Weekend Reads during a summer road trip

As you read this, I will be in New England with my family. We're visiting various parts of Upstate New York and Western Massachusetts, with a stop on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. I'll be sharing on Instagram and will recap once I get home, but this is why some of my content below may be dated. These days, I can write 24 hours in advance and have it dated; talk about life going fast.

I also spent much of this week in jury duty, so Weekend Reads has been written in drips and drabs before and after heading to the courthouse. But next Saturday should be more of the regular, especially since I'll have reading time on the road trip!

Weekend Reads

And Just Like That… AD tours Carrie Bradshaw’s new Gramercy Park pad. (Architectural Digest)

Google launches Doppl, a new app that lets you visualize how an outfit might look on you. (TechCrunch)

Shakespeare makes me a slower and better reader. (Defactor)

You were lied to about exercise. (Human, Being on Substack)

Yes, Gen Z is staring at you. The question is why. (New York Times – gift link)

Barbie introduces 1st doll with Type 1 diabetes. (GMA)

Ulta Beauty enters UK with retail chain Space NK's acquisition. (Reuters)

See why the ovary is central to women’s health and longevity. (USA Today)

Climate change is creating a mental health crisis in Phoenix. A budding movement in the desert might solve it. (High Country News)

How rodent studies and weak science are driving the menopause supplement boom. (The Vajenda on Substack)

Why doctors are finally taking IUD pain seriously. (Vox)

“Sinners” is bringing Black American Sign Language to the mainstream. (Mother Jones)

What makes someone cool? A new study offers clues. (New York Times – gift link)

Patients and doctors are turning to AI for diagnoses and treatment recommendations, often with stellar results, but problems arise when experts and algorithms disagree. (Wired)

See/Hear/Read

Sydney, Armond, Natalie, and Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich¹ walk into a cult… When we saw the preview for OPUS, a new film streaming on HBO Max, we couldn't resist.

John Malkovich plays a legendary pop star and recluse Alfred Moretti. He is so beloved, we see folks around the world (including Lenny Kravitz in a Jeep) rock out to his music. He is David Bowie, Prince, and Robert Plant rolled into one and has come out with his first album in decades. To promote it, he invites a handful of the press to his compound to experience it.

The sexy household name talk show host (Juliette Lewis), the internationally-known social media influencer (Stephanie Suganami), the famed paparazzo (Melissa Chambers), the infamous shock jock turned podcaster (Mark Sivertsen), the EIC of the iconic music mag (Murray Bartlett), and a young unknown journalist on his staff (Ayo Edebiri) are invited by private jet and then a ride on Moretti's well-know tour bus to his property in the middle of Utah, miles from everything.

Arielle (Ayo Edebiri) reads the book that came with the invite and is concerned this trip is a visit to a cult; the seasoned journalists are acting so seasoned they haven't done any reading, and find her silly. Her EIC tells her he will be writing the piece, and she can take the notes. Every character is a cliche, and you can't tell if that's purposeful or just bad writing.

It's The Menu, it's Blink Twice, it's Triangle of Sadness, and one can't help but think about Being John Malkovich and you just don't know if they're trying to make a point or the writers are just as full of themselves as Alfred Moretti and his are they or aren't they Freddie Mercury teeth.

There's weirdness and violence and gore and WTFuckery

1:The Bear, The White Lotus S.1, Yellowjackets, Being John Malkovich

This week I also watched Sinners, which is now free on HBO Max. And wow wow wow, if you haven't seen this you MUST. Starring Michael B. Jordan as a pair of twins and newcomer Miles Caton as Sammie, the story takes place in 1932 and serves as a profound allegory, executed in a powerful and vivid and horribly beautiful way.

It's funny, the less I like a movie, the more I write. And I loved Sinners so much, I don't want to write a lot because I want you to experience it for yourself. If you heard it's a horror movie… that's not really accurate. Yes, there is violence but it's not realistic looking and it's really needed to tell the story. If you're hiding behind your hands, it's because what is horrifying isn't shock and awe, but the reality behind the supernatural.

This week, I also watched Straw, a movie on Netflix, because fellow jurors discussed it while we waited for them to be ready for us to enter the courtroom. A Tyler Perry movie, Straw stars Taraji P. Henson as a single mom who works two jobs, who loves her kid and never stops. Straw is the last one she had. Henson was utterly phenomenal and I think deserves an award for her performance, but unfortunately, like most Tyler Perry productions, the movie sucked.

The message of Straw is powerful, and even though this movie sucks, I think it should be watched, especially by anyone who is middle class and thinks their life is pretty tough, but because they work hard and have a good heart, they can get by. As one character in this movie says, it's very expensive to be poor. And this story, though so heavy-handed and poorly executed, needs to be heard by more people in this country. It's a shame it's in such an ugly package; it really dilutes its impact.

For Your Entertainment

I was perusing new videos on YouTube and saw Yung Gravy had a new release. I clicked it, and realized it was a remake/sample/meme rap of the 2005 Panic! At the Disco song, “I Write Sins Not Tragedies.” Yung Gravy's song is called, “I Write Hymns Not Travesties” and in the video he gets all emo-ed out and it's like Y2K cosplay and I realize 2005 was two decades ago not a few years ago, and for 29-year-old Matthew Hauri AKA Yung Gravy, he's doing a cover of a song from his childhood.

And then my child comes running in the room asking what I was listening to, horrified that someone would decimate a beloved song from her childhood. Yes, her childhood, she is 16. But this song came out before she was born. It came out the year her father and I got married, and that year… I was the same age Yung Gravy is now.

My daughter went on a rant about these new artists not respecting those who came before them, destroying their music and making what they call music but it's crap and they don't make music like they used to. And I nodded, thinking of how I have thought that over the years, and I know my mom also thought that, even with songs my sister and I adored. It felt like this inter-generational connection.

Then my kid goes on about how Yung Gravy used to date Addison Rae‘s mom but now dates Ari Kytsya who is super famous everyone knows her and she's in the video but that's not likely her real hair and Yung Gravy collabs with bbno$ (Baby No Money) who is also known as Baby Gravy and he hangs with the Costco Guys and then she imitated something about a person's parent dying and, “you get five booms!” and I realize how my mom must have felt when I was trying to explain pop culture to her when I was in high school.

I understood why my mom just smiled and nodded and kept grading papers or washing dishes or folding laundry, not understanding what the fuck I was talking about but it didn't matter because she was happy I was passionate about music and choosing to share my passion with her. So I am sharing this video so you can get a feel of the anger a 16-year-old and how I didn't know 99% of the things and people she brought up but I didn't care because I don't need to know about them, I'm a mom, but a mom her kid wants to rant to.