Friday, December 22, 2017

the weary world rejoices

The year is coming to an end and every time I have sat down with a few spare minutes to write a few words here, those wards have multiplied into an incoherent rant, and an incoherent rant is the last thing anybody needs at this point in 2017. It was an odd year in so many ways. There was this constant thrum of all the terrible things happening in the country and in the world, the constant blinding light shone on the reality of these United States of America. But I also finished my 10-year journey of The Goal by graduating from fellowship, and even better, I got my lifelong wish to become a professor. But like most dreams and wishes, the reality looks different and there have been a lot of challenges and I'm not entirely certain how it's all going to play out. But those are anxieties for another day.

I decided today I just wanted to think about the things that brought me happiness in 2017, things that were not personal (i.e. private) in nature. So here they are, in no particular order, with the usual over-explanation:

  • Hasan Minhaj's Homecoming King: This felt like the realest, most unapologetically South Asian-American stand-up I've ever seen. It's filled with immigrant stereotypes, sure, but Minhaj infuses it with both pride and love. He also does something that resonated with me- he takes the frustration he sometimes encounters with his parents to think through their experience, their perspective, without getting saccharine about it. Also Minhaj's set covers the truth about immigration, the otherness that is felt even in a community that is supposedly moderate to liberal, interracial dating, interfaith marriage. I don't know how he did it all in one set while also earning every single laugh. He still turns up from time to time on The Daily Show, but I hope we'll keep seeing more and more of him. He also doesn't shy away from loving and celebrating brown women, which sadly puts him in a minority of South Asian-American male comedians these days.

  • Tiffany Haddish: I will not even pretend that I noticed Tiffany Haddish much when she co-starred in Keanu. I also only ever watched a few episodes of The Carmichael Show, because that sitcom never really grabbed me (weirdly, even though Jerrod Carmichael played with it, it still felt too formulaic in the episodes I saw). So I was definitely one of the bandwagon-jumpers who saw her on Jimmy Kimmel and marched right out to see Girls Trip. Not to detract from the other women who were also solid in that movie, but that movie was a full-on start-to-finish Tiffany Haddish coming-out party. Lately, I've started to think of her along the lines of Robin Williams- she shows up, she's larger than life, she's quick-witted, she's hard to control, but she is hilarious and full of heart. Watch Kimmel realize he's in the midst of something out to go viral, watch Colbert develop a "Tiffany Haddish problem," watch Ellen squirm uncomfortably in her inability to control the interview, watch George Stephanopoulos get dragged into dancing with her while Robin Roberts and Michael Strayhan lose their minds, and watch Trevor Noah giggle uncontrollably while gushing over her book. You can't watch any of those without smiling. Also, the single greatest moment on Weekend Update on SNL this season (granted, a very low bar) was Tiffany Haddish randomly paying homage to Coming To America in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reenactment.

  • Sally Q. Yates: One of the first heroes to emerge this year was Sally Q. Yates, Attorney General of the United States, who blocked the immigration-related executive order that was issued, got fired for it, and then patiently dealt with the House (lack of) Intelligence Committee hearings, which might have been the spark that kicked off the "woman are done with your sh**" flame war.

  • Kendrick Lamar, DAMN.: I'm not sure that this album always makes me happy or fills me with joy, except at its existence. Sometimes it makes me very angry, sometimes it makes me self-righteous, sometimes it even makes me melancholy. I know some people were wanting Lamar to release 2017 marching orders or something, but this was just Lamar being excellent as far as I'm concerned. Didn't hurt that he lit people on fire, got Don Cheadle to lip synch, and made a mind-bending video with Rihanna.

  • The Leftovers, Season 3: The Leftovers is definitely not for everyone, and there's certainly an argument to be made that it's problematic in terms of proper representation. But it's unlike anything that has ever been on television, and it's such an existential show that it has felt so fitting for our current times. Even though it is a serious and sometimes seriously depressing show, it is also absurdly funny too, including a surreal moment involving the Perfect Strangers theme song which made me wonder if the show was made specifically for me. I'm disappointed it didn't get the credit it deserved but I wonder if the show cares because ultimately for those who loved it, we loved it so hard that we were ride or die for it. Also, why knew Liv Tyler could play a very believable villain?

  • Maxine Waters: I don't need to say much more than: "reclaiming my time." Again, women have had enough, and Maxine Waters definitely is not interested in your nonsense.

  • Halt and Catch Fire, final season: This show initially pissed me off even when it had gone from pretty lousy to pretty good, in part because it was a show about the early days of technology that erased most of the people of color out of it (one season, they had a South Asian character but named him Ryan Fricking Ray, and I immediately turned off the television. Poor Manish Dayal seems destined for a string of bad casting, since he's next starring as the South Asian underling of a cocky Matt Czuchry in The Resident, which looks to be yet another medical drama with terrible casting but one-ups by also painting the medical profession to be a mostly capitalistic undertaking). But the show morphed and its final season was so amazing that I ended up being in hook, line, and sinker. It's no mistake that this show was also on AMC. The common thread it shares with Mad Men is that it's about work and the relationships that develop in the workplace. But the beauty of Halt and Catch Fire is that its beating heart was really about two women who love their work, regardless of what it costs them and regardless of their other life choices. And that's a new story.

  • The trailer to Black Panther: I have never been more excited about a superhero movie. Ryan Coogler has never done wrong in my book, and this movie looks amazing. Honorable mention: Thor: Ragnarok- if you have seen Boy, Hunt for the Wilderbeasts, or What We Do in the Shadows (my personal fave of the three), then you know Taika Waititi's unique voice. He elevated the Thor franchise to pure, unadulterated fun though it still had a heart. Both Thor and SpiderMan Homecoming this year leaned into diverse casting and lightheartedness, and it was all the better for it.

  • Ed Skrein doing the right thing: Ed Skrein was not a marquis actor, not someone with a huge name. His biggest role was probably being cast in Deadpool. He then got cast in a role in an upcoming Hellboy reboot, and fans, tired of the 'Emma Stone is Asian in Aloha, Scarlett Johansson in Ghost Shell, Matt Damon is the star of The Great Wall' phenomenon, were understandably pissed to hear he had been cast in a role that was a Japanese-American in the original comics. Then Ed Skrein, an actor who actually could have used the work and probably didn't know when his next paycheck was rolling in from film, did something no one else has done before. He apologized and took himself out of the game. It is easy to talk a good game- if 2017 showed us anything, it was that a lot of people can pay lip service to what is right. But to actually do it, when it's not easy, when there are personal costs, that's really praiseworthy.

  • Immigrants, We Get the Job Done, Hamilton Mixtape: Look, I'm not a Hamilton Diehard. I don't live in New York, I don't have tons of disposable cash to seek out tickets, and eventually I'm sure I'll be late to the Hamilton party and slap myself for it. But in the meanwhile, this came out, with a fiery verse from Riz Ahmed to boot, and if ever there was a year for it to be released, this was it.

  • One Mississippi, Season 2: this season features Tig Notaro's usual brand of humor and exploration of her own relationship, with a incisive take on sexual harassment at the workplace, but what really got me this year was the development of a romance between her stepfather, a conservative, uptight man from the South and an African-American woman who turns out to be her soulmate. To realistically portray an older white man genuinely want to better himself both to be a better person as well as to be equal to the relationship he wants, it's a rare and wonderful thing. And it's quite, quite touchingly romantic.

  • Jose Andres: the last time I saw Jose Andres in the media he was on Emeril Lagasse's silly Amazon series Eat the World showing Lagasse around the best eats in Asturia and Barcelona. I'll admit I was not aware of his humanitarian efforts until disaster struck Puerto Rico. And then he was very, very hard to miss. This is a man who is a modernist chef who makes his living feeding the affluent. But this year, he made it altogether clear that what he loves to do the most is cook and feed. And he translated his restaurant business savvy to bring more than 2 million meals to Puerto Ricans in need after Hurricane Maria. I can't think about it without getting a lump in my throat.

  • This story on NPR's Code Switch is one of those that once you hear, you can't believe it hasn't been broadcast all over the place. The fight Miss Hamilton wages to be addressed properly by the court and her unsung role in the Women's movement needs to be a bigger story. Hopefully it will be some day, but thanks to Code Switch for, as usual, shedding light on stories that no one else tell that are distinctly part of the American fabric.

  • Roxane Gay's Hunger: admittedly, I don't get to do much recreational reading these days, but this one is a book everyone should read, including physicians. Even though she makes some clear boundaries that delineate to deliver the message that her experience is not the same as mine, there's still a lot to which I can relate. But it's not really about relating to the book. It's about empathy. Reading her honest account about her struggles with weight and her interactions brought out a lot of the wrong reactions, in particular defensiveness about her feelings about the medical profession. But it's important to bite that down because there is a lot to learn about being a better, more caring human from Gay's honesty about how things make her feel.


  • That's what's made me happy this year. Probably there's been more but these are just what seemed to stick with me. I'm sure you all have your own. We should share them more these days to get us through the dark days ahead.