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So I’ve been debating which is more annoying: including this pretentious literary magazine which I authentically love OR excluding it and going with a more “relatable” choice. Performative relatability is my favorite thing to make fun of in my videos so I opted for the former! I’ve loved it since reading this piece (The Unravlers) by the amazing Stephanie Danler. It’s impossible to love the Paris Review without getting shit on for it though. My friend Rebecca saw it peeking out of my purse when we were getting drinks recently and accused me of planting it. My other friend, Michael, accused me of only liking it because it contains the word “Paris” which aids in my quest to appear chic and not from Idaho (which I am). And I said, “Michael, that’s absolutely ridiculous and also correct.”
Sep 1, 2023
Related Recs
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Bring back hatchet jobs! But for like Substacks and blogs. Oyler's is fun, mainly skewering Tolentino herself (funny!) but I want to see people fighting in formal prose about pieces with subtitles like "summer blues, ex’s, home depot, loss, and cantaloupe,” and “falling in love with the stains in my microwave” — things like that. Toooo much uncritical reposting on Instagram stories and not enough "OKAY lazy metaphor ALERT." We need to be better writers.
But also we should be cringy. We just need to be careful.
Jan 27, 2024
I watched Becca Rothfeld accept a National Book Critics Circle award last night and she thanked her “nemesis” in the audience and I can’t help but wonder….
Mar 22, 2024
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I don’t personally know Alissa Bennett, but I think she is a brilliant and funny person who has clearly lived a vibrant life. A friend of mine once said about himself, “I’m not a journalist; I just live this shit.” I think this mantra (with the tweak, “I’m just really interested in this shit”) applies to Bennett’s writing and various projects — from her burner IG @regret_counter and podcast, to the next-level zines she publishes. Those zines though, wow! The writing is so intimate, confident, and, well, perfectly imperfect (sorry, sorry…).I like that every other paragraph has a typo, that she will frequently and flagrantly use cap-locks, and that she essentially unpacks the indiscretions of fringe tabloid figures in order to exhume her own demons and make sense of her past and present. It’s got a very “warts and all” vibe, and I respect that she’s willing to air her own dirty laundry in service of establishing a spiritual connection to the subjects of her texts. That’s not to say she goes easy on them, but it all feels empathetic instead of exploitative or solipsistic. Rarely do I audibly laugh while reading, but Bennett’s work consistently makes me LOL. Generally, I prefer when people write the way they talk. Her essays feel like the coolest girl at the bar is whispering (and occasionally shouting) a very good story directly in your ear, but she also doesn’t really care whether you like the story or not. She already knows it’s good.Start with “Bad Behavior,” which is a series of essays/love letters to various semi-public figures who engaged in specific, scandalous acts. Then hit “Pretend You’re Actually Alive.” Most of the zines are sold out, but I’m sure she’d send you a PDF if you ask nicely. There’s also a new one on the way.
Sep 8, 2022
Top Recs from @delaney-rowe
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I’ve been single for a year and a half now and have recently had a massive breakthrough with it all. I spent a while deeply brainwashed by the horrific dating advice on Tik Tok which stipulates things like “if the first date isn’t a dinner date then he basically views you as a saloon whore” or “unless you drop into your soft feminine energy, you deserve an entire life alone, you toothless witch.” I don’t want to do either of those things. What the fuck is soft feminine energy? I want to focus on work and make videos that make people laugh and write and spend time with friends and eat and drink wine (see above) without being haunted by the viral refrain “If he wanted to, he would.” Who cares? I like meeting guys out and about! Maybe grabbing drinks. Having crushes. Flirting. Enjoying them. But I will never again sit through a Tik Tok titled “subtle ways to make him addicted to you” or “how to become a high value woman who is a prize to be won.” ENOUGH.
Sep 1, 2023
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There is no higher high than spontaneously deciding to take a pair of dirty kitchen shears to a finger sectioned chunk of hair that you’re hastily holding between your eyes and just blindly cutting off an inch while your Uber driver waits for you outside. My motto is “how bad could it look?” Let go, let god. I’m so impatient when it comes to my appearance. You think I’m waiting for a professional to cut this hair when I literally need it cut right this moment or else I’ll die? No. Paying for a haircut might be a scam I’ve decided.
Sep 1, 2023
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Bear with me. I’m newly into this, but not in a “quirky introvert” way. I promise my brand is not “I hate people and love sweatpants”. I love people and hate sweatpants (they give you baggy diaper ass). But I am now a proponent of staying in on Friday because as a woman in her late twenties, I no longer have the physical constitution to support the standard four day bender (Thurs-Sun) I participated in until age 27. My hangovers are so bad that they have their own scent. My new social schedule is as follows (I do my best): have a light Thurs (“chill” dinner with friends, maybe a drink or two), stay in Friday and cook for yourself and be in bed by 10 pinteresting, do wholesome things like yoga and crying on Saturday morning and then paint the town with some big plans Saturday night, then recover and do nothing but clean on Sunday (death to the Sunday Funday which ruins careers and lives).
Sep 1, 2023