SEPTEMBER 2023
STARTERS
I recently finished the The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman, a detailed and riveting analysis of a decade of which I was not alive for but forever wish I was. Not to be one of those “I was born in the wrong generation” schmucks but there’s not a lot I wouldn’t give to live just one day in nineties New York City. Klosterman expertly explores the historical trends and pop culture phenomena of the decade he believes “didn’t want to be defined.” It’s always fascinating to learn about something you have no lived experience of, especially when it’s the decade right before your own. The nineties were all about nonchalance and refusing to “sell out” while simultaneously undergoing a massive upheaval of human consciousness. It was society on the precipice of the digital revolution who had no idea the kind of change that was coming— and didn’t really seem to give a fuck if it did. Klosterman is terrifically funny and engaging and I can’t wait to read more of his books (only after I watch 50 episodes of Friends so I can feel like it’s 1996).
I haven’t watched a lot of TV while at school because I lack the time to get into anything serious (and there’s this little thing called a “writer’s strike” happening in Hollywood), but No Reservations works perfectly for me. If I could have dinner with one person in the world it would be Anthony Bourdain. It’s been him ever since I read Kitchen Confidential and watched his CNN special with my mom a couple years ago. I love this man so much and wish so badly to sit down and share a bowl of ramen with him, so this show is the closest thing I’ll get. “No Reservations” is Bourdain’s second show after “The Cook’s Tour” and it aired on the Travel Channel in 2005. It follows Bourdain as he jets off to different places around the world and eats incredible cuisine, from hole-in-the-wall traditional French diners to gaudy Las Vegas restaurants under a faux Eiffel Tower. I watch this before bed so that my dreams are filled with steaming pork dumplings and creamy carbonara pasta. Need I say more? All episodes can be found on Max.
SECOND COURSE
I came across snail mucin on Tik Tok (of course) and have loved the results so far. I couldn’t tell you the exact ingredients because the label on my bottle is in Japanese but it’s supposedly super hydrating—I use it after retinol and before moisturizer. My ultimate favorite part about it is that I go to bed with the face of a dew drop, which helps soothe the acne-riddled teen inside me who used to have a forehead that read like Braille.
If you haven’t listened to Tyler Childers, please get on that immediately. If you have listened, then you know what I’m about to say: the man can sing. He recently released a new album of melodic country bangers and Space and Time is my favorite on it so far. It’s a cover of a song by S.G Goodman that opens with a powerful burst of heart-wrenching southern croon that grabs your ears and doesn’t let go. It’ll get stuck in your head the moment you hear it and no matter how many times you listen you’ll want to hear it again. Childers is so damn good. I don’t care if you don’t like country or folk music— you will like him.
ENTREE
I guess my earworm really has a thing for strong voices because Bridge Over Troubled Water by Aretha Franklin has been my #1 listened song for both August and September, with Childers at second. This song makes me want to laugh and scream and cry in hopes of achieving a crumb of the power of Franklin’s voice. It starts out slow then builds— you can feel the passion through the speaker and it sounds like a waterfall of honey. And the chorus in the back? You feel like you’re walking on water. This song make me want to be religious again. Scratch that— this song IS my religion. You can’t get better than Ms. Aretha.
I’m trying out a new thing in October that I didn’t do very much of it in September: it’s called Shutting The Fuck Up. Reflecting on what was not one of my better months, I realized that I lost sight of something very valuable— the value of silence, of observance, of really thinking before you speak. I’ve found that the more scrambled my brain is, the more I spew words that are not necessarily meaningful or valuable. Think of it like pulling an erg— I talk and talk and talk and the wheel spins father and faster and suddenly I’m lying awake at two a.m. thinking of everything I’ve ever done wrong. October is time for me to step off the rower. I’m making a concerted effort to stop, listen, take in my surroundings, and slow down. I’m not going to say things for the sake of conversation, because more often than not that means I begin gossiping or embellishing or just spewing shit that doesn’t even make sense. Listening is a lost art. It means a lot when you can actually remember things about people because you’re actually taking it in rather than just waiting to speak. My words are the most valuable thing I have, as both a writer and human, and it matters to me to make them count. And I think generally we could all benefit from everyone doing a little more shutting up. Be quiet! Go for a walk. Read a book. Gah.
DESSERT
Of course I’m putting the treat in the dessert section because I’m nothing if not pragmatic. I would first like to caveat that I do not have a history of frequenting the mega-chain that is Starbucks Coffee. I am a fierce advocate for supporting local businesses and I also think their coffee tastes burnt. But alas… I stumbled upon a bag of gift cards from my middle school frugality era, and the majority of them were for the Big Green Mermaid. I got the Pumpkin Cream Cold Brew and it tasted like you would think a sweetened pumpkin flavored coffee drink from a large international corporation would taste: damn good. To the baristas at my local coffee shop, please forgive my capitalist transgressions; I am in a frugality era that is entirely not by choice and I have to eat (and drink at least 200mg caffeine a day). I will be back soon my tattooed, pixie-cut beauties. In the meantime though, I will be consuming a sugary, cinnamon-pumpkin concoction that leaves a charming little foam mustache on my upper lip because I am only human. Pumpkin means fall and I just love fall and want to be able to say “fall is here!”. Can you blame me? Get the drink. You’ll see what I was up against. And Starbucks did a BOGO deal every Thursday in September. I was always a lost cause.
I’m currently in the process I’ve writing a full article about Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS so I’ll keep this one short. Sometimes I forget that I only recently graduated from teenage girlhood and that a lot of the angst and anger that comes with being a young woman is still roiling around in my stomach. Rodrigo captures all of those feelings perfectly in this exquisite pop-rock album with zero skips. If there’s screaming in a song I’ll probably like it, and this has plenty of that. Not sure what that says about me… anyways stream All-American Bitch.
