Hello from LA! After moving this newsletter over to Substack I suddenly have a few new subscribers, so however you found me, welcome! This is a letter of links you might enjoy and what I’ve worked on lately, plus memes and recommendations that fall into my personal brand of late stage capitalism critique and fast food fangirling, which I realize is a contradiction. For most of its history, it’s come out about twice a month. Please send feedback and any reads worth sharing, anytime.
Reading
How subscriptions changed the tech industry. 75 percent of American children have already had COVID; a third of them got sick during Omicron. My friend and hero Leila Fadel reflects on all the wars she’s covered. BTW, what on earth happened to Lara Logan? A Twitter thread about what’s going on with power and who has it, in America. Korea body shames you at rest stops. Olivia Wilde was served child custody papers while on stage at a film festival. The internet seems to have sided with Johnny Depp? Elon Musk will heighten Twitter’s contradictions to an unbearable level. And has anyone checked on Jack Dorsey lately? A woman was rescued after she fell head first into a pit latrine while trying to reach her phone. But for the grace of God…
And on the lowbrow food beat, Doja Cat and I have one thing in common: our love for Taco Bell’s Mexican Pizza. The similarities end there, because she’s talented enough to freestyle a rap about it. I know we ALL love American Chinese food, but there’s also REGIONAL American Chinese food, like Bostonian Chinese food, which features a chow mein sandwich. Confusingly, in St. Louis there’s the “Saint Paul Sandwich” available at Chinese restaurants, which I will save for another dispatch.
Werk Werk Werk
Analyzing Pachinko the book now that there’s Pachinko the series, for WBEZ. And just today, Apple TV+ announced they will make a second season! Woo hoo!
The Moth’s directors walked me through a whole lot of useful tips for choosing, crafting, writing and delivering meaningful personal stories.
I interviewed Christine Quinn of Selling Sunset fame from my closet, and she appeared to be in a closet, too, but she said it was actually her “glam room.” Naturally.
Books On My Nightstand
A People’s Guide to Capitalism: An Introduction to Marxist Economics, about which my friend Jenn goes, “What is that, like Marxism for Dummies?” Despite the title this book is not turgid! I’m blazing through it.
Let’s Get Physical: How Women Discovered Exercised and Reshaped the World, which gets into the fitness industrial complex in the way my forthcoming book examines the beauty industrial complex. A theme across both is how capitalist striving gets written on our bodies and sold as “empowerment.” Geez. I should probably find some beach reads, eh?
Okay that’s it for this one. I’m signing off soon to go see Everyone Everywhere All At Once, so exciiiiiited…
Lator gators,
E
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