Make the Friendship Bracelets, Take the Moment and Taste It [#123]
Discover more from Hu's Letter?
Make the Friendship Bracelets, Take the Moment and Taste It [#123]
Suddenly summer break is over? Plus, the best content to come out of the Alabama riverboat brawl of 2023.
Howdy from LA, where I’m staying put for awhile!
Time is so elastic. One minute I’m getting wheeled out of the hospital with newborn Eva cradled in my arms, the next I’m making a TikTok with her to reveal our sequined outfits for the Eras tour. I wasn’t sure the pop culture event of the year was the best choice for a kid’s first concert, since I’m not sure how to ever top it. But we made many friendship bracelets and memories, like the pure elation on Eva and her friend Amina’s faces when Taylor Swift first emerged from under a jellyfish looking parachute.
Reading
This 8,500 word opus about the 50-year friendship between Chris Evert and Martina Navritolova is so good that the Nieman Lab wrote a separate series unpacking how well written it is.
newsletter, on writing. Women’s magazines are over? The story of Kesha and Dr. Luke is far more complicated than the he said-she said we’ve heard. A boba guide to Los Angeles. New research on the power of just 12 Ivy league schools to make enduring societal change. And ICYMI, especially in a time of intensive parenting, “We need to reassure one another—explicitly, publicly—that being a whole person is being a good parent.” And amid absurd wealth inequality, a reminder that the greatest prize is having, and being enough.Werk Werk Werk
Talked with
by about how the most pervasive and dangerous of the beauty standards is thinness. In NYMag’s The Cut, Flawless gets namechecked because of “Barbie Botox.” It’s called that or Trap Tox now, but the trend of shooting Botox into the base of your neck was popular in South Korea many years ago.Watching/Listening
Still enjoying the satisfaction of that cavalry of Black people (and a young swimmer now known as Black Aquaman, Aquamayne and Blaquaman) coming to an Alabama security guard’s defense, in the riverboat brawl seen ‘round the world. It has, of course, spawned a viral song and a separate ballad, but for my money the best content to come out of it was either 1) The multi-culti friends who came together for a spirited re-enactment of the absurd action, and 2) The play-by-play commentary!
Enjoying
Since I am done with the bulk of book promotion and blissfully not getting on a plane again for the next two months, I’m adding a section to Hu’s Letter to share how I’m enjoying this slower, more fallow period of 2023.
Iced Honey Lavender Latte from Love Coffee Bar, in LA’s Mar Vista neighborhood. So creamy and so delicious. It better be, because it’s $7.50, not counting the tip.
Making Ram-Don, the instant noodle+steak combo popularized in a crucial scene in Parasite. Maangchi teaches it best.
Dog sitting for my friend Sam. He has a geriatric mutt named Zora who we dogsit sometimes when he’s traveling. This time around, I’m basically home all day long and she’s my main companion, since my kids are at day camps and the cat is often out roaming and chasing squirrels in the backyard.
The vibrant colors on the Ballona Creek Trail. I mean, get a load of this!
As always, I want to hear your feedback and recommendations for what to read or hear or try. And I’ll include an update on the books I’ve been reading in the next letter.
Until then,
Elise