consuming content on the go a month after a global pandemic locked everyone at home, to perhaps the worst brand name since Tronc (the short-lived moniker for Tribune Publishing), to Quibi’s inability to connect with its target millennial set.
One seasoned Hollywood dealmaker who watched a presentation Katzenberg made to the agencies late last year to draw talent marveled at the platform’s well publicized limitations in areas like social media sharing. The dealmaker wondering if executives sat down with actual millennials to see if they really wanted quick-bite scripted mobile programming, or if “it was these two 60-ish titans going, ‘Boy, are the kids going to love this’!”
As mentioned, subscribe to Mind of Micah and get the episode when it drops later this week.
GIF of the Week
DK Metcalf is literally unbelievable. 6 foot 4, 230. Insanity. The Sunday night game was bananas last night. We’ll talk about this and more on the sports podcasts I host, Back Door Cover, and Too Much Dip.
Homer Corner
Trust me, I know that 99% of readers don’t care about Mizzou Football. You may not even know what “Mizzou Football” means.
This story about the University of Missouri’s football team is quite remarkable and worth your time.
Injuries and COVID issues have created a lot of uncertainty across college football. Mizzou’s wide receivers have been especially hard hit. Surprisingly, the past two games, the Tigers have upset defending National Champion LSU, and SEC East foe Kentucky. It’s the first time since 2013 Mizzou has beaten UK.
Back to the receivers. Amongst the chaos that is 2020, some very unlikely characters have emerged.
There was really no reason for the fans at Faurot Field on Oct. 10 to know the name D’ionte Smith. Smith hadn’t earned any stars as a recruit, nor any scholarship offers from Division I programs. The Kansas City native spent the past four years toiling in obscurity, playing football at NAIA school MidAmerica Nazarene and Coffeyville Community College. He hadn’t recorded a catch at either school, and he had to try out just to walk onto Missouri’s team.
But by the second half of Missouri’s 45-41 upset of defending national champion LSU, the limited capacity crowd had figured out who Smith was — or at least his nickname. Due to a COVID-19 outbreak that sidelined three Tiger wide receivers, Smith, improbably, got promoted into the starting lineup. When he beat LSU’s star cornerback Derek Stingley Jr., a former five-star recruit and likely top-10 NFL Draft pick, for a back-shoulder completion that gained 17 yards late in the third quarter, the limited capacity crowd in Faurot Field called out, in unison, “Boooooo.”
Get used to hearing it. After tying for the team lead with six catches against LSU, Smith, who goes by Boo (Boo Boo is actually his second middle name, he said), has climbed to the top of Missouri’s most recent depth chart, where he’s listed as a co-starter alongside Micah Wilson. Kevin Page, Smith’s former coach at Raytown high school, admits he never would have foreseen Smith, who still is listed at just 155 pounds, getting on the field for Mizzou, much less cracking the starting lineup.
“He had great hands. He ran great routes. He had good speed, he was instinctive. But bottom line is, he was an undersized receiver coming out of high school.”
While Smith’s journey from NAIA benchwarmer to SEC starter might be the most remarkable story on Missouri’s roster, he wasn’t the only unheralded wideout to step up against LSU. Tauskie Dove, a late addition to the 2018 recruiting class who entered the game with three career receptions, caught six passes for 83 yards and a touchdown. Wilson, a former quarterback, caught a 41-yard score. Former walk-on Barrett Banister, who only got a spot on the Missouri roster after his high school teammate and former Tiger quarterback Taylor Powell asked the staff to watch his film, had four catches for 52 yards.
Against Kentucky on Saturday, Smith, Wilson, Page, Dove, and Banister combined for just two catches for 17 yards. But the winning plays these kids made against LSU will not soon be forgotten.
Until the LSU game, Wilson’s Missouri career hadn’t quite progressed the way he planned. He spent three years backing up Drew Lock, then when Lock finally left for the NFL after the 2018 season, the staff brought in graduate transfer Kelly Bryant and quickly awarded him the starting spot. Rather than transfer, Wilson moved himself to wide receiver, but aside from a double-pass trick play against Tennessee last year, he rarely saw the field. A few offseason departures appeared to create an opportunity for him to play more as a fifth-year senior, but once again, the staff filled those spots with graduate transfers before the season began.
Curtis Wilson said his son never seriously considered transferring. That said, when Micah slipped behind the LSU defense for a wide-open touchdown, it felt like a reward for his willingness to stay the course.
“I am so thankful that he got the opportunity, because at the end of the day, in life, you just get an opportunity to compete, and he got an opportunity to compete and good things happened,” Curtis said. “And so it was just an amazing moment.”
Just another reminder that it’s not all bad news in this world.
Wellness Corner
Why ‘moderation’ is the worst weight-loss advice ever
America is in bad shape. Many of us struggle with weight.
“Just eat everything in moderation.”
Anyone who’s trying to lose weight hears it all the time, along with its cousins: Eat less, move more; eat fewer calories than you expend.
Sure, fine, good, yes. All that is true. But if I could do that, do you seriously think I’d be overweight in the first place?
One of the interesting observations that this author makes, is that all diets work.
The common thread running through the stories I’ve heard — not just this time, but in 20 years on this beat — is also what study after study has confirmed. People can lose weight until they can’t. They go on a particular diet, and as long as they stick to it, they succeed, but they usually can’t stick to it forever.
Weight loss is, for most people, a toggle between diet and not-diet. Diet = weight loss, not-diet = weight gain. So why on God’s green Earth are we spending all our time arguing about the difference between this diet and that diet, when people lose weight on all of them? The obvious, stare-you-in-the-face problem is the difference between diet and not-diet.
The difference is rules.
Diets have rules. Eat this, not that. Eat now, not then. Eat this much, not that much. Eat this with that, but not with the other things.
So diets work because they have rules. And diets fail because rules are hard to follow. So the key question is: How can you find the rules that you’re most likely to be able to stick to?
What if normal had rules? What if, instead of “moderation,” you had specific strategies to navigate normal?
The author goes on to list a bunch of studies and evidence, (but who needs that in 2020?) and essentially came to this conclusion:
Try every diet!
Diets are useful for the very obvious reason that they usually help you lose weight. So use them for what they’re good for without expecting them to be a permanent solution. They are, instead, clues to a permanent solution.
There are some tips for setting your own rules. Which brings us to today’s recipe.
Recipe Corner
Tomatillo Beef Soup
I made this last night. There’s no actual recipe, but I’ll walk you through what I did.
I chopped an onion, a couple of jalapenos, and three big carrots. Threw those veggies into the Instant Pot with some olive oil. After a few minutes on saute, I added about a pound of beef stew meat, four or five quartered potatoes, and a bunch of cilantro stems. Then I added about a cup of a jarred verde salsa, and enough beef stock to cover all the meat. Set the IP to “soup,” and an hour later, we’ve got Whole30 soup for the week. Needs some salt, a squeeze of lime, and some avocado.
Delightful.
Some thoughts on spaghetti squash
When you live the Whole30 life, there are things that become ubiquitous that weren’t before. One of them is cauliflower. It is everywhere now. Cauli rice has replaced all carbs. Taco bowls with cauli rice, stir fry with cauli rice, cajun dirty rice with cauli rice. Everything with cauli rice.
(A quick aside: Every blogger has a recipe entitled “Better Than Takeout Stir Fry.” Let me be clear, NONE of them are better than takeout. Even the most pedestrian Chinese restaurant food tastes better. Much better.)
Anyway, on to spaghetti squash. It’s fall, and that means it’s time for pumpkins and gourds and the like. I like spaghetti squash. It’s neutral (read: bland), but that makes it versatile. It’s good with tomato sauce (not as good as pasta, obvi). I like it cold in salads. It’s nice with eggs.
The article linked above talks about the best ways to prepare the squash. I agree the best method is to roast a cut squash in a hot oven with some olive oil and a bunch of salt. But, sometimes you don’t want to heat up the entire house with a hot oven. Again, the Instant Pot is quite useful. Cut that squash in half, place a half cup of water in the IP, place the squash on the steam rack, and in 20 minutes, you’ve got versatile strands of veg.
Or just eat rice and pasta in moderation and don’t be that guy who talks about his diet all the time.
Where else can I find Micah content?
Podcasts: Mind of Micah, Back Door Cover, Too Much Dip
Twitter: @micahwiener & @producermicah (Why two twitters? It’s a long story)
Instagram: @micahwiener
LinkedIn: @micahwiener
Peloton: #badboysofpelly@micahwiener
Email: micahwiener@me.com