How are you doing? I mean, really doing?
Yeah, me either.
Thank the universe for good art in times like these. If you're in need of a little creative therapy, here are the five things that have been keeping me above water this week.
1. Tao by Rick Springfield
This has been my album of the summer for 2025. Released four years after "Jessie's Girl" skyrocketed Dr. Noah Drake to the top of the charts, Tao is the album where Rick Springfield Grows Up. Written and recorded around the time Springfield entered into therapy with a Jungian psychologist, the album contains songs about nuclear war, the emptiness of fame and fortune, infidelity, and the death of his father, and reminds me a lot of the pop hooks Peter Gabriel was putting out around the same time. It's deep, catchy, and applicable for times like these. Check out the video for the opening track, "Dance This World Away;" it perfectly encapsulates Americans' apathy toward our own demise, more pertinent now than when the album was released 40 years ago.
2. Stagecoach, directed by John Ford, 1939
Since the beginning of the year I've been working my way through a copy of Joe Leydon's Guide to Essential Movies You Must See If You Read, Write About, or Make Movies, which has been sitting on my bookshelf since college. I've always been interested in film as an art form and wanted to learn more about it, so this is the year I've been doing a deep dive into the essays and watching (or re-watching) each film through a critical lens. This month has found me diving into the section on Westerns, a genre I have zero interest in and would never watch otherwise. But I'm here to learn, so August has been my month of cowboy flicks. Stagecoach, John Wayne's first film with director John Ford, was surprisingly dramatic, character-driven, and at times, very funny. Centered around an ensemble cast of misfits that just happen to be traveling in the same stagecoach, it's not your typical shoot-em-up Western later seen in the works of Sergio Leone or Sam Peckinpah. It has surprising depth, warmth, and heart, and is worth a watch, not as a Western, but as a study in human empathy and relationships.
3. The Way We Never Were by Stephanie Coontz
I'm currently reading this as an ebook from the library, and it explains very well how we got to where we are as a nation. I've always been fascinated by the mid-century modern era and the whitewashed advertising and aesthetic that portray a false America that never actually existed for most of the population. Coontz does a fabulous job breaking down conservative arguments about every facet of the "good old days," from marriage and family, to women's rights, to race and class. Even with the social safety nets of postwar America in place, these systems were unsustainable and rightfully self-imploded.
4. Finishing the Unfinished
Between work obligations, health management, and the general hell of everyday life in these United States, I've been feeling like I'm drowning under every task, to-do, and responsibility on my plate, and I know I'm not alone. I recently made it a point to take a little time out of each day to work on creative projects that have been sitting half-finished for years, and it's done wonders for my mental health. I've finished two coloring books in the last couple of weeks, and I finally finished stitching this flour sack towel embroidered with drawings by outsider musician Daniel Johnston. Unless I need something for a career-related project, I'm committing myself to finishing my unfinished projects and using the supplies I already have on hand. It's really gratifying to see these things finally coming to completion, and it's a big fuck-you to the capitalist agenda at the same time. Win-win!
One more bit of Rick Springfield love in honor of his birthday (76!), but also because Zoot, the Australian band he was a lead guitarist for in the late '60s and early '70s, is criminally under-appreciated in the United States. I am notoriously picky about Beatles covers, especially McCartney-penned, but this arrangement Springfield created for Zoot is a heavy, guitar-driven, brilliant take on the song. If you're a fan of Nuggets-era garage and psych rock, Zoot should definitely be on your playlist. (The band also featured bassist Beeb Birtles, who went on to found the Little River Band.)