Just A Peck 0020 // Drinksgiving, Letterboxd, Bentleyville
Welcome to the latest issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here! New issues come out most Sundays. Unsubscribe at any time.
WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS WEEK
Renegade Theater’s annual Thanksgiving sketch show, Drinksgiving is this week on Wednesday and Friday. It’s always so much fun (and I’ll be contributing a few silly video pieces).
Letterboxd is one of my favorite online servies, and they announced their own Premium VOD spinoff this week: The Video Store. I’m cautiously optimistic since they get everything else they do for cinephiles so right.
Bentleyville opened this week! We go every year.
QUICK LINKS
- How to fix a typewriter and your life
- Ricky Jay and his 52 Assistants
- A proposal for a new Great Lake
- A simulator for Claude Shannon's 1961 educational relay computer (the Minivac 601)
- A digital atlas of the Roman Empire's entire road network
- Japanese experimental music group playing vintage reel-to-reels
- Search for phrases in movies and TV shows
- Microsoft open sourced Zork
- Can you draw a "Cool S"?
JOURNAL
We closed God of Carnage this week. I’m super proud of how it turned out. It’s the last show I’m going to be doing for a long time, so I hope you got a chance to see it. The kids made the trip to Duluth to see the show.
Lots of friends took time to see the show too.
And I made my final clafoutis.
I finally caught a movie at the new Alhambra cinema. The space is lovely, the movie was great, but the experience (much like my experience at the West) was not ideal. Still, I love that this place exists.
On Saturday, we made our final 2025 trip to American Players Theater to see the last show in their season, The 39 Steps. We were joined by good friends, so the long trip down and back was lovely and the show itself was fantastic. (Of course.) We also managed to sneak in a quick visit to our favorite bookstore. We’re already looking forward to next season!
What I watched:
- Nouvelle Vague (2025). Currently sitting at the top of my Favorite 2025 Movies list. Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Seberg, Belmondo, The French New Wave, and Richard Linklater making my ideal hangout movie about the making of Breathless.
- Blue Moon (2025). A second new Linklater movie in one week! And this one kicked ass too! Ethan Hawke playing a bitter, ruined Lorenz Hart on the opening night of Oklahoma!, the first musical Richard Rogers made without him. A single-location, real-time film with killer in-joke and references, great in-camera effects, and among several amazing performances-one for the ages. I can't wait until this is a play.
What I’m reading:
- Vineland, Pynchon
MEMORIES
Ten Years Ago:
Ten years ago, Jody and I were at our first Christmas City of the North Parade. I’d been hearing the jingle my entire life, but had never attended in person before that night.
Also ten years ago, I did my final light hang/focus at the Quam. After many years of doing shows with Theatre in the Woods, watching our kids grow up on that stage, and making lifelong friends, I stepped away. I guess I’m on a decade-long cycle?
Forty Years Ago:
Forty years ago, the very first Calvin and Hobbes comic was published. I can’t overstate
the influence that strip had on shaping the person I became.
MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
-- EB White
That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!