Ch-ch-changes

Hold my hand, we'll get through this together

Sep 19, 2023

Guys, I left you hanging last week. I’m sorry. But that’s what I’ve ultimately come to talk with you about. Take a seat. Can I get you anything? …There are some changes I need to make around here.

Put plainly, I have gotten too busy in both my travel planning and writing capacities (yay!) to send a fun, meaty, interesting, well-thought-out letter every week. And yet, I don’t want to abandon this ship. I love writing this and I love hearing from you about it. Lately, though, with so much on my plate I have felt rushed and like I’m not doing you or the newsletter justice. What that means for the time being is that it’s going back to being entirely free and it will not be a consistently weekly thing. For the next few months, at least, it’ll be free and I’ll be shooting for every other week. It may be less often, it may be more often sooner than later. Who knows anything these days?

Is she “busy working” or “busy” going to gallery openings?

I shan’t leave you high and dry. There’s so much to discuss!

First, I’m desperate to know if you’ve read the New Yorker piece on Hasan Minhaj!? In which he extols ‘emotional truths’ over ‘factual truths’ because he has been asked enough questions as to be forced into revealing that many of his seemingly deeply personal stories from his comedy specials are total fiction. The story about opening an envelope and a dusting of white powder falling onto his daughter, resulting in taking her to the hospital for fear of anthrax? Fiction, presented as a true story. In my opinion, it is fucking creepy with the cop out of ‘but I’m a comedian.’ It feels manipulative, self-serving, and also undermines the true stories that many people have of what it is to live in the US as Muslims.

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Now, if we must, has everyone read the piece in The Cut, ‘Adult Friendships vs Kids’? Is it a hot take to simply say… yawn? As a parent who has written about the feeling of a double life, I feel like the target audience for this and yet… I am so bored. At best, it feels like low hanging fruit poorly articulated. At worst, it feels like an admission that these people don’t actually talk to or even like their friends. The author complains that as a childless person, it “requires negotiating boundaries and being willing to commit” in order to be friends with people who are parents. Call me crazy, but doesn’t every relationship of every kind require that? Like I said... low hanging fruit, articulated poorly. (This is my personal favorite of the many think pieces it has inspired. Should you want to dig in more.)

This essay also from The Cut, called The Pandemic Skip, on the other hand was a good and reassuring (in a strange way) read.

Mark your calendars: Emily Wilson’s translation of The Iliad comes out Sept 26th. No, I’m not a voracious reader of the classics. I’m excited because classicist Emily Wilson was the first woman to translate Homer’s Odyssey into English (other women had translated it before into other languages) and in iambic pentameter in 2017 and it was praised widely for being immensely… readable, enjoyable even. This new translation took her a total of six years. Just massively cool and impressive shit, all around.

Here’s a handful of Eva Chen’s NY fashion week looks that I love.

Newly added to the very top of my travel wishlist is Sri Lanka’s Santani Wellness Resort. (Tied for first with Gleneagles in Scotland and Luz Culinary Wine Lodge in Uruguay.)

I’d like one of everything from Ubuntu’s new arrivals, please and thanks. In particular the hats. Lmk if you need my mailing address.

To Taste by Nicole

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