a very short list of extremely good things
grab the joy where you can!
I opened my inbox yesterday to not one, not two, but fifteen Substack posts — each at essay length, requiring essay length attention. Now I love nothing more than escaping from the world into my phone until my jaw has gone slack and my corneas are fried, but, by multi-paragraph missive #10, even I had to admit content defeat.
Is Substack the new New Yorker stack? Do we all wish to be better readers than we are? Who cares! We are living in a godless land! Let the stacks, stack!
In the meantime, for all of our sanity, I am going to begin writing shorter, at least some (most?) of the time.
Here are three things I love today. Perhaps you will love them too.
London Writers Hour If you are a writer or ever think about writing or just want an organized, dedicated time each day to scrawl in a notebook/muse while virtually surrounded by nice people, I cannot recommend this free Zoom session enough. The organizers are gentle and earnest in the best way, supportive and kind. There are several times to choose from throughout the day, though I usually go for 5amPT because I’m a freak who loves accomplishing things before dawn.
Oddly Specific Incense God, I wish I had never come across this perfect, pricey-ass incense which smells like the sexiest generational wealth hippie you ever dated after they took their first shower in a long time and their skin was freshly damp. It is such a classy-expensive-horny-earthy smell I almost cannot handle it in my home and it’s also weirdly low to almost no smoke.
Episode 2 of ‘The Studio’ Come for Seth Rogan as a lovable-buffoon Hollywood studio head, stay to watch Sarah Polley, Greta Lee, Kathryn Hahn and Catherine Fucking O’Hara absolutely eviscerate him. This is the funniest 25 minutes of television I’ve watched since wrapping Detroiters.
Last, I’m on the most recent episode of The Dream with Jane Marie talking about the Failed Gen X American Dream. We recorded last Monday before the whole other Failed Gen X American Dream discourse began, which basically tells me we’re all thinking the same things?
And — though we did not plan it like this, twist! — Jane is on Everything Is Fine this week and we’re chatting about the usual stuff like podcast bros and how men still take issue with confident women, plus getting older and pivoting creatively not only out of necessity, but because you want to.
Seriously, I love the substacks I subscribe to but reading them is like a part-time job. I liked on the last podcast when you were both describing what we all want and then realized, "Oh! What we want is a MAGAZINE!"
OMG I’m drowning in quality Substacks you are heard loud and clear! At the risk of sounding early aughts dot com boom, we need an aggregate!