Reading, Watching, Listening: 10/29/25

Here's an update on what I've reading, watching, and listening to for the past week.

Reading: I started the novel Red Storm Rising by Tom Clancy, a military/political/techno thriller about a WWIII scenario. Clancy was outspoken about his conservative politics; his fiction was an
extension of Reagan era foreign policy. I wonder where Clancy would stand on Trump. His novels celebrated the military as a model institution celebrating Americans of all backgrounds exceling and working together. NATO was also a sacred alliance in the Jack Ryan books. Whether Trump's an extension of Reagan or an aberration is a complex question. Nevertheless, revisiting Clancy feels like a completely different time.

Watching: I'm enjoying the John Woo collection on the Criterion Channel highlighting his groundbreaking action movies that defined Hong Kong cinema. I also watched the new Kathryn Bigelow political thriller on Netflix House of Dynamite. The film achieves a sense of dread with the scenario it depicts, but the execution felt off. I'm also up to Season 4 of Supernatural, an easy show to dismiss as schlock, and in many ways, it is, but the character arcs and the stakes get better with each season. I'm also doing a rewatch of 21 Jump Street, you can find my episode reviews here.

Listening: I'm enjoying Jeff Tweedy's new triple album Twilight Override, you can read my review here. As for podcasts, I've been listening to Unclear and Present Danger which covers the political and military thrillers of the 1990s, they recently discussed the 1997 Bond film, Tomorrow Never Dies. The Projection Booth Podcast interviewed documentarian David Kittredge on his new film Boorman and the Devil, which is about the making and legacy of the often-maligned Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Some Favorite Halloween Themed Songs - Happy Halloween! 

1) Night of the Vampire - Roky Erickson

2) Meet Ze Monsta - P.J. Harvey

3) I Am a Hologram - Mr. Heavenly

4) Superstition - Stevie Wonder

5) Halloween - The Dream Syndicate

6) Season of the Witch - Super Session

7) Lon Chaney - Garland Jeffries

8) The Wizard - Black Sabbath

9)  My Own Version of You - Bob Dylan

10) There Is a Light That Never Goes Out - (Dum Dum Girls version)