things i am watching and/or reading and/or listening to instead of doing my work
someone please tell me how to write an entire book
this marc rebillet motivational song that i listen to 100x a day
“you gotta show up if you wanna get it done / if you wanna get it done you gotta show up / if you wanna get some shit done, bitch / you gotta show right up and do that shit!”
“ungodly hour” chloe x halle
i like to get stoned at night and listen to music in the dark and think about what a miracle whales are and how mind-blowing it is that we get to be on the planet at the same time as them, and i stumbled across this song a couple (?) months (???) and holy fucking shit not only does it B U M P but it’s a perfect 2am stoner cut, especially if you turn your headphones all the way up and pretend you’re riding waves on jupiter or some shit like i do. what are these girls, like twelve years old????? who taught them how to make songs this good! also i thought it might be weird to share this, but then i saw that other people already found and followed it so who cares i guess, but here is a link to my smoking weed in the middle of the night playlist late nites in outer space!!
hideout by louisa luna
i bought louisa’s first book in her alice vega series, two girls down, because my local bookstore had it facing out on one of the mystery/thriller shelves and that’s pretty much all the convincing i need but also: “when two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot in a small pennsylvania town, their devastated family hires an enigmatic bounty hunter from california, alice vega, to do what the authorities cannot.” WHAT MORE NEEDS TO BE SAID!? but then i read it and it was fast-paced and tense and great, and when i finished reading it i started shouting about it on the internet so other people would read it because that’s what you do now. then she wrote a second one and now there’s a third and i guess what i’m trying to say is the bandwagon has room so climb aboard!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“stay soft” mitski
on repeat.
nightmare alley
ummm idk how to talk about movies for real but goddamn this shit was good as hell. let me see if i can sum up the plot in a way that doesn’t sound fucking stupid: bradley cooper is a grifter (??) or a drifter (???) who takes a job as a carny and uses his looks and charm to work his way up from a guy who hauls shit around to become part of an act. more stuff happens but the most important thing to know is that both cate blanchett AND toni collette are in it, so what more convincing do you really need? it’s long but that doesn’t matter, also it’s on hulu which i know you pay for and also it’s guillermo del toro?????? go watch it!!!
justine snacks
do y’all follow her? i’m not even sure how i found her instagram but she makes these extremely satisfying short videos of herself preparing foods that are all quick cuts and sound effects that are like slice! *water whooshes* chopchopchop! *slides a plate into the frame* clinkclink! *drizzles hot sauce* and they’re just so soothing to me. look how this woman makes toast. i am literally never doing that? but i love that she does it! i tip my cap to a bitch who is cooking lunch but i will never be her, the thought of pulling out a frying pan in the middle of the day makes me want to cry, but i will sit and watch justine do it while shoveling a half-defrosted lean cuisine in my gaping maw. but don’t worry, you don’t have to pause a 30-second video a dozen times to figure out how to make what she’s making, she also has a website with recipes (and steps!) and i’m making this citrus salmon tomorrow (in the evening, as god intended).
billions
UGH COREY STOLL IS STILL FINE AS HELL
this cm punk profile in esquire by my man dan sinker
i love wrestling but i haven’t watched in at least 5-ish years? i don’t even know who’s wrestling anymore, all my references are dudes like randy orton and shawn michaels and triple h when he was actually a wrestler and didn’t wear suits. i always liked punk because when you’re from chicago you have to love any- and everyone from chicago but i didn’t know much about why he quit wrestling and i had no idea he was back??? dan is an incredibly talented writer and the profile is so good that i might force someone in the house who understands how the television works to figure out how i can watch his new gig.
snack time by ariella elovic
i am a huge fan and love love looooooove ariella’s book cheeky, a graphic memoir about her body, part by part, that is funny and sweet and i blurbed it because that’s how much i like her work. anyway she has a newsletter now, full of the same sweet drawings and funny stories and i have been reading it to try to drum up some enthusiasm about tackling my own (grossly overdue) work. here is one of my favorite entries, recipes are romantic in theory and my coat officially has pit stains! if you subscribe you will immediately fall in love so brace yourself for that.
getting to center and how to not always be working marlee grace
marlee is a gift, really and truly. i can’t remember how i found my way to their newsletter but i’m glad i did, it’s such a bright light in my inbox. that led me to their books, which are described as a “guide book is filled with practical advice to help you curb your obsessions and build boundaries between your work, your job, and your life” and “an empathetic offering to those who are looking for a roadmap for finding their way back to equilibrium.” the last couple of years have really melted my brain and i feel almost feral sometimes, like i don’t know how to be around people in the world but also i can’t focus and get shit done when i’m alone, and marlee’s books have provided a lot of comfort and insight and i’m grateful to have them.
keep moving journal maggie smith
okay since we’re on this woo path let’s keep it going. erm, keep it moving, if you will. my good pal megan stielstra could not stop rhapsodizing about this journal and even though i don’t consider myself fruity enough for journaling (i know i know) i bought it anyway, and it’s filled with journaling prompts that are very good but also very challenging? some of them are a genuine struggle to get through because they’ve encouraged me to confront things i either don’t think about at all or make jokes about when i do. it’s not even the deep shit, the other day i spent half an hour staring at a blank page, flummoxed by an entry asking me to “list things you’d like to try.” i’m so anxious about doing anything that i can’t even fantasize about doing anything new, which is a sick feeling but also one that was beneficial to confront. i’m taking my time with it because being intimidated by a prompt to “list what you’re looking forward to” makes me feel like a loser, but on the flip side at least i have some new shit to talk about in therapy?
we need to talk about cosby
a million years ago i wrote and read an essay at the paper machete about how gross and weird bill cosby’s “pull your pants up shtick” landed on me as a person who grew up wishing heathcliff huxtable was my dad (not well, bitch!) and the revelation of his crimes was so shocking?????? i mean, we had his records and his books and uptown saturday night on vhs just like everybody else in the 80s! who knew!!! i don’t know kamau, but i do feel a kinship with him as a husky black nerd-adjacent person who makes jokes, and not only did i appreciate that he’s grappling with what bill cosby meant to him as a child and a comic juxtaposed with his criminal acts, but i also think the way the docuseries is formatted, braiding together his ascent from relatively unknown standup to america’s dad with the timeline of his assaults was so effective. trigger warning for real, but if you can stomach it it’s worth your time.
the brilliant bobby finger’s in-depth investigation into the origin of joanna gaines’ peanut butter brownies
OH, SHIPLAP!!
was it me? or my teeth? in the new york times by my man damon young
i have shitty teeth and we don’t talk enough about how having bad teeth really just ruins so much in a person’s life (and also poisons you from the inside!) and i was thrilled to see him writing about it in the times, even though damon is a traitor because he has invisalign now.
emily kirkpatrick’s newsletter i <3 mess
fashion gossip!
allie jones’ newsletter gossip time
celebrity gossip!
kelsey mckinney’s podcast normal gossip
i am a kelsey stan (buy her novel!!!!!!!!!!!) and i read defector (become a member!!!!!!!!!!!) and duh i obviously love low stakes gossip about people i don’t know who i will never meet. i had to switch up my podcast selections because i subscribed to too many pop culture shows and was getting overwhelmed with how much shit i can’t keep up with and normal gossip is a nice reprieve, no scary politics and no blistering takedowns of a show i had no idea existed and the internet will forget about in a week, just people talking about people who might not even really exist??? it’s perfect.
what to cook when you don’t feel like cooking
again, not sure what angel dropped caro into my life, BUT: now i cannot imagine life without her? sorry for all these newsletter recs but i can’t go on websites anymore, it’s too fucking stressful!! anyway, she sends out recipes that are good as hell and super easy but the best part is that at the end of every recipe homegirl writes a comprehensive list of notes and substitutions, sometimes longer than the fucking recipe, so that each one is truly easy. she’s like “don’t have that? use this or this or that or this or leave it out, who cares,” WHAT A DREAM. i like to cook but a thing i don’t like is realizing i don’t have one exotic ingredient and not knowing whether i have to get my boots on and slalom through a blizzard to go get it because it’s crucial or if i can just use something else in its place or leave it out entirely, plus she tells you how to make shit gluten-free or vegetarian or literally whatever you need. here is her top 10 of 2021, enjoy!!
razorblade tears by s.a. cosby
hot damn. this book is violent as fuck and it’s the kind of visceral violence that you can feel through the page, it’s almost like watching a movie. but also i wept like a baby. great stuff just like his first book, which i also really liked? how is it possible for people to be this talented?????
waxahatchee and beach house
we went to two concerts in one weekend a couple weekends ago and here’s a fucking shocker: i am too old to be doing that shit. they both were in grand rapids, which feels so lucky? that two bands i love played 45 minutes from my crib in the dead of a miserable winter?? i couldn’t not go. it’s illegal to spit in the universe’s face like that. waxahatchee played in this gorgeous church and beach house played this tiny venue and both shows were almost uncomfortably intimate but also insanely good. i’ve spent so much time with the newest waxahatchee record since it came out last year, and it was cool to hear katie sing the songs in real life and watch people dancing and crying. every song on st. cloud is good but this is my fucking jam. (warning: it is sad and slow which, to me, is a jam qualification.) the full version of the new beach house record came out two days before the show, and i was like “oh nooooo it’s gonna be a bunch of new shit i don’t know yet” and even though i have seen them tour every single album they’ve ever made i still want to hear my shit, and the universe must have told them because they played “silver soul” right out the gate and i positively lost my miiiiiind.
i hope everybody’s doing ok. love you!