Would you like to hear my melodic voice on yet another podcast? I’ve got two for you: Middlebrow, where I talked about how much I despise Mr. Beast (Middlebrow, coincidentally, is now my new How Long Gone-sque go-to after one of the HLG guys shaded me on a recent episode lol) and Forever35, where I talked about group chats! Enjoyyyy
The problem with always decrying the sTaTe oF mEdiA is that there are still interesting things happening all the time. Such as: Taylor Lorenz going solo at last, and Jane Pratt (as in, xojane Jane) hitting the ‘stack with a new project. By golly are we going to find out the ceiling for subscription-backed content….may it be a pleasant surprise to us all…
Please pause to enjoy Jackson Arn’s frankly bodacious prose about Monet, from a recent New Yorker issue, which includes lines like:
“Every few chapters, a sudden nub of detail robs you of your breath.”
“The sweets of bright color leave their pineapple aftertaste.”
“So many bloodless words with two tender ones in the middle, like a still warm corpse in a storm.”
…Plus a kicker whose ambition you simply must admire.
I already miss Industry, not in the least because the show inspired some top-tier TV writing and discourse, for example:
The New Republic jokingly wondering if Industry is actually just set in hell + situating the show in our current state of prestige TV (tl;dr, if you’re comparing it most similarly to Succession, you’re dead wrong)
Naomi Fry delivering the erection metaphor that simplpy demanded to be made
& Cat Zhang zeroing in on the tragedy of Eric Tao. Delish!
Kathryn Jezer-Morton wrote about The Evolution of Fall Vibes for The Cut’s parenting newsletter, Brooding, but you can also just read it ^^ online at that link. (Curious what the convos are at outlets deciding what content goes in the subscriber-only newsletters and what also goes online without, well, cannibalizing the role of the former). This part made me sit up — I love thinking about which seasons of social media are more “accessible” to participate in:
“"Part of what makes fall so accessible to Gen Z is that you can create content about it from inside your bedroom, with a string of orange LEDs, a hot beverage, and a few pumpkin throw pillows. Summer doesn’t offer the same accessibility: Conjuring summer on the feed means vacations (costly) or bathing-suit content (not everyone’s thing). Fall is a great equalizer — you don’t have to go to Greece or pose half nude. All you have to do is go to Home Goods, buy some Halloween stuff, arrange it all in a tight little assemblage, and light a candle. Voilà: cozy season. It’s the People’s Season.”
Does that make winter (peak cozy staying-indoors vibes) even more accessible? Nah ‘cause all the holiday vacay/gift flexing gets in the way I would assume…on the other hand, good snowscapes (depending on geography lol) are $0 to capture!
I’m assuming Teen Vogue had this fantastic photo essay + feature planned out for the Chappell-headlined All Things Go festival date in New York before she dropped out, so it’s very cool writer P. Claire Dodson flipped the on-the-ground reporting part to engage fans in the Chappell/obsessive celebrity discourse and see how the fest felt in Chappell’s absence. It made for a more interesting story about modern fandom in my opinion!
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