Weekend Reads for a Stormy Weekend

I am completing this Weekend Reads on Thursday afternoon as my laptop is dying a slow death by glitching monitor and I need to drop it off at the Apple Store for repair. I will be without my laptop for a few days, possibly more than expected due to the snow storm that is to hit a good portion of this country over this coming weekend. So Weekend Reads isn't quite as robust as usual and may miss some major news (there seems to be something major going on every day lately…).

Weekend Reads

The death of the designer Valentino marks the end of an era, not just in fashion but in dressing the part. (New York Times – gift link)

Are Influencers Ready For The Warfare Economy? (Loosey on Substack)

Oops, I’m Human: Allison Bornstein (I'm on a Antidepressant on Substack; CW: body image)

I shared some Instagram Stories this week talking to the camera and the biggest response I got was… where did you get your necklace? It's this one.

Speaking of necklaces, someone win the lottery and get me this. Swoon!

Betting on Prediction Markets Is Their Job. They Make Millions. (New York Times – gift link)

The Anti-Starbucks: How Aesop Built a $2.5B Brand Through Radical Inconsistency. (the social life of beauty on Substack)

I love this rug… I'd love it as a hallway runner, though it would also be pretty in our kitchen…

A Government Of Influencers, By Influencers, For Influencers. (The Bulwark on Substack)

And a reminder that I share what I found interesting, but that does not mean I agree… The machine in the garden. (Feed Me on Substack)

Dessert-Themed Beauty Products Are Booming Because of Diet Culture. (Allure)

Was the commitment to plus-size fashion a lie? (Pocchari Style on Substack)

And speaking of which, I really enjoyed this episode of Back Row with Amy O'Dell featuring Lauren Chan.

Enough of you recommended oral minoxidil in the comments of this piece that I ordered some from Alloy. It just arrived as I was finishing up this post so I will be sure to report back in a few weeks!

Sale Alert & Style Inspo

Love Universal Standard and will be in the NYC area next week? Check out their in-person Sample Sale taking place January 29 – february 1 with up to 90% off. Details and to sign up at this Eventbrite link.

Tarte's shape tape™ Week is going on through this weekend with 40% OFF shape tape™ concealer (all 4 formulas). Tarte is sending me some shape tape™ to try as I must admit I have yet to use it (I feel like I am the only one on the planet). The creamy formula is the one most recommended for grown-ass women, but I am intrigued by the blur stick and the radiant formula as I like a more sheer effect. We'll see what I think (I am currently using this concealer from MAKE and occasionally use this stick from MERIT though that's better for my skin when it's not as dry out).

See/Hear/Read

I remember when I used to read books and fall into the character. It has been a long while since I've experienced that, even when the writing is fantastic. I don't know if it's age, perimenopause, the loss of who I was before 2020… well really 2017… but I'm listening to The Lightning Bottles by Marissa Stapley and even though the story is as old as time (if time is the early 90s), maybe because the story and the time period are so familiar, but I am all in.

It's not the kind of book where you can't stop because you need to know what happens next. It's more like a TV series, where it can twist and turn, introduce new characters and let others die off or fade away, ones from the past come back seasons later, have Very Special Episodes, and some random character that is necessary to move the story forward but is terribly acted by a nepo baby.

The Lightning Bottles is a fictitious band that reached super stardom in the early 90s. While originally from Seattle, this husband and wife duo had their own sound that was more considered, “alternative.” The book bounces between the early and late 90s as we learn about how Jane and Elijah come together to form the band, and then what is happening now. Sex, drugs, and rock ‘roll, man. Along with death, love, jealousy, pop culture, and an intercontinental search for a lost love.

I don't recall where I got the recommendation to read this; it was in my Notes and I was ready for a new audiobook. I write this as I am just finishing up Part I of II (and there's an epilogue), so I can't yet recommend whether or not The Lightning Bottles is worth it, but so far I have enjoyed the journey.

K is watching Pole to Pole with Will Smith, a NatGeo series five years in the making. Starring the world-famous superstar Will Smith, across 100 days, Smith adventures across all seven continents while searching for happiness, peace, and purpose. About this show Smith says, “Traveling pole to pole has not only changed the way I see our planet, it's changed the way I see myself.” 

If this makes you want to gag yourself with a spoon, you are not alone. I have ended up watching a good portion of this series with my husband because the nature and the culture and the beauty draws me in and I find myself an hour later still on the edge of the sofa, a pile of towels or my laptop or a half-washed dish still in my hand.

Pole to Pole feels like something orchestrated by Smith's team to try to rehab his reputation after the Oscars incident. Hey, it's using your fame to draw attention to these cultures and environmental situations, it's on Disney with NatGeo, there isn't anything more family friendly than that. You'll have some chances to look strong, some chances to cry on camera, and we'll make sure we have a filming opp where you make an indigenous tribe roar with laughter at one of your trademark jokes. Chris Rock who? This will be the Will Smith reinvention: a kinder, gentler, more spiritual and empathetic, and maybe even slightly relatable Will.

It doesn't make me or my husband like Will Smith more. In fact, it makes us like him less. We didn't have strong feelings before this show, but now we think he's annoying and tone deaf. These amazing experiences, and his bumbling joking gotta be the center of attention self comes in and then does these speaking to the camera confessionals where being loud and bumbling costs a tribe a week of food, calling The Tsodilo Hills “cave drawings,” and asking remote communities if they know who he is (they don't) into these moments of introspection and connection with his ancestors.

That being said, where he goes and what he does is pretty awesome and interesting and beautiful and powerful. Feels wasted on Will Smith. He just made me so glad I am not a world-famous superstar.

For Your Entertainment

The group Misterwives formed in 2012 when Mandy Lee wanted an 80s cover band to play her birthday party so she made the band. The band released its debut album in 2015 receiving critical acclaim and continued to receive press and fame. This year, Miserwives' singer Mandy Lee has gone solo, performing under the stage name Cherry Bomb.

About choosing Cherry Bomb, Lee shared, “I knew I wanted a moniker for the project because I came from the band world and I love that separation between the project and yourself. It gets to be larger than life… Cherry Bomb was the perfect representation of duality of self. It’s sweet but explosive, so I just had that in the back of my head.” Her first video single, “Never Be Me (M*therf*cker)” is below.