State of the Current
Cross Current’s Two Year Anniversary
On August 29, 2022 I wrote my first Substack. But it was…
Is this really a Cross Current post without a bulky block quote?
Fair enough. From my first anniversary post:
I started this whole thing back on August 29th. That was back when I wrote these from work during the weekday. Before I did this Substack, I wrote a direct email newsletter called Foisted for about a month because I was bored at work. The joke was that I emailed you the newsletter if you were my friend regardless of whether you liked it or not. Or, I foisted it on you. Most of my friends just sighed and rolled their eyes. One friend, Trafton Crandall, kept pushing me to write a Substack. The first post, “Generation X,” was pretty much like a Foisted post: quick, irreverent pop culture stuff with no art or graphics whatsoever. Also the Substack was called Sup Culture and it was focused on subcultures, a topic which of course has not stopped being an obsession of mine.
The first post I wrote where I took it seriously (and I also moved to my Saturday schedule) was “How Duracell Might Outlast Human Culture.” That was when this became an obsession of mine. Sitting for hours trying to push a big preoccupation of mine out (in this case, how advertising affects culture) felt great. Arduous but great.
Later that month, I changed the title to Cross Current and the focus to the overlap between legacy media and new media, since this seemed to interest me even more than subcultures anyway. The first Cross Current post, “The Real Bad Actors,” was about the history of how acting trickled out of theater and film into everyday life, starting with Reagan’s legendary presidential acting and ending with Amber Heard’s lackluster trial performance.
Before we take a deeper look back, let’s take a quick look at some changes from the block quote above: I now publish on Sundays (today being an anniversary exception) and I post about twice a month now.
The second year has seen far greater subscriber growth, engagement, heck I even got cited in the NY Times by Ross Barkan. Speaking of Barkan, I met way more fellow Substackers this year. In year one there was my friend
and my day one Cross Current fan, , who I was fortunate enough to meet in person. This year I met , , and . I plan on meeting many more because I am an old-fashioned IRL oldhead.If you are reading Substack, let alone Cross Current, chances are you are a geek. So let’s quickly compare year one stats with year two stats. My hottest Year One Substack, From Young Folks to Old Mids, got a total of twelve likes and zero restacks. And those extra likes probably came from Barkan’s like of the article earlier this year. My biggest Year Two post, Death of the Blockbuster or Birth of a New Hollywood, got 41 likes and 18 restacks.1 Not Freddie DeBoer numbers, but upward not downward.
OK now for a deeper look back at the two years. Like a State of the Union, I will look at a few of the topics that were particularly relevant to this newsletter the past two weeks and try to chart the progress. Perhaps this can help chart a way forward.
Online Life
Discussing how everyday life has been downgraded online is a minefield. Beyond the plain paradox of discussing this online, there is the real possibility of absolutely sounding like any person that has ever written a Substack ever. The first piece I wrote on it here, How Duracell Might Outlast Human Culture, is linked to (all links will be provided at the bottom of each subtopic) here to show where I’ve come from more than where I’m still at or want to be. It was my first time trying, as opposed to being a glib shithead trying to prove to
that this was a waste of time. Personality Exhaustion, which was mentioned in the New York Times, is a superior piece and for good reason: instead of wagging the finger, it looks at a potentially positive development of online life: moving past personalities and celebrating everyday people surviving the unimaginable. This was not a trend that lasted, and I did write two more pieces of note that were critical of online life, but I was — I am — confident that they look at it from fresh perspectives. One of them, The Internet Has Been Starving Your Right Brain to Death, points to an issue we still struggle with today: how online life has flattened everything into political discourse. The, other, entitled The War Between IRL and URL, delves into how the online world increasingly demands secession from the offscreen world, while meatspace struggles to keep the union between the two worlds. At this point though, the poverty of online life is a topic that has been scorched earth and I will likely touch on it on posts in the near future instead of focusing on it.
Counterculture
As you may have gleaned from the block quote, I am obsessed with subcultures and countercultures. The first piece of note I wrote about either (From Young Folks to Old Mids) was the decline of the twee, indie twerp subculture that, looking back, was a large counterculture. I even argue that indie sleaze was a decidedly nasty rejoinder to the sweetness of the twee ethos. Nevermind that Tim Walz holding a pig may very well signal a return to twee times. Longtime readers have probably clocked by now my obsession with the Sixties, particularly with comparing that moment to ours. In A Tale of Two Sixties, I write about how the New Left Sixties and the Tech Sixties led to our current moment and are, to this day, at war with each other. Two more pieces that are worth looking at are A Revolution Above and Beyond Politics and Microplastic America. The former is a call to arms for those who believe we need a revolution of consciousness. The latter is a tirade against shallow online life and how it resembles TV, which was once the epitome of Plastic America that ‘60s misfits rebelled against (before of course being consumed by it).
Philosophy and Spirituality
Easily my least popular topic on here, and for understandable reasons: here I am talking about media and culture, historically and in its current incarnation. Why bring in either of these topics? “Philosophy” might be easier, to understand. McLuhan, etc. But “spirituality”? I would argue that the intersection of spirituality and tech is the topic of our decade. And while my previous post on spirituality (a three-parter called Mall Messiahs) may have gone over like a lead balloon, Make America Magical Again has been met with more acceptance (thanks in no small part to
linking to it twice). No PoMo was ambitious in that I hoped it would stand out from other pronouncements of postmodernism’s death. It didn’t. I still stand by it though and may even follow it up with the new direction we may be moving in instead.
AI
Funny how throughout 2023 AI was all I could talk about. Then I cooled off. Unless something insane happens between now and early September, I am determined to make my next post about AI. Until then we will have to check out the reruns. Like they say in the biz: if you haven’t seen it, it’s new to you. The first substantial post on AI, AI-pocalypse Now, captures the terror of that time and, along with other great articles by
and others, predicted the era of AI slop we are currently in. Although we may not live in The Postfame Era, like I prophesied in that piece — Hawk Tuah Girl and the Demure trans woman might be the Internet era’s first bona fide superstars — we can also acknowledge that the “grinding till you make it” school of fame is giving away to the “lucky lotto” model of capricious algorithmic whims. No Art, Just Vibes may have not looked deeper enough. We are now very much in the era of No Political Policy, Just Vibes. Again, all to please the moody AI God.
Politics
The topic that has cost me the most followers. If I would just shut my goddam mouth about Gaza, I would not have a day job. Believe it or not, I am more driven by my pure fascination with how the Gaza narrative to this day has the media online and off frazzled than I am by some sort of ethical purpose. Before Gaza, my first noteworthy political post (War Culture) was about how American culture, like any culture before or since, is completely centered on war. If it truly challenges the military narrative, it will not be easy to find or appreciate. This was at a time when much of the online left, let alone liberals, were not as interested in criticizing the war machine. Maybe this is why I only got two likes. As Kanye West said, shoulder shrug. We Are Not as Bad as the Nazis, Right? ambitiously tries to chart the history of the liberal media. I think it succeeds, which is why I constantly link back to it. The rift between liberal legacy media and an increasingly leftist online movement was the subject of The End of Woke Legacy Media. I know, I spoke too soon, though the Kamala Cloud can only stay rain-free for so long. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised highlighted a moment of media skepticism that has been unprecedented. Again, as I point out in Revenge of the Normies, center-left media has not been this hot since 2008. My gut tells me those who are excited about this might want to skip sleep until September 10 — when Kamala Harris debates Donald Trump — and sleep for the rest of the year.
Arts and Entertainment
At the end of the day, I am a culture critic with a big mouth. Like some journalists would write about sports all night and day if they could, on some level I am always writing about arts and entertainment. I only get a few opportunities to really let it rip on my favorite topic though. As I have decried numerous times, we are stuck culturally. Arts and entertainment still seem stuck in the ‘10s while everything else has hurtled forward. This may explain why most of my good pieces on the subject (Off-Off Hollywood, The Mesoculture and Lit 2.0) are more manifestos than a discussion of actual trends. My most popular newsletter article. The Death of the Blockbuster or the Birth of a New Hollywood, captured a moment that potentially felt like the beginning of something new. The success of Deadpool vs Wolverine as well as Inside Out 2 have chastened me. For now.
Special Thanks To:
And all 497 498 of my subscribers (long way from 23 subscribers last August 29th). Thank you all.
I wrote all this on Sunday. I am aware The Right Might Capture Culture is now the top post. Still it technically has less likes moreover I don’t see the right capturing culture now. Please see Revenge of the Normies (linkes above in Politics) for my revised take.
Crazy to see all this work compiled in one place, I dream of building up that kind of a repertoire while maintaining such quality like you do. I've been trying to write more and definitely admire your dedication--it keeps me motivated!
Keep going! I'm endlessly fascinated by your pieces. They're appointment reading for me.