Your 7/15 Experiment
Welcome to your always free, reader-supported, mid-week edition of The Experiment where we share great things to read, cook, listen to, and watch. As always, this bugga free.
Let’s get right to it:
Big Boys’ Lessons (Pt. 1): Start Your Own Thing, Even When No One’s Watching. I got to Austin too late to hear the Big Boys; Chad Swiatecki finds the heartbeat of Austin’s creative community in a documentary about the band. (free link)
The Decline of Deviance 2. Slow clap for this line: “I, too, would like to see a movie that is not Spider-Man 2. But I also appreciate that I can watch it safely in my home without fear of being attacked by pregnant teenage criminals.” (free link)
h/t to Elise Hu for this unique music recommendation:
A Parliament of Owls and a Murder of Crows: How Groups of Birds Got Their Names, with Wondrous Vintage Illustrations by Brian Wildsmith. Prepare to be charmed by the names of groups of birds: a squadron of pelicans, a walk of snipe, and asylum of loon. h/t Elie Jacobs (free link)
How Yelling “O!” During the National Anthem Became a Statement of Baltimore Pride. Turns out, it started the year I fell in love with the Orioles, which was the same year they broke my heart the first time. (free link)
Hundreds of Texas Teachers Were Investigated for Posting About Charlie Kirk. Here’s What Happened Next. Truly nuts how hundreds of Texas teachers almost lost their jobs for posting about Charlie Kirk online. (free link)
Based on a Chekhov short story, The Singers is downright magical. If you die without watching this short film, your life will not be lived fully or correctly.
This movie is impossibly charming, and it makes me want to move to Baltimore more.
If the end of the second season left you saddened, this movie-length capper will land the plane for you.
Choices were made, both in the making of this movie and in our watching it.
Bad spirited. Not sure about this one.
We set up a merch table in the back where you can get T-shirts, coffee mugs, and even tote bags now. Show the world that you’re part of The Experiment.
Buy the book Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick banned from the Bullock Texas History Museum: Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of the American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and myself.