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Happy Sunday! I’m writing from my heavily air-conditioned office, attempting to escape the dreadfully humid New York City air. We spent last weekend in the Southern Utah desert, and the temporal proximity of experiencing 110° desert heat vs. 93° and 87% humidity city heat within a week of each other makes me feel extra qualified to declare that dry heat is FAR preferable to humidity. Sure, it’s rough hiking in 110 degrees, but at least I can rest easy knowing that a shower will make me feel clean. I can’t say the same right now in my permanent state of stickiness. We’ve reached peak summer where I dream my curly locks are reminiscent of My Best Friend’s Wedding-era Julia Roberts when, in reality, they’re giving pre-makeover Mia Thermopolis. But if I’m being honest, I’m complaining for the sake of complaining because New York summer is my favorite, and the humidity does wonders for the skin. So all that’s to say, I’m a frizzy mess, but I’m a happy, frizzy mess. And with that, here are a few bits I’ve been enjoying:

• 🎬 Sing Sing. I can’t say it enough, but this film is incredibly special. Sing Sing tells the real-life inspired story of inmates incarcerated at the titular New York correctional facility (now decommissioned) who find compassion and humanity in a prison theater group, Rehabilitation Through Art (RTA). The film stars the incomparable Colman Domingo as the group’s eloquent and thoughtful leader, but the rest of the cast are mostly formerly incarcerated men who were actual members of the RTA. Domingo’s performance is nuanced and memorable and will likely get him much-deserved awards attention. But formerly incarcerated Clarence Maclin (playing a version of himself) is arguably equally strong as he shows the power of performance arts to imbue confidence and empathy. The film is brimming with heart but also grounded in reality and lacking sentimentality. It’s unlike any prison movie you’ve probably seen, focused less on the violent stories of prison we know and more on what actual rehabilitation looks like (RTA members have a 3% recidivism rate vs. the 43% rate for New York State generally). It’s a meaningful story about the healing powers of art, the capacity for humans to evolve, and the ripple effects of belief and kindness. Even behind the scenes, the film took a revolutionary approach, with everyone involved being paid the same amount and receiving equity in the film’s success - a model the filmmakers are planning to repeat in the future. Do yourself a favor and see this as soon as you possibly can. You won’t regret it. No doubt it will be on my top films of the year list.

• 🎬 Longlegs. **While this discussion doesn’t contain spoilers, it does give some background for the movie themes. If you prefer your thrillers with no context, skip until after you see it.**  Longlegs is the latest, buzzy Neon-distributed thriller, helmed by writer/director Oz Perkins. The story follows FBI Agent Lee Harker (played by reigning Indie scream queen Maika Monroe) as she searches for a Satan-worshipping serial killer (an unrecognizable and chilling Nicolas Cage). As she solves the mystery of his murderous spree, the case leads her closer to home, and repressed childhood memories come flooding back. There’s a lot of chatter about this film, primarily due to an expertly crafted marketing campaign from Neon that included a Zodiac killer-style full-page ad in the Seattle Times and one of the most brilliant scary movie trailer gimmicks I’ve ever seen (see below). But the hype is a double-edged sword. Early viewers deemed the movie as “the next Silence of the Lambs” (it’s not) and “the scariest movie of the decade” (it isn’t for me, but scary is subjective). Hype gets people in seats (early box office reports predict the movie will set new records for Neon), which we desperately need with dying interest in going to the movie theaters. But hype also gives people unnecessarily high expectations. As of today, the film’s initial 97% Rotten Tomatoes has already market-corrected to 87%. But that doesn’t mean those early reviews were wrong. You just need to readjust your expectations and not get caught up in the hype cycle. 

  The truth is that this isn’t really a serial killer thriller. In fact, that part of the story becomes somewhat incidental and arguably a farce, as Cage’s Longlegs is, at times, more darkly comical/inept than menacing. Instead, the FBI procedural framing serves as a way to talk about what Perkins actually wants to explore - family secrets. Perkins is the son of actor Anthony Perkins (who played Norman Bates in Psycho), and his parents married after his father was forced to undergo conversion therapy to “rid him” of his homosexuality. Perkins has very openly talked about the trauma that resulted from his father's sexuality being hidden and his mother’s efforts to keep their nuclear family together. Tragically, Perkins’ father passed away from AIDS, and his mother died in the September 11th attacks as a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11. He describes all of his work as an attempt to unpack his own experiences and acknowledges that everything he writes has a personal truth at the center. In Longlegs, Perkins explores the well-intentioned lies parents tell to keep their children safe. But he also acknowledges that children instinctively know something is lurking, even when they don't have the language to understand it. In Longlegs, we’re forced to confront what's hiding in our psychological basements. The cinematography is so precise, with dutiful attention paid to the empty space surrounding the characters in the frame, that it creates a persistent dread of what we can’t see. And by the time we can, it’s too late. 

  

  Not all of it worked for me (the third act wasn’t my thing), but it’s masterfully shot, well-acted (special shout to that Kiernan Shipka cameo), and a must-see if you enjoy thrillers. Over the last few years, I’ve fallen in love with how horror filmmakers use the genre to explore personal and societal traumas through the conceit of the unknowable. Longlegs does that hauntingly. While my initial reaction was that the film was scary but not terrifying, the images keep lingering and finding me in moments I wish they wouldn't (i.e., when I’m trying to fall asleep). The only other movie that’s done that for me in recent memory is Ari Aster’s Hereditary (my personal scariest of the past decade). See Longlegs, and let's chat about it!

  

• 🥾 The Subway Hike in Zion National Park. Last weekend, we braved the heat in the wild desert of Southern Utah and checked this special hike off our Zion National Park bucket list. The Subway hike is a 9.5-mile out-and-back journey to an other-worldly Navajo sandstone slot canyon, majestically carved by water and wind erosion over the last 190 million years. You can access the canyon from the top or bottom, but a top-down journey requires canyoneering (we took the bottom-up route; I’m not canyoneering-level outdoorsy). The hike requires minor route-finding as you follow the river and scramble over boulders and waterfalls - a proper outdoor adventure! If this might be your thing, you can apply via the permit lottery here. They award 80 permits daily (60 from the advanced lottery and 20 from the daily lottery). I recommend trying it if you’ve already hiked the Narrows and Angels Landing. For most of the trek, we were completely alone - a rarity at Zion in the summer and a magical way to experience the canyon. 

And in honor of today's Euro Cup final, I’ll leave you with this TikTok that perfectly blends my and my husband’s interests. C’mon, England!

@gra.c.etowningI’d give this show ⭐️⭐️⭐️, go see it if an uncoventional plot is your thing xx #football #theatre #musicaltheatre #fyp #westend @MaxMulrenan @morgan @Lucy Carter

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Happy Sunday!! And long time no talk. I’m back from an unplanned hiatus - which is a fancy way of saying that life got a little busy, and I couldn’t keep up with my regular cadence. But then, life got less busy, and I did the classic recovering perfectionist-induced procrastination dance where I built up artificial pressure in my head that returning from my unplanned hiatus meant I needed to create the BEST NEWSLETTER EVER. THE NEWSLETTER TO END ALL NEWSLETTERS. But then, the pressure to write a newsletter of that magnitude meant that my unplanned hiatus continued while I daydreamed about all the various quippy things I could write to distract you from the skipped weeks and broken posting promises. So, as I’ve oft had to do, I quieted those doubting voices in my head by playing one song incessantly (this go round, it was “Red Wine Supernova”) and forcing myself to put some words down on paper. Because if there’s one thing my recovering perfectionist self loves more than picking apart work I’ve yet to write, it’s picking apart work I’ve already written. And in a wild plot twist that no one saw coming, the person who finally got me to end my hiatus was Tom Brady. I could generally care less about Tom Brady, but I caught a quote from a recent speech he gave, and his words shone through to my dark procrastination cave: “The truth is, you don’t have to be special. You just have to be what most people aren’t. Consistent, determined, and willing to work for it. No shortcuts.” Apparently, he knows a thing or two. 

@nflready to run through a brick wall 😤 (via @patriots) #tombrady #newenglandpatriots #nfl

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I know I’m not alone in my elusive quest to find balance in all aspects of my life. I’ve heard so much about balance (work-life balance, balanced meals, balanced relationships), yet I’m still no closer to finding it. But then again, the people who told me about balance are the same people who sold me the dream that conjuring the perfect day-to-night outfit was the key to success and happiness. At thirteen, I was pretty convinced that being a working professional meant I would constantly be faced with the dilemma of how I would transition my serious daytime business lady outfit into my less serious, fun young city dweller outfit at night. But I digress, back to “balance.” As far as I can tell, there’s no such thing as balance. Instead, life is more of an exercise in juggling and figuring out which balls are glass and which are rubber, and thus knowing which ones you can and can’t drop. That’s not to say my Substack is rubber. In fact, it feels like the most precious, pristine Waterford crystal ball because I started this newsletter as a promise to myself. A promise that I would make more time to write about the things I’m passionate about and that doing so would somehow magically make me motivated to finish my half-written novel. It’s sort of worked! But I’m still learning to juggle, so this post is me picking up the broken glass. And, if, like me, you are a recovering perfectionist procrastinator trying to keep all the various balls in the air, I hope my vulnerability here serves as a sign to do the thing and be okay if some of the balls drop. Even if it’s not perfect, it’s a starting point. 

And with that deep dive into the inner workings of my brain, here are a couple of bites that are top of mind for me this weekend:

• 🎭 Stereophonic. The Tony Awards are tonight, so it only feels appropriate that I talk about my favorite show of the season (and the most Tony-nominated play of all time that will likely pick up a few awards). Set in a Sausalito recording studio in the 1970s, Stereophonic follows an unnamed band as they record an album that propels them into stardom while simultaneously unraveling their interpersonal relationships (yes - there are some obvious Fleetwood Mac making of Rumours parallels). Written by David Adjmi with music from Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, this play is something special. Adjmi says he was inspired to write the show after being struck by the intensity of Led Zeppelin’s cover of “Babe I’m Gonna Leave You” and imagining what the recording process might’ve been like. That vision shows - the naturalistic dialogue gives you the distinct feeling that you’ve stumbled upon a private moment and you can’t stop eavesdropping. Stereophonic is a meditation on the creative process and the tedium at the center of producing greatness. There’s a scene towards the end where the central couple (the Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham of this story) have their big, blowout disagreement after you’ve watched the tension between them build the entire play. But it’s the kind of complex disagreement that feels so true to life, and you so clearly understand where both people are coming from, it’s not easy to pick a “winner.” And that’s how much of the play is - so delightfully authentic. It’s also just cool. Sarah Pidgeon (the Stevie Nicks figure) is THAT girl. But excitingly, you get to watch her evolve to become THAT girl and grow into her confidence. I particularly enjoyed this interview with Butler, in which he discusses the challenge of creating music for a successful fake band. And he did it so well (there’s now a cast recording I can’t stop listening to)! If you spend your money to see one show this year, this is it. See this one. It’s what Daisy Jones and the Six wanted to be. Trust me - see it.  

• 🎬 Meet Joe Black. Today is also Father’s Day! Besides being a day where I’m reminded that I’m in a stage of life where more people are posting pics of their OWN kids than posting the thirst traps disguised as father tributes of yesteryear, it’s also a day to celebrate my own Dad. My Dad is pretty amazing, and he also happens to be responsible for a lot of my cultural sensibility. A true Renaissance man, my Dad’s tastes are wide ranging. He was country before country was cool, but he’s also a classic film scholar (he’s been keeping TCM in business for years). From a young age, he taught me that my cultural interests didn’t need to fit into a prescribed box, and I’m grateful he gifted me with his encyclopedic knowledge of film, television, and music. To that end, it felt only appropriate to share one of his favorite movies that happens to have a father and daughter at its center. Meet Joe Black stars Anthony Hopkins as a successful family man about to celebrate his birthday when he is visited by Death, who has taken the human form of a very young and hot BRAD PITT (the titular Joe Black). To live a few more days, Hopkins’ character exchanges time for the promise of showing Death what it means to be human. Most criticisms of the movie are that it’s too long, and while I hear that, each watch still never fails to make me think more deeply about life or cry like a baby at the ending scene. It’s that perfect late-nineties sentimentality heavily aided by a Thomas Newman score that they just don’t make anymore. Treat yourself to it! And soak in the Anthony Hopkins wisdom and perfect line reading.

And I’ll leave you with wise, fatherly words from Meet Joe Black. 

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Happy Sunday, Snackers! I don’t know about you, but I was concerned about the movies this year that would follow last year’s extremely high-caliber slate. And while some of that remains to be seen, I’m excited by some new entries into my “feel good” favorites category. My thoughts are developing, and I’ll share more on Wednesday. In the meantime, let’s get into some quick weekend bites. 

• 🎬 Challengers. If you’re a person on the internet, you’ve likely seen at least one meme about this movie. Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria) and written by playwright/screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes (fun fact: he’s married to Past Lives writer Celine Song - how tired do you think they are of being asked about threesomes?), Challengers tells the story of a decades-long, tangled relationship between three high-profile tennis players. Inspired initially by Kuritzkes watching the controversial 2018 US Open final between Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka and learning that sideline coaching was against the rules, Kuritzkes imagined how you would communicate only through tennis. The movie is fast-paced with a timeline that jumps all over the place to give you context for their interwoven relationships, and it's bolstered by a Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross score that you’ll no doubt be hearing at every summer party this year. It’s a sexy summer movie, and it feels like it’s been a moment since we’ve had one of this caliber.

• 🗞️ Reducing The Idea of You to Fan Fiction Is Another Example of Dismissing Women’s Art by Robinne Lee (author of The Idea of You novel). This weekend, I watched the Anne Hathaway-led romantic comedy The Idea of You and had a great time. The movie, based on a book by author/actor Robinne Lee, tells the story of a 40-year-old, recently divorced single mom who begins dating the twenty-something lead singer of a widely popular boy band. I’d first heard the movie described as Olivia Wilde and Harry Styles fan fiction. While there are some obvious similarities, it sounds like Lee’s intent went far beyond imagining the behind-the-scenes truth of that romance. While I don’t think every movie needs an adjacent think piece, I did enjoy this article Lee wrote about her work and the cultural tendency to dismiss female stories. And if you haven’t watched the movie, you should. The script isn’t perfect (a real low point was the “Mom - why would you break up with a talented, kind feminist” moment), but does it need to be? They knew what we wanted from the movie, and they delivered. So if next week gets you down, give this movie a go, and you’ll soon be like me, contemplating if you should get bangs like Anne Hathaway (the answer is probably no) and laughing at the idea that someone would be dying to go to Glendale.

  “It’s art. And it makes people happy. And that’s a very good thing. We have this problem in our culture. We take art that appeals to women—film, books, music—and we undervalue it. We assume it can’t be high art. Especially if it’s not dark and tortured and wailing. And it follows that much of that art is created by other women, and so we undervalue them as well. We wrap it up in a pretty pink package and resist calling it art.”

And in a weekend of diss tracks, I’ll leave you with my favorite. 

@lucasstadveci want all the smoke #fyp

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Happy Wednesday! The Tony Award nominations were announced yesterday, and I’m thrilled that I already had plans to see “Stereophonic” next week before the inevitable most Tony-nominated play in history ticket price hike. Unsurprisingly, this star-studded season meant many famous actors received their first nominations, including Daniel Radcliffe, Jeremy Strong, Rachel McAdams, and Sarah Paulson. I was thrilled to see Brian d’Arcy James and Kelli O’Hara nominated for their work in “Days of Wine and Roses.” While I didn’t love the musical, they were two of the best performances I saw this past year. And to round out the theater news, “Oh Mary” is transferring to Broadway this summer! Get tickets before they become ludicrously expensive. With that, let’s get into it!

🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 🗞️ Emma Stone and Nathan Fielder for The Hollywood Reporter. This interview was a major highlight of last week for me! If you haven’t seen The Curse yet, what are you doing? But also, you probably shouldn’t read this article until you watch it because they share how they made the mind-bending finale. If your interest still isn’t piqued, Christopher Nolan (the show's number one fan) texted Benny Safdie to ask him how they made it. Can you even imagine? Loved this quote from Fielder about choosing to enter The Curse into the Emmys as a Drama rather than a Comedy:

  When I say “funny,” funny can mean a lot of things. Good stuff is all usually funny. I mean, life’s funny. Serious dramas, good dramas, are funny, because if life’s funny, and if you’re doing life, then drama should be funny.

• 🗞️ The 2003 New York Times Review of “Wicked" by Ben Brantley. In celebration of the Tony nominations, I thought this was a great time to revisit the scathing 2003 NYT review of “Wicked.” You should read the whole thing, but highlights include the sexism-tinged explanation of the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda as two “adversarial women” learning from each other in a manner “which recalls sobfests about female friendships like the movie ‘Beaches.’ (You keep expecting Glinda to start singing, ‘Did you ever know you were my hero, Elphaba?’).” As well as Brantley’s conclusion that “Wicked” did “not, alas, speak hopefully for the future of the Broadway musical.” Hysterical, given that “Wicked” just celebrated its twentieth year on Broadway and continues to be one of the most beloved stories about friendship. So let that remind you to keep doing what you’re doing and ignore the naysayers. 

🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 📺 Alfred Molina's Career Retrospective. While I generally enjoy these Vanity Fair career retrospectives, this one felt particularly special—such a thoughtful and insightful look back at his career (so many hits!). If you’re short on time, start here. The last three minutes, where he talks about his relationship with his father and his children, are a must-see. Vanity Fair didn’t need to keep that in, but I’m so glad they did. 

• 🗞️ ”A Time We Never Knew” by . As a millennial joining the workforce in 2014, I remember being called “entitled” and “lazy” by older generations. In the last couple of years, I’ve sometimes thought similar things about younger generations. And when I have those thoughts, I wonder, is this just the way? Are the older generations always just frustrated by those who come after them? When I read this piece by Freya India, I couldn’t help but empathize with kids coming up in this era. While acknowledging the many benefits of progress, India also longs for a time she’ll never know. And that’s uniquely heartbreaking.

  But I never knew it. Maybe briefly, as a child. But most of us in Gen Z were given phones and tablets so early that we barely remember life before them.  Most of us never knew falling in love without swiping and subscription models. We never knew having a first kiss without having watched PornHub first. We never knew flirting and romance before it became sending DMs or reacting to Snapchat stories with flame emojis. We never knew friendship before it became keeping up a Snapstreak or using each other like props to look popular on Instagram. And the freedom—we never felt the freedom to grow up clumsily; to be young and dumb and make stupid mistakes without fear of it being posted online. Or the freedom to be unavailable, to disconnect for a while without the pressure of Read Receipts and Last Active statuses. We never knew a childhood spent chasing experiences and risks and independence instead of chasing stupid likes on a screen. Never knew life without documenting and marketing and obsessively analyzing it as we went.

🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

• 📚The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin. The Stepford Wives is one of those books that many people feel like they’ve read because “Stepford Wife” has become such common parlance to conjure images of outsized domesticity (especially with the rise of the trad wife movement). But you're missing out if your introduction to the term is the 2004 movie adaptation that strays pretty far from the original text. Written in 1972, the book is a feminist horror novel centered on Joanna Eberhart, a semi-professional photographer who relocates from New York City to a suburban Connecticut town (Stepford) with her husband and children. Upon arriving, she quickly notices the women are unusually submissive to their husbands and solely concerned with housework. As she watches other newly arrived, independent-thinking women transform overnight into visions of “ideal” femininity and abandon their interests, she becomes rightfully concerned that there’s something more sinister at play. Levin’s simple prose artfully disguises the story’s threatening undercurrent and escalates from realism to sci-fi horror so seamlessly that you could almost miss it. It’s no wonder the story has served as an enduring cultural reference point (Get Out, Ex Machina, and Don’t Worry Darling, to name a few). A favorite moment is when Bobbie (another Stepford newcomer) describes visiting a neighboring town and being thrilled to see “women who were rushed and sloppy and irritated and alive.” If that isn’t an honest summary of what it means to be acknowledged for your full humanity, I don’t know what is! Once you read it, I highly recommend listening to The Stepford Wives episode of You’re Wrong About, where host Sarah Marshall argues that the book is based on a true story… dun dun dun.

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• 📺 Baby Reindeer. Like many people who have watched the Netflix sensation Baby Reindeer over the past few weeks, I can’t stop thinking about it. The series stars its writer and creator, Richard Gadd, who plays Donny Dunn, a fictionalized version of himself. The show opens with Donny in a police station, reporting that a woman has been stalking him for the last six months. Surprised, the policeman asks him why he waited to report her - a question with a nuanced answer that the series explores over its seven episodes. The screen then goes black, and you’re told, “This is a true story” - a fact that is particularly harrowing as the story continues, and you watch Gadd reenact what I imagine are some of the most traumatic moments of his life. To put it simply, I’m blown away by him. The series adapts two of Gadd’s previous one-man shows - the 2016 “Monkey See Monkey Do” (where he unpacks being sexually abused while running 10 miles on a treadmill) and the 2019 “Baby Reindeer” (where he talks about his experience of being stalked). Gadd has shared that the story is “emotionally” all true, but the timeline has been changed for the sake of dramatic structure, and details of the people involved have been altered to protect their identities (if you’re curious about the actual timeline - this interview is great). The real stalkers' tally included 41,000 emails, 350 hours worth of voicemails, 744 tweets, 46 Facebook messages, and 106 pages of letters. Unsurprisingly, the “trueness” of the story has become a story in itself. Despite Gadd asking people to stand down, internet sleuths have allegedly figured out who his former stalker is. But honestly, the “trueness” of it all is the least interesting part to me.

  

  Unlike Fatal Attraction, where Glenn Close is sexualized (until she’s terrifying), or Misery, where Kathy Bates is undoubtedly evil, Baby Reindeer is a complex portrayal of two people whose lives become deeply intertwined as they both struggle with mental illness. Jessica Gunning is breathtakingly perfect as his stalker, creating a realized and multi-dimensional woman that is all at once hauntingly terrifying, charmingly naive, and terribly sad. And though this is a story about a man being stalked, that’s this nesting doll of a series’ outermost layer. As we learn more about Donny’s history, we observe a reality about abuse that is so painfully true and not often depicted as honestly: the residual emotional effects of an initial abuse are intrinsically linked to subsequent abuse. And relatedly, there can be a profoundly complex psychological attachment to an abuser that can’t be neatly explained (especially in the eyes of the law). While Gadd is undoubtedly a victim, he does not shy away from sharing his most unflattering thoughts and actions, including that he feels complicit and believes he sought out some of what happened to him. And so, as a viewer, your feelings are complicated because they should be! There’s no part of this story that is simple. Without giving too much away, at the end of the sixth episode, he has this moment where he’s talking about his desire to be famous and believing fame means that people are too distracted by the notoriety to see you as your deepest insecurities. Listening to this monologue, I couldn’t help but wonder what emotional toll it has taken on him to mine his personal life and perform such radical honesty. I think we should feel very grateful he did, but I can only imagine how complex his relationship with all of this must be. If you haven’t watched it yet, expect to be rattled and know that it deals with many incredibly complex issues, but wow, it’s worth it (the sixth episode is maybe the most compelling television Netflix has ever produced). Also, Stephen King came out today and said he’s just grateful Misery came out first, so if that’s not an endorsement, I don’t know what is. 

🧁 Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 📚 Fan Fiction - A Satire by Tavi Gevinson of . It appears that my love letter to Taylor Swift last week only scared off a few of you - great news! If you’re less interested in her music and more curious about the cult of celebrity obsession, writer/actor/internet cool girl Tavi Gevinson wrote this incredible zine about Swift. Taking inspiration from Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (a novel about a poet whose neighbor is obsessed with him that includes a 999-line poem), Gevinson explores the relationship between being a fan, a critic, and a friend to Taylor Swift (they were once in the same circles - unclear if they still are). The last section is an increasingly unhinged fictitious email interaction between them (though in interviews, she likes to be cagey about the level of truth). Regardless, it’s a fascinating portrayal of obsessive fandom. Excitingly, my very kind best friend snagged a hard copy for me at her local UWS bookshop (check here to see if there are any left at a location near you). Otherwise, you can read the digital version at the link. 

And I’ll leave you with this woman’s flawless logic about an alien abduction. 

@libbiehigginsHow does Crystal feel about alien love? 👽

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Happy Sunday, Snackers! I’m coming off a week of being sick and pushing a Sisyphean boulder to get caught up on my to-do list. Despite that ever-growing list, there were two highlights this week: 1. Watching David Letterman interview Alex Honnold at the new and very beautiful PAC NYC space. It’s fascinating to hear a person with an inherently high-risk tolerance discuss how he calculates risk. If you haven’t seen Free Solo yet, you should rectify that. 2. Attending a live taping of the Pop Pantheon podcast about Taylor Swift’s latest album and the state of her celebrity (a great listen with pretty balanced and thoughtful perspectives). There will be much to catch up on with this week’s upcoming menu. But for today, let’s talk Taylor.

🎧 The Tortured Poets Department. This is the part where I tell you that I like Taylor Swift. A lot. Probably more than the average person. And for some, that might mean you stop here. But before you quit reading, let’s take a trip down memory lane. The year is 2008; I’m a Junior in high school. I’ve just received my driver’s license, and that means the freedom to drive my cherry red Jetta Sportswagen wherever I want as long as I make curfew. Most times, that’s the movie theater or a policy debate tournament. But every once in a while, I find myself in my car alone, windows down, driving aimlessly through tree-lined suburban streets with my iPod Touch connected to the car via an aux cord. The playlist is varied, but Taylor Swift has just released her second album, Fearless and the titular song has me in a chokehold because I’m a sixteen-year-old hopeless romantic, and I’ve seen enough rom-coms at that point to know that peak romance is when protagonists declare their love amidst a storm (funny enough - there was torrential rain on my wedding day. Can confirm, it was stressful but romantic). Listening to that song made me feel like I was one of those protagonists. I was the main character! Because that’s what Taylor does so well. She makes you romanticize your life and feel like you are Vivian in Pretty Woman, walking down the street with shopping bags in hand after giving a speech that puts your naysayers in their place. Or sometimes you’re Bridget Jones, drunk in your pajamas, singing “All By Myself.” Either way - you’re the lead. And your internal life matters - even if it feels simple, or shameful, or petulant. With Taylor Swift, the personal is universal, and the mundane is heightened to a level that acknowledges the high stakes of existing as a person with feelings and ambition. And for me, her ability to both elevate and celebrate emotion in the face of a world that dismisses stereotypically female narratives as frivolous has made me continually appreciate her artistry (even if I don’t always like every song and the red string cork board conspiracy theory Swiftie vibes freak me out). With The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD), we have new heartbreak to parse, and we learn that even the world’s biggest pop star isn’t immune to a toxic situationship with the guy in a band. 

I have three cardinal rules for listening to new Taylor Swift music: 1. A new album is best consumed on an extended neighborhood walk, laying on your couch with noise-canceling headphones and a silk eye mask, or on a long solo road trip (bonus points if some portion of the journey requires you to drive through adolescent haunts). 2. You must listen from start to finish. No skips. Then, you must repeat the entire album at least once before revisiting favorites and reading reviews/commentary. 3. You must listen with an open-hearted sensibility. The consistent theme here is that listening should be a focused exercise. That’s not an easy task with 31 songs and lore so extensive it can be overwhelming without a guide. It’s an investment that some people don’t want to make. And candidly, if you haven’t hopped on the Taylor Swift train yet, this probably won’t be the album to convince you (unless you are reeling from a toxic situationship - then this might just be what the Doctor ordered). In fact, I’m unsurprised by the general reaction to TTPD - many Taylor Swift critics have dug their heels in that this album serves as proof her star is overhyped, while fervent Swifties have dug their heels in that this album is her best work yet (maybe without even listening to the whole thing). Realistically, reaction to the album following this period of stratospheric rise was always going to be complicated, with mounting expectations and criticism growing. Do I think it’s a perfect album? Currently, no. There are some skips. But I will say that it’s growing on me.

There are three central plot lines: 1. Grieving the end of a long-term relationship (“So Long London” and “The Black Dog”) 2. Getting caught up in a controversial and toxic situationship and reckoning with the inevitable end (“Fresh Out The Slammer,” “Tortured Poets Department,” “Fortnight,” “Down Bad” - basically most of the first album) 3. Her celebrity and her relationship with the public (“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart,” “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me,” “But Daddy I Love Him”). There are also hints of new love (“Alchemy” and “So High School”) and old grudges (“ThanK you aIMee”), but the strongest sentiments are in those three main storylines. I think the most powerful moment on the album happens in “The Black Dog” (notice, she has sole writing credit). In this song (presumably about Joe Alwyn, though some think Matty Healy, but I fervently disagree), Taylor’s ex hasn’t stopped sharing his location, so she tortures herself as she follows his whereabouts and sees that he’s entered a bar called “The Black Dog.” She then begins imagining him at the bar singing their song with a new woman who is too young to know the artist (The Starting Line). The song has a beautiful way of making a modern relationship concept (location sharing) feel like a timeless update to the pastime of processing a relationship’s end through unhinged behavior. Who hasn’t followed a significant other’s location and spiraled? The other big highlight for me is the “Supercut” tinged anthem for depressed but productive girlies, “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart.” In it, she recounts putting on the performance of a lifetime at The Eras Tour while reeling from heartbreak ("I cry a lot, but I am so productive, it's an art.”). A concerning amount of people I know (myself included) have found this a bit too relatable. We love a bop with sad lyrics! Other favorites include the heartbreaking “So Long London,” the “Florida!!!” tribute with Florence + the Machine, and the self-aware “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me.”

For those who say 31 is too many and she needed an editor (the best version of that argument I’ve read is here), I hear you, but I think that misses the point. The album gives off the energy of my first year of college when we’d document a night out with a digital camera and upload every single photo to Facebook the next day - just an unfiltered depiction of a moment in time. Yeah, some of it was messy and unflattering, but it was emblematic of that period in our lives. We’ve grown used to Taylor curating a perfect Instagram carousel of songs, but this album is an unhinged Facebook photo dump - a catharsis after an intense period of heartbreak and unprecedented fame. It’s a rite of passage to enter into a short-lived, toxic relationship while still reeling from the end of a long-term romance and to pin your hopes and dreams on that fling in the hopes it will make the heartbreak make sense. And it’s believable that amid the most chaotic period of her life, she just needed to put it all out there to close the chapter. Besides, if Taylor the businesswoman has learned anything from the re-release of her albums and the vault tracks, her fans want more and more, not less, and being prolific is a strategy (the more shots you take, the more chances you win). 

The last thing I’ll say is, can we all just chill? She drops 31 songs, and within just a few hours (even minutes!), there are think pieces, countless tweets, and TikTok reviews. I know that our culture rewards quick reactions, and there’s always pressure to be the first (I’m guilty of this), but if we’re so concerned about Taylor needing an editor, maybe we need one, too. It’s been a week, and I’m still unsure what my definitive opinion is! Whether it’s Taylor Swift’s latest album or a new movie release, let’s all try to treat culture like fine wine and let it breathe. It’s okay for our relationship to something to evolve and to be open to seeing something in a new light after further aeration (this ends my limited knowledge of wine and thus the metaphor). 

And I’ll leave you with music that is not Taylor Swift but a cover that brings new energy to a beloved song.

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Happy Sunday! As you probably know from being a human on the internet, Coachella began this weekend. The last time I went was April 2012, and it was the coldest Coachella on record (it got down to 43 degrees Fahrenheit at one point!). We’d spent weeks meticulously planning our festival schedule, crafting the perfect pregame playlist, and acquiring fringed crop tops and flower crowns. But in all that planning, we failed to check the weather report. Needless to say, the flower crown did not keep me warm. I don’t have much interest in Coachella these days, but I enjoy watching the highlights from afar, including Lana Del Rey arriving for her headlining set in style on a motorcycle. So, let’s get into it!

@.lana_.ireneHer hair her outfit her everything omg. #coachella #lanadelrey #ldr #fyp #foryou #viralvideo #viral

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• 📚 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. The other day, I stumbled upon a brownstone in my neighborhood with a tree outside of it that looked just like the cover of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and I was instantly reminded of reading the novel for the first time. It was my grandmother’s favorite book, so my mom and I decided to read it together - a sort of cross-country pandemic book club. The novel tells the story of Francie Nolan, a bright and imaginative young girl growing up in a Brooklyn tenement in the early twentieth century. In many ways, it’s a love letter to generations of mothers and women trying to improve the lives of their families. Though written in 1943, Betty Smith’s words still feel poignant in the modern world. It’s so beautifully written and heartfelt that I have no doubt it will be a story I continually revisit. A must-read!

• 📺 I Was Wrong by Chris Stapleton. Last night, Chris Stapleton performed on Saturday Night Live for the second time as the musical guest. I thought I’d take that as an opportunity to share my Chris Stapleton fan club membership card in the hopes that you join, too (if you haven’t already!). I first learned of Chris Stapleton when I heard him singing with the bluegrass band The Steeldrivers on “If It Hadn’t Been For Love.” Originally from Kentucky, he dropped out of his honors Engineering program at Vanderbilt to pursue music in Nashville. For many years, he lived in obscurity while writing hit songs for popular country artists and playing in various bands (including The Steeldrivers). Then, in 2015, he released his first solo album, Traveller, and drew widespread attention when he performed “Tenessee Whiskey” with Justin Timberlake at the CMA Awards. Since then, he has released several albums, won countless awards, sang the “National Anthem” at the Super Bowl, and collaborated with many artists, including Taylor Swift and Adele. You’d be hard-pressed to classify him as an exclusively country artist, as his genre-bending brand of country spans many sounds, including 1970s Outlaw Country, Bluegrass, R&B, and Southern Rock. He and his wife Morgane Stapleton’s beautiful harmonies and heartfelt shared glances are enough to make you swoon. You’ll be drawn in by his room-shaking vocals but will stay for his continual ability to elevate even the most straightforward songs into something otherworldly. I’m excited to see him in concert for the third time this summer!

And I’ll leave you with Gwen Stefani recreating a moment from No Doubt’s 1995 Coachella performance. I plan to bring all that “I’m Just a Girl” energy into the week.

@trevor_hackerGWEN SEEMED SO HAPPY TONIGHT. THIS WAS AWESOME. #coachella #nodoubt #gwenstefani #music #viral #fyp #foryou #parati @Gwen Stefani #justagirl

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Happy Wednesday! I’m back from a few lovely days in the Florida sunshine, with a sunburn to prove it. The accidental sun nap wins again! We extended the trip to account for the travel delays, which ultimately meant giving up my dreams of scoring last-minute Olivia Rodrigo MSG tickets at a reasonable price (I said it was a dream, okay!). Sadly, my inner teenager didn’t end up scream-singing with actual teenagers or seeing this instantly iconic moment where Olivia brought Jewel out to sing an OG breakup classic, “You Were Meant for Me.” You win some, you lose some. Let’s get into the menu!

🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 🗞️ Elite College Admissions Have Turned Students Into Brands. My senior year of high school was a blur, mainly because I was so worried about getting into college that I don’t think it even occurred to me that childhood was ending. Instead, I was very concerned about ensuring that my years of competitive debate travel and various high school club commitments would pay off and send me to my dream school. I was unsurprised to learn in this article that the competitive landscape around college admissions has grown even fiercer. But, I was intrigued to learn that the college admission consulting industry has become a 2.9 billion business. Something feels broken…

• 🗞️ Enjoy! Enjoy! Enjoy!. ’s newsletter, , continues to be one of my favorites on Substack. I found this week’s installment, where she talks about the ease of romanticizing the past and the difficulty of enjoying the present, particularly on the nose. As a person who feels nostalgic for a moment as it’s happening, she perfectly articulated my feelings about striving to be present. An excerpt below:

I rarely think about the sweatily missed trains, the devastating breakup, the haunt of my own inadequacy, surrounded by a level of wealth and style I’d never seen. When I do think of those things, I don’t feel them as viscerally in my gut as the buildings, the haircut, the kiss. I recall them only as the narrative texture to my heart-throbbing joy—the thorns around the rose that make it the perfect poetic subject.

I think this is how our memories work most of the time. We stamp a particular era with a particular mood, and make the details fall in line. This is why it’s so satisfying to revel in your own past. From a comfortable distance, you get to watch the pieces play their parts: the peaks, the valleys, the payoffs, and cut all the rest for time. The most vital quality of hindsight is how it’s structured, always with a beginning, middle, and end. This is nothing like the present of course (all middle), and that’s exactly its appeal. Our nostalgia is so potent we think we remember what it was like. We believe that, given a second chance, we might be able to do it better. Slow down, worry less, appreciate more.

🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 🎧 Larry David on Conan O’Brien’s podcast. I’m in the phase of my Curb series finale mourning, where I listen to every Curb and Larry David-related interview I can get my hands on in preparation for a full series rewatch. If you’re a Curb fan, the previously mentioned Origins podcast about the show's early history is a must. But if you’ve already listened to that series, I enjoyed this recent interview with Larry on Conan’s podcast. Expect me to use the line “I have one question, and then I’ve got to go” to get myself out of any future unfavorable situations. 

🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

• 🎭 An Enemy of the People. We went to see An Enemy of the People on Broadway last week, and it was as fabulous as expected. The 1882 Henrik Ibsen play, adapted by Amy Herzog and directed by Sam Gold (fun fact: they’re married), tells the story of a doctor (Jeremy Strong) who discovers his town’s water supply is contaminated and attempts to warn everyone of the potential danger but is met with pushback (to say the least). The show is playing at the Circle in the Square Theater - an intimate theater designed to mimic the amphitheaters of ancient Greece and Rome. It’s difficult to picture a bad seat, and it’s a pretty incredible experience to watch world-class performances in such close proximity. The whole cast is phenomenal (Michael Imperioli and Jeremy Strong facing off is something to behold), but Strong’s performance is especially riveting and makes a compelling case for him as one of our greatest living actors. Despite being a play from the late nineteenth century, the story feels more relevant and timely than ever. Tickets are expensive but worth it if you’re a fan of Jeremy Strong or interested in splurging on world-class theater. 

• 🎬 How to Have Sex. This movie premiered at Cannes in 2023 and was screened at Sundance this past January. While I didn’t see it at Sundance, I was eager to watch it after hearing so much positive buzz. The movie tells the story of three teenage girls who travel to Greece for a weekend of drinking, clubbing, and hooking up after finishing their exams. They’re in that liminal moment of childhood and adulthood, desperately striving to experience all being “grown up” has to offer. One of the three girls (powerfully played by Mia McKenna-Bruce) hasn’t had sex before and feels pressure for it to happen on the holiday. What follows is an all too familiar and painful story of how many girls experience their first sexual encounters. It perfectly captures the drinking culture of young adulthood in a way that neither glamorizes nor moralizes the characters' choices but depicts a very specific experience and the mixture of joyful abandon, pain, and loneliness that can all exist in the same space. It’s a difficult watch, not the least, because its depiction of painful subject matter feels authentic to the lived experiences of myself and other female friends. It would be easy to think the film's scope is small, but that’d be missing the conversations brewing under the surface. In choosing the confined space and time of one rite-of-passage weekend, writer/director Molly Manning Walker removes hyperbole and allows you to immerse yourself in a specific experience meant to provoke conversation and reexamination. On top of that, it’s so beautifully and hauntingly shot (Manning Walker is also a cinematographer, and it shows). 

🧁 Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 🎧 Stephen Spielberg interviewing Denis Villeneuve about Dune Part Two. I loved this conversation between Spielberg and Villeneuve about Dune Part Two for two reasons: 1) Spielberg is geeking out on Dune in a way that reminds you that beyond being one of the greatest directors of all time, he’s also a cinephile with a love for storytelling and world-building. I expected this would be more of a technical discussion, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear how much of a fanboy he is for the franchise. 2) You can tell how much it means to Villeneuve that one of his heroes loves his film. It feels like listening/watching someone’s dream come true! I’d recommend listening to the podcast because the sound quality on the video isn’t great, but it's worth watching a few minutes just to see the joy radiating from both of these best-in-class directors. 

And I’ll leave you with this TikTok that I’m pretty confident was made about me.

@tannertan36#greenscreen 😭😭

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Happy Sunday, and happy Sephora sale to all those who celebrate! So much has happened since Wednesday. The original flight plans for Pete’s vacation in Florida were canceled due to torrential rain, an earthquake in New York grounded our rescheduled flight (it was minor but produced great content, my favorites here and here), and Isla Fisher announced her divorce from Sacha Baron Cohen using a tennis metaphor. That’s a lot to process in only a few short days. In the end, I made it to Florida, and the sunshine is working wonders for my general disposition. However, the lingering reminder that tonight is the series finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm has me mourning my favorite misanthrope. But today, we discuss a different misanthrope: author Patricia Highsmith and her famous character, Tom Ripley. So, let’s get to it!

**This discussion contains spoilers. The spoiler-free TL;DR: I love the Highsmith novel, the 1999 adaptation, and the new Netflix version. Each iteration contributes something different to the outsider infiltrating the upper-class story we’re obsessed with as a society. If you want a full Ripley binge, my suggested order is the 1999 film, the book, and finally, the Netflix TV adaptation. Happy Ripley-ing!**

📺 Ripley (TV). Until a few months ago, I hadn’t seen Anthony Minghella’s beloved 1999 adaptation of The Talented Mr. Ripley. Some movies just slip through the cracks! In anticipation of watching Saltburn (I like to do my homework), I felt it was only right that I rectified the gap in my film education. I was predictably mesmerized by the story of a murderous, lovelorn striver and the intoxicating imagery of a sun-soaked Italian summer with Matt Damon/Jude Law/Gwyneth Paltrow caught in a love triangle at the height of their youthful beauty. After finally understanding the Ripley hype, I was cautiously optimistic when I heard Andrew Scott would be starring in a new adaptation. I’ve spent the last four days in a Ripley trance, devouring all eight episodes of Ripley and reading the Highsmith novel. I have thoughts!

Let’s start with the original text. The Talented Mr. Ripley is the first in a series of novels about grifter and sociopath Tom Ripley. Our time with him begins in New York, where he’s a paranoid, low-level con artist unsuccessfully attempting insurance scams and fearing that he’s being followed. His luck begins to change when a wealthy shipping magnate seeks him out after mistakenly believing Tom is friends with his son, Richard “Dickie” Greenleaf. Dickie’s father offers to pay Tom a salary and cover his travel expenses if he helps bring the galavanting and financially reckless Dickie back from Italy. What ensues is violence, identity theft, and increasingly outlandish but successful misdirection. Despite knowing the general shape of the story (the Minghella adaptation deviates significantly from the book), I couldn’t put it down. Perhaps the biggest grift is that Highsmith’s matter-of-fact prose belies realism, making you suspend your disbelief around some of Tom’s most elaborate coverups while empathizing with a sociopath. 

In the latest adaptation, Ripley is reimagined in black and white by writer and director Steven Zallian. His illustrious career includes writing Schindler’s List, Gangs of New York, Moneyball, and writing/directing the critically acclaimed mini-series Night Of. For Ripley, Zallian enlisted Academy Award-winning There WIll Be Blood cinematographer Robert Elswit to bring his film noir vision to life. This iteration stays more faithful to the novel than Minghella’s, with changes largely to make some of the book’s flourishes more believable (one example, the book ends with Ripley revealing a forged will to Dickie’s father, allowing Ripley to cash in on Dickie’s inheritance - the series does away with this). The pace is slow and maybe even tedious, but the tedium is calculated and lets you sit with the mundane realities of the violent crimes Tom commits rather than luxuriating in Italian summer. In contrast to the vibrant and lively Italy you’d expect, this iteration was shot during the pandemic and feels eerily isolating - appropriate for the loneliness core to Tom’s existence as a grifter. Andrew Scott seamlessly vacillates between Tom and Dickie, creepy and charming. I was so on edge that a train window washer gave me a jump scare. I won’t spoil it, but the last fifteen minutes of episode three are the most visually arresting images I’ve seen on television this year. 

Since finishing Ripley, I’ve read reviews, and it’s fascinating to see how differing opinions can be - ranging from “it’s a masterpiece” to “it’s charmless” (and Andrew Scott is too old). It’s fitting that opinions are varied, as Tom Ripley, the character, is elusive and difficult to pin down. In reading the original text and watching two of the many adaptations (Purple Noon is the 1960 version that also adapts the first book, and there are other adaptations of the subsequent novels), I’m struck by the fact that both interpretations ring true. Matt Damon’s Tom Ripley is more driven by the desire to be liked. He’s in love with Jude Law’s Dickie, and Dickie’s lack of mutual feelings leads Tom to murder out of passion driven by unrequited longing and shame. More in line with the book, sexuality for Andrew Scott’s Tom is less overt. Though Marge tells Dickie she suspects Tom is gay, and Dickie explicitly tells Tom he’s not interested in him with a pointedness that confirms his prejudices, we aren’t expressly led to believe Tom had feelings for Dickie. Instead, he’s more attracted to Dickie’s possessions and the ease with which he moves through life. Tom is naturally gifted - he picks up Italian quickly, paints better than Dickie with little effort, and has a genuine love for art. But he’s not born into the same opportunities as Dickie, and isn’t afforded the luxury to shape his life without concern about money. Maybe a murder by a jilted paramour was easier to digest for 1999 audiences, but Scott’s Ripley is more calculating than brash and probably more accurate to Highsmith’s views of morality. But, in the end, both are compelling and believable interpretations. 

One last comparison point: I was shocked by how different Gwyneth Paltrow’s Marge is from the book. In the book, Marge is described as “unsophisticated looking,” and her relationship with Dickie isn’t defined, but her feelings are stronger than his. She’s in Italy writing a novel, and it’s implied that Marge is talentless. If anything, she’s also sponging off Dickie, enjoying the benefits his lifestyle affords. When Dickie eventually goes missing, she’s worried but also revels in the press attention and her general importance to the case. All in all, she’s relatively unsympathetic. By contrast, Paltrow’s Marge is beautiful, fashionable, and welcoming. Though Dickie isn’t loyal to Marge, they’re engaged, and he’s outwardly expressive about his affection for her. While this interpretation allows for a much more compelling love triangle, Dakota Fanning’s Marge is more in line with Highsmith’s original characterization and begs the question, who isn’t benefiting from Dickie’s wealth?

@ellemagazineEagerly awaiting the movie adaptation of ‘Kurt Russell Gave Me a Horse: A Dakota Fanning Story.’ #DakotaFanning #AndrewScott #KurtRussell #AskMeAnything #Ripley

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Ultimately, I enjoyed my weekend with all the Ripleys and concluded that as much as we might like to choose a definitive interpretation, both are fabulous, and we’re spoiled for choice. Each shows the complexity of the character that Highsmith created and proves why The Talented Mr. Ripley inspired many subsequent literary and onscreen strivers. I’m curious to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments!

And I’ll leave you with this reimagining of a Pilates class as a horror film from SNL last night.

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Happy Wednesday! Unsurprisingly, my overeager weather proclamations were wrong, and fake New York spring has fooled me again. My dog Pete and I are in a perpetual state of drowned rat (both physically and spiritually). We’d just about hit our limit when my husband turned to me and said, “I think Pete needs a vacation.” And I couldn’t agree more. So we booked a last-minute trip to Florida, and Pete is getting his well-deserved vacation starting tomorrow. Expect me to be a whole new, sunshine-y person after some much-needed Vitamin D. Though the sunshine means I’ll have less opportunity to keep up with my Shōgun catchup binge. I’ll wait until the season is finished to share more formal thoughts, but wow, what a compelling and visually stunning watch. Plus, subtitles mean I’m not multitasking - a huge added benefit for my overall comprehension. And with that, let’s get into the menu.

🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 📺 Jeremy Strong on his return to Broadway. I’m seeing An Enemy of the People tonight, and I can’t think of a better way to pregame the show than watching this Jeremy Strong interview with Seth Meyers. It makes sense dramaturgically. Per usual, he’s himself. Highlights include Strong saying that acting live on stage is like “emotionally free-climbing El Capitan eight times a week.” Asking for a friend, is that a viable excuse for not being able to make previously agreed upon engagements? “So sorry I can’t go to brunch tomorrow. Work this week felt like emotionally free-climbing El Capitan.” I’ll try it out and let you know. Also, he apparently still can’t acknowledge that “I’m the eldest boy” is funny. Kendall lives long!

🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 🗞️ I Went to Paris by Alison Roman. Despite her Substack being hacked last week (I guess that’s a thing?), Alison Roman was back and talking about recommendation culture. In particular, how we’ve become obsessed with finding the best of everything and fearful that without a recommendation for where to eat on vacation, what to wear to a wedding, or how to cook the preeminent grilled cheese, we might end up with something second-rate. As a person actively making recs each week, I, too, can struggle with rec overload, but I love her conclusion that the answer is to continue cultivating our sense of discovery. Whether through curated recs or happenstance stumblings. On The Culture Diet, I very consciously say little about the things I don’t like. Sure, I’ve got some hot takes, but I find “good” and “bad” very subjective, and I’m more interested in sharing the things that I unabashedly love. It might not all resonate with you, but even experiencing culture you don’t like gives you a better understanding of what you do. Generally, I’m just excited by people putting themselves out there and being creative - that’s not an easy feat. So, I celebrate the culture I can’t stop thinking about rather than denigrating the efforts that didn’t work for me. Find me after a drink though, and I’ll tell you all my hot takes. 

🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

• 📚 Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I learned this morning that there’s an upcoming Broadway revival of Our Town - the show's first production since the 2002 Paul Newman version. Katie Holmes, Zoey Deutch, Ephraim Sykes, and Jim Parsons are all set to star. I vividly remember being urged to audition for Emily Webb in a community theater production of the show because even though I was twelve, I was tall and slightly older-looking. Understandably, I didn’t get the part of a woman whose story spans from ages sixteen to thirty-two - I didn’t have that kind of range! Despite the failed audition, I went and saw the production and fell in love with the play. I hadn’t thought about that memory in a long time until this past summer when I read Ann Patchett’s latest book, Tom Lake. The novel tells the story of a mother and father whose three daughters return home to their family apple orchard during the COVID-19 pandemic. The close proximity allows the daughters to learn more about their mother’s past, including her romantic relationship with a famous actor. The story of Our Town is used as a framing mechanism and a plot point as the mother continually plays Emily throughout her acting career. It’s a tender, quiet, and contemplative book, and once I finished reading, I had the immediate urge to call my mother and have her tell me everything there is to know about her life story. Because as you quickly learn in Tom Lake, much of what we think we know about our parents' lives, isn’t the reality at all.

• 🎬 Whiplash. I can still remember exactly where I was when I saw this movie for the first time. It was my last semester of college in Los Angeles, and my best friend and I went to the now-closed Arclight movie theater on Sunset. I loved going to movies when I lived in LA - the spectacle of it all felt like going to the theater in New York. We sat in the sold-out theater and watched the screen intently. It wasn’t until the final crescendo that I realized my shoulders were hiked up to my ears, and I’d barely remembered to breathe. We both turned to each other after the movie and said, “Wow!” Then, we continued in silence for most of the drive home. It was one of the most tense movie viewing experiences I’d ever had - and it’s a film about jazz drumming, which, as it turns out, is very intense. It’s also Damien Chazelle’s full-length directorial debut, and it immediately made me a fan for life (I love La La Land and Babylon - don’t @ me unless you want to hear me rant). The movie stars a young Miles Teller (nearly unrecognizable if you only know him from Top Gun) as an aspiring drummer at a top music conservatory in New York and J.K. Simmons as the conductor/drill sergeant/Nurse Ratched figure “mentoring” him (I’ll let you decide if you’d call it mentoring). Very loosely inspired by Chazelle’s experience as a jazz drummer in high school and college, it’s an incredibly human story about wanting something so desperately and striving for perfection at any cost. Now that I think about it, it's an excellent double feature with Black Swan if you’re trying to have an anxiety-ridden evening. If you haven’t seen it, you should rectify that immediately. 

🧁 Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 🎧 Men are From YouTube, Women Are From TikTok. A colleague shared this fabulously named and thoughtful conversation about the broadening political ideology gap between men and women. There have been several articles on this point over the last few months after a Gallup poll came out in January, but I found this to be a particularly lively debate on some of the potential causes of the chasm. The conversation eventually turns to the declining global birth rate, which reminded me of this recent Ezra Klein episode about the inherent conflict between work and parenting. As both podcasts share, birth rates are still declining even in countries with significant governmental nets for family rearing. Fascinating discussions. 

And I’ll leave you with a Tweet from this week that had me scratching my head. I’m all here for the LiLo return to film and a Freaky Friday reboot, but does she really need to swap with her “British restauranteur fiance’s daughter Lily?” Or maybe it’s just a case of a poorly written headline. Either way, I have notes.

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Happy Sunday! I’m just home from a lovely Easter meal, and I’m feeling full and grateful to have friends who feel more like family than friends. Alternatively, I might just be happy because they shared this video with me of two New Zealand men dancing to Celine Dion with the exact right level of commitment and reverence required for a Celine song. Realistically, I’m grateful for all of the above. And with that moment of gratitude, let’s dive in!

• 🎭 Teeth. As mentioned earlier in the week, I was very excited to see Teeth, and I’m happy to report that it exceeded all expectations! The new Off-Broadway musical by Anna K. Jacobs and Michael R. Jackson (Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning writer of A Strange Loop) is an adaptation of the indie body horror movie of the same name. It tells the story of a high school-aged purity group leader named Dawn who discovers she has vagina dentata (a condition described in folk myths as a vagina with teeth). For Dawn, the teeth reveal themselves when sexual violence is committed against her, and her body bites back. Unfortunately, she’s surrounded by archetypal figures of exploitative men with God complexes and unacknowledged shame who take advantage of her trusting disposition - ultimately to a chomping demise. I don’t want to spoil anything more, but what transpires is a gory, campy blend of Jennifer’s Body, Promising Young Woman, Spring Awakening, and something all its own. There’s a heavy dose of well-placed female rage and many moments where the audience (myself included) audibly cheered for Dawn’s metamorphosis. While I don’t think the ending lands the plane quite yet (rumor is they were testing different endings in previews), the elevated and exaggerated comic book-style violence at the hands of a protagonist seeking revenge for sexual assault was incredibly cathartic. I left the theater feeling like I’d seen a Marvel superhero’s thrilling origin story. Honestly, I might go again. If this sounds like your thing, it closes on April 28th - get your tickets before it’s gone.

• 🎧 COWBOY CARTER. Beyoncé’s highly anticipated Cowboy Carter is here! As Harry Styles would probably say, my favorite thing about Beyoncé’s sprawling, genre-bending new album is that it feels like an album. It’s a real, sit down, listen from start to finish, experience the totality of the artist's vision ALBUM. Days before it was released, Beyoncé took to Instagram to share that despite all our speculation, it’s not a country album; it’s a Beyoncé album. This is made clear in the opening lines of “SPAGHETII” when Linda Martell (the first commercially successful Black female country artist) says: “Genres are a funny little concept, aren’t they? Yes they are..In theory, they have a simple definition that’s easy to understand, but in practice, well, some may feel confined.” In the background, there’s an instrumental in the style of a Western movie shootout, and then Beyoncé and Shaboozey break into a Southern trap track. The song’s title refers to spaghetti Westerns, a subgenre of Western films produced in Europe (primarily Italy - hence spaghetti). Despite being criticized as inauthentic for not being made in America or by American filmmakers, many spaghetti Westerns were hugely commercially successful and critically lauded - the most notable being The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, directed by Sergio Leone. With this unsubtle reference, Beyoncé looks us all in the eye and says, what does it even mean to fit into a genre anyway? And what good does it do the genre to gatekeep? A theme she explores throughout COWBOY CARTER. 

  The album is a sprawling survey of American music, with countless references to classic country, folk, trap, and rock combined with an all-star slate of household names, including Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson, Miley Cyrus, and Post Malone. The commanding opening track, “AMERIICAN REQUIEM,” draws upon Buffalo Springfrields’ folk rock protest song “For What It’s Worth,” calling out traditionalists from the jump: “Nothin’ really ends/For things to stay the same, they have to change again/Hello, my old friend/You change your name, but not the ways you play pretend.” Another standout is the genre-spanning dance tune “YA YA,” sampling Nancy Sinatra’s iconic feminist anthem “These Boots Are Made For Walkin” and the Beach Boys' psychedelic “Good Vibrations.” In “RIIVERDANCE,” Beyoncé pays homage to Dolly Parton by using her nails as percussion (just as Dolly did in “9 to 5”). And in another acknowledgment of country music history, Beyoncé sings a few lines of Patsy Cline’s iconic “I Fall To Pieces” at the start of “SWEET HONEY BUCKIIN.” But a personal favorite moment is her gorgeous rendition of the Beatles’ “BLACKBIIRD.” She stays relatively true to the original but invites a quartet of Black female country singers to join her for stunning harmonies. Paul McCartney previously shared that the song was inspired by the Little Rock Nine and Black women in the civil rights movement. That added history makes the choice to include it all the more powerful.

  In the end, it’s simply undeniable that COWBOY CARTER is a masterful American album in a genre of its own. A brief tangent: During the pandemic, I spent several months in my home state, Utah. My parent’s house was a welcome change from the 800-square-foot apartment my husband and I were both working out of, and we were very lucky to use the extended visit as an opportunity to explore all five of Utah’s national parks and stave off the growing uneasiness of being stuck on pause. Growing up, I had a complicated relationship with Utah for myriad reasons, but traveling through the towering red rock and expansive western wilderness gave me pride in the beauty of a state I’d often overlooked. But, as we also visited Native American monuments and learned more about surrounding reservations, that pride was mixed with the reminder of the bloody origins of the region. I distinctly remember writing in my journal: “To be American is to be confused,” because I didn’t know how else to describe my newfound appreciation for my Western heritage and the sadness around the violence in how much of the land came to be American. So I sat (and continue to sit) in the confusion. Beyoncé much more profoundly sits in the confusion. She recognizes the layered history of the country genre and its intertwined origins with a complex American past (“whole lotta red in that white and blue”). Still, she builds from fraught history and creates something entirely her own. And if that’s not an American story, I don’t know what is. As she tells us from the jump, it’s not a country album - it’s a Beyoncé album. To close it out, some words from Rhiannon Giddens:

Nobody owns an art form. Everyone is allowed to enjoy and make country music, especially when done with respect, understanding and integrity. But let’s stop pretending that the outrage surrounding this latest single is about anything other than people trying to protect their nostalgia for a pure ethnically white tradition that never was. The fact is, we’ve all been lied to; poor people of all backgrounds came together to make the music that the industry named country, and its birthright is one of the best things about being American.

And I thought I’d leave you with something a little different today—a question! If you could own any physical object or memorabilia from a movie, what would it be? I'll leave my answer in the comments!

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Hi team! It’s mid-week, how are we feeling? What’s Anning your Hathway? Withering your Spoon? What’s really Channing my Tatum is excitement to see the new musical Teeth tomorrow. It’s a show that’s been high on my list, and I can’t wait to report back. In the meantime, here are some new menu items for you below. 

@jaynaannette#stitch with @amandajustvibin

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🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 🗞️ Jungle - “Back on 74”. I really enjoyed this breakdown of Jungle’s viral “Back on 74” from Molly Cameron of . This sent me down a rabbit hole of TikTok dance videos - a favorite pastime for me despite the fact I can’t dance, but boy, do I love cheering on people who can (as evidenced by my love of Dance Life). 

🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 🗞️ Rejecting the Binary. Back in the day, I was a competitive high school/college policy debater using my vicious rhetoric to PwN Noobs (I think that’s what we used to say in 2009?). Somewhere along that road, I became obsessed with the famed academic Judith Butler. So much so that my legendary high school debate coach gave me a signed copy of their first book, Gender Trouble, as a graduation gift. Butler has now released a new book called Who’s Afraid of Gender, and I couldn’t be more excited to read their perspective in a contemporary context. This article, from one of their former advisees, is a good entry point if you’re curious.

🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

• 📺 Grey’s Anatomy Season One and Two. My recs this week are fewer, largely because I’m so deep into a Grey’s Anatomy rewatch that I feel like I performed a Whipple procedure yesterday. I’m not sure how many times I’ve rewatched this 400+ episode TV show, but I find myself in what seems to be a shrinking camp of people who have kept current with the latest seasons.  As mentioned in the Friday Special, it’s a foundational text for me. I continue to fight the urge to “unzip myself from my human form, dissolve into the screen, and materialize as a Seattle Grace Intern.” In between my packed surgery schedule, I thought I’d take a moment to try and articulate why I genuinely think this show is worth a watch. Note: this will be a spoiler-free discussion because if this write-up convinces you to give it a try, you deserve the full emotional rollercoaster.

  I was twelve when Grey’s first aired on ABC in 2005. But it didn’t enter my consciousness until I saw my mom sobbing while watching the season two finale (we still talk about this moment eighteen years later). My morose curiosity made me desperate to know what had driven her to tears, so we made a trip to Barnes and Noble, purchased the first season DVD box set, and I shut out the world to catch-up. I then quickly devoured the second season (she’d thankfully DVR’ed it). By the end of the second season, I had signed up for AP Chemistry with plans to become a surgeon (shortlived), watched all of Patrick Dempsey’s filmography (Can’t Buy Me Love 🥰), and forever committed myself to the Shonda Rhimes fan club. I’m now thirty-one years old, and Meredith Grey has been in my life for nearly twenty years. There’s been something special about seeing a show and its cast age in real time - like a Richard Linklater film, but on network television. 

  Still, you ask, how has this show continued for twenty seasons? The simple reason is Shonda Rhimes understood network television from the jump - rather than feeling constrained by the rules of the form, she used that conventional framework to test limits while understanding how to use the formula to her advantage. The show is generally comprised of larger-scale, tragic events that require some element of suspended disbelief and acceptance of soap opera melodrama alongside more personalized and individual character issues happening on an ongoing basis. Both make for compelling television, and there’s a general humorous self-awareness even in the most catastrophic (they also can’t believe another natural disaster has struck Seattle). The show has also always been progressive, drawing on contemporary events for material and enlisting a diverse cast to tell often unrepresented stories. All of that, combined with an ever-rotating set of characters (it’s a teaching hospital with new interns and teachers), has allowed the show to have endless character permutations and natural reinvention. But still, in the DNA is Rhimes’ original desire to portray real women (in doing so, she’s made Ellen Pompeo one of the highest-paying women in TV). Per Rhimes:

  I wanted to create a world in which you felt as if you were watching very real women. Most of the women I saw on TV didn't seem like people I actually knew. They felt like ideas of what women are. They never got to be nasty or competitive or hungry or angry. They were often just the loving wife or the nice friend. But who gets to be the bitch? Who gets to be the three-dimensional woman?

  So, if you’re looking for something to sink your teeth into, make yourself some popcorn, assemble an arsenal of favorite sweets, and cozy up to a Grey’s binge. You’ll immediately be teleported back to a simpler time when network television ruled the world, cliffhangers couldn’t be dissected on social media, and interns making out in on-call rooms was the most titillating thing on television. My favorite seasons are one, two, five, six, and eight. Start with season one (it’s only nine episodes because it was a mid-season replacement), and let your journey begin. Before you know it, you’ll be on Season 20 (skip the musical episode, though - that was bleak). 

🧁 Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 📺 Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl - Actors on Actors. Let’s go ahead and stick with the Grey’s theme. This Ellen Pompeo and Katherine Heigl conversation is required viewing for all Grey’s fans. Like many early cast members, Heigl had a famously tumultuous exit from the show. But it’s now been on long enough that her villainous media portrayal has had an arc, and people have begun to believe that she was vocalizing unfair working hours and expectations (albeit with some ego and youthful lack of tact). I loved this conversation between the two of them!

And as it’s Easter this weekend, I’ll leave you with a recipe I found that might just be my only shot at convincing people that Peeps are great.

@fivefootfeminineHave you ever tried mixing PEEPS into your Rice Krispies Treats? It’s the perfect Easter treat! See full recipe on used below 👇🏼 thanks @smartschoolhouse for the idea!!! Go follow her for more cute seasonal recipe ideas! 💗 - 30 Peeps (3 packs) - 6 Cups Rice Krispies - 8 TBSP Butter Toss all ingredients in greased pan. Bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes until peeps are soft. Mix together. Pat down into the pan. Let cool on counter for 30 minutes and serve! #eastertreats #easterrecipes #ricekrispies #ricekrispytreats #easyrecipes #babyshowerideas #dessert #peeps #kidfriendlyfood @Williams Sonoma @peepsbrand @Walmart @KitchenAid

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Happy Sunday! I’m deep down a 100-mile rabbit hole today after hearing that a British runner named Jasmin Paris became the first woman to complete the Barkley Marathons this past Friday. I write that sentence as if I knew what that was before today (which I didn’t) or as if I run (which I don’t). So, while this doesn’t seem like something that would be on my radar, I’m an unabashed human spirit enthusiast and will always be excited to celebrate Herculean achievements. If, like me, you also did not know what this was, the Barkley Marathons is an ultramarathon trail race held each year in a Tennessee state park that requires racers to traverse 100 miles (involving 60,000ft of climb and descent) in 60 hours, finding hidden books with only a printed map (GPS is not allowed). Some other fun facts: the quirky race was inspired by a failed jailbreak, the application process is notoriously secretive (basically what Soho House used to be), the course changes every year, and the race officially begins when the race director lights a cigarette. Since it became a 100-mile race in 1989, only 20 people have finished it. So yeah - if you’re wondering what I’m doing today, it’s NOT getting out and running, BUT it is sitting in front of my computer, trying to decode the secret entry process (because I love an internet-based challenge).   

Unlike Jasmin, my biggest marathon this week was watching all the first three episodes of Palm Royale (don’t ask me what I think yet - I haven’t decided). With that, a couple of quick bites:

• 🎭 Jack Tucker: Comedy Standup Hour. I saw this show with friends last night and had a chaotic good time. Jack Tucker is comedian Zach Zucker’s alter ego. The inspiration for Jack Tucker came after Zucker watched a lot of bad comics getting booked and felt that he and his friends were a lot funnier but not getting the same opportunities. Realizing there could be something there to play off of, he decided to take a go at hosting his late-night variety show (Stumptown) in a new persona: bad comedian Jack Tucker (think: deadbeat, inappropriate but faintly endearing Uncle that doesn’t know how to let a joke die). Zucker studied under French master clown Philippe Gaulier (other famous students include Sacha Baron Cohen, Emma Thompson, and Helena Bonham Carter), and knowing that gives a lot of context to the performance. Much of the bit is him being guided by the energy of the audience’s reactions - doubling down on things the crowd responds to. He has an impressively quick brain and innate physicality, and he and his stage manager/producer are so in sync with lighting and sound cues that it feels like they’ve melded into one brain. I’d never seen anything like it! If you’re a fan of live comedy but interested in seeing something different than your usual standup act while also supporting a really lovely guy (he shakes everyone’s hand at the end of the show and talks to the crowd), make sure to check it out before the show closes on April 13th. 

@zach__zuckera joke about the baha men 🏝️ #stamptown #funny #comedy #jokes #bahamen #wholetthedogsout

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• 🎰 The Big Silly Trivia Game. Did you play HQ? I did. Religiously (despite finding the host irritating). I was sad when it ended and even more sad to learn about all the various scandals that plagued the company behind the scenes. But wow, oh wow, I have some good news for you! There’s a new virtual trivia show on the block called The Big Silly Trivia Game! It’s a weekly pop culture trivia competition currently in beta testing, and you should absolutely sign up. It’s every Wednesday @ 9 PM EST, and you can win chic prizes like Khaite tees, Bottega card holders, and sourced vintage decor. Last week, there was a question about John Mayer’s famous exes - and that’s how I knew I was in the right place. Also, the chat is electric - it’s like they’ve assembled all your favorite girls you’ve ever met in the bathroom line at a bar. If that’s your vibe, you can sign up here. 

And I’ll leave you with Olivia Rodrigo’s new song, “Obsessed.” My book club met this week to discuss Good Material, and by the end of the night, the conversation turned to elaborate tales of outsized breakup reactions and our most embarrassing ex-girlfriend stalking tactics. So yeah—this song hit at just the right time. Also, if someone wants to send two tickets for her MSG show my way, that would be cool. 

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Hi Culture Lovers! After sourcing some reader feedback, I’ve shifted the menu delivery day to Wednesdays to allow for more space between the Weekly Menu and Weekend Snack. You can now expect a fresh set of recs delivered to your inbox every Wednesday. And with that, let’s get into this week’s menu:

🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 📺 Janey Godley’s Flowers Cover. This everyday person cover of Miley’s “Flowers” from Scottish comedian Janey Godley absolutely sent me. What’s true independence if not being able to “build your own Ikea?”

@janeygodleyMe and shirley

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• 🗞️ Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ Script Blows Up All the Rules. By now, you probably know I’m not a huge fan of Oppenheimer. But as mentioned a few weeks ago, listening to Christopher Nolan talk about how he wrote the script gave me a newfound respect for the film. Further to that point, I loved ’s screenwriter perspective on just how groundbreaking the script really was. I'm a big fan of his Substack generally!

🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 🗞️ On Self Respect by Joan Didion. Since being assigned this essay in a Freshman year English class, I revisit these words nearly every year (typically around this time - something about spring). Admittedly, some portions have not aged well, but still, there continues to be relevance in Didion’s musings on what self-respect means. Though we might be able to lie to others about where we are on our journeys, at the end of the day, it’s just you and your mind. Didion ruminates on how you find peace in that space.

It is the phenomenon sometimes called ‘alienation from self.’ In its advanced stages, we no longer answer the telephone because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. Every encounter demands too much, tears the nerves, drains the will, and the specter of something as small as an unanswered letter arouses such disproportionate guilt that answering it becomes out of the question. To assign unanswered letters their proper weight, to free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves — there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.

• 🗞️ An Unexpected Hotbed of Y.A. Authors: Utah. I remember the first time I heard about Twilight. Vampires weren’t really my thing, but my high school was ablaze with talks of this addictive series. Admittedly, the writing left something to be desired (how many different ways can Bella bite her lip?), but I also couldn’t help but devour it because teen vampire love was really just that compelling. I soon after found out that the author, Stephanie Meyer, was Mormon. Though I’m not Mormon myself, I grew up in Utah, and it’s difficult not to have some level of familiarity with the church. I was very intrigued by the article’s investigation of why many successful authors are members of the Mormon faith and the constraints of religious practices that can be creatively challenging. Fun fact: Fifty Shades of Grey started as Twilight fan fiction.

🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

• 🎬 Polite Society. This was a standout for me at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, and I realized this weekend that it’s now on Amazon. The film is about a martial-arts-obsessed teen girl whose sister gets engaged, and she reacts poorly (to say the least). This is the first full-length film from writer/director Nida Manzoor, and I remember walking out thinking, “Wow - she has a point of view!” The movie has hints of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Bend It Like Beckham, and Kill Bill - a combo I didn’t know I needed. It’s a highly stylized wonder of women screaming, kicking, and laughing back at societal constraints. It's sure to be a cult classic, and I can’t wait to see what Manzoor does next with more budget. If you want a taste before you watch it, check out the clip above. But don’t watch the trailer - it gives way too much of the delightful twist away.

🧁 Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 🎧 Elvis and Priscilla Deep Dive. After seeing Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, I had some questions. Namely, how did a 14-year-old girl capture the attention of a 24-year-old rock and roll star, and how did her parents allow this relationship to exist? This three-part deep dive answers many questions (not about the parents, though - that seems unanswerable). If you saw the movie, you could realistically just skip to part three, as the first two parts largely recount the memoir the film is based on, Elvis and Me. In general, I love the Shameless pop culture deep dives (the episodes about Lena Dunham and Ariana Grande are two of my favorites).

And I’ll leave you with this TikTok that had me cackling. Who amongst us hasn’t been stuck in a tiny sports bra?

@mossyrockkReplying to @fixiezutnik if taytos or walkers sees this on Instagram, do you think they'll send me a box of crisps? or McCoy's I'm not fussy #comedysong #cheeseandonion

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Happy Sunday! Spring has *hopefully* sprung in New York, and I’ve had a weekend full of absolutely delicious content that I can’t wait to share with you. My general takeaway from the last few days was a reminder that stories are often best with an audience. So get out there and see something with your fellow humans! Even if you make the underrated choice of going alone. I saw Saltburn by myself with a sold-out, raucous Los Angeles movie crowd and didn’t have to share my Junior Mints - a win all around. So take yourself or someone you care about and see some culture in this lovely spring weather. With that call to action, here are this week’s recs:

• 🎬 Love Lies Bleeding. This is Director/Screenwriter Rose Glass’ follow-up to her wild first film, Saint Maud (one of the most bonkers movie-ending sequences I’ve ever seen). It tells the story of Lou (Kristen Stewart), a New Mexico gym manager with a haunted past who falls fast in love with Jackie (Katy O’Brian), a bodybuilder on her way to a Las Vegas competition. Their intense love affair takes a dark turn as more is revealed about Lou’s family (Ed Harris plays Lou’s dad in an all-timer wig), and we’re left to ponder whether love really does conquer all. True to film noir conventions, Love Lies Bleeding is a dark, visceral (people say this all the time - but truly, this is VISCERAL) and violent story with a last act that goes off the rails. It’s like a lesbian, mullet-filled Thelma and Louise meets Drive meets Pulp Fiction with some David Cronenberg influence sprinkled in. Kristen Stewart is cast perfectly in what feels like the role she’s been dying to play, and her chemistry with Katy O’Brian is palpable. She had me asking - is the mullet back?? This probably isn’t for you if you don’t like film noir, but I have a feeling it will catch the internet’s attention a la Saltburn. Though there were some storylines I would’ve liked to see further developed, it’s a vibey film and the type of movie you should absolutely see in a packed theater. There were multiple moments where people audibly gasped, and that’s so much more fun to experience as a group. 

• 🎭 The Hunt at St. Ann’s Warehouse. It’s slightly annoying for me to share this as a rec because the show closes next week, and I think it is pretty much sold out (though people are having luck with the cancellation line), but it’s too good not to talk about. A transfer show from London, The Hunt is a modern-day parable that tells the story of a small-town kindergarten teacher (an astonishing Tobias Menzies) who is falsely accused of molesting a student and the town’s ensuing investigation (a generous term, as it’s more of a witch hunt). The staging is simple but brilliant - what looks like a tiny home on a rotating turntable that magically alternates from opaque to transparent, revealing something new each time. It’s a complicated subject matter presented in a way that has you thinking about truth, mob rule, and what comes after “resolution.” I walked out thinking, “And that’s why we go see live theater, folks!” It's my favorite play I’ve seen this year.

• 📺 Girls5eva. And now for something completely different... If dark and twisty isn’t your bag, I started watching Girls5eva, and it’s a fun, lighthearted, but clever time. It originally aired on Peacock, but the latest season has found a new home on Netflix. If you loved 30 Rock and The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, this is for you (it’s Executive Produced by Tina Fey and her recurring collaborator Robert Carlock). A one-hit-wonder girl group from the 90’s reunites after a young rapper samples their song. But, now in their forties with spouses, debt, and general adulthood malaise, the reunion is not as glamorous as their lives used to be. Even being silly, Sara Bareilles crushes it. See what I mean below in this song her character wrote in a hunger-induced Dolly Parton-inspired hallucination (wild sentence):

And since we began with Saltburn, I’ll leave you with my favorite Murder on the Dancefloor TikTok that hits too close to home if you live in New York.

@kyletdecamptake that, people with mansions #saltburn #saltburndance #newyorkcity #comedytiktok

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Happy Tuesday! Thank you to everyone who shared their favorite Best Picture winners from years past in last week’s comment section. It’s fun to see that while many of us have some shared favorites, we also have our unique film combinations that have informed our sensibilities. I love hearing about the culture that is inspiring to you, so please continue to share! In the meantime, here’s this week’s menu:

🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 📺 Louisa Harland reads Sharon Horgan’s powerful letter to all men. In celebration of International Women’s Day, Derry Girl's Louisa Harland read this Sharon Horgan letter at Royal Albert Hall. In it, Horgan acknowledges the space that’s been made for women to tell women’s stories but asks for more. I couldn’t help but think of Cord Jefferson’s standout Oscar speech from this past Sunday, in which he asked the industry to allocate funds to “take a risk” and support several smaller projects rather than consistently making one heavily funded movie (also a risk). I immensely enjoyed the 2024 movie year because of the diverse voices and stories. Keep. Making. Room (and allocating funds).

• 📺 Marcus Mumford’s Cannibal Music Video. In this clip from the Graham Norton show, Carey Mulligan explains how she helped her husband (Marcus Mumford) get Steven Spielberg to direct his music video with no budget and an iPhone. Watch the Graham Norton clip first, then watch the music video. You have to love the guy’s commitment to the craft. Also, here’s Carey and Marcus being cute after the Oscars (she wore my favorite dress of the night):

@marcusmumford @marcusmumford ♬ I’m Just Ken (In My Feelings Acoustic) - Ryan Gosling & Mark Ronson

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🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 🗞️ The Palace has a serious trust problem from . Has your feed also been blowing up with Kate Middleton conspiracy theories? If it hasn’t, we might be on different internets, but let me bring you onto mine. Kate's last public appearance was on December 23, 2023. In January 2024, the Palace announced she’d had abdominal surgery and would not be making public appearances until after Easter. Around this time, corners of the internet began surfacing various conspiracies about her whereabouts, and in the last two weeks, these theories entered the mainstream. This week, it’s all come to a head after Kate shared a photo with her children to celebrate UK Mother’s Day, only for internet sleuths to quickly realize the post was photoshopped. Today, it appears there was yet another photoshop blunder. You might be asking - Jordan, why do you care about this? And the answer is, I really don’t know. But then again, I don’t know why I care about most internet rabbit holes I go down. The best answer I can offer is that this is a mind-boggling case study of public trust erosion as a result of some pretty lousy communication blunders. Or, more simply, I’m in it for the memes. 

@rob_madge_Love experimenting with editing #katemiddleton #theatre #theatrekid #legallyblonde #lgbtq #fyp

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🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

• 🎬 Arrival. This past Sunday, I, like many people around the world, went and saw Dune: Part Two (we saw it in Regal Cinema RPX, and I think I’ve just barely started to feel like I’m on solid ground after nearly three hours of being shaken around in my seat with the affecting Dune score pulsing through my eardrums). It was a visual and auditory spectacle (not just because of the RPX). I suspect we’ll all be talking about it for the next year, so you should make a point to see it in the theater if you haven’t already. Viewing the second installment of Dune had me revisiting my favorite Denis Villeneuve movie, Arrival. If you haven’t seen it before, it’s a movie you should go into knowing very little. At a high level, the film is about a linguistics professor (Amy Adams) enlisted by the army to communicate with extraterrestrials. As far as I can claim that an “alien” movie is realistic, I’d argue that this one feels about as close to what the reality of aliens touching down on Earth would be like. It’s quiet, beautiful, and contemplative - and will surprise you in magnificent ways. If you’ve seen Dune but not Arrival, you’ll also notice visual similarities and a consistent approach to world-building. Though both installments of Dune might be sparse on dialogue, language is the beating heart of Arrival. So, I’ll be honest that I was surprised to hear Villeneuve recently quoted as saying he “hates dialogue,” though he has since clarified, and I enjoyed his explanation:

  “I said that laughing. So [when] I said it, I put a lot of emphasis on ‘I hate dialogue.’ I don’t hate dialogue. I am not inspired by scene that is overwritten with dialogue — that’s the truth — and I’m talking about my own work…At its birth, there was no dialogue in cinema — there was a full exploration of the power of the images to tell the story. [Filmmakers] were using the power of the cinematic language to express stories; the direction and the drama unfolded [through] images.”

  If you haven’t seen it before, treat yourself. It’s easily one of my favorite movies of all time.

• 📚 Heartburn by Nora Ephron. Picture this: you’re married to a famous journalist and heavily pregnant with his second child when you discover that he’s having an affair with a mutual friend. You don’t have to imagine too hard - because those circumstances led to Nora Ephron’s Heartburn. The book is an autobiographical novel based on Ephron’s marriage and divorce to Carl Bernstein (yes, Watergate reporter Carl Bernstein), and public reaction to the story at the time of publication was severe. Though praised for her writing, people viewed the book as vindictive and accused her of being a bad parent for airing family drama publicly. Bernstein even threatened to sue for defamation. As Ephron put it in the 2004 Heartburn book introduction, “One of the most fascinating things to me about the whole episode: he cheated on me, and then got to behave as if he was the one who had been wronged because I wrote about it!” I had a great time reading this hilarious and not very long book from start to finish (Meryl Streep narrates the audiobook if that’s more your thing). I will note that some of the book doesn’t hold up with a modern lens, so I’d advise listening to the previously mentioned Sentimental Garbage episode that talks about the complexities of Nora Ephron if you want to unpack that further. And, DON’T. WATCH. THE. MOVIE. Do not be tricked by the Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson casting - it is not good, and you will regret losing that hour and forty-eight minutes of your life.

🧁 Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 🎧 What If? Hollywood Edition. On this week’s episode of Scriptnotes, the hosts participated in a magical thinking exercise and imagined how historical events could have changed the outcomes of the film industry. If you, like me, have never heard of Edison’s patent thugs, you are in for a treat! 

And I’ll leave you with this spoiler-free recap of Dune: Part Two. 

@liv.pearsallno spoilers! you’re good! ps movie was dope

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Happy Sunday, Snackers! Just finished watching the Oscars. Unsurprisingly, my main takeaway is that Ryan Gosling stole the show, and “I’m Just Ken” was everything I wanted and more. Greta and Margot being supportive stage moms? The aerial shot with Barbie cut-outs? The Slash appearance? Just everything! For a film that only won one award, they sure loved talking about it. Other quick reactions:

• I’m thrilled Zone of Interest won Best Sound. I’d prepared myself for an inevitable Oppenheimer win, but I was pleasantly surprised because it genuinely made poignant use of sound and deserved to be recognized. Excitingly, the Academy continues to become increasingly international—as evidenced by the Zone of Interest, The Boy and the Heron, and Godzilla Minus One wins.

• I’m disappointed that Killers of the Flower Moon walked away empty-handed. It was an absolute masterpiece and should have been much more in contention than it was this awards season. I loved Emma Stone’s performance in Poor Things, but I thought Lily Gladstone was something to behold as Mollie Burkhart. A special shout out to Rodrigo Prieto, the cinematographer for Killers of the Flower Moon and Barbie. What a year that guy had (even if he wasn’t officially recognized). 

• John Cena's “streaking,” John Mulaney describing Field of Dreams, and Kate McKinnon’s tasteful Jeff Goldblum nudes were my favorite bits.

• Al Pacino announcing a very unsurprising Oppenheimer Best Picture win in the most anti-climatic way felt right. Though, I felt bad that all the nominees weren’t recognized properly.

What did you think of the show?

And some other quick bites from the weekend:

• 🗞️ The “Disney Adult” Industrial Complex. I was at Disneyland this past week for the first time in ten years for a work gathering. I had a ton of fun reliving the magic of my childhood with some great colleagues! Things were a lot bigger than I remembered, and I’m a lot more motion-sick than I used to be, but the awe on the faces of the children at the park was still ever present. One fascinating phenomenon was the number of adults I saw in the park without children. The so-called “Disney Adult.” There was a group of forty-something-year-old men in matching t-shirts proudly announcing they were on their yearly “Disney Brocation.” Lately, I’ve heard more and more about Disney Adults, and I was curious to learn more about how this came to be. Spoiler: Disney marketing knows what they’re doing. Excerpt below:

  Those who mock Disney adults suffer from the same misconception as Disney adults themselves: they believe the Disney adult phenomenon arose by accident, and therefore gleefully judge and mock those who they believe to have inferior tastes. As Giroux wrote: ‘We are losing the ability to recognise, let alone resist, the corporate control of time, space, bodies, and minds.’ Disney is a company that has created research facilities to track how people respond to ads. It has hired psychologists and anthropologists to monitor boys aged six to 14 to draw them into the Disney orbit. It is currently planning its own cloistered communities where Disney adults can extricate themselves from the harsh realities of society and mix only with the middle classes. In these neighbourhoods, Disney promises to put ‘you at the centre of everything.

• 🎧🎬 “we can’t be friends (wait for your love)” Music Video. Ariana Grande released her seventh album, Eternal Sunshine, this past Friday. I can never really decide how I feel about Ariana - but ultimately, I don’t think that’s the point because she keeps putting out bangers, and I keep listening. I was late to the party, but I first noticed this during her “Be Alright” performance on SNL seven years ago (that choreography! That deep house sound!). And here I find myself, once again, bumping her latest album. I loved this music video, which is an homage primarily to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (also referenced in the album title), but there’s also a Sixteen Candles moment. You can find me listening to this song on repeat for the foreseeable.

And I’ll leave you with this Tweet referencing the release of the trailer for Anne Hathaway’s new movie (AKA the Olivia Wilde/Harry Styles relationship biopic).

What did you think of the Oscars? Let me know in the comments.

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Happy Oscars Week! Oh, how I love the Academy Awards. The dresses, the tuxes, the speeches, and the general ceremony of a big, televised moment. 2023 was a hell of a year for movies, and I’m looking forward to celebrating with friends this Sunday by watching the awards. If you want to make wagers at home, this ballot from Rotten Tomatoes is great (interesting to compare critic vs. audience sentiment). Here are some Oscars-themed recs to get you in the spirit: 

🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 🗞️ The Hollywood Pros Finally Getting Their Due. The Oscars are adding a new category for the first time since 2001 (when the Academy introduced the award for animated films). Beginning in 2026, the Academy will recognize casting directors for their contributions. To celebrate, the Hollywood Reporter put together a list of who they think would’ve won the award in prior years. This might not be the only new category we see - many advocates are lobbying for others, including recognition for choreographers and stunt performers. 

🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 🎧 How Oscar Voting Really Works. This is a great explanation if you’re curious to learn more about what’s happening behind the scenes of Oscar voting. Skip to 43:55 to hear Tom Oyer (former SVP of member relations and awards at the Academy) speak about how voting works. This certainly informed how I made my predictions this year!

🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

As the Oscars fanfare is best enjoyed together, I thought we could spice up the menu this week with something a little different! Let’s have a community discussion around our favorite Best Picture Winners from years past. To participate, read through this list of previous winners, pick your five favorites, and share your list in the comments with a quick blurb about why you chose each film. “Favorite” is defined not necessarily as what you think are objectively the best films ever to win (though they can be), but rather the five Best Picture Winners that you’ve continually revisited, have shaped your film sensibility, and that you just wholeheartedly love!

Here are mine:

• 🎬 Casablanca. It’s a perfect movie, with a perfect ending and lines that we’re still saying 84 years later. What more can you want?

• 🎬 The Silence of the Lambs. The third-ever film to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay and the first and only ever horror film to win Best Picture. This movie terrified me the first time I saw it and haunted me long after my first viewing. But it also created my passion for the psychological thriller and showed me the power of storytelling in horror.

• 🎬 Chicago. Of all the movies on this list, Chicago is by far my most watched. We’re talking double-digit numbers (and I don’t even want to see the play count on the soundtrack). I just love it. Plain and simple. 

• 🎬 Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance). I vividly remember seeing this movie for the first time and being absolutely blown away by how different it felt from anything else I’d seen. That camerawork! The cinematography! And that ending. The first viewing will live long in my memory.

• 🎬 Everything Everywhere All At Once. There might be some recency bias here, but EEAAO was a movie that, when I saw it, I just knew I’d love forever. It’s wildly creative and bursting with everything everywhere all at once while still having so much heart. It had me asking, why am I crying watching two rocks?

What are yours? Let me know in the comments.

🧁 Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 🎧 The Politics of the Oscar Race. Are you curious and a little skeptical about all this Oscars nonsense? Unsure of why we even care anyway? This episode gives a great breakdown of the politics of an Oscar campaign and explains why the results are something we continue to care about (even if we know it’s essentially PR games at work).

• 🎧 The One with Christopher Nolan. I’ll be honest, I didn’t love Oppenheimer. Yeah, I can recognize it as a significant achievement. Still, in a year of such strong contenders with diverse voices, perspectives, and stories, it feels like the most boring and predictable option of all the films we’re celebrating. Of the long-standing auteurs in conversation, I wish we were celebrating Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon instead (if you haven’t seen it, don’t let the runtime deter you - it was the most beautifully shot movie I saw last year, and Lily Gladstone is a revelation who rightfully deserves the prize). Oppenheimer rant aside, this interview with Nolan made me more at peace with what will likely be an Oppenheimer sweep. I loved hearing about the origins of how the project came to be (special shout out to Robert Pattinson - looks like the Twilight franchise is indirectly responsible for Oppenheimer’s wins? That’s my story, at least.), and his writing process. It's a great listen to add more context to this season’s biggest winner. 

And I’ll leave you with a Favourite Oscar acceptance speech moment.

What are your five favorite Best Picture Winners? Go to this list, then share your five in the comments below.

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Happy Sunday, Snackers! I’m very full-hearted today after a lovely outing with my book club last night to hear writer Dolly Alderton speak about her new novel (more on that below). As expected, Dolly was a dream, and the bathroom line camaraderie and outfit-watching was A++. If you read or watch one thing today, let it be Dolly’s response to someone who wrote into her advice column feeling concerned she looked visibly older than friends who had chosen to have Botox. Her thoughts on aging will help you start the week off right! And with that, a couple of quick bites:

• 📺 Dance Life. This Australian docuseries follows young dancers at Brent Street Academy trying to become the best working dancers in Australia and beyond. If you liked Cheer, this will be an immediate yes for you. I’m a sucker for any show that shows the determination and grit required to pursue excellence, but I found these dancers’ personal stories and ambitions particularly compelling. Plus, it’s only five episodes! My biggest question is, will there be a second season?? I’m invested! 

• 📚 Good Material by Dolly Alderton. This past Tuesday, I was making my way to the city to see a show with friends. I took my seat on the J train, pulled out my Kindle, and picked up where I’d left off in Good Material. I was immediately captivated by a hilarious encounter between the heartbroken main character and a middle-aged businessman with a houseboat and a ponytail. It took me several stops to realize that people were navigating away from the area I was sitting in - a tell-tell sign that something is amiss on the subway. I looked up to find a small child pointing at what can only be described as an abnormally large mass of human feces underneath the bench directly in front of me. I had been sitting across from shit for at least four subway stops, but Dolly’s prose was so entertaining that I was oblivious. Not sure I can give a better review than that! Human excrement and the realities of living in New York aside, this book is such a delight from start to finish. The novel traces the aftermath of a breakup between Andy and Jen, but, in a refreshing take, the heartbreak is told from the man’s perspective. Dolly conducted over twenty hours of interviews with men to understand the male psyche post-relationship split. Spoiler: they often go to just as mad as we think women do; they just don’t have the same outlet and space to express the heartbreak. You’ll very quickly understand why Dolly is often referred to as this generation’s Nora Ephron. An absolute delight - treat yourself to this book!! 

And I’ll leave you with my favorite discovery of the week, The Very Important People Show from Dropout (formerly CollegeHumour - they’ve rebranded). Comedians are given a complete makeover, asked to create a character on the spot, and then participate in an entirely improvised, Diane Sawyer-style interview. So. Much. Fun. 

@veryimportantpeopleshowShout out to all our fans from right in the heart of the smack of the dab of Europe! #veryimportantpeople #dropout #vicmichaelis #annagarcia #europe #princessemily

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Happy Tuesday! And happy Ryan Gosling is performing “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars to all who celebrate! Do we think they’ll stage a dream ballet with costumes, full choreography, and an army of Kens? Or do we think they’ll go for something more stripped back, à la Ken the EP? I guess we’ll find out on March 10th. And with that, let’s get to this week's menu:

🍤 Amuse Bouche [ -10 mins ]

• 🗞️ Teen Subcultures Are Fading by Mireille Silcoff. Word on the street is that teens these days are more about “vibes” and “creating an aesthetic” than hanging out in person. Silcoff opines that there’s been a meaningful reduction in lived experience as a catalyst for creating subcultures. This should probably shed some light on why Swifties (myself included) have been so verklempt at the Era’s tour and getting to experience a real-life community formed from shared experience (read Taffy Brodesser Akner’s retelling of attending the concert for a taste of what I mean). 

• 📺 David Sedaris on Why You Should Dress Like a Corpse. Humorist David Sedaris recounts an experience attending the theater and feeling disappointed by the lack of sartorial effort. Honestly, just buy tickets and support the arts. But, if the mood strikes, do your best impression of a Capote swan and put together a fit worthy of the performers’ talents. Worth the 2.5-minute watch to hear why Sedaris thinks a corpse is peak sophistication.

🍟 Appetizer [ -30 mins ]

• 🗞️📺 The Problem of the Too-Truthful Woman by Alexandra Schwartz. I’ve been going down a Justine Triet rabbit hole, reading everything I can find about the 2023 Palme d’Or winner and Oscar-nominated director. I particularly enjoyed this interview from the past fall, where she dives into some of the behind-the-scenes discussions between her and her partner as they wrote the script for Anatomy of a Fall and her perspective on gender roles in parenting. I also learned that the now infamous opening song wasn’t supposed to be “P.I.M.P..” You won’t believe what the original choice was (hint: it’s referenced somewhere else in the menu)! One of the things I found particularly striking about the movie was how different the French judicial system is from the American system. An excerpt from the article:

  So I met a lawyer, someone really super, who helped us during the writing process and who explained something interesting about the French system, which is that sometimes the judge—in France, it’s the president, but for you it’s the judge—can decide to do things in a more anarchic way. The distribution of speech is much more anarchic. And I found that interesting because it created something much livelier and less codified than what we already know.

  I also really enjoyed this interview, where she discusses the controversy around her advocacy for gender quotas in filmmaking and the future of French cinema.

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🍽️ Main Course [ 1 Hour+ ]

• 🎬 9 to 5. I recently learned that Dolly Parton and Pitbull made a remake of Dolly Parton’s song “9 to 5” from the eponymously titled movie. I prefer the original, but their collaboration led me to revisit the film. Three women (Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin) devise a plan to get back at their abusive and sexist boss. Before you watch, you must listen to this episode of Dolly Parton’s America, where they tell the behind-the-scenes story of the film (spoiler: it’s an act of protest in an engaging format with mainstream appeal) and how Parton got involved. In particular, I enjoyed Fonda’s breakdown of how Dolly so simply and eloquently lays out the thesis of the fair pay movement in what could appear just to be a catchy theme song if you’re not paying attention - the brilliance of Dolly. So pour yourself a cup of ambition and watch this classic. 

🧁Dessert [ -1 hour ]

• 🎧 Why Country Music Dominated 2023’s Charts. I’ve been having many conversations about country music since Beyoncé announced her upcoming (speculated) country album and released her two new singles, “Texas Hold ‘Em” and “16 Carriages.”  For context, my music interests are varied, but I grew up listening to a steady stream of vintage country, folk, and bluegrass music. While much modern-day country has been fairly criticized for being predictable and narrow-minded, for me, the heart of real country music is storytelling and musicianship, with an emphasis on the plight of the working class. Country’s earliest origins are European immigrant folk songs, slave songs, and gospel spirituals (if you want to learn more, I highly recommend Ken Burns’ miniseries Country Music). Country has perfected the art of oral storytelling (listen to Dolly Parton’s “Jolene,” Kenny Rogers's “The Gambler,” and George Strait’s “Amarillo by Morning” as a starting point), and it feels exciting to me that artists from other genres are interested in expanding upon this tradition.

  Per this analysis from Professor Tressie McMillan Cottom, It shouldn’t be a surprise that Beyoncé is making country music. She’s from Texas (with Louisana roots), and this isn’t the first time she’s made a country song. Remember “Daddy Lessons” on her 2016 album Lemonade? And her performance with The Chicks at the Country Music Awards? She’s been here before (and withstood the criticism that came with the previous outing). In Act I: Renaissance, she used her platform to pay homage to the Black and queer roots of dance music, and people are speculating that this next album will do something similar for country. You know that addictive banjo in “Texas Hold Em?” That’s none other than the exceptionally talented Pulitzer Prize and Grammy-winning Rhiannon Giddens (read her Wikipedia - her resume is insane), who has long made it her project to share the lesser-known origins of country music. In a 2023 interview with Variety, Giddens said, “As soon as somebody like Beyoncé picks up the banjo and starts talking about the history, we’re good. But until then, I’m trying to take every opportunity that I’m given to tell the story.” And now, Giddens is playing the banjo and viola on the first-ever Billboard Hot Country Songs number one by a Black woman. That’s certainly drawing attention to the history!

  Of course, Beyonce isn’t the only artist to crossover from other genres and make a country record. Ray Charles, Lionel Richie, Lady Gaga, and more have all dabbled in the country sound. The podcast linked above talks more about the increased mainstream interest in country and also recounts how Lil Nas X’s “Old Town Road” rose to the top of the charts (despite pushback from country music insiders). I’d say go ahead and invest in a pair of cowboy boots because, in addition to Beyoncé’s forthcoming album, we’re also expecting country music from Post Malone and Lana Del Rey.

And I’ll leave you with this TikTok, which immediately transported me back to a Sunday morning in my childhood bedroom, rewinding a DVRed episode of Saturday Night Live in 2006 to memorize all the lyrics to this Natalie Portman rap.

@twofriendsmusicfrom SNL to the Two Friends show… every song’s dream

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Hi team! If I seem off, it’s because I’m still trying to process the revelations from Mischa Barton’s recent Call Her Daddy interview (I’m not generally a fan of CHD, but my millennial self obviously took the clickbait on a Mischa Barton tell-all). Official confirmation that she and Ben McKenzie dated? She’s happy with Marissa’s ending? It’s all a lot for my former 13-year-old self to process, but I’m thrilled Mischa is healthy and happy. Those bombshells aside, here are a couple of other quick weekend bites:

• 🎭 Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary” at the Lucille Lortel Theater. I saw this play on Thursday, and I genuinely can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard. “Oh, Mary” is an anachronistic and hilarious mistelling of Mary Todd Lincon’s life, written by and starring the talented comedian Cole Escola (you might recognize them from Search Party or At Home with Amy Sedaris). But this isn’t Steven Spielbierg’s Lincoln (though he and Sally Field did attend the show this past week), and you shouldn’t expect a history lesson (there have been walkouts from people who made that mistake). You can expect 80 minutes of riotous and irreverent laughter, with a standout performance from Escola (loved this Rolling Stone profile of them). Watching Escola made me feel like I was seeing a tremendous talent I’d be discussing for years to come. Not to mention, it was such a fun crowd. A must-see if you’re in New York, and it was just extended through May 5th!

• 📚 The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis. You know that feeling when you’re laying in bed reading a book, drifting off, but you feel compelled to fight against the inevitable tide of exhaustion just to keep finding out what happens next? That was me this past week as I devoured this 600-page novel. Initially released as a serialized story on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast, The Shards is Ellis’ first book in 13 years. It’s an autofiction/horror novel written from the perspective of “Bret Ellis,” a heightened version of the author reflecting on the events of his senior year at an elite private school in Los Angeles. A new take on the coming-out and coming-of-age story, the loss of innocence and transition into adulthood becomes a literal terror as the narrator navigates being seventeen in the shadow of a serial killer and a Mansonesque cult. The friend that recommended it sold me by suggesting there were parallels with The Secret History - an apt comparison, as the story follows a tight-knit group of privileged friends with many secrets between them. I’d add that it also feels like the Stephen King meets Joan Didion slasher reboot of Beverly Hills, 90210, that I didn’t know I needed. 

  In interviews, Ellis shared that he began the book shortly after high school but didn’t think he had the writing chops yet to finish. It wasn’t until the free time of the pandemic and several Google searches of old classmates (good to know famous authors do that too) that the story returned to him, and he decided to tell it from the perspective of a 50-something author revisiting his transition to adulthood and early beginnings as a writer. I found it incredibly affecting - both haunting and achingly vulnerable; you’re immediately lost in the detailed descriptions of eighties Los Angeles locales and the many references to the movies and music of the time (someone even made a playlist). Though I’ll admit, when not processing the debauchery and brutal gore, the many descriptions of LA driving routes had me thinking about “The Californians.” It’s set for an HBO adaptation, with Luca Gudagnino on board, and calls for Jacob Elordi to star (I can see why, but I feel somewhat indifferent to that casting). I enjoyed this interview with Ellis, where he talked more about the motivations and his thought process behind the novel. I’d also recommend this recent Vanity Fair profile for more context on the mystique and controversy of Bret Easton Ellis if you know him only as the author of American Psycho. Tell me when you read this one - I’ll create a discussion thread if there’s interest!

And I’ll leave you with my favorite TikTok of the week (an insight into why I might look distracted if you’re on Zoom with me).

@lilireinhartHe’s my secretary 🥲

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