May Watch
Every month was like a new life. That’s what the Incas knew before they predicted the end of the world and got it completely wrong. So one May I went hunting trends with the tools of someone operating on instinct—butterfly nets and broken bottles, which was as good a method as any.
What came into focus. Odd Future. Popcorn. The specific transformation into a festival version of yourself, shedding your regular self like a skin. Lactase tablets for anyone with a standard stomach. The pleasure of getting fucked and upfucked in the same breath. Mixtapes as gifts. White socks. Balaclavas even though it wasn’t that cold. Tyson as a name everyone was saying. The project of accumulating enemies like some people accumulate nothing. Barbecuing on the beach. Turning away at a toast because some things don’t need an audience. Fake Ray-Bans that somehow outperformed the genuine article. Coconut milk in the kitchen instead of butter. Pornography mentioned like the weather, no moral weight attached. Someone breaking past a crisis of confidence. The math of a day better than yesterday being a day you won. Fireworks. Arm wrestling as a real test. The detail of someone painting themselves with bright markers in a place no one sees.
The opposite side was equally clear. The trap of Excel spreadsheets. Office existence as a specific quicksand. Moods that poisoned shared air. Taking the subway when your bike was right there. Soy milk. High-tops that didn’t fit right. Big Brother broadcasting into the void. The anxious tracking of expiration dates.
Then the truly bad. Swallowing your ex’s contraception by accident—disaster and dark comedy at once. Confusing different kinds of people. Being too far left or too far right or stuck perfectly in the middle. Hiding someone away. Nuclear power as a question that won’t resolve. Horny pigeons. Allergies. The slowness that makes you want speed, the speed that makes you want slowness.
That May had texture. Not the kind of month to recommend to anyone. Just one to move through while paying attention.