staring at the sun
choosing the path of totality less taken
Hi!
Thanks for opening this email / reading this post.
A healthy dose of culture and current events to inoculate you against brain rot:
Just as I fill my virtual Sephora cart with junk I don’t need, bright minds across the internet are truly cooking on the contemporary consumer experience. Two essays, one on the pervasive “recommendation culture” of the internet and the second on celebrities creating their online communities through well-considered “intimacy,” as well as this TikTok on the act cultivating “coolness,” are nutritious food for thought.
A very smooth Easter heist - you really don’t see competent burglary like this these days.
Mexican artist Chavis Mármol crushed a Tesla with a giant Olmec head and that’s ART, my friends. Also laughing at his cheeky word-play regarding America’s Top Worst Immigrant.
Haley Nahman’s Substack led me to this New Yorker piece on gaslighting. Leslie Jamison explains the tension between the popularization and subsequent misuse of clinical terminology. As a histrionic girlie, I personally needed the stark examples of true gaslighting to keep me from using this concept to describe all disagreements.
Some serious “pay no attention to that man behind the curtain-ass” shit.
Tunes to start the week with:
There’s a new Vampire Weekend album out, that’s just as nice as their other albums. I really like how they found a home in the “world music” section of a 90’s Barnes and Nobles and stuck to that formula. Nothing groundbreaking, just lovely soft rock with meandering, introspective lyrics. “Mary Boone” is the standout to me, with a charming choral section and a sparkling piano riff. Thanks boys!
xx