Rachel robbed Maria Bamford
Friday Night Likes, the get-rich-quick edition
It’s time for Friday Night Likes, November 2024 edition, in which we list the top free or low-cost things/events/experiences we liked this month.
You know, the best things in life.
It’s December, and for the past few months we have been inconsistent at best in sharing the things we like.
The truth is that we’re putting all of our energy into finishing the first full season of our podcast and will have a thrilling update on that front imminently.
Still! It’s selfish to keep all these fun things to ourselves, and we apologize for the sporadic nature of this column.
We may be slightly disorganized, but we’re not selfish! SO, here are a few things we’ve been loving this (well, last) month.
Best experience: Robbing Maria Bamford in public
I (Rachel) haven't had a job for the better part of this year. 2024 has been brutal to the film, television, podcast and advertising industries, all of which are still topsy-turvy from a combination of factors – Covid, Strikes, Streaming, Politics, AI, the list goes on.
This has made it a great year for writing about debt! But for my career, my income and my will to live, it's been very dismal. But this not-having-a-job-thing came in handy when I got a chance to see one of my all-time favorite comics, Maria Bamford, at The Bell House in November.
First of all, it was a coup to see her. I was lucky to have bought the tickets many months in advance for a very low price, but by the time of the show, they were being resold for 5 times as much. I suppose I could have tried to make money off my investment, but 1) I would never do that because it's gross, and 2) did I mention I'm a huge fan?
This fandom paid off in more ways than one.
First of all, she is a genius, and to see her live after all these years was transcendent. I honestly don't think there's anyone better at small performance comedy - she does voices, she does storytelling, she does physical comedy, and as it turns out she does really interesting crowd work (not something I usually enjoy).
When we got to The Bell House, I managed to secure front row seats for our party of five. My friend Dave looked at me nervously and said - If I'd known we were going to sit up here, I wouldn't have worn this very loud outfit.
I assured him that Bamford was not a mean comic, she enjoys loud outfits, and she probably won't speak to us at all. But I was wrong about the latter assertion. She did speak to us, well, she did speak to me.
can you spot us losing our minds in the front row????
Bamford writes a lot about mental health and sometimes that delves into money health as well. In several of her specials, she's discussed her struggles with money and debt and the nature of creative work. (All excellent Debt Heads material.)
This show was no exception. During a bit about debt collectors coming to her home to recoup a large sum, she quips a response that had us cracking up in solidarity: “You’re coming here to collect that? Wow - where is it?!”
Later in her set, she asks the crowd: “Does anyone here need a job?”
I've literally never raised my hand or brought any attention to myself during a comedy show, ever, but something (maybe two frozen margaritas, maybe radical honesty brought on by desperation) possessed me to raise my hand.
Being in the front row, and possibly the only person who raised her hand, I was a sitting duck for Bamford. She immediately approached the edge of the stage, and after bending toward me, her face must have been two feet from mine.
"What's the worst job you ever had?” she asked.
"My career,” I answered, half-laughing, half-tearing-up.
She went on to wax poetically about how careers in the arts are always exploited by the powers-that-be because “they make you feel like you're so lucky to have that job". After cracking up the audience with her own stories of being an artist and getting fucked over repeatedly by a culture and economy that sucks, she approached me again and said:
“Here. Take this. It's $40 for you.” And she literally handed me $40 in cash. I sat there dumbfounded, $40 in hand, trying to figure out how to give it back to her. Instead, I settled for taping it to the Debt Heads studio wall as a reminder to stay invested in our motherfucking art.
Best drinks: wine, three ways
We, to put it plainly, like wine. But we admit that we don’t always understand why.
So, recently, in addition to drinking copious amounts of the stuff, we’ve attempted to start actually learning more about different varietals, regions and vintages.
Basically we'll pick one varietal, find three different regions and vintages of that grape, and do a tasting together!
Not only is it such a joy to try a bunch of different wines, we’ve also used it as an opportunity to support our local wine shops, where we’ve gotten into it with the super knowledgeable, patient and friendly people who work there. A few recent faves include:
If you live in Brooklyn, check them out!
Best movies
Rachel: Anora
Sean Baker - who wrote, directed and edited this movie - is one of my favorite artists working today. His signature style of casting (real people), shooting (real locations), and directing (gritty elegance) is enough to get me to buy the theater ticket, but it's the themes he chooses to write that have repeatedly captured and then broken and then revived my heart since 2015 when he released his first major feature, Tangerine.
I'm not sure it's possible to top The Florida Project as my favorite Baker film, but Anora comes very very close. In fact both films caused me to burst into tears when they ended, and had me choked up for hours afterward.
Many people have identified the film as a tragedy, but I beg to differ. Like so many of his stories, his film portrays the full breadth of the human experience - comedy, love, sex, joy, violence, absurdity - against the backdrop of a tragic culture. He discusses power and inequality and prejudice and despair and heartbreak while giving his protagonists the will to keep fighting for something more. That to me is not tragedy, it is hope.
Jamie: Wicked
As a theater kid who loves musicals and musical-to-movie adaptations, I don’t really have an explanation as to why I didn’t think too much about seeing Wicked until days right before it opened.
It could have been the shocking number of marketing stunts and the inundation of press (however earnest and sweet) that turned me off. But suddenly, a few days ahead of its release, I suddenly need to see it – urgently.
With one viewing behind me and another one happening this evening, I feel like such a fool for even questioning my desire to see it. I started crying during the title sequence and didn’t really stop for three (short!) hours.
Like the whole rest of the internet, I thought it was a pretty perfect homage to the stage performance. I was also blown away by the (live!) vocals, the actual, non-CGI world-building by Jon M. Chu, obviously everything about Jonathan Bailey, the way Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo paid homage to their predecessors while making the roles their own – and having something for all of us to collectively obsess over that isn’t doom-scrolling for a little bit.
Best celebrity endorsement: B-Y-Jew
We don’t tend to make a habit of fawning over advertisements but if there was ever one to plotz over, this would be it. Jake Retzlaff is a Jewish quarterback at the (famously Mormon) Brigham Young University, or BYU, where he has coined himself the nickname “B-Y-Jew.” That factoid on its own is pretty perfect, but his new sponsor, Manischewitz, is what’s really lighting my menorah this holiday season. It’s equal parts funny, adorable and kind of weird. I love it.
Best TV show
Somebody Somewhere
This. Show. I started and stopped Somebody Somewhere a few years ago, but since news dropped that this current season, season three, would be its last, the show has gotten a lot of much-deserved buzz and, like so many others, I decided it was time to give it another go.
Thank. God.
I’ve always loved Bridget Everett, but I’m now a full blown fanatic. I am so delighted any time I see her on talk shows and quoting her favorite, stolen-from-LL-Cool-J acronym: DDHD (dreams don’t have deadlines!) I am equally obsessed with the entire rest of the cast, the depiction of friendship, the genuine softness and kindness – all of it. It’s a balm, and I have been dreading Sunday night, when the series finale airs, all week.
Honorable mention: The Penguin (again)
I will take any opportunity to friend-brag about Emily, who truly brought the house down with her stellar performance as young Frances Cobb in The Penguin, HBO’s runaway hit about the DC villain's origin story.
She brought me to tears more than once, and was such a joy to watch. I highly recommend watching the entire series (the finale, like many of the other episodes, broke my brain & heart), but I’m really just so proud of my friend.
Best photo of a male celebrity: Yura Borisov in LA Times
Yura Borisov (who plays Igor in Anora)’s face (and his performance, and the way Sean Baker shot his face, and his performance) is sublime, transcendent, otherworldly. We are speechless.
Best Listens
Jamie: Hyperfixed
Alex Goldman’s podcast Hyperfixed is still very new, but it's already become one of my favorites. That’s because the only thing I love more than hearing about other people’s problems is hearing them get solved (or at least attempt to get solved).
On Hyperfixed, Goldman seeks to help people address grievances both big and small. My favorite episode so far is about why refrigerated sections at the grocery store don’t have doors because really, WTF is that about?! It’s funny, it’s informative and extremely listenable.
You can check it out here.
Rachel: Listening to Audiobook Romance Novels on Libby
While Jamie's over here listening to Hyperfixed, I'm a tacky little fan of sexy romance schlock.
My library reading app (Libby) is perhaps my most-used app because listening to romance novels is the very best form of a non-Rx sleep aid.
I've listened to a lot of Colleen Hoover. Emily Henry. Diana Gabaldon. Etc. Etc.
It's like a Hallmark movie for the ears only - the stories are cheesy, and sexy, and cringe in a way that scratches an emotional-fantasy itch, makes me laugh, and playfully contrasts and clarifies my actually very different belief systems.
But best of all, I can miss any part of these stories when I fall asleep and still manage to follow the plot.
Best read: Doppelganger
Rachel may listen to smutty romance, but she likes to read highbrow socio-political commentary.
She got me Naomi Klein’s book Doppelganger last year for Christmas, and it has taken me until this Christmas to get through it. It’s fascinating and entertaining, but admittedly a little dense for this ADHD brain.
Still, I found that this month, I couldn’t put it down. The chapters about MAGA, and the American Left’s failed messaging tactics are equal parts chilling, infuriating and validating to read. In hindsight, I wish I had read and shared these ideas in advance of the election.
And to that point, if you feel starved for honest talk about about the economy, feel alienated by the notion that “the economy is doing great” when everyone feels like shit, and/or have complicated and despairing feelings about the government and culture at large, you’re definitely going to want to tune into the first official season of Debt Heads which feels increasingly attuned to the current Zeitgeist.
OK, we love you! Have great weekends & tell us about the things you like!
XO,
J&R
As we discussed over the phone, "Anora" has a lot going for it. All Sean Baker films do. But I agree with you, too, Rachel -- his best film is "The Florida Project." Few films ever made can tear me up as well as that one does.