Micah's Read of the Week, Vol. 43
The blandness of TikTok stars, Kasey Musgraves, Phil, Recipe Corner, 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.
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The blandness of TikTok’s biggest stars
I’m not on TikTok, but I found this piece to be emblematic of so much in our social media-driven society. Blandness seems to be a major key to gaining success (and followers).
When TikTok first launched, it felt like the world’s first algorithmically driven talent show. It’s curious, then, that TikTok’s biggest breakout stars are not the musical theatre belters, nor the hip-hop choreographers, or the rhythmic gymnasts. Much like at an actual high school talent show, the biggest stars are the popular kids.
In a twist that should surprise no one, good-looking people get things that people who aren’t as good-looking don’t get.
What I’m talking about here is “straight TikTok,” the side of the app that can be described as “pretty people filming themselves being pretty.” You can land a guest spot on the Tonight Show, perform the TikTok dances that made you famous, receive tons of backlash for not crediting the original choreographers, and emerge mostly unscathed, because to criticize you for “not having talent” or piggybacking on the creations of others is to miss the point entirely: No one follows you because they expect you to be talented. They follow you because they like you.
We’re now at the stage of TikTok fame where its influence on the realm of traditional entertainment is undeniable. TikTok stars are making real headway in Hollywood. Pop culture is being increasingly determined by algorithms (not a new thing, but no platform’s algorithm is more powerful at surfacing tailored content than TikTok’s). This also tends to mean that what we’re seeing is the lowest common denominator of what human beings want to look at, appealing to our most base impulses and exploiting existing biases toward thinness, whiteness, and wealth.
The result is, well, mediocre.
Also of note, the stars of TikTok are now famous, but not necessarily rich.
It’s no wonder that TikTok stars and other influencers have had to hunt out new ways to monetize their followings: They’re not built for existing industries, and so they’re embracing apps that let fans “control their every move” or selling their content as NFTs. As Vanessa Grigoradis wrote in her profile of Addison Rae, “Rae had found herself in a strange and modern predicament: She had become very famous and needed to get paid for it.”
So what happens to “stars” who aren’t “talented” when the platform evolves?
Being professionally likable might work on TikTok, but it doesn’t necessarily guarantee anything else.
Good luck, kids.
Kacey Musgraves is in her feelings
I’m a big fan. This interview in Elle is quite the read. After a trying year, Musgraves took a psychedelic mushroom trip and made some discoveries:
“Less time for bullshit” was a major revelation she came away with. “I am so repelled by the artificial, the chatter, the pressures of society. It doesn’t matter. We’re not here for very long.”
The pandemic period has proven to be a very fruitful time for her creatively, as she wrote 40 songs, 15 of which appear on her upcoming album. It also dives in her early days as a performer
She played the western swing circuit and formed a duo, the Texas Two Bits, with another girl her age. Along with the applause, she started to imbibe the idea that as a performer, and as a woman more generally, it’s your duty to make other people happy. She recalls “learning how to please roomfuls of people before really even knowing how to navigate my own emotions first.”
Leave it to Willie to sum up Kasey Musgraves in one quote:
“What I love about her is not only her voice, but her personality that goes with that voice,” her good friend Willie Nelson tells me. “It’s, ‘Hey, this is me. I hope you like me, but if you don’t, that’s cool.’ ”
The interview continues and also includes quite a few high fashion photos of Ms. Musgraves.
My friend John Duda basically said it well in his newsletter this week:
Can’t wait for her new album. She’s also incredibly attractive. Kudos to her for being hot and talented.
Kudos indeed. While attractive, she’s probably too talented to be a star on TikTok. I think she’ll be ok.
Podcast Promotion of the Week
Coming later this week on Mind of Micah, we dig into the legendary recruitment of Shaq. ‘I had never seen anything like him’: Shaquille O’Neal’s recruitment was from another time — inside an extraordinary arrival
A taste of the piece:
Imagine, for a moment, being a scout or college recruiter heading out to evaluate some rising high school seniors. You have seen this player, you’ve heard about that player. You have your list of guys. Then you look over and see a 6-foot-11, 240-pound smokestack galloping down the floor, dunking on cowering souls and blocking shots across the building.
Today, or for most of the last quarter-century, really, this would be impossible. By the time a basketball player reaches the summer of his senior year, he has been rated, reviewed and processed by the churn and burn of the recruiting world. And the prodigies? The physical specimens plucked from the pages of a Marvel comic? They’re incubated and monetized. They are commodified on social media. Their names are written in the sky.
Think about it. Who was the last basketball phenom who needed to be seen in person to be believed? When was the last time a transcendent American player just … appeared?
“You know, if it were today, he would’ve had 10 million followers as a 16-year-old,” says Sonny Vaccaro, the don of grassroots basketball in America. “But back then, he was a total stranger.”
“No one,” Vaccaro says, “knew who Shaquille O’Neal was.”
Subscribe to Mind of Micah now and get the new episodes about the recruitment of Shaq as soon as they are released.
And while I have your attention, how about Phil yesterday? Pretty impressive stuff. Phil showed poise and savvy. The day had drama and incredible scenes. A pretty nice little Sunday. Brad Kee and I will talk about it and the start of the NBA Playoffs this week on Back Door Cover.
Tweet of the Week
If you do one thing this week, please click on the tweet below and watch this video with sound.
Thx.
Recipe Corner
Here’s What I Made for Dinner Last Night
Grilled Pork Shoulder With Butter Vinegar Sauce
This was delicious. 10/10. It almost felt like cheating. Slow roast a hunk of pork and then slather it in a spicy vinegar butter sauce. It’s outstanding and would be a winner at any summer BBQ.
1 Tbsp. fennel seeds
2 Tbsp. dried oregano
2–2½-lb. boneless pork shoulder (Boston butt)
Grapeseed or other neutral oil (for pork)
1 Tbsp. kosher salt, plus more
10 chiles de árbol, torn in half, seeds removed if desired
½ cup apple cider vinegar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
2 Tbsp. sugar
Toast fennel seeds in a dry small skillet over medium heat, tossing often, until golden brown and starting to pop, about 3 minutes. Transfer to a spice mill or mortar and pestle and let cool; coarsely grind. Transfer to a small bowl and mix in oregano. Place pork on a wire rack set inside a rimmed baking sheet and rub with oil. Season all over with 1 Tbsp. salt, then rub with spice mixture, packing it on. Let sit at room temperature 2 hours or chill, uncovered, up to 2 days.
Bring chiles, vinegar, butter, and sugar to a simmer in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved and sauce is reduced by about a third, about 5 minutes. Season with salt; cover and keep warm over low heat until ready to use.
Prepare a grill for medium heat. Drizzle pork all over with oil, then grill, turning every 5 minutes or so, until extremely, gorgeously browned and crisp and an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part registers 120°F, 35–45 minutes. Continue to grill, brushing with sauce and turning not quite every minute (you’re going to see flare-ups, but don’t worry), until pork is glazed and shiny and temperature on thermometer has risen to 130°F, 5–10 minutes more. Transfer pork to a platter and let rest 30 minutes; reserve remaining sauce.
Transfer pork to a cutting board and pour any accumulated juices on platter into reserved sauce. Return sauce to a simmer. Slice pork against the grain ¼" thick. Arrange on platter, spoon some sauce over, and season with salt. Serve remaining sauce alongside.
If using a charcoal grill, a bed of medium-hot coals will gradually lose heat. Get a chimney started when the meat first hits the grill. About halfway through, throw some new glowing coals on the pile to keep things going.
Baked Feta With Honeyed Strawberries
This was ok, but not great. Maybe 6.5/10. I was hoping this was going to be a TikTok feta pasta level show stopper, but it didn’t quite reach those heights.
1 pound strawberries
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling
3 tablespoons honey
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 (8-ounce) feta block
Heat the oven to 350°F. While that’s warming up, remove the strawberries’ green tops, then cut them in half.
Add the strawberries to a 9x13-inch (or similar) baking dish. Drizzle with the olive oil and honey, plus a little salt and a lot of pepper. Gently toss to coat, then spread out the strawberries into a single layer.
Roast for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven and nestle the feta block in the center. Drizzle the feta with a little olive oil, then return to the oven.
Roast for another 25 to 30 minutes, until the juices are starting to thicken slightly and the feta is starting to brown. Let cool for a few minutes before serving.
Baked Minty Rice with Feta and Pomegranate Relish
This was INCREDIBLE. I will be bringing this to every potluck I’m invited to for the foreseeable future. It’s so good, you won’t even mind having me in your backyard.
I didn’t have pomegranate, so I used some chopped cherry tomatoes for sweetness and acid. I also swapped pecans for walnuts. 10/10. Highly recommend.
POMEGRANATE RELISH
½ cup walnuts
¾ cup pomegranate seeds (from about ½ large pomegranate)
¾ cup Castelvetrano olives, pitted, coarsely chopped
½ cup olive oil
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh mint
¼ cup coarsely chopped fresh parsley
1 garlic clove, crushed into a paste
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
RICE AND ASSEMBLY
2 cups basmati rice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
10 mint sprigs
8 ounces feta, sliced ¼-inch thick
Place a rack in upper third of oven; preheat to 350°. Toast walnuts on a rimmed baking sheet, tossing once, until golden brown, 5–8 minutes. Let cool, then coarsely chop. Increase oven temperature to 450°.
Toss walnuts, pomegranate seeds, olives, oil, mint, parsley, pomegranate molasses, and garlic in a medium bowl to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
Cook rice with some butter and mint leaves. Pluck out mint. Fluff rice with a fork.
Heat broiler. Arrange feta over rice. Broil until rice around edges of pan is browned and crisp and feta is starting to brown, 8–10 minutes. Spoon relish over rice and combine.
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