#21 Third Places, Guys Girls, & Christmas Bops
this week in books, tv, music, & recipes - possibly controversial and wholly overwritten
Happy Wednesday (It’s Friday) (for 54 more minutes),
This newsletter took four bowls of Trader Joe’s Shells and White Cheddar Macaroni & Cheese to complete as well as three seasons of television and five bubble baths. I tend to measure time in manicures and library book renewals, in haircuts and rearranged furniture. Time passes over the mundane, and, without much effort, the ordinary demarcates my life. It’s been one nail appointment since my sister and Melanie got engaged and three overdue CDs since Lana woke me up with fresh coffee. It’s been one tattoo since I saw my grandmother for the last time, and it’s taken twelve apartments to finally find home. It’s been three iced coffees since I hugged my aunt and two hundred and ninety-one miles since I heard my mom’s laugh. It’s been twenty pounds since I switched medication, twenty-one newsletters since I quit my job, and one bouquet of flowers since I drank coffee with my father. This is a life, and this is how I measure it. I’ll stop here for fear that “Seasons of Love” will haunt me mercilessly if I don’t. But this is how time passes. This is how I notice it’s gone by.
Lately I’ve been spending my time writing in the Blue Bottle around the corner from my house, and I’ve gone there enough in the past two weeks to see some regulars — the strangers who, for reasons I’ll never know, happen to have the desire to do exactly what I do and the availability to do it at exactly the same time as me. One of these regulars, by the looks of him, seems to be a Maltipoo with a hankering for tricolored bones between 11am-1pm M-F. I’m still not totally clear on how or why so many indoor restaurants allow dogs inside these days? It just seems dystopian to have a treat corner for dogs inside of a cafe, but then benches specifically designed to prevent the unhoused community from sitting down outside. No hate to your dogs. I just don’t know why we can’t show the same amount of love to people, you know?
Anyways, working at Blue Bottle is a really interesting exercise in seeing just how far the US has taken its project of individual consumerism and its rejection of what sociologist Ray Oldenburg coined as “the third place.” Blue Bottle is a higher-end coffee chain that, though founded in Oakland in 2002, is seen less as a hometown mom-and-pop and more as a higher-quality alternative to Starbucks or Peets. Unlike the former, however, there are no outlets to plug in electronics, no hooks to hang your bag, and no barstools with a back on which to drape your coat. The coffee shop is designed to be beautiful and uncomfortable on purpose so that people don’t stay too long. I wish their coffee sucked, so I wouldn’t want to go there so badly.
In his book The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community originally published in 1989 and republished just this year, Ray Oldenburg argues that without an investment in the third place — the neutral, level gathering places outside of both work and home where neighbors and community members can associate with one another free of the pressures of hosting — the residents of our cities and societies will continue to become more isolated, lonely, and unfulfilled. He details in his book that the project of designing and developing cities in the United States has been particularly opposed to creating and cultivating these third places and in fact has worked tirelessly to eradicate them.
Excerpt #1 from The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg
This book is really incredible, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has felt disconnected from their community or angered at the architecture of social life mediated by white middle-class values in the US. Our loneliness is not born out of an individual failure to connect, but rather is a symptom of the collective absence of places to gather with one another to relieve stress and build relationships.
Public life in the US is often criminalized with anti-loitering legislation and zoning laws, as public gatherings require permits or are completely forbidden if the group is not actively participating in the economy. However, these third spaces serve a vital function that home and office cannot provide — a neutral space that allows for communion with people in your community regardless of social status: an opportunity to meet and build relationships with people you never would have met otherwise.
For many folks, church, mosque, meeting or temple provides a third place to gather with community members, and I know quite a few people who participate in religious life with the express desire for routine congregation just as much as any spiritual practice. During Lana’s visit to the US, each drive around Oakland was accompanied with “is that a church?” and it wasn’t until she pointed out with the meticulousness of a hunting hound the astronomical number of them, that I realized how much of a fabric they serve in the tapestry of the city landscape.
The US has a lot of churches, and yet very few of my friends regularly attend services at any of them. This may be more of a reflection on my own lack of religious upbringing rather than any commentary on the spiritual practices of my generation, but I wonder if even the most inclusive religious organizations lack the level neutrality or accessibility that a democratized third space provides. A local pub, bookstore, or barbershop does not have as many prescribed roles or insistence on social hierarchy that a church does, for example. And with services only happening at certain times and on certain days, churches lack the flexibility that corner shops and stoops provide. And there is perhaps less of a barrier to entry and fewer pre-requisites of participation in an arcade or tavern as there may be in a temple — fewer taboos or transgressions to be wary of.
And yet, these places are becoming fewer and farther between in the US — a nation that never had a strong foundation for robust, connected social life as part of its core values— as social, informal, public life gets replaced more readily by individual consumer culture. This in turn, Oldenburg argues, puts even more pressure on work and home to satisfy a person’s need for community — an expectation that can never feasibly or successfully be fulfilled by either.
In fact, the belief that one can be fully fulfilled by work and family alone allows people to be more easily exploited by a capitalist system that convinces them that individual consumerism can solve collective social issues. Ahistorical “bootstraps” myths, tax incentives, and insurance policies encourage people to create nuclear families and divest from community life, concerning themselves with the individual advancement of the members of their immediate family rather than the collective health of the community.
I came across this TikTok video of a college student reading an excerpt of their sociology paper wherein they discuss how capitalism benefits from a nuclear family and how capitalist systems thrive when people only see each other as competition for limited resources instead of members of a community with plenty to share. They have a few videos that all basically led me to thinking about how, as a result of this false scarcity and lack of opportunity to commune with one another, community ties become more and more strained, the people less and less fulfilled, and the need for third spaces becomes stronger than ever.
Excerpt #2 from The Great Good Place: Cafes, Coffee Shops, Bookstores, Bars, Hair Salons, and Other Hangouts at the Heart of a Community by Ray Oldenburg
I have heard quite a few people speak recently about sour interactions they have had with strangers — road rage incidents at intersections, rude customer interactions at work, unpleasant exchanges in line at the Post Office — and at first, I chalked it up to the effects of nearly two years of lock-down and told myself that things would balance out eventually. What I am realizing, however, is that the pandemic showed us how disastrous and long-lasting the effects of social isolation can be and that no amount of personal cheerfulness can rectify it without a collective effort. We need places to be together and practice “meeting, greeting, and enjoy[ing] strangers.”
If you know me in real life, you know I’ve been wanting to open a bookshop/cafe/live event/community space for a while and have been doing lots of research figuring out the steps required to bring this dream to fruition. The desire stemmed from an ongoing ache I developed after leaving school — I wanted somewhere to go as a twenty-something after work that wasn’t a rowdy bar or an expensive restaurant or a specific hobby or class. I wanted to go somewhere and just exist with other people like I did at the library on campus: a place I could count on seeing friends, acquaintances, and strangers without any preconceived plan. I became frustrated that all of these places either 1) required me to spend money or 2) closed before I got off work. I began to speak to friends about their own experiences transitioning from high school and college to public life as an adult and overwhelmingly people agreed that they wish they had a place to go without membership or specific purpose.
Many of my friends who live outside the US live in cities or communities that have invested in third places and value social connection almost as much as the first two (home and work). I watched a video recently of a Spanish woman who spoke about how much easier it was to meet up with friends in Spain than in the US, where hanging out seemed to require months of advance notice, calendars, and child-care arrangements for a simple dinner. She was used to casual, habitual gathering with friends and was accustomed to her neighbors and community members valuing these frequent informal public gatherings just as much as she did. The landscape of the neighborhood also supported these gatherings with many establishments open late without strict rules for how to engage with the space. Attitudes of people in the US, especially in larger cities, tend to prioritize work, family, and privacy before regular, intergenerational, social connection as the physical and political design of neighborhoods supports that attitude.
The other day, as I walked home from the oh-so-uncomfortable Blue Bottle coffee shop, I was thinking of Palestine. I am used to this feeling that comes over me when I walk now: I look around at the buildings standing tall in Oakland, and I picture the rubble. I look up at the sky, clear beyond a few wispy clouds, and I think of the drone and smoke infested air in Gaza. But this time, a question emerged from this overlay. If the skies above me turned to ash and the buildings flattened without mercy, would we risk our lives save each other as Palestinians in Gaza do daily? Would we know the name of the shop keeper, would we know his brother’s favorite color or how his wife takes her tea or where to look for his child if he went missing? Would we need to know in order to act? This is the mark of a strong collectivist culture — this is the beauty of being indigenous to a land that knows your people— everyone belongs to everyone. There are rituals of meeting, greeting, and enjoying one another and engaging with the land you share. There is history of being together.
I don’t know how to end this other than to say third places are important, and I believe in the collective power of people to gather and honor one another despite the hegemonic systems that attempt to separate us from one another and our histories. There is power in coming together. There is power in breaking bread. There is power in sharing stories. There is power in one another. I believe that more than I ever have.
XO,
M
🎵 A Joyful Sound by Kelly Finnigan (Christmas album) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This “non-cheesy” Christmas album recommendation comes by way of my bestie and future sister-in-law, Toni. Toni always has her pulse on what is q u a l i t y, whether it be vintage clothes, local restaurants, or new exhibits, Toni knows.
🎵 Hidden Holiday Hits by Camellia R Hartman (Spotify playlist) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
In keeping with the non-traditional Christmas tunes, here is a playlist I saw Taylor Ashton repost on their IG stories. His track “Santa’s Song (I Don’t Believe in Myself)” makes an appearance on this funky, eclectic holiday playlist. I hope you enjoy!
🎵Bea Miller at The Fillmore in San Francisco (pop/rock)⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had never heard of Bea Miller, but I was really impressed with her vocals and performance. She’s been performing since she was a kid on The X Factor, so it makes sense that her crowd work and energy are able to buoy a Wednesday night crowd.
I fear I’m finally getting old (literally…get off my lawn) because I felt irked by her chats between songs. I know young women get more than their fair share of scrutiny, so I’m hesitant to even put this out there. But her flippancy with acknowledging a song about “mom trauma” or making a point to say she “hates talking about feelings,” and wanted to get through that song without thinking too much about it, lent credence to a type of cool, chill girl archetype already hinted at in her onstage persona— a type of performance of femininity that tries to define itself in opposition to stereotypes but instead overreaches and lands in an untethered, nihilistic, “who cares, nothing matters!” attitude that is hard to distinguish from inauthenticity.
I think many young women resonate deeply with her attitude (I mean…have you looked outside? The world is horrifying and nonsensical on a good day so…I get it), but I worry about the allure of this kind of performance of womanhood because I have so often seen it divorce women from a strong sense of self and/or prevent them from making deep connections to community. Megan Fox’s character in Transformers comes to mind as a woman who effortlessly meets or exceeds every standard of beauty while eating pizza and hanging out with boys because “girls are so difficult and complicated and want to talk about their feelings - barf.” I think also about Molly Gordon’s character in The Bear whose choices mostly seem to be in the service of being a girl “who’s not like other girls.”
Being a middle and high school teacher in my twenties (and having survived both institutions myself in the low-rise, heroin-chic aughts), I have seen firsthand the temptation for young women—regardless of sexual orientation— to become a guy’s girl at the expense of women. And though I believe it is absolutely a young girl’s prerogative to handle this misogynistic world with whatever tools she has in the moment, I guess it just makes me sad for how ineffectual becoming the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” is for the ultimate goal of liberation…of living a life one actively chooses in safety and peace.
OH, COME ON, MONTANA. IT’S POP MUSIC. IT’S NOT THAT DEEP. STOP BEING A HATER. I hear you. And let me be clear, I do not believe there is any right way to be a woman. I just know how impacted young women are by the media they consume, and as a very passionate, sensitive child, I looked aspirationally at “easy, low maintenance” women whose lack of needs or passions garnered them acceptance in any crowd. These were the same kind of women who often defined themselves in opposition to characteristics other women have, hobbies other girls pursue, and music other girls like: women who could easily say all the things they weren’t but didn’t seem incredibly interested in discovering who they were.
As I grew up, I witnessed my girl-friends shrink their passions, and I saw myself grow less vocal about my needs in pursuit of this chill, breezy performance of girlhood because I didn’t want to be “too much.” I downplayed my sorrows and tempered my zeal because I wanted to belong. And for young girls, being excited, impassioned, or self-assured makes you an easy target for cruelty. So…if I don’t care about anything, no one can take it from me, right? It’s a very young, reactive, and protective way to be that ultimately, I discovered, wasn’t very fulfilling. I’d rather have something people try to steal or destroy than have nothing at all.
I also do not believe that artists need to be role models for children, nor do I believe they owe an audience anything but respect. I just know how it felt to watch Bea Miller perform, and I know that it made me sad, so this is me trying to figure out why. And I think it’s because she reminded me of fifteen-year-old me who really needed a hug. Who knows, maybe this analysis is little more than projection. Maybe, at the end of the day, I just wish I could jump around a stage braless in a baby-tee and a Lucy Gray inspired see-thru skirt with arms covered in tattoos and not worry about all the jeans I can’t fit into anymore. Maybe…but…I don’t think so.
🎵Isabel Larosa at The Fillmore in San Francisco (pop) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Isabel Larosa and her brother Thomas Larosa are such a dynamic duo. Isabel is like a mini-Fletcher when it comes to stage performance holy smokes. I turned to Devon and said, “I want to see her outside on a summer stage,” because her crowd work and energy were that electric. It almost felt wrong for her to be playing to such a small Wednesday night crowd.
Though their music and image of Fuck You-Pop-Princess comparable, I did not feel the same sadness watching Isabel Larosa perform her high-energy pop anthems as I did watching Bea Miller. Isabel seemed authentic — she seemed to know what she wanted and what she was doing. She seemed connected to her music and to the journey it took her to get to where she is — her songs seemed to matter deeply to her. She seemed really interested and alight the whole time she was performing. Her resistance to stereotype or categorization seemed a natural side effect of her being herself, and I found myself wanting to know more about her background and discography. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a sense of who Bea Miller was through her performance and didn’t feel that same curiosity in finding out.
🎵 Zach Matari (pop-ish?)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I discovered Zach through his sister, Jenan Matari, who has become a leading voice of resistance among artists in the Palestinian diaspora. (Check her out in the Scrolling Section). Zach, who has Brasilian and Palestinian roots, has a musical sound that evades categorization, as so much exciting music does these days. Pop, Arab-pop, R&B, & funk come to mind, but then he picks up his acoustic guitar and teams up with a stand-up bass player to give us a version of “Lately” that is so soulfully nostalgic, that I’m not sure what to call it. Maybe it doesn’t need a name. Maybe its name hides in the linens of older languages with more years of practice describing sounds and feelings. English feels so insufficient when it comes to poetry.
His song “Yalla” went viral on TikTok back in 2020 as an international Arab-pop anthem, but it was this stripped-down version of a song about his grandfather that finally brought him across my feed. Go, figure.
🎵 Ethan Tasch at The Fillmore, San Francisco (indie, folk)⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I first heard Ethan Tasch’s songs “GPS” and “Room” on what I’m sure was a Discover Weekly playlist from Spotify. People love to lament the algorithm, arguing it has taken the soul out of discovering new music, and I’m not saying that stance isn’t without some merit, but I personally have been introduced to so many new, tiny, indie artists I love because Instagram, TikTok and Spotify have recommended their songs or people I follow score their videos with snippets of their tracks.
In my weekly-ish perusal of “Bands in Town” I saw that Ethan Tasch was playing at The Fillmore in SF, opening for Bea Miller and Isabel Larosa, and dragged my concert contessas to the show. Pareesa was there for Isabel, Devon was there for Bea, and I was there for the unassuming boy from Menlo Park.
Approaching the solitary microphone with a guitar slung lazily on his shoulder, Ethan started, “You might be wondering what this sad, indie-folk guy is doing opening for Bea Miller.” The audience, mostly consisting of his friends from UC Berkeley and also his dad, whooped and hollered in response. “Turns out, I’m her guitarist.” Quelle surprise!
I loved his older singles and all the songs he played off his new album “Got Him!,” but it wasn’t until he switched out his guitars that I really got lost in the songs. I don’t know much about music and can hardly name an instrument when I see it, let alone hear it, but the guitar tones really made all the difference in Ethan’s set. I looked it up later, and think maybe he was playing an Archtop? There was a familiar Peach Pit-y sound to the guitar and vocals, though I think Christopher Vanderkooy uses a Fender Stratocaster on most Peach Pit records.
Okay I’ve left my comfort zone when discussing sounds, but “Room” and “Shell” remind me of a really stripped-down Peach Pit — I have no more vocabulary to discuss it further. Just…listen and trust me, a woman with absolutely no music background or credentials of any kind.
🎬 Mo via Netflix (TV Series, Comedy, 2022) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
God, Mo is so funny. I was first put onto his comedy with his supporting role as cousin and diner-owner, Mo, in Ramy (Hulu) a few years ago. I became a fan of his stand-up and then saw him speak at a ceasefire rally in DC in October. I watched every episode of Mo the first night back on my ADHD medication (I took it too late in the day and was very… focused). His Netflix series pulls on parts of his life as a Palestinian refugee growing up in Texas, his friendships with people similarly (though not exactly) impacted by the cruelties of the immigration system, his attempts to understand himself and his identities as he learns more about his past and tries to work toward a future he and his family can be proud of. The series dips in an out of Arabic, Spanish, and English in a beautiful representation of what Houston is to so many. Explorations of what it means to be a Muslim, Palestinian man in love with a Catholic, Mexican-American woman while trying to build a life in the US are tempered with humor and heartache. Highly recommend.
🎬 Shetland via Britbox (TV Series, UK Crime, 2023) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I’m a slut for Shetland. Even with Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez gone (Douglas Henshell left the show after 10 years in 2022), Shetland shines. It doesn’t feel like totally the same show, though it feels lovely to see Tosh and Sandy interact with the new DI Ruth Calder played by Ashley Jensen. Only three episodes are out in the US, and I’ll be honest the last one took a turn…but I’m excited to close out the series in the coming weeks.
Buckle up, lads. This week’s edition has some books that I disliked so much that I almost regret reading them. It also has the first history book I’ve read since nabbing that B.A. in History back in ‘16. So…balance.
I usually don’t write about things I didn’t enjoy in this newsletter, however these books were terrible in such particular ways, that I find myself compelled to tell you about them and share some hilarious Goodreads reviews I wholeheartedly agree with. I hate-read both back-to-back and though each infuriated me in their own special way, I will give it to McFadden and Jewell, they both made me stick it out to the end. That in and of itself qualifies them to be discussed (in my not-so-humble opinion).
I am not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but I will say I was shocked as hell to discover these books had hundreds of thousands of 4+ ratings on Goodreads. I even went down a Freida McFadden rabbit hole with a friend because the sheer number of ratings and reviews was so incredibly suspect, I wondered if there was a conspiracy afoot. It got us talking about the TikTok-i-fication & Audible-i-fication of publishing and what that has meant for the quality of books getting greenlit and published so quickly.
On the one hand, I love how much more democratized and accessible publishing seems to be becoming to readers of all backgrounds and abilities (lord knows mainstream publishing is a bastion of white elitist ablism), and I also believe that when publishing houses are making decisions based on projected Tiktok virality in attempts to capitalize on trends they’ve seen take-off, quality often does suffer as they try to push books to market as quickly as possible. Colleen Hoover…Rebecca Yarros…Piper CJ…the list goes on when thinking about authors who have benefitted from what happens when publishing houses give in to the Tiktok temptation in an attempt to produce the next viral book without due diligence. The reader pays the price.
Yet, what I love about TikTok and BookTok specifically is how accountable book influencers hold the reading and publishing community with creators like Lauren’s Little Library, BookDrunkInLove, PageMelt, and Mari catching me up to speed on all the dramas of publishing, all their hot takes regarding book culture, and all the ways in which participating in bookish communities is a political act.
Not all of us are a part of reading communities and instead find respite, joy, and intellectual stimulation through reading alone. Amazing! Fair warning if you wanted to read the following books alone as I did: you may be entertained, you may read them quickly, you may even stay up late to finish them, however I can almost guarantee you will be positively flummoxed at how these books were ever commercially successful.
📚Never Lie by Freida McFadden (thriller, suspense 2022) ⭐️.5
Plot: Tricia and Ethan are house-hunting newlyweds who get snowed in at a showing in Westchester. The house, which once belonged to a renowned psychiatrist and best-selling author who disappeared three years prior, is fully furnished with layers of dust on every surface. Equipped with strange sounds, bologna sandwiches, and a mysterious room of cassette tapes from every session Dr. Hale ever had, the house is just as mysterious as its characters.
Oi, nah. My summary makes this book sound way better than it is. Do not waste your time or money. Read this Goodreads review from Nica Libres at Dusk instead:
Personally, I love the edit. I love that this person tried so hard to be honest while remaining nice, went about their day, and then hated the book so much that they returned to say, you know what, actually, “everything she puts out deteriorates my braincells from the cosmic amount of stupidity.”
If you loved The Silent Patient maybe you’ll have the patience for this, but the writing is so repetitive, the 1st person POV doesn’t work, none of the characters behave realistically (but not in an intentional or compelling way), and the massive gaps in plot are the price paid for a far-out-there twist that does little other than roll the readers eyes.
Silver lining: this book gave me the confidence to write a book.
📚Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell (thriller, suspense 2017) ⭐️⭐️.5
Plot: Laurel is trying to adjust to life ten years after her youngest daughter’s disappearance. A divorced fifty-something, she grapples with strained relationships with her two adult children and ex-husband while trying to discover what happened to her daughter all those years ago. Answers seem closer after meeting an attractive man at a cafe…
To be honest, anything I read after Never Lie would have felt like sweet relief. Then She Was Gone switches POV and moves back and forth through time in a way that gives the book a decent pacing, though none of the characters feel very well developed. I thought the author did a good job of showing a flawed mother struggling to understand why her adult children don’t want a close relationship with her, and I found her relationship with her ex-husband really sweet. Honestly, I liked the story until the big reveal. I saw it coming, though Jewell took it to absolute extremes to the point of ridiculousness. I wish the last third never happened…most of the characters bugged me, and the most compelling ones never got a POV. Womp.
Silver Lining: I didn’t like this book, though it was something to fill the silence at the DMV. If you loved it, I am thrilled for you that Lisa Jewell has written four million books just like it.
📚Camera Palaestina (New Directions in Palestinian Studies) by Issam Nassar, Salim Tamari, Stephen Sheehi (History, Middle Eastern Studies 2022) ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Summary: Historians work their way through the photographic archives and albums of Wasif Jawhariyyeh, putting them in social, religious, economic, and political context of the Ottoman and Mandate epochs of Palestinian history.
Once I started reading this, I could not put it down. For any photography nerds or anyone interested in Palestinian history before 1948, I highly recommend this book. It’s classically dense (though not as impenetrable as some texts you have to read as a History major) but if you are a history or political science nerd, you’ll love it.
📕Telling the Bees Book Club: facilitated by Josh Lora (paid subscription)
I’m thrilled to share another exciting Book Club to look out for this January from BookTok account
. Their Substack officially dropped this week, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.
January’s Book Club Pick: Trust Exercise
Subscribe for Zoom Links & Chat Features + In Person NYC Meetups
📕Banned Book Club: facilitated by Lyric Rose (free)
is reading one banned book per month in the new year. If you wanna chat all things anti-establishment, follow their Substack for updates.January’s Book Club Pick: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Join the Whatsapp group here!
🧁 Neapolitan Checkerboard Cookies by Sue Li (New York Times)
I haven’t made these yet, but I was wrapped a present with a piece of newspaper and this recipe was on it, and it looked amazing!
📱 Olivia Snaije (journalist, editor, translator, author)
The more articles I read from this Paris-based journalist, translator, editor and author, the more I wish I’d discovered her sooner. Plus, her photographs are gorgeous. Also, her website is amazingly easy to navigate with her works categorized by theme and date. She writes about arts and publishing and the Middle Easy. If you’re in the US/UK and are a book and people nerd, I really recommend her work to shake up that US/UK centric lens. I loved this article she wrote interviewing Educational Bookshop owner Mahmoud Muna from his family’s bookshop in Jerusalem this past summer.
Olivia Snaije’s Instagram stories are replete with book and article recommendations ranging from academic to human interest pieces and her posts document her travels and passions.
📱 Jenan Matari (writer, producer, organizer)
A Palestinian-American storyteller, producer, mother, founder of Zaytoun Publicity, and co-founder of the missmuslim.nyc blog, Jenan’s Instagram stories have been a daily source of information about the genocide in Gaza as well as resistance efforts in the diaspora. She has used her platform to speak out against atrocities on the ground and dehumanization in print media and everything in between. She has spoken in front of press, partnered with organizations raising funds for relief efforts, and written poems centered on her experience as a woman grieving and working toward liberation in the diaspora. Definitely an artist & activist to follow.
📱 Tessa Creates (small batch jewelry)
My friend Tessa (of Big Pasta Podcast fame) continues to sell out her holiday collection in her jewelry shop! Take a look at her new creations on her website. A percentage of every purchase will go toward The Palestine Red Crescent Society for aid relief in Gaza.
I will watch anything (and I mean anything) Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal are in, so the fact that they star in All of Us Strangers together — out in US theaters December 22— has had me holding my breath since teasers released last spring. Please enjoy BuzzFeed’s Co-Star test in which they giggle and roast each other endlessly in the way only Irish boys can. Stop I can’t even speak any more about this. I love them so much.
Shout outs to:
My mother, who organized an amazing surprise 80th birthday for my grandfather and a beautiful memorial for my grandmother
Toni who got awesome news at work this week and is on to exciting things!
Lana and Kara who wrote an incredible winter Wolfstar fic!
The man at the Capitola DMV who, after almost making me cry, tried to bond with me about his favorite streets in Oakland and Scarface jokes about my name. Thank you for realizing I was going to lose it in public and making me smile.
My sister for sending me home with a really stylish leather backpack that I wear every day now like a little British boy at country day school.
Alicia for braising a delicious chicken and doing something to leeks that I liked. #ratkingwinter
Devon for being my #yeswoman and braving The Fillmore on a Wednesday #ratkingwinter
Pareesa for being brave through her spine tattoo
Meg for being on standby with the world’s longest voicenotes #longdistance friendships are what we were put on Earth for
My aunt for getting spontaneous coffee with me in the midst of a very stressful remodel in the middle of the Holidays.
My grandpa for taking a detour to show me the Christmas lights, just because he thought it would make me smile
My old advisor at Tufts, Elizabeth Foster, who came out with a new book this year
The Barnacles for planning an exciting hockey trip in the new year
Maggie for recovering from surgery! Rockstar status.
Ending Note:
It was a long one this time, so if you made it this far, thank you! Maybe go take a walk or something?
Turn to your poets. Lean on one another. Be safe and love hard. <3
XO,
M