The First Echo

As a member of the Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity Council at work, I am certainly proud to be a part of a group that celebrates and showcases the various figures and cultures that have shaped and continue to influence our country. And for the month of June, I am also thrilled to contribute to our company's newsletter which puts a spotlight on Pride – including this playlist that will hopefully help everyone find their groove, find their voice, and find their place during this upcoming "hot vax summer." Enjoy (also available on Apple Music): @TheFirstEcho

The face masks are coming off (for some of you), and there is a certain energy in the air, one that is screaming at the top of its lungs, "Watch out, world! I'm gonna have me a Hot Vax Summer!" This is an energy unlike any other felt at the beginning of the season. These aren't some pent-up feelings from a long, dreary winter. This is more like a life-force that has been suppressed since March 2020, and it. Needs. To. Come. Out.  While I still advise all of y'all to embrace these new "roaring twenties" with caution, I do suggest that you soak up every moment you're given – and use this as your soundtrack while you do it.  As usual, be sure to come back and revisit this playlist as I'll be adding more tunes to it over the next several weeks. @TheFirstEcho

Last week, the teaser trailer for Netflix's Fear Street trilogy of movies dropped, and yours truly woke up to the news, immediately reverting back to his 12-year-old self. To say this is a major event for me would be an understatement. (If you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, go do some Wikipedia-ing.) Anyone who really knows me knows that this is my Marvel. This is my Lord of the Rings , my Game of Thrones . This is the book series that truly shaped me into the horror-loving bookworm and writer who stands before you (and with all due respect, f**k Goosebumps ). I own all 80+ titles of the original series, plus 2005's  Fear Street Nights , 2014's six-book reboot, and the latest rendition, Return to Fear Street , that came out two years ago. I've literally waited YEARS for this adaptation to be made. I've been anticipating a release ever since 20th Century Fox  announced its development , attaching Leigh Janiak as the director back in 2017. (*Net

Listen up children. Time for a little pop culture history lesson... The year was 1996. Will Smith was defeating aliens in  Independence Day , Bill Clinton was defeating Bob Dole in the polls, and the Macarena was defeating us all. Twenty-five years ago, I was working my first summer job at  Playland Park  in New York, the amusement park where Mariah Carey once sang "Fantasy" on a roller coaster for her music video (and where Tom Hanks took back his wish on that boardwalk at the end of Big ). That summer was a magical one. I was the brand new recipient of a driver's permit. I had disposable income that enabled me to purchase plenty of CD singles. And, one afternoon at the Jacob Javits Auto Show in Manhattan, I had the chance to geek out over a meet-and-greet with  Melrose Place 's Kristin Davis and Marcia Cross (another story for another time).  This was the soundtrack that got me through it all. @TheFirstEcho

Growing up, I didn't think much about my mixed-race heritage. I grew up in the suburbs of New York City with a white mother from a large Irish-Catholic family and a Japanese father who emigrated to America in the late 70s. My childhood was, simply put, very American. I was obsessed with  Sesame Street 's Grover, Cookie Crisp cereal, and Waldo, that red-striped-sweater-wearing nerd of Where's Waldo fame. I had annual photo shoots at our local Sears Portrait Studio. I got creeped out when Cherie got locked inside that refrigerator on  Punky Brewster . And I, too, wondered what being "like a virgin" meant whenever Madonna's song came on the radio in between bites of my Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. But as I got older, I became more cognizant of my "other half," the part of me that remembered Japanese nursery rhymes my father narrated for me at bedtime ( something about an elderly couple adopting a baby they find hidden inside a giant peach on their farm

"Everyone's got a podcast nowadays," someone once told me. "First it was blogs, then it was Tumblr..." Truer words couldn't have been said, especially when it comes to my creative friends who are killing it lately with fun shows you can listen to right now . And yes, I may be using this as an opportunity to shamelessly plug the podcasts I've guest-appeared on, pretending to be the pop culture pundit I proclaim to be, but still, give 'em a listen, won't you? First, there's Very Special Television , where I join a panel of guys who bring on a special guest to cover "very special episodes" of sitcoms from the 80s and 90s. For my installment, we discussed "Crime and Punishment," the Season 5 episode of the Roseanne that tackles domestic abuse. (Poor Aunt Jackie!) Check it out here . Next up, on  My Vietnam Podcast , I chat with writer-director-producer Ringo Le, who is a champion for traditionally underrepresented voices. We

"For me, the tools that I relied upon to feel well often looked less like treatment and more like the ingredients that make up a full, joyful life: the friends I saw for long, intimate dinners; the work events that made me feel purposeful and accomplished; even the affirming gym I went to in the mornings..." - Sam Lansky, Time , June 2020 When journalist and author Sam Lansky ( Broken People ) candidly wrote about his emotional experiences living in lockdown, he was three months into the pandemic, a global event that has now affected every human being in existence. Back then, it was reported that 40% of Americans said their mental health had been negatively affected by COVID-19. Last March, the call volume to the national hotline run by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services jumped nearly 900% higher than the same month in 2019. Back then, people were already hitting walls, particularly those who lived alone and only had their personal demons to keep them company, tho

It's the soundtrack you'll need to help you get to that light at the end of the tunnel. Kicking things off is Nick Jonas's "This is Heaven," something I hope we can all proclaim once those vaccine rollouts finally kick in. And when you're done jamming out to the song's sax solo, there are new tracks from past spring favorites like Daya, Roosevelt, and The Midnight. No social distancing required. @TheFirstEcho

     I'm a little late to the game, but then again, 2020 wasn't a typical year for movies.  @TheFirstEcho

Ah, 2001. It's not just the name of Stanley Kubrick's space epic. It was the first year of the 21st century, a year of... so much . It was the year I got my first cell phone, the year I lived abroad in London and fell deeper in love with all things British, and the year that saw one sunny September morning change the lives of every American forever. But not to be forgotten, it was the last innocent era of pop music. 2001 was the year that introduced us to new adjectives ("Bootylicious"), new artists (Hey, Craig David), and newfound respect for Pink ( Missundaztood , anyone?). Here are the 30+ tracks that made my year (gulp) twenty years ago. @TheFirstEcho

If you don't recognize the two names in the above headline, then you clearly did not come of age in the 90s as a budding horror fan ... UPDATED: Back in December of 2020, R.L. Stine, the world-famous author of nearly a hundred scary novels for kids and young adults ( and one of my literary idols ), tweeted a photo of himself with a corny caption that truly demonstrated his dad joke game. The picture showed the 77-year-old writer sitting at his desk, announcing himself as the winner of a fake award: Then, at the beginning of the new year, Christopher Pike (real name: Kevin McFadden), the other young-adult novelist who also dominated teen bookshelves during the same decade (and elusive object of my journalistic obsession back in 2011 ), replied with a fun jab at Stine, sharing his own win. 9:10am UPDATE: And Stine clapped back!!! Needless to say, if this were 1993, my younger and much geekier self would spontaneously combust from a massive nerdgasm after seeing these two so-called