Illustration by Angela Hsieh. Credit.

It’s been a while! I make no apologies! Here are some things I’ve been reading on the internet!

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1. In Unconventional Life Hack: Always Help Your Friends Move , Gyan Yankovich makes the case for going the extra mile for your friends, especially it if involves pivoting their sofa on the staircase of their five floor walk-up until you both want to throw said sofa down the stairs and yourselves with it. Because that’s how real friendships are built.

2. Also from Man Repeller, Mallory Rice makes a strong case for setting new year’s resolutions that you can complete in a day. It’s frankly genius, because 24 hours are exactly the ammount of patience I have for self-improvement. Her New Year’s resolution? Eat Nora Ephron’s favorite hot dog. My resolution? Have dinner at the Chinese restaurant across the street. Productivity is productivity.

3. Way back in June of last year, Throughline (an excellent history podcast from NPR) released an episode on just what the hell is going on with white Evangelicals in the U.S. It’s terrifying, and I highly recommend it.

4. Final dispatch from Man Repeller: a list of newsletters you’d actually opening.

5. I made this lemon yogurt cake in my shitty dorm kitchen last year and it kept me fed for breakfast for an entire week. Don’t sleep on it!

Salutations (gross),

-M

It’s currently -500 degrees in Edinburgh, so excuse me while I remind myself that summer does exist somewhere, as shown by my favorite summery paintings from Joaquin Sorolla. Joke’s on you, Seasonal Affective Disorder! I studied art history!!!!!!

The Drinking Jug,

till the winds blow us together again.

-M

Don’t you love bromances? My favorite one is the between cool signature-haver Leonard Bernstein and unlikely Coco Chanel boyfriend Igor Stravinsky. Bernstein thought Stravinsky was pretty much a genius, going so far as to call him “the giant of this century”, so much so that he made a short film tribute to the Russian composer. In the film Bernstein talks about works like the Rite of Spring and the Symphony of Psalms. There’s even some good footage of Igor himself conducting an orchestra, discussing the riot his Rite of Spring premiere caused in Paris, and waving a stetson at a bunch of yeehawing cowboys, which have all the makings of a great Wednesday night.

PS: If you can’t get enough of Bernstein’s Professor Julliard realness, you can hear a whole playlist of his music lectures on Spotify under “Classical Music Explained: Bernstein’s Music Lectures”.

-M

Illustration by Audrey Helen Weber, via Aesop

There’s been a lot of gross stuff on the internet concerning Alabama this week, so naturally my thoughts have tried to shift towards something (anything) that could distract me from the growing pit of dread in my stomach. What better remedy than a glass of refreshing internet lemonade to quench our thirst for good news?

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1. First up, an oldie but goodie from the Paris Review on the Argentine poet Alejandra Pizarnik. I like this one because it dwells on her first days in Paris, which everyone thinks are glamorous, except hers go much the same way as mine would: staying with uncles in the suburbs, being bored, and finding. There’s a happy ending, she meets Max Ernst and makes friends with Julio Cortazar! So the bohemian dream was worth it after all.

2. Aesop’s May “newsletter,” the Ledger, is particularly charming this month. The Ledger is worth following every time but I especially enjoyed this month’s whimsical illustrations and the article on the Van Gogh Path (“a sinuous, sparkly marvel that echoes Starry Night’s sense of wonder”) that you can cycle through in Nuenen, the Netherlands.

3. Michelle Zauner’s (of Japanese Breakfast) New Yorker article on finding her Korean identity after the death of her mother, “Crying in H-Mart” doesn’t need any more accolades from me (it was short listed for some kind of internet journalism award), but I finally read it last night before bed on my phone and it nearly made me cry too. Apparently she’s also turning it into a book, so I can’t wait to cry even more!

4. Speaking of books! I’ve been making my way through “The Good Immigrant”, a collection of essays from American first-generation immigrants who reflect on what it means to navigate race and identity in the United States as an immigrant. While I do wish they had more essays written by “real” immigrants and not so many by their kids (and the Argentine section was a smidge less political), it’s a comforting read for anyone who’s ever made the U.S. their temporary home. The book is also beautifully designed so I recommend investing in the hardcover.

5. Finally, some music! Keeping in mind that the Met Gala theme was camp and it’s been a weirdly sunny week here in Scotland, I’ve been blasting Raffaela Carra until the clouds decide we’ve had enough. You can find most of her hits on Spotify but I highly recommend watching YouTube videos of her iconic TV performances. You never saw so many spandex-clad men in your life.

Til next week,

-M

Today, in Power Moves to Emulate as Soon as I Actually Get Some Semblance of Power, I present a letter written by fantasy writer and all-around literary godmother Ursula K. LeGuinn. Concise and to the point, she voices exactly the kind of attitude I wish most men were exposed to on the regular. In response to an author blurb request for a publisher's upcoming all-male science fiction anthology, she sent along the following letter (fax?):  

Let this be a reminder to you that sometimes, the phrase “I just don’t belong here” is one of the most positive things you can tell yourself. Especially if it’s preceded by the word “gentlemen”.

-M