By Josh Gondelman — 12 Oct 2026

#205. The White Sox and You

Hi everyone,

Exactly one week ago, our household innovated a new tradition: Erotic Thriller And Pizza Mondays. Alison came over to (platonically!!!) watch Wild Things with me and Maris (and Maggie the Pug who mostly got mad when there were actual wild animals on screen). The evening was initiated because Alison and I are working on a new project that we think will fit roughly within the same genre as the Matt Dillon/Denise Richards/Neve Campbell three-mouther, an erotic thriller with a sense of humor.

I don't think I'd seen Wild Things in its entirety before, and I knew we were in for a good time when Dillon's guidance counselor main character writes "SEX" on a chalkboard, much to the thrill of the assembled high school seniors who immediately cease their hooting-slash-hollering when he follows it up by writing "CRIMES" immediately after. And if you aren't sure whether the movie knows it's being a little campy, Bill Murray soon arrives in a sham neck brace the size of a monster truck tire despite the fact that he is a lawyer, not a client.

Key art for the film Wild Things. — If there were an Oscar for self-awareness, Wild Things would deserve it!

Wild Things is an extraordinarily silly movie, and the plot device of a young woman fabricating a sexual assault for the purpose of fraud certainly lands weirdly in this current moment (and probably did to many in the late 90s too). But I found it refreshing to watch a movie from nearly thirty years ago when a studio might spend a decent chunk of change to release a movie that's overspiced rather than one that's been boiled, mashed to a pulp, and extruded through an industrial tube.

Obviously great movies get made now, and some of them cost a lot of money to produce! But what I'm talking about are movies that are fun even when they are not high art. It feels like if you're not a director who comes in with cultural heft or working with highly-recognizable IP, you've got to be shooting for prestige even if the work itself is not especially profound. The idea of fake prestige makes so much entertainment round its tone UP towards awards bait when it should be rounding DOWN towards a good time. We end up with so much film and television that feels like staring at the grey non-hardwood floor of an Airbnb because bland and prestigious are now considered better than campy and thrilling.

Horror seems to get a little bit of a pass because of its commercial successes, but even most of this year's big hits were made for about $15 and a half-full Subway sandwich punchcard. Anyway, Wild Things was "research", and Alison and I laughed a lot the next day when I added a section to our Google Doc labeled simply: "THINGS THAT ARE SEXY?" (Most unexpected entry so far: Our friend Natasha's suggestion of "wind.")

On the other end of the prestige spectrum, Maris and I saw Digger in a mostly-full theater last night and both enjoyed it a ton. I was mildly intrigued by the idea of Tom Cruise (a complicated figure for sure) really going for it in a different way than his usual American Hero Style. I was VERY intrigued of the way it ate shit at the box office and seemingly in the critical consensus as well, while most of my friends who had seen it liked it a lot.

I don't think it's an especially "spoilable" film, but I won't divulge too many plot details except to say that it's very explicitly about climate catastrophe. I've seen some people complain that the satire is too on the nose and others say that the movie overall is too confusing, which are a funny set of opposing critiques. I will say that the on-the-nosedness was more enjoyable and impactful to me than the extended (and, in my opinion, not especially tight) allegory of Don't Look Up.

Brief digression: I have loved so much of Adam McKay's work over the years, and I think it's very cool that he made a movie that expressed his frustration with the lack of national action against an accelerating crisis, but the framing of "a very bad thing is obviously about to happen" does not map neatly onto the world we live in where we are already feeling escalating effects of climate change and still ignoring them in terms of broad policy choices. ANYWAY!

Speaking of fun movies: On Tuesday I got to play a small part in a staged reading of a raunchy comedy called Yankel The Rooster about a young, newly-married Hasidic man and the unlikely alliance he forms with a lesbian sex educator whom his in-laws are trying to evict from her home. I don't get asked to act very much, so I was a little in my head given how stacked the cast was, but it was a really fun time! It was so cool to see writer Charlie Sosnick's script come to life in front of a packed crowd at the Bell House for one night. Hopefully this project continues to gain momentum towards production. Also, my character was a a rabbi so apologies for any mispronunciation of the transliterated Hebrew dialogue.

And in other Bell House news: My New York Comedy Festival show there is less than a month away! Many people have bought tickets, but many people also have not (although I guess it would be impossible for most people in the world to have tickets to this show). I'm lining up some fun special guests, and it's currently my only date on the books for performing this new hour of jokes in its entirety in NYC!

Before that, I'll be in Irving, TX (10/21), Houston (10/22), San Diego (10/28), and Chandler, AZ (10/29). And right after the NYCF show, I'm heading to Pittsburgh and Cleveland! I've loved taking this hour on the road, and I'm psyched for these tour dates. Tickets for the shows across the southwest have been moving sloooooowly, and I know money is tight for a lot of people, and folks are buying more tickets than ever day-of, but if you're thinking about coming through or you know folks in the area who might be interested, I'd love if you could spread the word! And of course I'd love to see you there!

An extremely wild thing that happened last week (through means I do NOT understand) is that Sean Paul (yes, that Sean Paul) commented on the video from Devon Walker's podcast where Devon and I answered a listener question about the "5,000,040 naughty shorties" spoken intro from the song "Temperature." Thank you to the great Kofi Thomas for making me aware of this. I was truly blown away! Thank you for the feedback, Sean Paul!!!

I also appeared on the most recent episode of the brilliant Alice Fraser's podcast The Gargle, which is always a great time.

Oh, and have I got news for you! I'm going to be on TV for a little while this weekend. I don't know how much I am supposed to say before any official announcement but I'm excited so I'm teasing that announcement here! ;)

PEP TALK FOR THE CHICAGO WHITE SOX

White Sox pitcher on the mound handing the ball over to a coach/manager with other players gathered around. — Go (home) Sox! (AP Image/Melissa Tamez)

It's hard to know how to feel when the Pope's favorite baseball team gets knocked out of the playoffs. I've probably shifted 10% towards believing there is no god. But maybe the White Sox losing can serve as a reminder that our world only means what we decide it means. A baseball playoff victory carries no more moral weight than a breeze or a sunset. Besides, aren't the people of Cleveland as deserving of joy as the people of Chicago?

Whether there is a higher power watching over us or not, both joy and sorrow are unavoidable facets of life on earth. There's always next year, which I'm sure Pope Leo himself is at peace with, unless he thinks Revelation is going to happen before the impending lockout is resolved. And if he thinks that...he should probably let the rest of us know. Besides, we aren't sure who the heads of other major world religions root for. And honestly I don't want to dig too deep here and find out the true nature of the universe in the event that the Dodgers are the highest baseball aspiration of a pivotal figure in Judaism or Hindu or Islam.

Desire is suffering, say the Buddhists, but sports seem like a healthy-ish way to invite a little of both into your life for balance. You have to find meaning where you can. For me, I believe the world is fundamentally good because the Yankees lost. And yes the Red Sox lost first. But the lord works in mysterious ways, and it's important to honor that.

PEP TALK FOR TWO READERS

As I sometimes do, I paired a couple of reader requests that felt thematically aligned. I gave each one a little trim but the spirit remains intact!

Help some gays in Worcester MA: my partner Charles is an early-career musician/sound designer for video games. He’s not yet making a living wage with it and is probably gonna have to take on more hours at a day job. He’s not giving up on the music dream, but he’s feeling demoralized at the moment.
- Video Gaymer

This past week I was fired from my crappy small business insurance job. I’m scared (I have a family) but i’m also an artist- and I hate having to have a real job! So it all just feels… weird.
- Fun(?)employed

Every year during my tenure as a preschool teacher, I'd come down with a case of the back to school doldrums in August and September. The change of seasons made me feel like a kid returning from summer vacation despite the fact that I really enjoyed teaching and also we worked through the summer, so I wasn't even going back, I was just continuing my professional year into the fall like people at most jobs do.

"Another year not living the dream," I though to myself, ashamedly, as I crossed the Labor Day threshold and kept on laborin'. I was, however, wrong to think that way. I was not failing to live the dream! I wasn't living all of my dreams, sure, and I was still doing a lot of non-dream living. But I was doing lots of the things I wanted to do while keeping a roof over my head (and several roommates on the other side of my walls). And looking back, that's not too shabby!

I do not mean to romanticize the early years of creative struggle through too much nostalgia haze. For years, I felt like I had my nose pressed against a window, watching people on the other side of the glass living the life I wanted, but having no idea how to find the door that would let me into the building. It sounds like these writers (to the newsletter, not the ones I was jealous of in 2009) have found themselves (or their partner in one case) fogging up a similar window with their warm, yearning breath.

As usual, I don't have a ton of advice to give. I'm not even sure the building I was peering into exists anymore. I think it's a Sweetgreen and an ATM vestibule now.

The silver lining here, which is what I've sworn to deliver, is that you both have enough money to live for now and are making the art you want to make. One reader's artistic potential has expanded despite their financial situation getting worse (and a job search seemingly on the near horizon). The other has some fresh restrictions on their musical output because of impending day job commitments. Importantly, neither one is out on their ass OR spread too thin to be creatively engaged.

That's the dream! To have enough money to live and enough bandwidth to create. Your situations are in flux but neither of you seem to be in a position where you're spending so much time giving dialysis to your sick goldfish that you are too exhausted to make art. You have not hit a financial point where you've got to sign up for Plasmo, the service where you extract your own blood plasma and deliver it to hungover billionaires to help them climb out of the previous night's k-hole. You're not finished yet, and you don't ever have to be!

You are living some dreams now! And as grey and demoralizing as it feels to not be living all of them yet, you're still in the game! Enjoy playing! That's what the game is for!

PICK-ME-UP SONG OF THE WEEK:
Avery Friedman - "You Move"

My buddy Avery Friedman has a new song out and you've got to listen to it! Avery's debut album was beautifully written and performed. "You Move" shares those qualities but adds another level of texture and (dare I say?) oomph with a horn part. This song arrived just in time to enjoy fall-sounding music in fall-feeling weather. I'm so excited to hear the rest of the new songs Avery has been working on! You should be too! But start here, because this is what we get to enjoy NOW!