For today, I wrote about nine music videos, in an effort to engage with that avenue of music again. You can read that here.

And a bonus honorable mention music video for the newsletter/because I watched Zodiac last night and this is better: Vampire Weekend’s wild music video/Jake Gyllenhaal vehicle/Challengers prequel for “Giving Up the Gun.”

We’ve been rehearsing for this gig. It’s gonna be good. Get tickets here! (I know most of you probably can’t swing up to Saugerties, NY, but worth a shot)

If you like this newsletter, why don’t you tell a friend about it? Or you can reply to this email and say hey. Whichever feels better to you.

Misc. Stuff I’m Into:

Movies:

I am taking a well-earned break from da movies because I can feel myself burning out, but I’ll be back soon. This big ol’ list will hold me over for a while though! Shared links for lboxd reviews I liked:

• After Hours [1985, dir. Martin Scorsese]. Friend of mine describes this movie (and IRL NYC nights like these) as ‘capital R Romantic,’ reminding me that ‘Romantic’ does not always mean ‘Good.’

• Project Hail Mary [2026, dir. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller]. Movie magic! See this on the biggest screen you can!

• The French Connection [1971, dir. William Friedkin]. Yapped about this one a bit, something about the sound of footfalls here.

• Chime [2024, dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa]. Haunting and freaky and subtle and confounding and beautiful.

• Good Time [2017, dir. Benny and Josh Safdie]. Rewatch. More to come.

• Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie [2025, dir. Matt Johnson]. 👁️👄👁️

• Fargo [1996, dir. Joel Coen]. First time! You betcha!

• Flesh + Blood [1985, dir. Paul Verhoeven]. An absolutely wild picture, an absolutely wild choice for my first Verhoeven film.

• The Drama [2026, dir. Kristoffer Borgli]. To be truly loved is to be known.

Music:

• Lane 8 Spring 2026 Mixtape, in my opinion his best yet. HUGE, at 4.5 hours, and opens with a mix of the Geese song “Taxes.” What more could you want?

• Ben Seretan & John Thayer’s Sunbeam of No Illusion. Captivating, wondrous, and organic ambient.

• Robyn’s Sexistential. Thank god we have another Robyn record.

• Slayyyter’s WOR$T GIRL IN AMERICA. This is a fun one, sexy and sleazy music by someone I probably wouldn’t want to hang out with in real life.

• Thundercat’s Distracted. Tasteful posthumous Mac Miller feature got me emotional.

• Bon Iver’s VOLUMES: ONE (SELECTIONS FROM MUSIC CONCERTS 2019-2023 BON IVER 6 PIECE BAND) (mouthful of an album title). Extremely beautiful live performance that adds so much more character to songs that were already so well lived-in!

• Stimmerman’s Challenging Music for Difficult People. Lightning Bolt but indie rock. Shoutout Eva.

• Also been revisiting Flying Lotus’s 2014 album You’re Dead! Wrote a tiny bit about that in the above blog post. aaaand here’s a CD haul from the past month and a half or so.

*Extremely mild Chainsaw Man spoilers*

Today would have been a Chainsaw Man day.

It’s been two weeks since the series ended, and I haven’t quite finished processing it. I was honestly hoping that it was all a big joke and a new chapter would drop at 11 AM EST after a ‘break week.’ All I know is that there’s a little pang of grief every Tuesday now, a hole where something once was.

I liked the ending, I loved Part 2, and I might even have more to say about them someday, but for now I’m still scraping together trying to be a person again after most of my time was previously spent singing the praises of Chainsaw Man, tunneling into analyses of minute narrative decisions and foreshadowing, having my mind obliterated by images I couldn’t believe, and being mad at waiting two weeks for a chapter that was mostly Denji wordlessly making faces (before acknowledging that actually, it was peak).

So now I’m looking for something new to dream about, to yell about every 1-2 weeks, to be built up by and hurt by again. I’m rereading Part 2 as the physical volumes come out, to try and cobble together a more concrete picture of why Fujimoto shattered his Sisyphean boulder. I’ve read pieces by Autumn Wright and Isaiah Colbert making their respective peace with the ending, I’m still looking for mine, and I’m glad Denji and Asa (sort of) found theirs.

You tell me, Pochita.

-Will

P.S.