A dedication to silliness
Taylor tickets, baiting, and backflips, An accidental hard launch, Biblical plagues, Free speech crackdowns, Puffer jackets, Found notes, Book recs for your euro summer, and more!
Hello!
Sorry for the long break, there’s been a lot going on.
On a lighter note, I’ve really been leaning into my Victorian woman era, yesterday I reserved the afternoon for my epistolary correspondence, this was followed by lying on the couch in existential dread, taking a long bath, and reading in bed.
I’m on uni hols which means I’m back to the standard chaos of life rather than the supercharged chaos of multiple jobs/life/uni. A friend recently said to me, “One thing about you is, you’re always doing something”. Which I think is probably the most accurate description of my life. Doing, non-stop. These past few weeks I’ve been trying to slow down, do less, and just get through the days.
Anyways, this month’s newsletter is a nice distraction, it’s a little lighter on the intellectual side but sometimes there’s only so much bad news you can read before breakfast.
This newsletter:
I survived The Great War
Mr. Back(flip) to December
Hot, talented, and a little bit silly. The triple threat
Found zine
Cancelled. Can I speak freely?
The accidental hard-launch by your parents. A tale as old as time.
The Pope does not have a puffer jacket. We’re fucked.
How many of the biblical plagues have you dealt with?
Office politics
Tay-Baiting
Cate Blanchett went to the Nova
Reading recs for your European Summers (derogatory)
Tweets
Btw a quick reminder that anything in pink (or underlined if you’re in email) is a hyperlink and this newsletter is best read in your browser!
I survived The Great War:
It would be remiss of me not to start this newsletter with a Taylor Swift update. I got tickets!! In some of the most stressful hours I’ve had in a long time, I sat with all my screens open waiting for hours and the gods were on my side! Probably the closest I’ll ever feel to an office celebrity being able to claim this win.
I can also report dad and I had this exact conversation… He also conducted a study amongst his friends (70 year olds) and they all “don’t understand why everyone likes Taylor Swift” and are “confused who the 4 million Aussies wanting tickets were”. (Results found by: The University of Adrian).
Mr Back(flip) to December:
Also in Taylor Swift news, she released her rerecording of Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) with additional tracks From The Vault. In case you didn’t know, Taylor is rerecording her previous albums so she can own and control the masters to her music (her former record label sold them from under her).
So far she has released 3 ‘Taylor’s Version’ re-recordings out of the 7 albums she didn’t own). We were treated with a music video for one of the vault tracks with her ex Taylor Lautner (aka Mr Back to December) who then came on stage at her Era’s tour and did a backflip. Iconic. King Charles, take notes…
In my mind, Taylor Lautner is one of the only celebrities doing it right; making a shit tonne of money from his giant franchise playing a werewolf (Team Jacob 4eva), more or less retiring to live a peaceful, unproblematic life with his wife that has the same name as him (and his ex), and then spending his time learning how to do backflips until called upon by Taylor Swift.
Hot, talented, and a little bit silly. The triple threat:
I love Muna. I spoke about their performance with boygenius last newsletter. But they’re great artists and people in their own right.
On top of their albums, they also have a podcast Gayotic, which has me dutifully waiting every Wednesday for it to drop. As someone who is chronically on time, their irregularly timed podcast drops send me into a slight spiral weekly. In between the chaos of Josette, Naomi, and Katie all talking at once, they discuss interesting questions about queerness, gay shame, hilarious stories, and iconic conversations. It truly has me laughing out loud on the tram. One thing’s for sure they are dedicated to silliness, every interview is so unserious and entertaining. Something I should probably embrace a little more in my life…
Here’s an episode with Phoebe Bridgers if you don’t know where to start:
Equally iconic, there’s a twitter account dedicated to ‘Muna Struggles’.
And they also recorded a beautiful Tiny Desk Concert that you can watch below.
Found zine:
I stumbled across this in the way I stumble across most things like this, procrastination and a sidestep in a deep dive.
It’s a zine that collects “found love letters, birthday cards, kids’ homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, doodles– anything that gives a glimpse into someone else’s life.” The project started in 2000 and they’ve now put together 13 zines of the little notes. They range from love letters to kid’s funny notes, shopping lists, and apologies.
As a notorious note keeper, I’m forever finding little notes I’ve written, most of which have no meaning now. When I was a kid I used to purposely hide little notes and secrets in my room to discover later. Anyways, nice human stuff like this always gets me. Check out their instagram for some goodies. The ones written by kids are especially funny.
Cancelled, can I speak freely?
I will read whatever Amia Srinivasan writes, always so intelligent and well-considered, one of my fav intellectual crushes. Her latest piece in the London Review of Books (yes funnily I read more than the personals section) about free speech on university campuses following the appointment of a Free Speech Tsar at Cambridge University. Srinivasan discusses the complexities and politics of free speech, academic freedom, and the broader political/cultural shifts happening in academic spaces, particularly the contradictions of the right-wing attack on unis. Really interesting stuff, as always so thoughtfully analysed.
You can read it on their website here but if you’re not a LRB subscriber here’s a cheeky link.
The accidental hard-launch by your parents. A tale as old as time:
What is more parent-coded, daggy dancing (self-filmed might I add) or accidentally hard launching a couple?
Well, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman did both, simultaneously in fact, accidentally hard-launching Phoebe Bridges and Bo Burnham kissing at a Taylor Swift Concert (a lot of names, I know) whilst daggy dancing to ‘Style’. Despite Phoebe and Bo being a rumoured couple for months, this confirmed it all, and what can I say except it’s probably the most parent move ever (don’t stress they’re not actually related). Here’s the infamous tiktok Keith Urban posted.
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You all might remember I am not a Nicole Kidman fan, and in fact, way back in the second edition of this newsletter, I asked if liking Nicole Kidman was a Red Flag? (The common consensus was yes). But what do I like less than Nicole Kidman? Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban. Happy they found each other in their shared cringeness and unappeal I guess, but it’s unfortunate they are the face of Australian celebrities.
Phoebe got in on the joke at a recent boygenius show where Phoebe, Julien, and Lucy dressed in drag, in protest of Tennessee's new anti-drag legislation, telling the crowd her drag name was ‘Queef Urban’ so all is good.
The Pope does not have a puffer jacket. We’re fucked.
This is old news now but I figured still worth a comment. A few weeks ago this image surfaced. I thought nothing of it, puffer jackets are nearly universal, and a Melbourne wardrobe staple. Rome gets cold and I have no doubt the Pope has a stylist. Further, Granny has a similar cream puffer herself, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
So let me tell you I was shocked to learn that this is an AI-generated image. Not only did I not realise it was fake, I also thought it was a joke when twitter started revealing the truth. Lest to say, we’re all fucked for when AI starts getting serious with the fake images/ information, but for now, I think the Pope should invest in a puffer.
How many of the biblical plagues have you dealt with?
A standard small talk question really, feel free to bring it into the office breakroom.
I bring it up because Sophie Kemp wrote this piece in the Paris Review which made me chuckle. She talks about her belief that she is “being punished, Old Testament–style” after finding bed bugs in her bed, ticking off each of the biblical plagues. Given the past few years, biblical plagues don’t sound that far-fetched…
Office politics:
In case you couldn’t get enough of Utopia and office theatrics (which btw the new season is excellent), there’s a facebook “Group chat where everyone pretends they work in the same office”. Complete strangers all post random semi-realistic office notes. The Aussie teenager who started the group gave some priceless quotes in a recent interview about how it was fun until adults joined and started “trying too hard”.
What tops it off though is this quote he gave “I think old people should be allowed on the internet for looking at business stuff or for sending actual emails to their real bosses, or for finding recipes.” Iconic teenage behaviour.
Tay-Baiting:
I recently read a funny article that covered the recent phenomenon of ‘Tay-baiting’, where young male tiktokers are listening to Taylor Swift for the “first time” and go viral for it. The comments are flooded with “Marry me!” “Green Flag!” “Where can I find a guy like you?” “He’s written by a woman”. These videos have millions of views!! Am I too cynical? I don’t think music should be gatekept, I’m all for being a fan of an artist that was previously looked down upon, plus it’s pretty hard to avoid Taylor Swift at the moment but does seem like a strategy to go viral and attract women. It kind of reminds me of Obama’s college strategies to pick girls (lest we forget the “ethereal bisexual”).
Here’s a classic example, Brandon Galloway who I would say is clearly capitalising on the Taylor trend, and here’s an example of Oliver Mills who seems a little more genuine but maybe that’s just because he’s Kiwi and I’ve never met a Kiwi I didn’t like…
However, who else loves Taylor Swift more than tiktok bros? Prime Ministers! The Prime Ministers of Chile, Thailand, and Canada have personally asked Ms Taylor Swift to tour their countries. Apparently, she might help prevent a recession! They really took Kris’s advice to “just… call Taylor up” to heart…
Cate Blanchett went to the Nova:
In local news, Cate Blanchett was spotted at the Cinema Nova. Iconic Carlton behaviour, the real question is whether she went to Tiamos, Brunettis or Sea Salt for dinner after?
Reading recs for your European Summers (derogatory):
I’m very jealous of everyone having a European Summer at the moment (although I know I’ve lost the right to complain on this matter). While you’re all out having hot girl summers, I’m here having a Tony Soprano winter - eating lots of pasta, wearing my dressing gown all day, reading the paper, and going to therapy. Nonetheless, in solidarity, I thought I’d share my favourite 8 books I’ve read in the first half of this year (one for each remaining week of your beach lounging and quaintrelle life).
In the Dream House- Carmen Maria Machado. If you read one book this year, make it this one. It’s been a while since I read a book that made me squeal with excitement about how exquisitely it’s written. Machado’s innovative book about her relationship with her abusive former girlfriend beautifully explores her story, discussing broader societal implications, queerness, sexuality, violence, and culture. Interspersed in the text are footnotes to Folk-Literature Tropes (brilliant) and quotes from texts spanning decades and pop culture references. So. Good. I immediately went out to buy her short story collection Her Body and Other Parties.
Big Swiss- Jen Beagin. I loved this, a super fun read about a woman whose job is transcribing sex therapy sessions (as a lover of eavesdropping this is very appealing to me). She then begins a relationship with one of the clients! I love unhinged women doing crazy shit ✨in a literary way✨ . Sometimes this genre of books can be a little too insufferable. Luckily Big Swiss was totally unpredictable and humorous. Very enjoyable. Rumour has it’s becoming a movie and the lovely Jodie Comer will play Big Swiss (Flavia)!
Crying in H mart- Michelle Zauner. I spoke about this book last newsletter, heart-breaking, heart-warming etc. etc. But seriously I was sobbing. A beautiful memoir about mothers/daughters, immigrants, and Korean food.
Cursed Bread- Sophie Mackintosh. Okay so I haven’t finished this yet but just from the description, I’m in. It’s based on the true events in 1951 in Pont Saint-Esprit, where after a questionable flour delivery that was made into bread over 250 villagers fell violently ill, vomiting, hallucinating, convulsing, followed by days of insomnia, and some deaths. The disturbing behaviour pointed towards ergotism, however, this didn’t stop multiple theories such as mercury poisoning, the use of nitrogen trichloride to bleach flour or even that the CIA was testing LSD as a possible biological weapon arising. Mackintosh's new novel Cursed Bread is written from the imagined baker’s wife’s perspective. I can’t wait to read it, it sounds like a really interesting play on genre raising the question, “Is the past a literary genre unto itself?”.
Nightbitch- Rachel Yoder. A new mother turns into a literal dog at night. Need I say more? I saw Rachel speak at the Wheeler Centre a month or so ago, very funny, really interesting life story and the author of an absurd, funny, book.
Bunny- Mona Awad. I fell into the rabbit hole into wonderland with this one. Batshit crazy. Think The Secret History but with mean-girl literary snobs. Really weird, but now I’ve stepped away I think I enjoyed it, didn’t know what to believe. A fun mindfuck in our post-truth era.
Dept. of Speculation- Jenny Ofill. Funnily enough Chat GPT recommended this to me after I put in some of my favourite books. There were some really beautiful lines and it managed to do the whole mother/ writer/ struggling feminist/ modern woman thing filled with references without sounding too pretentious. It feels a little like a Modern Love story. ChatGPT was right, I did like it.
Sad Mum Lady- Ashe Daveport. Again I spoke about this last newsletter, hilarious, witty essays on the early years of motherhood.
My short story/essay rec for the week is The Perilous Realm by Sabrina Orah Mark about fairy-tales and rebuilding after her house burned down. She also had a Paris Review column Happily about fairy-tales and motherhood.
Some tweets I enjoyed:
It’s been a while so I figured I’d loop you all in with some funny tweets. A special f you to Elon for not letting me embed these.
“He lets her be bejewelled”. The argument could be made this is an example of referential millennial dadaism. Requiring knowledge of separate work, knowledge of current events, and observational humour. (someone once applied this logic to another meme and I’ve never forgotten).
Australian crime dramas should be called “yeah, noir”. I watched Deadloch (new Tassie murder mystery) and really enjoyed it!
That’s all for this newsletter! Sorry it’s taken me a while, I appreciate those of you who asked when it was coming out, it’s nice to know it’s missed. Hopefully I can get more on top of my shit in the mean time…
Love,
Rimini