What if...algorithm-free reco list, no. 9?
anger, reality reckonings, tech-capitalist losers, etc.
Hello!
It’s been a minute. Here are some things:
“How To Remain Engaged, Hopeful, and Angry in the Face of Global Horror”
Angelica Jade Bastién does not miss, and this newsletter on anger and interconnected struggles is no exception. This recent piece on the back acting in Passages was also incredible.
These art/sticker/activity books
Shopping for kids is both the easiest and hardest thing. It’s simultaneously like, “Oh, you can make them a little punch card (with their parents’ permission) that gives them more screen time, and this alone will be the best gift of the year,” and “Everything they want is plastic or somehow adjacent to Logan Paul.” Anyway, will kids actually like these? No idea. But they are cute!
Thin Skin: Essays by Jenn Shapland
I devoured these essays that are roughly all about boundaries but more in a porosity and things being interconnected sense than a TikTokification of therapy terms sense. My favorites were “The Crystal Vortex,” “The Toomuchness,” and “The Meaning of Life”—part of which was excerpted in Autostraddle.
“Inside the Real Housewives Reckoning That’s Rocking Bravo”
People texting me long reads about my obsessions is one of my love languages, so just know if you did that this week, I see u, and I love u. I have some qualms with how this piece centers Bethenny and RHONY when these problems are hardly exclusive to one franchise. I also take issue with how Sonja’s drug and alcohol use are discussed without her involvement or commentary. But it’s all worth it for Eboni Williams saying, “Fuck Bethenny Frankel. You think I’m going to let some white girl speak for me with my experience with a multibillion-dollar corporation?” Like, that’s the framing I’m interested in reading 9,000 words on. (Subtle plug that several writers also wrote about these topics in the new issue of Not Here To Make Friends!)
Mid Air by Romy
The guitarist and singer from the xx put out this solo album, and it’s 35 minutes of 90s/00s Euro-dance-y perfection.
Checking your local park’s event programming
Last week, I had a little low-key birthday gathering at the same time and general location as a Halloween costume contest for dogs. Parallel play at its best!
“what's earned, what's not” by Sarah Thankham Matthews
The subtitle of this is “on AI, beauty, threat, and the tech-capitalist losers we handed the reins to.” I feel so strongly about this bit:
At some point, I cited (I thought) something musician Kazu Makino said in an interview, that “taste and style are an earned individuality.”
The most important word in that sentence for me, I said, the word more and more lacking in our leaden contemporary life for me, was earned.
And also this one:
Human labor can never go away. It can only erode, in dignity, in compensation, in protection, in beauty, in meaning.
The Ozempic episode of Maintenance Phase
If you have somehow managed to avoid consuming any media about Ozempic, this one is IT. (Also, please tell me your secrets.) Michael and Aubrey pack an insane amount of research and media analysis into less than an hour. This episode is also a really great intro to Maintenance Phase generally if you’ve never listened before.
This little missive from poet Louise Gluck
As I click clack away on my silly little rom-com novel (83k words and counting! She's basically book-shaped!). I believe I first saw this in Mason Currey’s newsletter, Subtle Maneuvers.
This newsletter brought to you by:
Gingerbread Toast Crunch cereal (Cinnamon Toast Crunch’s twee holiday sister), which I’m still not sure I like.
The first episode of the new season of Selling Sunset and the introduction of my favorite new character, The Mansion Tax. May she fund many affordable housing and tenant assistance programs!
The PLU for the inexpensive Naval Oranges (4012) vs. the PLU for the elite and pricey Sumo Citrus. What you do with this information is none of my business!