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What I'm Into This Week, November 27, 2022

Frog-eating spiders, a chill cartoon, and Jonah Hill's therapist

I spent Thanksgiving week visiting family in the Midwest, which meant I largely absolved myself of the normal fitness and outdoor routines I try to keep. Aside from a couple of trips to the climbing gym, a turkey trot, and a few other scraps of workout I managed to squeeze in, it felt like I spent most of my free time watching Netflix. That's not all bad: I'm learning to take those opportunities to let the body relax for a while. Here's what I got into in the meantime.

The goliath bird-eater (Theraphosa blondi) got its name from this illustration by Maria Sibylla Merian; despite that, confirmed reports of it eating birds are rare

Spiders Eating Vertebrates (Journal of Arachnology)

I brought a book of short stories with me, but the only pleasure reading I got done this vacation was the latest issue of the Journal of Arachnology. (New to my spider obsession? I've written about it at length for Outside and as part of a print feature for Backpacker.) Among the new research in this issue was a pretty interesting study titled Spiders feeding on vertebrates is more common and widespread than previously thought, geographically and taxonomically by Martin Nyffeler and J. Whitfield Gibbons.

The TL;DR: For decades, common wisdom has held that spiders eat vertebrates only incidentally and occasionally. By combing social media reports and scientific documentation, however, the authors found some evidence that suggests it's more widespread than we thought: They conclude that spiders from 10 families are regularly chowing down on everything from frog embryos to bats. Another 19 families have at least one species that occasionally preys on vertebrates. It's a pretty fascinating look at what some of these tiny predators are capable of.

Stutz (Netflix)

Did I think I would spend an hour and a half of my holiday watching a documentary about a Hollywood actor and his therapist? I didn't, but I'm glad I gave Stutz a chance: this movie deserves the hype it's been getting. Jonah Hill has been working with psychiatrist Phil Stutz for years, and made this film to share Stutz's psychological "tools", which he explains via drawings on index cards, with the rest of us. Along the way, they both take some surprisingly poignant detours into the parts of their lives that have left them struggling.

I'm immediately on guard when anyone tries to sell me on a self-help personality, doctorate or no; I tend to assume I'm about to get taken for a ride (blame Surgeon General of Cringe Jordan Peterson for that one, I guess.) But Stutz's straightforwardness and willingness to show its subjects as flawed, uncertain human beings sold me by the end.

Bee and PuppyCat: Lazy in Space (Netflix)

When you have a small child, you end up spending a lot of your time watching kids programming. It can be excruciating—the Peppa Pig theme song has worn a permanent hole in my brain, and if I ever meet Blippi, I swear to God I am going to brick him into a wall, Cask of Amontillado style. So Natasha Allegri's Bee and PuppyCat, a show that both my kid and I have been able to get into together, has been like a big, comfortable exhale.

The main thread of the plot follows the two title characters, a kind but kinda-hapless twentysomething and a grumpy Sanrio-esque cat-dog-creature while they navigate adulthood on a magical-realist island and their gigs as galaxy-trotting temp workers. It's kind of like Sailor Moon, if Sailor Moon were all about working for Taskrabbit. The whole thing is impossibly chill, psychedelic and pastel-colored, all set to a fantastic soundtrack by Will Wiesenfeld, better known as the electronic artist Baths.

The show is notionally for adults, but we're halfway through and I've found very little objectionable so far. There's an unplanned pregnancy (they play it for laughs, and don't dwell on the mechanics) and once or twice PuppyCat, who makes unintelligible synthesizer sounds, has said something borderline in the subtitles. If you can get past that, it makes a great family watch.

Big ASS!

I was a huge fan of The Midnight Gospel, Pen Ward and Duncan Trussell's bizarro experiment that matched real interviews from the latter's podcast with acid-trip animation; this show definitely feels like it has some stylistic similarities (Ward even directed one of the episodes). But where The Midnight Gospel got weird and occasionally out-and-out heartbreaking, Bee and PuppyCat hasn't ventured past bittersweet so far.

Appreciation Post: MW Climbing

Since building my Pandemic Bouldering Wall in my garage here in Colorado, I've mostly stopped going to climbing gyms in favor of just training at home. But with all the time I've spent with family in Nebraska over the past few years, MW Climbing—Lincoln's only climbing gym outside of the university—has been a lifesaver. If you're in town, it's worth a visit. Good vibes, good hours, good people.

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