Hey there,
I imagine this is happening to you too, but I keep finding events on my calendar that leave me stumped. A friend's wedding on the other side of the country? An artifact from a past life. A big family trip to a shared rental house in Oregon? A a strange overlap with an alternate dimension. Each time they pop up on the calendar, I'm jolted into awareness of how quickly things can change. That's scary when it swings in the bad direction, but it also makes me hopeful that if we keep pushing we can make the same kind of dramatic changes in a positive direction. My goal for this week is to channel the energy of people furious about Costco discontinuing sheet cakes, but apply it to racial and economic justice. Please join me. (Also, I'm genuinely inspired by the woman who proudly told a reporter that she ordered a cake meant to feed 48 people for herself every single month and had the workers write "Congrats on your new Costco card" on it.)
Upcoming Events
LIVESTREAMS:
- TODAY Saturday, July 11th at 2 p.m. PT / 5 p.m. ET
COME ON DOWN, YOU'RE ALREADY HERE! Today's Zoom game show will once again be raising money for the National Queer and Trans Therapists of Color Network and it features hilarious panelists Chrissy Shackelford and Eliza Cossio. You can play a round or just watch and laugh from the comfort of your home. Link
This week’s list
GREAT:
Chloë Ellingson is a Canadian photojournalist. While it's still not safe to travel, I've been enjoying reading stories and looking at images from far away. Reading about a trip doesn't do it quite as effectively as being on the ground, but I can still feel the boundaries of my imagination expanding. Ellingson captures some amazing images in Quebec's far north. "The Tshiuetin line, the first railroad in North America owned and operated by First Nations people, is a symbol of reclamation and defiance for the communities it serves." Commuting, and Confronting History, on a Remote Canadian Railway
FUNNY:
Patricia Lockwood makes me laugh and gasp in equal measure. Her memoir, Priestdaddy, about growing up the daughter of a Catholic priest (he converted to Catholicism after having kids, which is apparently a loophole?) is one of the most jaw-dropping books I've ever read. And her account of contracting coronavirus and then wondering if it was causing her to go insane is hilarious and terrifying and absolutely could not have been written by anyone other than her. It's wild. Patricia Lockwood's Coronavirus Diary
INTERESTING:
I don't bring it up all that much, but I stopped drinking several years ago. I stopped for several reasons, none of which was nearly as exciting as many other people's stories. But I do think stopping has made my life better. I feel healthier, I've saved a ton of money, and when I wake up feeling like I got hit on the head by a hammer now, it's because I was actually hit on the head by a hammer. (It's rarer!) I know that during this particularly stressful time, a lot of folks are reevaluating their relationships with alcohol, so I thought I'd say that even if you don't have a particularly dramatic story, it's still okay to just decide your life is better off without it. This interview with Amanda Eyre Ward and Jardine Libaire about their new book, The Sober Lush, put into a words a lot of feelings I've had about not drinking but haven't quite known how to express. A Guide to Living Decadently Without Alcohol (h/t The Ann Friedman Weekly)
That's it for today! Thanks for reading. if you're enjoying these emails, please forward to a friend or spread the word. If someone forwarded you this email but you're not yet on the list, you can subscribe here.
Stay safe out there,
Chris