It’s been one hell of a week. Rather than focus on a single topic this time, I thought I’d take the chance to share with you some of what I’ve been doing, watching, reading and learning over the past week. Sharing links is my love language, so this is probably going to become A Thing.
What I’m Reading
Political civility continues to be on the decline in America, and as more people look for answers and solutions, it’s become clear to more people that our system is, in fact, designed to be divisive.
This piece on closed primary elections from the Tulsa World is well-reported and even includes an interactive component that will show you an estimate of how many voters are excluded from elections in states with a closed primary system.
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This piece from Rebecca Jennings at Vox made me feel seen. In it, she explores how the personal brand has come to define how artists are expected to sell their work.
The old days of publishers and agents have shifted to authors, actors, journalists, and more people being required to build an audience themselves. This often comes in contrast with the values artists hold and can make them feel like they are selling out—A term rightly characterized as outdated here.
I hope you read it, but if not, I want to leave you with this quote:
“To achieve the current iteration of the American dream, you’ve got to shout into the digital void and tell everyone how great you are. All that matters is how many people believe you.”
Rebecca Jennings, “Everyone’s a sellout now”
What I’m Watching
The Zone of Interest
I went to Tulsa’s Circle Cinema to see the new Oscar-nominated film “The Zone of Interest.”
This tells the story of an SS officer and his family living directly next to the Auschwitz camp during WWII. It’s harrowing, but often in subtle ways. This is not your typical Holocaust film, as most of the violence and horror takes place off-screen.
What director Jonathan Glazer does instead is highlight the mundane lives of a family of Nazis while the screams of prisoners and the smoke from the crematoriums loom large in the background.
I found the film difficult to engage in due to the directing style, but there’s no doubt a powerful message is at play: We are all capable of evil, and we engage with it when we sit in silence while atrocities occur around us.
Romance Month on So Many Sequels
We’ve been diving into romance films on So Many Sequels for the month of February. This month’s episodes will include reviews of “Return to Me,” “Her,” “When Harry Met Sally,” and a listener pick for the end of the month.
We run through our picks and why we chose them in the latest episode now on YouTube.
This made me laugh a lot.
Josh Gammon 
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