...now i'm into ugly betty
And Other Recs
Remember when I got really into The Vampire Diaries? Well, now I’m into Ugly Betty. And some other stuff. So it’s time for a Recommendations Round-up!
Watch: Ugly Betty. I’m mainlining this show, which is currently on both Hulu and Netflix, and am a little nervous about what I’ll do when the four seasons are over. I’m sure you know the premise, which is a Quirky Latina spin on The Devil Wears Prada, plus some telenovela drama (Jane The Virgin fans, this is for you!), and is so sweet, dated in a delightful way, features high camp performances from Michael Urie and Becki Newton, but most of all is unapologetically problematic in a way I find so refreshing. I won’t go into details for fear that they will be used against me in the future, but it’s a good-hearted show that still makes fun of everything about everyone.
See: Bottoms, the delightfully crass queer comedy about a teenage lesbian fight club. It’s a balls-to-the-wall comedy the way No Hard Feelings (cute) almost was and I went to college with the people who made it and that makes me pretty envious and angry and insecure and freaked-out but also? The movie is good!
Listen to: Raffaella’s music, and the movie podcast “She’s Great In That.”
Follow: Flaco the Owl. Not an influencer per se, though I would be thrilled if others followed in his flightpath. This Twitter account does a pretty good job of keeping tabs on him, but any birder will do. I can’t believe that I haven’t written about Flaco before! In February, some unidentified person or persons, for reasons unknown, cut open this guy’s enclosure at the Central Park Zoo, and Flaco escaped. He had never hunted before or flown very far. But he quickly figured out how to hunt, and more importantly, how to evade re-capture, so the zoo was like, fine, live wild and free. And he does! Homie just lives in the parks of Manhattan! Iconique!
Read: This personal essay from a murderer who listens to Taylor Swift in prison. I KNOW, TOO MUCH TAYLOR CONTENT. But the Swift angle is really just a gimmick. The interesting thing here is the economics, the social systems and particular rules of prison…
One of my homies at San Quentin had a pristine radio that played CDs and cassette tapes. When he earned parole, everybody hounded him for it. He knew how much I’d appreciate such a luxury, but I didn’t join the herd of pesterers making offers, and I think he appreciated that. He gave it to me as a parting gift…My neighbor, Rasta, was the weed man for the building, so I played Swift to drown out the guys who were lighting up outside. Rasta made fun of me, but the crowd always liked her “Bad Blood” remix, featuring Kendrick Lamar. “That’s the shit right there,” they’d say. “Who would’ve thought?”
Buy: Rainbow Drip Candles. So satisfying. It’s a toy, it’s a decoration, it’s on fire.
Gestate: Twins! Everybody is doing twins these days. I wrote about the pros and cons of being an only child in a previous newsletter, in which I mentioned a former boss who is about to drop a set of twins, and that my two best friends are twins (twins with each other, not independently twinned). I’ll now add that a high school friend just welcomed two girls and another close friend is currently growing a pair. I’m starting to think that twins is the optimal way of building a small family. You only have to be pregnant once, the kid always has someone to play with instead of needing all their playtime from you (like with kittens, it’s helpful to get a pair), and you can two-for-one a lot of annoying parental stuff. Get them into pre-school at the same time, set up playdates they both go on, and you can probably potty train them as a set. I’m thinking twins are the way to go.
Email: this newsletter to other people, duh.
Drop your Scooter Braun theories below,
Lizzie