Clogs, Ball Jars, and Half-Caff
Hi y'all,
- Found a little time this week to cook up some original content for the blog. Sure it's bottom of the internet barrel kinda fluff, but weren't you just sitting there thinking "I wonder what Joey's favorite shoes are this summer?" So you're welcome. Check out my favorite things this summer.
- You really need to watch this five minute overview of the final stage of the Tour de France - it's epic. For those who don't know, the 21st stage is the final of the Tour and traditionally is a sprint through the streets of Paris. They've recently worked the hill leading up to Montmartre into the circuit and it's had amazing effects. This year was a stunner, with arguably the best one-day racer in the world, Mathieu van der Poel, dueling the best cyclist alive and current Tour winner Tadej Pogačar on winding streets teeming with fans. Comes down to an all out frenzy toward the finish line. Doesn't get much better. Oh, and shout out to Escape Collective's Spin Cycle Podcast that did a Tour de France Daily Podcast. Really fun way to stay up to date and get a perspective on what it's like on the ground covering the race.
- Macy and I got to go see the production of Julius Caesar at the long running CU Shakespeare Festival this week. I don't believe I've ever seen a production of this play live and it was a fun one for my first. They modernized it with the set design, incorporating two LCD screens on either side of the stage. Not traditional but I hought it worked really well.
- The summer of Steinbeck continued this week with Of Mice and Men. Short enough to knock out on the audio version over a bike ride and an afternoon spent working on finishing my unfinished garage. I think it's the best intro to Steinbeck I've found so far - a little East of Eden light. Same Salinas Valley, same type of doomed men, a fraction of the length. I knew roughly where it was headed the whole way and it still wrecked me.
- Last week I recommended you all listen to the new parody song (it's a banger too) called Mr. Jambo by Kyle Gordon. This week I've been seeing a lot of people on YouTube playing it on "period accurate" hardware, like this VHS transfer version and Mr. Jambo played on a 1986 Commodore CRT. Somehow this feels in the running for most 2026 thing I've seen this week.
- For the music rec this week we're leaving the world of parody tracks. I've been really digging "Good Lies" by Overmono (Spotify, Apple) - a chopped up vocal loop over skittering UK garage drums. Wistful and driving at the same time, which is why I think it works equally well on a morning walk as it does thrown on at a party. Ohh and Overmono's new album, Pure Devotion, is out August 7 and looks like it's gonna be great.
Joey
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