a good book you should read right now: unworld by jayson greene!!!! i am a huge fan of jason’s first book, once more we saw stars, a memoir about the accidental death of his toddler daughter, and i was lucky enough to read an early copy of this one, his first novel. a synopsis:
Anna is shattered by the violent death of her son, Alex, and tormented by the question of whether it was an accident or a suicide. Alex’s best friend, and the only eyewitness to his death, Samantha keeps returning to the cliff where she watched him either jump or fall, trying to sift through the shards. Aviva is an “upload,” a digital entity composed of the sense memories of a human tether. Set free from her source and harboring a troubling secret, she finds temporary solace in the body of Cathy, a self-destructive ex-addict turned AI professor and upload-rights activist. As Anna, Cathy, Sam, and Aviva’s stories hurtle toward each other, the stakes of UnWorld reveal themselves with electrifying intensity: What happens to the soul when it is splintered by grief? Where does love reside except in memory? What does it mean to be conscious, to be human, to be alive?
sounds good, right??!!!?!?!! i promise it is!
a few good songs:
guapanese mick jenkins
egypt westside gunn and doechii
tulips damu the fudgemunk, archie shepp, raw poetic
hey jupiter tori amos
what am i to do? ezra collective
the hop a tribe called quest
can i talk my shit? vagabon
dance machine jordan ward
gah damn kairee doty
pyramid song radiohead
ace trumpets clipse
there is is there woman believer
my current most favorite thing on this entire wretched planet is ugandan inter-gender soft ground wrestling. i’m telling you right now, i don’t know what the hell i clicked on that got this served to me but i will die grateful to the algo because this is the best shit i have ever seen. it’s like wwe but way better and outside in the mud????? also women get to fight men and it’s fucking incredible. my favorite wrestler is this chick named zampi who kicks the absolute fucking shit out of these dudes. the (insanely hype!!!!!!!!) crowd loves her and she’s not scared of shit, just out here kicking a grown man’s entire ass barefoot in some damn target leggings and a workout tank.
we watched the pee-wee herman documentary the other night and it’s as captivating as everyone (smarter than me) says. i was fully into pee-wee as a kid, my mom took me to see big adventure in the theater, i watched playhouse every saturday, and it was fascinating to see the real human person behind the bowtie. (that could have been a good alt title, if anyone had bothered to ask me, a nobody!)
chilling in my various online carts rn:
these very cool thief and bandit painted pants
i’m desperately trying not to fall for the matte lip balm scam
do i need a glasses wipe that looks like a strawberry?????
this entire situation right here
can i convincingly pull off an ear cuff?
tell me i don’t need and/or will never wear this orca jersey please
however i did pull the trigger on this leopard cos bag (it’s on sale!!)
my kingdom for an actually perfect soft bra
are these shoes dumb as hell? (whoops, i already got them in tangerine!)
every now and again i get the irrepressible urge to buy nail stickers (i am 45)
aveda’s finally making hair products for the coilies????????
before a couple weeks ago i didn’t know shit about nascar and now, after watching every single episode of both seasons of full speed on netflix, i would kill for joey logato and die for bubba wallace. not really but you get it. i will watch practically anything, so when my best friend the algorithm (she knows me better than anyone) demanded i watch this docuseries about race car drivers how could i say no? my immediate thought was “this is just a bunch of fucking racists, right?” but now that i am a nascar historian i can say “this is just a bunch of fucking racists, but also some black people and at least one latina.” i love the little cutie pie that races for michael jordan’s team, i love michael jordan, i love the pit crews, i love all the crying wives, i love children who drink mountain dew for breakfast, i love all of it.
we saw the materialists yesterday morning and i’m sorry, BUT: romcom where????? maybe i watched too many of those cutesy threesome interviews they did and fell prey to clever marketing but lmao none of what happened was what i paid to see!!! my one-sentence review: it was beautiful to look at and i enjoy movie theater popcorn.
i like a proper romantic comedy, so i’m not biased, that just wasn’t what this was. the, uhm, trauma subplot? didn’t love that! felt dakota could’ve reached her epiphany in another (funnier and less harrowing????) way!!! anyway who cares what i think, i’ll wait until someone intelligent writes a thinkpiece that accurately sums up my views and quote it in conversation like i wrote it.
a few good as hell things on TV:
-the tylenol murders that one dude (watch it and you’ll know who i mean) scared the ever-loving shit outta me, i still have the heebie jeebies
-mobland so bloody, so loud, so violent!! only bummer is that tom hardy (fine shit) and pierce brosnan (superfine shit, holy cow) did not sensually kiss each other on the mouth in slow motion
-american manhunt: osama bin laden i am a sucker for an examination of events in recent history and this was great, literally salivating for astroworld and rob ford
-finished season three of the bear (i forgot!) in preparation for the upcoming season, my crush on will poulter was instantly reignited and the show satisfies my homesickness without my having to sit on 94 for two and a half hours just to discover that everyplace i used to love is gone (rip maude’s!!)
-the four seasons please keep in mind that i might be the exact right target audience for this show (gay, middle-aged, still regularly quote 30 rock in conversation) and that definitely informs my bias toward content such as this, BUT: i laughed out loud at every episode
XOXO see u soon