Show & Tell: Kendrick is Super(Bowl)
Unstacked Digest for the week of February 3-9
This is Show & Tell where I tell you some things I loved from the week and the one thing I hated, plus round up everything else going on around these parts. The first half of Show & Tell is free to all. The adoration and hateration are for paid subscribers only.
I had a whole draft of this written and then I deleted everything after Kendrick did what he did. You’ll get general announcements, then you’ll get a lot of Kendrick, and a little football, too.
This Week in The Stacks
Grammy’s talk!
Ira Madison III joined the podcast to talk about his essay collection Pure Innocent Fun and gossip.
I shared my reading goals in February, get over it.
Books I Read This Week
Disposable: America's Contempt for the Underclass by Sarah Jones
An exploration of the most vulnerable — the poor, elderly, disabled — and how they were deemed disposable by systems in the USA in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The premise of this book is extremely my jam, but it got off to a rocky start. Instead of leading with investigative journalism, Jones relies on more personal narratives to start1, which wasn’t what I came to the book for. She does rebound a few chapters in, sharing the basics of how systems exploit and harm communities in need of support, but even that feels very elementary. I appreciated the different groups she highlights in the book, but the details felt very repetitive. This is one that easily could have been a killer article.
By the Fire We Carry: The Generations-Long Fight for Justice on Native Land by Rebecca Nagle
A 1999 murder leads to a supreme court case that calls into question tribal sovereignty in the United States. This book explores that case as well as the history that leads to SCOTUS’ ruling. I was so impressed by By the Fire We Carry. Nagle seamlessly weaves history, politics, family history, and opinion into a cohesive narrative about government overreach and the rights of Native Americans. The book has range. From thrilling true crime to legal drama and beyond. Nagle’s writing is agile without sacrificing complexity or nuance. Some of the most powerful moments come when she holds her own nation, the Cherokee Nation, and her ancestors to account for their missteps. A real tour de force. If you read Killers of the Flower Moon, you gotta read By the Fire We Carry, it does all that and more.
Fave of the week!
Things I Love…
Pop Culture
Kendrick Lamar Duckworth. Pulitzer Winner. Super Bowl Legend. The only man I’ve ever loved2.
I have so so so many things I want to say.
First and foremost, thank you. The way this beef started out to where we are now? Only a fucking Gemini could get us here. We are not worthy.
Second, how dare you? I mean the audacity of Kung Fu Kenny is beyond. I only hope that I have the balls, talent, and hatred to pull off something half as good as this in my lifetime.
I can’t go through beat by beat (it is late, but I would love to) but here are (in no order) a bunch of my highlights3 that aren’t about Drake being a fucking loser4.
My mans said, I will do a murder on live TV at the Super Bowl in low rise flares. Kendrick does not care.
The lower case a chain? a minor? Diabolical.
"The revolution is about to be televised. You picked the right time but the wrong guy."
The smile at “hey Drake”. Haunting as hell. Stephen King could never.
Sam Jackson, as Uncle Same, and the narrator of this video game concept performance. The remote control. The GAME OVER?!?!?
Serena. Some of the levels of this moment went over folks head. Not only is she the GOAT. Not only is she from Compton. Not only was she Crip walking. Not only is she Drake’s ex. But she also was ridiculed, shamed, called “ghetto” and a lot worse for doing that very dance after winning Wimbledon in 2012. All of that. For her to come back and do that very dance on this very stage, owning her rightful place as a hero and an incredibly important piece of Black American (specifically Los Angeles) culture as Kendrick talks about a fake and phony was just legendary.
Also SZA, who is another of Drake’s exes. Looking flawless. Vocals flawless.
That “Humble” American flag imagery and choreo will live in my head rent free for a long time. Clean as hell.
In a halftime show dedicated to televising the revolution, this act of resistance, though unplanned, felt spot on. Shout out to this brave human for keeping it 100.
Another moment we aren’t talking enough about yet, but is worthy of at least five Emmy’s5, is the camerawork on “peekaboo”. The spinning. Kendrick popping up. I lost it. Hilarious. Brilliant. Emmy’s!
Kendrick’s joy. It just looked like hella fun out there.
I mean, the camera work in general was so good in this performance. The movement in “Not Like Us”.
The GAME OVER. The scream I screamt.
The teasing of “Not Like Us”.
Hella fools hoping out the GNX to start us off?!?!
The staging and choreo. The lines the shapes. The costumes. The camera work. The storytelling. The whole thing was just 10/10. The understood the stakes and they met the moment. Not a weak link in the whole 14 minute show. And the best part is, all of that, and yet still it wasn’t for everyone BY DESIGN.
Sports
There was a horrible football game last night, but at least, in the end, the really attractive 90’s coded QB of our collective dreams won it all and not the other guys who are “honored” by Trump6 and think women should stick to motherhood. Felt easy to pick my squad last night and it felt like the win we all needed TBH.
Book News
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We talked about A. J. Brown and reading on the sidelines before, but this man brought his book to the Super Bowl?!?!?! Tell me you don’t love him.