forgot to hit send on EOY draft didn't i
got rid of most of the last year bits, title is irrelevant, nobody is reading this far are they
Something my ex, and very good friend, told me was that her uncle used to play a game with them at dinner (aka, tea). He’d ask them to mention two good things and a bad thing that had happened to them that day. I think it’s a beautiful thing to do – gratitude journalling but as much as twenty years ago, and with the added love and vulnerability of doing so with loved ones. Really nice, going to start doing it in these, without the six lines of explanation.
goods:
a shop nearby has started selling very tasty, healthy-ish “Bombay” mix (I prefer mix to any crisps, @ me)
got my ass kicked at Dynamic Vinyasa yoga. My shoulders weak af, on one hand at one point and I was shaking up top like an over-filled tumble dryer. good tho because it gave me something to say later on.
bad: i spilled a lot of the mix right after hoovering, managed to retrieve a fair bit but there were green lentil husks (or is it shells or skins?) everywhere.
*also a slight correction for the last letter, as the “30” above sort of suggests: I should not have dragged music into the mid-lands. While going through albums I enjoyed this year, I realised there were way more than in previous years. I’m not sure if there’s as many “exceptional” ones but there’s a fair few I really liked. Here’s the top four, probably:
4 Moin, Paste
3 King Princess, Hold On Baby
2 Jockstrap, I Love You Jennifer B
1 Ethel Cain, Preacher’s Daughter
a win for sadgirlme
Bonus record: and AN ENTIRE ALBUM OF KEATON KENSON COVERING BANGERS. Ever wanted to hear Blink 182, Backstreet Boys, The Peep Show theme (and many more huge tunes but I won’t spoil the surprises for you) given the tender Henson treatment? No, but you’ll be glad you have. A true “i did not know i needed this” moment. This is among the albums of the year for me (top like… 30*?), because it’s beautiful, the song selection is inspired, and simply why has he done it but also fucking yesssssssssss get it in my ears right now?! Magic. John Lewis advert soundtracks are finished forever (thank u for putting it on my radar, and for subscribing lmao, SW!)
—-
The thing the yoga made me think about is that for me, trying new things works well for keeping me sane. If I am being challenged at something and i sort of suck at it, then i must be at least decent at the things i complete day to day, like articles i don’t want to write because they feel a bit meh or whatever. I also have more control over the meh than i realise in the moment, where as bending arse over leg is impossible for me and possible for others, if i really think about it instead of just going through the motions, i can probably make any writing enjoyable, it’s only me getting in the way of what I create (more or less, lawsuits and annoyed editors aside).
i hope 2023 has more fun just because we can, like the Keaton record, him saying (tenderly) sod it, i’m gonna just write a cover album and i’m going to put some right curveball tunes in there because that’d be fun.
—
good bits from this week so far:
one of the best sandwiches is a fish finger sandwich, you can make it vegan if you want, but it is one of the best sandwiches. a real lunch of a sandwich. anyway, great indie mag pit (all about food and fire, issues are themed) have a newsletter and this week’s instalment went on about fish finger sandwiches and i enjoyed it, recipes too. they have a paid version dropping end of the week, so maybe get while hot? idk what the paid plans are. but if u like, support, innit. also the fkin sandwich photographed in the letter: ooooooffff
Also christ knows when it came out but it’ll be fairly recent. Atavist is one of the best publications around; publishing one long boi a month and that’s it. the latest one:
“THE CURIOUS CASE OF NEBRASKA MAN: A fossil tooth, a splashy debate, and a strange chapter in America’s long history of science denialism.” By Madeline Bodin is a joy.
Speaking of doing one thing well, little brand case study for you: Hiut Denim. If you like brands that have a purpose, you’ll love them. I haven’t worn jeans since in seven years, and I love them. Every brand should be more like them.
In the words of The Roots: Do You Want More?!!!??! I used to put like 12+ things in the newsletter, i think one end of year one was close to 80. If you do, someone let me know? But there’s a bunch of newsletters and not a tonne of great stuff so I’m wondering if this-ish length is more useful unless there’s genuinely plenty worth mentioning one week (also technically this is a half week bc it’s 00:18 on Thursday and I scrapped most end of / start of year bits.
I guess one more thought I had is that journalism business structure is very similar to fast fashion: high volume, low cost, low quality > high quality, high cost, low volume. We know fast is way out, but as always media is about ten years behind on how to run the numbers.
let’s end on something positive:
i am starting a new project that has had a nice and reassuring reception so far. more to come.
and an article that came out last year but also just five days ago: “In praise of the unfilmable novel” pegged to White Noise, by How Long Gone co-host Jason Diamond (AKA @themjeans), for GQ.
okay, see you in a week or less
t’ra t’ra