My Week in ‘New York’: The Anxiety of Vicarious Living

February 10, 2024:
Longevity noodles, ’90s retro tech, and a futuristic toilet\xa0\xa0\xa0\xa0

The other day I felt compelled to sit down and map out to what extent, exactly, I experience the world (culture, events, scenes, actual physical occurrences like the weather, etc.) vicariously through others. This exercise was provoked, in part, by arecentLongforminterviewwith the podcaster and editor Chris Ryan, who brought up a peculiar phenomenon of people who primarily experience the NBA not by actually watching the games but by listening to discussions and recaps on NBA podcasts. I say “peculiar,” but that’s me trying to create a false distance. This phenomenon, of experiencing a thing primarily through experiencing everybody else’s experience of that thing, is absolutely something that applies to my own habits too. Not just with the NBA but also with many other cultural subjects I’m interested in that, as a function of growing age and personal responsibilities, I simply don’t have time (or the means) to fully explore: European soccer, Formula 1, music, fashion, fine dining, luxury real estate,Vanderpump Rules, so on, so forth.

To an extent, this is just what happens. There are only so many hours in a day, so much energy one body can expend. Still, it does make me feel sorta kinda weird that I’m effectively outsourcing a decent chunk of my cultural experiences to other people. Not completely, obviously. I have my first loves for which I’ll always put in the work. But this exercise has made me a little anxious. Does so muchvicarious living make me … less of a complete person somehow? Maybe this is all a signal that it’s time for me to step back from wanting to eat the world and all it can offer. Oh, what am I saying? I’ll never stop trying.

Justin Davidson’spainterly descriptions in his piece on the Malt House, up in Harlem. “Warehouses without wares, silent factories, quiet mills, power plants, garages, department stores, poorhouses — a whole catalogue of obsolete facilities that has had to be discarded or recycled, or else just left to rot,” he writes. Very cool.

The ongoing pungent inhumanity of extreme Republican state legislators in Idaho, where I live, who continue to introduce wave after wave of bills targetinglibraries,the trans community,public-health systems, and whatever else they can think of that’ll whip ’em up into some stupidfaux-moral frenzy.

An assortment of Chinese dishes I’ll be trying to cobble together on the occasion of Lunar New Year: dumplings, fried jicama, longevity noodles. Then, of course, simply whatever is in my vicinity during the Super Bowl. This will be an uncomfortable weekend.

… onthis report by Adele Olivieraabout how residents in Española, the New Mexican city that served as the setting for Nathan Fielder and Benny Safdie’sThe Curse, felt about the show. There’s a natural tension between film-television productions and the places they shoot in, doubly so when the thing being produced is about gentrification and power dynamics. At least, that’s what I thinkThe Cursewas supposed to be about? Partly?

I recently breezed through a strange, relatively short game on Steam calledHome Safety Hotline, which has you play the role of a hotline operator tasked with helping anxious callers identify whatever problems are going on with their house. It’s a matching game, basically. You listen to a caller’s description of the problem, after which you sort through a progressively expanding information database to figure out which one they’re talking about. There is a twist, of course. This is a piece of horror fiction, so the household problems range from leaky pipes to, well, a creepy ghoul that lives in the basement. I can leave or take the actual horror stuff (it’s justokay), but I was particularly drawn to the ’90s software aesthetic.Analog horroris just so interesting to look at.

The announcement that the 2026 World Cup Finalwill be played in New York(okay, New Jersey) caused me to burn a few hours reading about the 16 other venues in the tournament, which stretches across the United States, Canada, and Mexico. That, of course, led tofurther readingabout all the ways cities bent over backward with tax breaks, sales-tax lifting, and wobbly infrastructure guarantees to secure a spot, which as one would expect is just so gross —even if it’s nothing new. Anyway, congrats to Secaucus Junction.

… reading about how Adam Neumann, the deposed WeWork founder and wannabe cult leader, is trying to wigglehis way back into company ownershipjust reminds me, once again, of how sick I am of techno-bros operating with impunity everywhere. Sure, they’re merely a contemporary subset of Capitalist Men, a category that’s wreaked havoc for hundreds of years, but they’re justso annoying.

I keep seeing TV ads for thisexcessively futuristic-looking smart toilet, whichalwayscauses me to spit-take, and then I spit whatever’s left in my moutheven furtherwhen I see the \\$8,000 price tag. Madness, but it does make me think — if I had to rank other everyday household items I would to love to see an \\$8,000 futuristic take on, it would probably be:

5. Toaster

4. Litter box

3. Nail clipper

2. Fork

1. Back scratcher

Next week’s newsletter will be helmed by Roxana Hadadi, a TV critic at Vulture.

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