3 good reads for you
Nothing terribly fancy today — I’m trying to get in some rest & relaxation (or is it languishing?) after a crazy couple of months and just catch up in general — but wanted to link out to three great reads I came across recently:
I did a silly tweet about retainers after I snapped (another) piece off the one I’ve had for 10 years, and all the replies taught me that post-braces misadventures really touches a nerve! Of course Anne Helen Petersen came through with a great piece in her newsletter on all the ways orthodontia gets tied up with American ideas of middle class.
My friend Michelle No wrote the most nuanced take on Minari yet for the NYT. The success of this gorgeous, sensitive film has been exciting for obvious Asian-American visibility reasons, of course (not to mention MIDWEST Asian-Americans, which I’m especially partial to), but I adore Michelle’s close reading of the immigrant parent dynamics in this film — something usually glossed over for laughs (like in “Fresh Off the Boat”) or portrayed in variations of Nonverbal Tiger Parent (like in “The Farewell”) or made a bit Disneyfied (Constance Wu’s character in “Crazy Rich Asians” & her mother). (Also, if you love this piece and have some great writing opportunities, hit Michelle up!!)
And finally, Cat Zhang’s piece on celeb gossip acting as “Yelp reviews for celebrities” for Real Life Mag is the perfect synthesis for our latest stage of Gossip Girl cosplay re: the celebrity culture we’ve arrived at thanks to a combination of anon accounts like @deuxmoi, the genre of TikToks where anyone can call out anyone, and of course, gossip’s biggest enabler: pandemic boredom.
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Modernist literature and urban art unite on Saturdays at 10am! Each weekend Morphkey’s LA Book Scavenger Hunt gives away 20+ curated world literature books in hidden locations across LA. We’d love freelancers to pitch news stories: media inquiries at labookscavengerhunt@gmail.com
Research & write New York City commercial real estate stories, articles, & research reports. Content to be published on www.metro-manhattan.com/blog. Writer to have input in the content selection. Up to 8 articles per month, but flexible. Pay per article. Content to be from 700-2,000 words & to be attributed to author. Contact info: alan@metro-manhattan.com if interested!
Calling all writers interested in self-publishing: Sign up for the Digital Salon's design workshop about social media marketing and open source publishing on April 23. We're all about having fun while making a living. Bring a pen and paper to brainstorm about your personal publishing goals! Make friends with other writers, despite the pandemic, by joining this literary salon.