Barb is My Spirit Animal & Other Thoughts from This Week

Is it me, or does Clinton Kaine sound like the name of a badass hero from an early 90s action flick in which the fate of the world rests in one person's hands?

I finished watching the first season of Stranger Things on Netflix, and I loved it every minute of all eight episodes. (Welcome back, Winona Ryder.) It's one giant mashup of homages to genres that shaped much of my childhood. And most importantly, what I learned was this: Barb is my muthaf**kin spirit animal. See Brian Moylan's brilliant breakdown of the character over at Vulture.


M. Night Shyamalan's latest, Split, debuted its trailer, and I'm down for seeing it in January for a number of reasons:

1. We need more Betty Buckley.
2. Being kidnapped by James McAvoy can't be all that bad.
3. I'd like to inflate my moviegoer ego and predict the twist ending: all three girls are part of his multiple personalities.
4. Again, James McAvoy.

There's also a new Blair Witch movie coming out this year. Meanwhile, Blink-182 is on tour, and a Clinton is making national headlines. Now I just need a new Backstreet Boys single to complete the 1999 realness of this week.

Take a look at the above photo. Because this is where I will be escaping to this weekend: The Riviera in Palm Springs. We're more than halfway through the summer, and I need to seriously up my suntanning game and maintain my summer reading skills.

@TheFirstEcho