What's the deal with men? Featuring Miles Klee
They have a lot going on and it's very troubling
I went to a San Diego Loyal match with Friend of the Newsletter and Good Motorsports Writer Fred Smith over the weekend. The Loyal took on Xolos, a very popular club from Tijuana in a friendly that actually lived up to that billing. Torero Stadium (home to University of San Diego football) was not quite as packed with Xolos fans as I thought it might be, but the game was enjoyable, the spectators good-natured and literally any excuse to go to San Diego is a good one.
This is my second foray into the United Soccer League (USL) in as many weeks, in part because it’s something to do, but certainly because of a macro-level desire to find a more local, and perhaps more meaningful connection with soccer in the United States. As a lifelong San Jose Earthquakes fan, it feels the sun is setting on a positive relationship with the club. Chris Wondolowski will soon retire; their positive, energetic coach will depart for greener pastures and their shitty, stingy ownership will remain in a league that is cynical and adverse for fans and players alike.
None of that is to say that USL is good for the players. I can’t tell you how much the average USL midfielder makes, but I can tell you it’s not a lot. The clubs, while not quite part of the opaque, closed-door system of MLS, are still very much born of the American model that makes all of professional sport a bit gross if you think about it for longer than 10 minutes. So, perhaps it’s best to appreciate it for what it is: A great ticket to decent soccer in nice stadiums a little closer to home. Perfect might be out of reach, but I can settle for good.
Ahhh, men…
Miles Klee is a multifaceted writer at the recently revived MEL Magazine. He joined me to talk about writing, his journey as a writer and the acclaimed 1995 action/thriller/drama Heat. We chatted over email and the interview has been lightly edited for clarity and content.
Jake Sundstrom: First of all, congratulations on The Return of the MEL (sorry)! Are you excited to tell us What The Deal With Men is again?
Miles Klee: Thank you! I'm very excited about the return of MEL! It's a brain trust unlike any other today, and I weep constantly at the perverted brilliance of my colleagues. But I won't say I enjoy trying to understand men again. A taxing job, certainly. It was nice to be unemployed when the only man I thought about was myself. I'm incredibly simple! I need lots of sleep, that's all. Now I have to get up early to fix other men. Come on, dudes, it's not that hard.
Jake: What do you think of as your beat as an Internet Writer Guy, if you think of it at all?
Miles: Gosh, if I could nail it down, I might have a book deal about it. Instead, I'm basically an opportunist, which is another way of saying I'm not an expert on anything, i.e., I'm a dilettante. Maybe that's what digital media demands: a full-time scavenger. I'm interested in literature, art, memes and social chaos. My actual strengths are 1) filing clean copy and 2) outlining the intellectual dimensions of phenomena that seem incredibly stupid. The first thing has been way more important in terms of maintaining a career.
Jake: You have a knack for writing The Take On The Thing That I Send To Everyone (https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/looking-respectfully-meme-simp) and often answering life’s great question, “What’s the deal with ___?” is the latter thing something you set out to do? When you sit down to write about Bean Dad or whatever, what’s the thought process that gets you through the churn?
Miles: Like anyone else, I sit down with great horror at the blank page, wondering how the fuck I'm going to write anything remotely worthwhile. Inevitably, the way through is to interrogate your own feelings: Why does this make me mad, or why is it funny, or what are other people projecting onto it? We like to believe we have sophisticated reasons for everything we say and do, but so much of life—and particularly online life—is visceral. Acting before acknowledging or investigating. My process typically involves gathering context and tracing the conditions of an internet event. With someone like Bean Dad, for example, I wanted to lay out a thesis of why that happened in the first place, and in my opinion, it's because certain parents crave validation for raising their children according to idiosyncratic methods. His kid was fine, but it was an entire smug thread of "I'm not like the other dads," and that's what rubbed people the wrong way.
Let’s talk about the deranged Heat Twitter thread. Your girlfriend didn’t leave you, but are you glad you did it and are you glad you’re hurtling down the Point Break thread now?
'Heat' kept me going during the pandemic, I'm not gonna lie. And I feel, in my own relationship, that we came full circle because my girlfriend just put on an event for Danny Trejo's book and completely loves him. She still hasn't seen 'Heat,' but I described his last scene in it, and she gasped. I think I could get her to watch it at some point—maybe over three nights, like a miniseries. 'Point Break' is amazing, though there's often lots more happening per minute, so it's a different challenge. Maddie has actually seen and is quite into 'Point Break,' probably due to the himbo factor. It's also far less shy with homoeroticism. Anyway, I highly recommend watching any favorite movie one minute at a time. You see entire galaxies in the details.
Editor’s note: Miles’ girlfriend, Maddie, is part of Skylight Books’ efforts to unionize, which fucking rules. You can get more information here.
Link to the Past (Week)
Thanks Miles!! His work is great and I highly recommend you check out MEL Magazine when the folks over there resume publication for a great mixture of informative and entertainment (the sweet spot all the venture capitalists crave!) Let’s see what I crammed into my brain this past week.
From Vice News: https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3xq5w/federal-watchdog-to-study-freight-rail-safety-following-motherboard-investigation
The entire conceit of this newsletter, at some level, is a love letter to a couple of writers who I aspire to be. Aaron Gordon is one of them and this story is the culmination of the incredible reporting he’s done on transportation over the past [uh, length of time]. If you’re not reading his work, consider this another stern reminder to do so. While you’re at it, make sure you’re reading David Roth at Defector and Miles Klee at MEL (I know, he’s already here). They’re huge influences on the dumb shit I write. It’s not their fault I’m like this, though.
Update from Vice:
Amazon paused its furniture assembly service following Vice’s reporting a few weeks ago (which you might have read about in this newsletter — thought it’d be nice to drop in a little good news!)
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From Discourse Blog: https://discourseblog.com/texas-gop-alamo-book/
Texas Republicans chose to roll back events discussing and celebrating (?) the loss (???) at the Alamo because it meant they’d have to talk about … you know, the whole story. We talked about this at length with Tyler Stafford (which you should check out!) but there’s great info from a great Texan in the link above.
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From the LA Times: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-07-07/light-rail-coming-to-orange-county-as-oc-streetcar-underway
Come to see just how fried the brains are in Orange County, stay to see a man compare California’s third-most-populous (and most affluent) county to Gotham City (???) Anyway, The OC is finally getting a streetcar line … albeit a 4-mile stretch that doesn’t really take you anywhere (nope, you can’t take it to Disneyland or the airport!) but uh, it’s a start!
Can you see me now?
I saw Black Widow this week and did not particularly care for it! But wow Florence Pugh is a really great performer and is extremely good-looking!
I have been listening to this album nonstop since Going to Brighton popped up on a playlist a week ago. I love the vibes!! That’s all I got!
Let’s do it again next week!
Have a tip? Want to talk about something cool and/or important? Shoot me an email! jacobasundstrom[at]gmail.com
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