soft serve Sunday from (the Acela home from) Boston <3333
I visited Boston for too short a time to do everything I wanted to, I was on 2x speed trying to see/hug/meet as many friends as possible. The city is gorgeous at the very end of April. All the trees are in bloom, it’s a little less windy, moods are lifted. Here’s my gallery of the week:
my friends, the pretty springtime trees
Here is something I laughed at:
And here is my letter:
🗞️ 5 Not-Headlines
USC has cancelled its main graduation event amid antiwar protests. Remember: this is the class of 2024, so most of the grads likely had no high school commencement ceremony either, due to covid. Feeling grateful I’m not the one fielding those complaint phone calls from disappointed families.
Platelet-rich plasma (or, ‘vampire’) facials have seen an uptick in popularity recently, for their supposed rejuvenating effect. But, a luxury New Mexico spa that offers them is now at the center of an investigation by the CDC after three women tested positive for HIV following their vampire facials at the now-closed spa. I feel like a reliable Rule for Life is to avoid getting blood of unknown origin injected into your body, regardless of promises of youthful skin. Or, at least verify your spas have proper licensure before receiving such a treatment.
Following a 24 hour walkout which brought about no immediate resolution, the Condé Union is on strike, this time demonstrating and handing out fliers in Anna Wintour’s neighborhood. This comes with the Met Gala just over a week away.
The 2024 Bazaar Skincare Awards (where the magazine’s beauty editors round up their favorite products) article was just posted this week. Super fun, thorough read. The Prada natural-finish balm and the Drunk Elephant barrier cream were among the products on the list that caught my eye. If I could add anything to it, I’d say the Sunday Riley Luna Sleeping Night Oil and the Ren Overnight Glow Cream, two products that have worked wonders for my skin.
There are few things on social media which make me as happy as when multiple people send me the same post. It makes me feel like you Get Me. This is precisely what happened when the New Yorker posted Gary Shteyngart’s Martini Tour of New York City, which follows his quest to discover which martini in NY to devote himself to. The article is extremely entertaining (“Modern Americans are supposed to submit to all the indignities of late capitalism: the endless work hours, the 9 P.M. e-mails from our superiors, software that monitors our every keystroke. And then we’re not even supposed to have a drink in the middle of this psychic carnage?”) and I am eager to hear which spot on the list Luiza selects for us to try first. It inspired me to resume my Every Martini venture.
⭐️ Three Things
It’s the end of April, which is hard to believe. Since it’s almost over, it’s time for me to share the three things my friends said they enjoyed this month.
Being reunited with all my supportive intelligent beautiful fun successful friends in Boston for the weekend.
Getting on my writing grind.
Donna Tartt.
✏️ Tortured Poets
While I am by no means the authority to discuss the new album with you, nor to determine whether the songstress is herself a ‘tortured poet,’ in my time as a literature major I spent a number of years studying some verifiably tortured poets. So, I present you here with some of my favorites and a poem (or three) of their’s I would encourage you to read. Get me talking about any of these three poets I chose for you, and you’ll find it difficult to stop me.
Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979). I first encountered her work when I read Geography III, which showcases Bishop’s vigilant protection of her personal life, which was a turbulent one indeed. She’s not quick to share such intimate details of the causes of her pain, but her emotions percolate through into her writing, sometimes obviously (as in “In The Waiting Room” or the villanelle “One Art”) and sometimes more subtly, like in “The Moose.”
Philip Levine (1928-2015). The son of immigrants to the US, Levine began working at a Detroit auto factory when he was just fourteen. He was exposed to a time of depression and war and was surrounded by blue-collar people who worked demanding jobs and were, as he puts it, “voiceless” in terms of American literature. Levine set out to grant his demographic a voice through his poetry. It is a body of work marked by a hunger and a loneliness as he confronts readers with the realities of life working in the Rust Belt. I remember looking at Ed Ruscha’s paintings at the MoMA in October and feeling that the scenes seemed to touch upon something familiar in my mind. That something, I later realized, was Levine’s poems. “Drum” hooked me on Levine’s world, “Coming Close” mystified and enmeshed me in it further. You can watch him read and discuss one of his poems here.
Christine de Pizan (1364-1431). Christine de Pizan was an Italian-born Frenchwoman who worked as a court writer for several French dukes and King Charles VI to support her family. I first encountered Christine in a literary criticism course and was immediately entranced by the biting, iconoclastic polemic she wages in her writing, fueled by her concern about what happens when the orthodoxy is left to work without resistance from (or at least question by) the people whose lives it affects. Christine used her poetry as a way to champion the intellectual challenging of women, arguing that without some authority in the cultural discourse, a woman can never meaningfully advance her station in life. Her ideas are most compellingly considered in “The God of Love’s Letter,” her rebuke of the sexist medieval poem “Romance of the Rose.” Here is a detailed close-read of Christine de Pizan’s poem.
This is now the second week in a row I’ve mentioned poetry near to my heart. I’m not sure why I’m feeling compelled in this direction, but it has been special to revisit all of the works I’ve been mentioning.
💋 <125 Words
One day in Hawaii Kira and I discussed the influence lockdown had on our states of mind. At one point she asked “I wonder if it’s normal to be this disoriented all the time?” I laughed: It was funny but also captured precisely how helpless I feel about the situation, and it was a relief to learn a friend feels her perception of time over the last ten years is frustratingly fuzzy too. Since our conversation I’ve been trying to replace time I’d ordinarily spend scrolling with reading, and go on walks for fresh air whenever I can, hoping these activities will help restore some mental clarity. Still, I can’t help but wonder how much control I have over the effort to lift this brainfog.
🤸🏻♀️ Weekly W.R.A.P.
Watching: The Rangers-Capitals series, of course <3
Admonishing: To be honest I can’t think of anything but NOT my packing job for this trip.. I simply have to say that I packed perfectly for my weekend away. Wow. Not one thing I didn’t need, not one thing forgotten (save for toothpaste, but that was an easy fix).
