There was only 1 week this month when I wasn’t traveling or hosting guests. Which is great! I got to hug a lot of the people I love most in the world this month and it feels so good to actually have space to host people now (our guests have been delighted to see how the murphy bed works). On top of the traveling and visitors, I picked up a few subs at a yoga studio. It feels good to teach again — familiar but new — and I’m hopeful it’ll help me integrate into a solid community here. All this just makes for a slightly lighter roundup month. Speaking of which…
Reading
Books
Parade, Rachel Cusk. I should’ve started with a different one but I’m interested to come back to this once I’ve read a few of her other novels.
The Exorcist, William Peter Blatty. Catnip for a Fallen Catholic like myself.
Cookbooks: More is More (Molly Baz), Woks of Life (Leung family), Tenderheart (Hetty Lui McKinnon), Milk Street Vegetables (Christopher Kimball).
Elsewhere on Substack
How to let go. A tough and beautiful essay by
.The mainstreaming of loserdom. This was inescapable on Substack for a couple weeks, and for good reason.
.My breast reduction, myself. Read this while sitting in the dr waiting room to deal with some annoying body stuff and it was perfect. Guest post on
by .You can live the wrong life. As someone constantly plagued by the worry that I’m not doing it (meaning life) right, this really hit. By
.Soft power Americana. The Americanization of the internet by
.
Watching
Perfect Days loved and have more to say soon.
Ren Faire what a miserable creep.
The Bikeriders the Milwaukee Outlaws bar is right by one of our fav pizza spots and lemme tell ya…eek. But anyway, I liked the accents.
A Murder at the End of the World this was so frustrating, I’m mad I watched it all.
Primal Fear does what it needs to do.
Raising Arizona still cute and funny.
High Fidelity my toxic trait is being attracted to Rob in the year 2024.
Hail Caesar we had the pleasure of introducing Ben’s parents to this.
Burn After Reading we had the pleasure of introducing Ben’s friend to this.
Arting
Listening
Comfort To Me, Amyls and the Sniffers. They put out a new song which reminded me of this album and then I had it on repeat for a couple weeks.
Turn on the Bright Lights, Interpol. I listened to this episode of Broken Record and felt validated for liking Interpol in the early 00s despite every cute hipster boy I wanted to impress telling me they were ~derivative~.
Endless Summer Vacation, Miley Cyrus. I want to get on board with some of the new pop girlies but I’m struggling. So I turn to something more reliable.
Writing
Tiny moments of delight. On a couple low-stakes noticing projects.
Don’t it make you feel alive? My first time guest posting! Had fun thinking back on LCD Soundsystem and my Chicago days for
.
Otis of the month
omg i wanna dish about 1) rob attraction; 2) hail caesar & burn after reading and how Peter loves both of those movies so much (they were both his picks for our long distance date nights when we were still an ocean apart); 3) bikeriders, after i watch it. i hear 'meh' from most ppl but like...those AESTHETICS!
I'm excited to hear what you thought of Perfect Days!!