What up, what up?

New name, same spotty publishing schedule

First off, let’s address that the email or notification you received said DJ from The Midbrow Culture Club instead of DJ from Your Mom’s Home. Why is that? A few reasons.

1. The name Your Mom’s Home was always somewhat embarrassing. I remember when I first launched the site, another Substacker I respected asked the name of mine and I was so embarrassed to say, “Your Mom’s Home.” I liked the idea in theory, but in practice, it just sounds juvenile. So, this name is just more professional.

2. It’s also more descriptive for those who come across it. With The Midbrow Culture Club, you basically know what you’re getting from the start, whereas with Your Mom’s Home, I mean that could be anything.

3. Tom Segura has a website and podcast called Your Mom’s House. Which was my initial thought for the name of the website because it was what we called our house in college. But then I saw his website, so rather than pivot away completely I switched house to home. But it’s still always felt too close for comfort.

4. I also want to start focusing more on the nonpolitical content. So something that states that in the name felt appropriate. Note: this doesn’t mean no political content. I chose the name because culture basically means anything, so I can do whatever I want and still be within the guidelines I set for myself. It’s called a cheat code. However, I do want to start writing about nonpolitical stuff as well as podcasting about it.

Any questions? I doubt it, but lmk in the comments.

Now, on with the show.

Space Girls

There has been a lot of online chatter about the recent Blue Origin launch that included Jeff Bezo’s girlfriend or fiancée or wife or something and Katie Perry. I have two things to say.

1. Some media made a big deal about this being an all-female flight. That’s like making a big deal about a subway car being all females. Probably somewhat rare, but entirely meaningless because it’s an automated flight. The rocket was launched, they got to space, and came back without any of them doing anything to guide it. Again, like being in an all female roller coaster. Rare, but definitely not a meaningful signifier of gender progress.

2. The rest of the internet seems to be trying to tear these women down, as the internet loves to do. And I get that I was just critical, but that was of the coverage, not the women. I’ve seen posts talking about how this money could have been used for more noble causes - some of them from other celebrities, who clearly have such a lack of self-awareness that I’m almost jealous.

   But for real. Shut up. Some of us want to go to space for a weekend in the future. The only way that happens is if billionaires do it first. There is simply no other way, rich people have to do it so that slightly less rich people can do it so that mildly wealthy people can do it so that the rest of us can do it. It’s how economies of scale are formed. Remember when flat screen TVs were enormous and expensive? I dare you to find a round screen TV today; but the rich had to pave the way so us peasants could enjoy it.
   And some of us peasants really want to go to space someday. Some of us have literally had conversations with our wives asking how much money they’d be willing to sacrifice for us to go to space. Not everyone can be a real astronaut, so please let the rest of us cosplay in peace.

Tariffs

Tariffs are bad.

Books

I have recently read the first three Dune books and am in the process of reading Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. I had a lot of fun talking books on the pod and plan to do it more often; if you have read either of these books/series, please let me know.

Minecraft

I went to see A Minecraft Movie. Boy was it bad. Two of my friends saw it before me and also hated it, but I hoped they were just being cynical funsuckers. Nope, it’s bad. And yet has made a ton of money. Because I think Gen Z unironically likes it? Maybe Gen A too? I’m not quite sure, but it leads me to a larger point: what’s the point of critics?

I can find basically no correlation between what critics think about a movie and what audiences think about a movie and what I think about a movie. Here are examples from the movies I’ve seen this year.

A Minecraft Movie: 46% critic score, highest grossing movie in America, 87% audience score, I hated it

Mickey 17: 77% critic score, did not recover its budget, 73% audience score, I also did not like it, though Robert Pattinson was wonderful.

Novocaine: 81% critic score, small budget film but probably made a small profit, 85% audience score, I loved it. Easily the best new movie I’ve seen this year.

Captain America: Brave New World: 48% critic score, did pretty well worldwide though is one of the lowest grossing MCU movies of all time, 79% audience score, I actually thought it was fine.

I don’t know, maybe there are people for whom this all makes sense, but I guess I wonder why are there so many critics if their opinions don’t actually seem to have any bearing on how a film performs or what audiences (or I) think about it. What is the point of employing them?

I also wonder at what point you should be forcibly retired from being a movie reviewer, because at some point you really just inevitably become out of touch. Even my favorite movie podcast The Big Picture which is run by The Ringer, a media company known for being approachable, can be a little to hoity toity sometimes and I think it’s just an inevitable part of watching and reviewing movies. My thought is you get to do it for 20 years and then you retire or go into movie making instead. Idk, what do you think?

Happy Easter

To those of you who celebrate Easter, or passover for that matter, may you have a wonderful celebration of deliverance. And may it be with people you love. If you cook something delicious this weekend, send me the recipe. Especially if it’s something you grilled. And if you learned something new about your faith, I’d love to hear that too.

Dad Quote of the Week

“Babies are incredibly dumb” - DJ Belnap referencing nothing in particular, babies are just really dumb.

Rhetoric

Can we all agree that conservatives calling every liberal a communist is unhelpful? As is constantly comparing everything to Nazi Germany. My heck, people. This is not the Third Reich. I mean I don’t like a lot of what’s happening, but if you’re resorting to Nazi Germany to make your argument you might need to examine your motives. And if after that examination you realize you are actually trying to persuade, then maybe find a new argument. Deporting people without due process is bad on its face, you don’t need to invoke Hitler to make it bad.

That’s it for now. In F1 news, I really hope Lando chokes again. Maybe that’s mean, but he’s like a fake nice guy and that’s almost worse than just being a jerk like Verstappen. See you in a couple weeks maybe.