Top Five - 3 August 2024

 First - credit to be given where credit is due. The great writer Greil Marcus has been writing his "Real Life Rock Top 10" for decades. Author Gretchen Rubin has her own "Five Things..." newsletter she sends out every week.

I have neither the time nor the intellectual capacity to keep up with that kind of analysis of pop culture and daily life. 

But I do like the idea of focusing on the new, unique, and interesting things that I've experienced.

So, without further ado...

1. Poker Face on Peacock

I don't binge watch television, but Poker Face starring Natasha Lyonne has me feeling the urge. I'm late to the party, I know - the show came out last year - but better late than never. The comparisons to Columbo are obvious and cliche at this point, but they don't diminish the effectiveness of the formula when used well. There's a murder of the week. The audience sees the murder and knows who the guilty party is. Lyonne's character Charlie is on the fringes of the event but gets caught in the currents and can't let it go. Oh, and she has a preternatural ability to sense when someone is telling a lie even when she can't prove it. What Poker Face adds to the Columbo formula is a genuine sense of humor without making light of the situation itself. I'm not done watching season one, but I'm glad to hear they're already working on season two.

2. Dick Tracy comics

Until a few weeks ago, my exposure to the Dick Tracy universe started and ended with the 1990 film starring Warren Beatty, Madonna, and Al Pachino. It was one of the handful of VHS tapes that my family owned, so I had a strange attachment to it even if I wasn't familiar with the source material. Now, Mad Cave Studios is jump-starting the franchise with a new monthly comic series. So far, it's been fantastic. Three issues in, and there's already been a ton of noir mayhem and mystery. Is it true to the original newspaper comic strips? I don't know. But I'm looking forward to the series moving forward.

3. "You're On Your Own, Kid" by Taylor Swift, from the album Maroon

Something about the understated nature of this song made me skim past it during the first few hundred times I listened to Maroon. It felt like a scrap, a song that was slightly undercooked but still needed to fill out the album. But then, seeing her perform it on piano on The Eras Tour suddenly threw it into a different light. (You can see the same performance I did in The Eras Tour concert movie, during the "surprise" acoustic set near the end.) It wasn't undercooked, it was being served rare because that's the way it was meant to be consumed. The song has been in my head recently for reasons unknown, so I've spent the last few days adding it to the daily ride playlist. It has a simple muted chord progression for the first half, and the vocals are nearly whispered - like she's telling us a secret over the phone. The crescendo builds but holds itself back, just as the speaker does in the relationships she describes. Some of the lines - "I touch my phone as if it's your face" "from sprinkler splashes to fireplace ashes" "'Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned / Everything you lose is a step you take" - manage to feel both elegantly classic and profoundly modern. The song is a great example of the subtle songwriting and performance that Taylor Swift is capable of achieving that many of her critics miss but her loyal Swifties exult in catching.

4. My small local library branch

My city is big enough to have its own award-winning library system, with branches seeded throughout the neighborhoods. My little branch is small and utilitarian. It has one main room that creatively uses shelves to block off the children's section from the rest so parents can let the little ones wander a bit. There's also a small conference room for community events and services. And that's pretty much it. (There's also a mysterious "library employees only" room, but having never been in there I can only assume it's where they make sacrifices to the gods of wisdom and knowledge. Or maybe take their lunch breaks.) Still, that's all it needs to be. It's air conditioned. It has lots of chairs, tables, and computers. And, of course, it has books. What else could I ask for?

5. See's Candy

See's Candy has been a regular feature in my life, and the life of those I know. The classic "Nuts and Chews" box - available in either one or two pounds - makes an appearance every Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The godparents of my children spoil them with seasonal boxes and novelties - my favorite of which is the chocolate "potato" around St. Patrick's Day. But I write about it today because of my joy in the fact that anyone who enters a See's Candy store is welcome to a single free sample. Some stores, it is a random handout. Some stores ask some questions about preferences before handing you something you might like. My local shop, though, allows you to choose any of their chocolate treats. And everyone is welcome to one, even if that person is just there to ask a question or check on availability of items or even just to browse. It's a genuinely given free treat in a world where that level of consideration is rapidly receding beyond the horizon of the past.