All the good looking people
Where do they all come from / where do they all belong
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So on episode 2 of Depresh Mode, you will hear me talk to my friend Kesley Darragh. For more information on Kelsey, please refer to the Internet full of Web Sites. And a couple of things stuck with me from that episode.
One is that a lot of my writing/talking in that one is about friendship. Kelsey and I met on Twitter where a third person recommended me as someone to blurb her new book, which I happily did. And Kelsey is a very strong extrovert. She’s a talker, she shares a lot of information about herself, she generally lives out loud. I really enjoy the company of people like that, always have. And we started to referring to ourselves as friends. Importantly: we have never met in real life. It’s my ambition to have lunch with her one day but for the moment it’s a friendship through bits and pixels.
And I embrace that. A lot more, I think, than I used to do before pandemic. Part of it is that I dig Kelsey’s company but I think I’m also just more likely than before to treasure the idea of company and, by extension, humans.
In fact, I talk about that in the episode (you know, the one you haven’t heard yet) in regards to having seen the movie/special In & Of Itself. It’s on Hulu now but it was filmed on stage over the course of many performances in New York City before the pestilence began and the plague wolves prowled the streets.
The show is about the identities you use for yourself and others, how they evolve, and how performer Derek Del Gaudio is fooling you. Kind of like if Spalding Gray and Ricky Jay got together to run a speed dating operation. I loved it at first, a little more ambivalent in retrospect. But what really jumped out was the AUDIENCE because they were all BEAUTIFUL. The men, the women, the old ones, the young ones, just freaking GORGEOUS. I couldn’t stop looking at them. Not that I wanted to get all makey-outy with all of them, I just wanted to gaze upon them.
Importantly, they were mere ticket buyers. They weren’t imported models. Just all walks of life types. Before the pestilence, I don’t think I would find them so remarkable. But the idea of being AMONG people and feeding off their, I guess, energy?
Or something?
The idea of “other people” means something new and more valuable now. I mean, it probably meant that before but now I recognize how great they are. And pretty!
That’s one of the reasons I’m so excited for Depresh Mode because I think we can provide you with beautiful Other People served directly into your ears.
DO YOU SMELL WHAT THE ROCK IS COOKING?
It’s an effort to change the toxic masculinity of refusing mental health treatment.
I’ve always wanted to interview The Rock. Set that up, someone.
I guess it’s easy to interview A Rock. Just maybe not The Rock.
Ominous There’s-a-storm-a-comin’ article number 1 billion, this one from Psychology Today, warning that psychology tomorrow looks spookier.
“Is a Mental Health Crisis the Next Pandemic?” the headline asks.
“Duh,” Depresh Mode says.
Quarantine, isolation, and social distancing practices do not just affect us physically; they create a recipe for psychological disaster. This is particularly the case for those who already struggle with mental health conditions in non-pandemic times. “Our bodies are not built to withstand long-term trauma,” says clinical psychologist Sabrina Romanoff. “In turn, we become deregulated and adapt. While this helps us to survive and hold onto a semblance of sanity, we may tend to make choices that are not as hypervigilant and safe as we would in the throes of the beginning stages of a trauma.”
From the always helpful, Kottke…
