My kids have been back in school for two weeks and dare I say… it’s glorious? So much structure! So much continuous work time! I am a fount of newfound productivity! Of course this version of life is brought to you by a babysitter and a multitude of after school programs, each of which pick up in different locations at slightly different times on different days of the week (and run for different numbers of weeks.) Early childhood is a logistical nightmare any way you cut it! Dumping a lot of links and recs on you this week:
Podcasts:
The Goop episode of Maintenance Phase b/c there’s nothing quite as satisfying as a wellness industry takedown.
Ethan Hawke on Smartless, who I find to be a great interviewee. He gets so into the interviews and is really versatile at conversing with just about anyone.
Rachel Comey on Time Sensitive talking about the start and rise of her brand. Learned so much from this and made me nostalgic for an earlier, more scrappy New York.
The episode all about Bluey on Pop Culture Happy Hour where the hosts analyze its resonance, humor, and very smart writing.
Ellen Van Dusen’s Thingies on A Thing or Two with Claire and Erica. She clearly knows what she wants, what she likes, and goes about making and creating objects/spaces with great intension.
Why do we love TikTok Audio Memes? Call it ‘Brainfeel’” on The Daily’s Sunday Read. As not-really-a-TikTok user this was v. useful context. Am I old for enjoying this?
Bonus! Why Adnan Syed Was Released From Prison for all the OG Serial listeners. Sarah Koenig’s voice straight to your brain….
Also watched some good stuff:
“Petite Maman” by Celine Sciamma (of Portrait of a Lady on Fire), a play-like drama/fantasy film about a little girl who imagines a world where she befriends her mom-as-a-child while grieving her grandmother’s death. (Elif Batuman has a great profile of Sciamma in the New Yorker from earlier this year)
“Parallel Mothers” by Pedro Almodovar, which has classically Almodovar-ish set vibrancy. It follows the story of two single women who are roommates giving birth and their crossed paths after the babies are born. Im sad I didn’t watch a lot of Almodovar films before making apartment decor choices because the combination of reds-greens-oranges-teals-yellows are truly incredible.
Sheng Wang, Sweet and Juicy was a fun and entertaining hour on Netflix.
I went to see Kate Berlant’s one-woman show, KATE, which has been adding late-night shows as it inches towards its closing date (Oct 8th) and it was as good as the hype. A+. Highly recommend.
And some reading:
Speaking of wellness, I’m excited for The Gospel of Wellness by Rina Raphael which explores the explosive rise of the self-care industry and came out this week. (She also has a great newsletter about the subject, Well To Do.)
People From My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami, a story of vignettes from different people in the same neighborhood in Japan which grow progressively interwoven as the book goes on.
The Buddha in the Attic by Julie Otsuka, which traces the lives of a group of “picture brides” who come to California from Japan. Otsuka wrote The Swimmers which I recommended last week and loved.
Ada is psyched that the new Witches of Brooklyn: S’more Magic by Sophie Escabasse is out. She also zoomed through The Aquanaut and has gotten deep into the Jeanie & Genie series this week.
“The Enduring Wisdom of Goodnight Moon” by Elisabeth Egan (NYTimes)
Misc:
Another great IG account featuring incredible Rube Goldberg-esque inventions is @josephsmachines
Also excited to see Wolfgang Tillmans’s show at MoMA, To Look Without Fear. Tillmans was my photographer crush when I first got into photography in college.
Recs, please! Julian and Jacob just watched all nine Star Wars movies and unsurprisingly it is all Julian talks about. His 5th birthday is coming up and he desperately wants a toy lightsaber. Does anyone have a particular brand they recommend? (There are so many). It should be retractable and turn red and green (at a minimum). Thanks, and back next week!
https://youtu.be/pNyWizQl48k
as parents sometimes we say certain things that we should not be saying
I saw these kits at Target last month. A little bit pricy tho! There are different kinds.
https://www.target.com/p/star-wars-lightsaber-forge-obi-wan-kenobi-jedi-master-set/-/A-84794257
Also (I am so not sporty and it shows) I am not sure if Cyclone season is over but they were doing regular Star Wars nights where they had people dressed in characters and did some staged action things in between innings, and then at the end of the game there was a crazy lightsaber melee on the field right before the fireworks.