Saturday, November 5: Drake, Bartise, and the Colorado River
Menu of only sides today, don't spoil your appetite
Just Side Items
Listen (or don’t): Aubrey “Drake” Graham dropped a new album yesterday titled “Her Loss”, heavily featuring the Atlanta/British rapper 21 Savage. I’m not sure who “she” is, but I surmise that the “loss” in question is leaving Aubrey. It’s a bit tedious and cringeworthy in my opinion, for a 36 year old grown man to still be writing about the girls who jilted him. I think of Drake’s music the same way I think of Justin Bieber’s. Undoubtedly there are some hits mixed in, but the vast majority of it is clearly intended for a younger audience. As if the album wasn’t juvenile enough, Aubrey includes bars making light of Megan Thee Stallion’s shooting, as well as calling out his former love interest Serena Williams’ husband. All in all, a truly strange choice for one of the most popular artists of our time 4/10
Watch (or don’t): If you’ve spent any time watching the Netflix reality TV show “Love is Blind”, you know how ridiculously watchable it is. There’s a dangerous combination of terrible song choices to go with awful romantic activities being attended by the worst personalities imaginable. This season (season 3) is set in Dallas, so the participants are a special breed of terrible (special shoutout to Bartise aka Bertise due to his striking resemblance to the Sesame Street character). If nothing else, I’m ceaselessly impressed that Netflix is able to find guinea pigs willing to participate in these shows.
Pay Attention (or don’t): The water level at Lake Powell, this country’s second-largest reservoir, will drop below a critical level by next November, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The main causes behind the drop in water level are drought, overconsumption, and climate change, lowering the amount of Colorado River water that will eventually reach the Sea of Cortez on its journey through the Colorado River Delta. Once the water drops below that point, the Glen Canyon Dam won’t be able to generate electricity, leading experts to worry if conditions will worsen to the point that the dam will no longer be able to send water downstream at all. The seven states in the Colorado River basin made little progress saving water over this summer and Colorado is heading into its third La Niña winter in a row, likely indicating below-average snowpack. What was once a hypothetical worst-case scenario now presents a very real threat.
Quick shoutout all the readers who corrected me on yesterday’s date, it was indeed November 4 and not October 4. Clearly I’m still recovering from the long month of October.