Welcome to Deez Links! Do you need 2-3 podcasts to listen to amid 7/4-related travels that involve me??? Well well well you can pick between Alison Roman’s latest “Solicited Advice” episode, my Throwing Fits grill down from May, or that sparkly new Deez Links Book Club pod where Rusty Foster and I discuss an old timey campus novel. An embarrassment of riches, I know.
~Deez Travel Recs Corner~
For Milan: The best meal I had all week was at Trattoria Dal Cordaro, where a starter combo of zucchini, white beans, and meatballs easily rivaled the carbonara that tanked my consciousness for an entire afternoon. Second place goes to Trattoria Milanese, where my friend Michelle and I wrapped ribbons of prosciutto around melon chunks and spied on the Italian finance bros having lunch. You should stay at this apartment rental if you’re okay with some bar crowd noise at night, or the Enterprise Hotel for something fancier but also farther out (we did our last night here and wish we could have made use of that spa!). Vintage hunters must stop by Shop The Story; the Villa Necchi Campiglio is great for interiors porn and Luca Guadagnino heads. Have a juicy negroni with locals at Largo Bar.
Overall, I loved Milan for its sleepiness and beveled architecture…while walking around, I realized part of the city’s ambient calm came from a clear division between what space gets used for advertising and what doesn’t…like the trams/subways didn’t have ads in them, the various street sign poles etc. are bare, you barely seem to see any billboards except for these occasional giant, two-story fashion ones that wrap around an entire building. Like so:
The branded trams were tasteful; I wish we could have ridden one of the Gucci ones lol. It all made me very fascinated about whoever’s in charge of keeping OOH advertising in check over there!
For Lake Como: Maybe don’t stay in Bellano, where we did, because it was verrrrrry sleepy and not as linked to the ferry system as the others. (I felt that Bellagio or Como proper were the way to go). Conversely, though, there’s this beautiful waterfall/gorge in Bellano.
My daring assertion that Glen Powell doesn’t quite have “it” led to some real hootin’ and hollerin’ in my replies. To close the loop, I will say I enjoyed this Interview mag convo between him and Matthew McConaughey about ambition, where the elder Texan star has this great quote: “Am I being too safe, or am I ferociously chasing what I want?” Relevant to us all!
Do you miss The Leftovers every day, too? Reading AV Club’s list of its 10 most essential episodes made my longing even worse. TV seems pretty disappointing lately? Bridgerton 3 was a slog all second half, House of the Dragon seems to exist in the discourse purely as meme fodder, even The Bear is apparently a snooze. Maybe the Game of Thrones era (but also now being able to consume insane footage 24/7) broke all of our registers for any remaining shock value we could ever have, as well as any patience we might extend to an actually knotty tale? Imagine Twitter if they aired The Leftovers season 2 right now…….the modern mind would be flummoxed.
“Hawk Tuah Girl” is one of those memes I’m glad I don’t have to professionally explain anymore (though obviously we all know that it should be “Hock Tuah Girl”??? Who messed this up?), but Max Read had a little think about how the whole thing is representative of the power of the “Zynternet,” i.e., the fratty/basic internet (think Barstool Sports, Total Frat Move, Bama rush…), which let’s be honest, for the majority of the U.S. is probably what the majority of the web feels like.
I am interested in the Zynternet because, even if it’s a pretty familiar subculture in the real world, its online prominence feels like a genuinely new phenomenon. There have always been college-sports fans on the internet, consigned to some of the worst message boards you can possibly imagine, but it’s only in the past decade that the internet has become so ubiquitous and culturally hegemonic that it’s been able to sustain a large population of current and former fraternity members, degenerate gamblers, and Southern party girls, and in turn to convince those people to participate actively in the culture of social media.
The other thought I have about “Hawk Tuah Girl” is about how fun the meme/video is to talk about in real life? Over the weekend, I was out at a bar trying to impress someone else’s friend group (composed of who I’d characterize as “civilians” in that they do not really care about most Online Things), and I was desperately grasping for a topic that everyone could weigh in on, and so I asked if they’d heard about HTG, and it was as if the bar ceiling broke open and sunlight flooded in. Those who knew what I was talking about were immediately in on the joke, but even better was the shared pleasure of then explaining the meme to others. It made me decide that HTG is a Good Meme, in that it requires minimal context/narrative exposition to explain out in the physical world, and it brings the people together (because of course everyone tries to do their best salivatic imitation). It’s inoffensive, and no one appears to be exploited/Nazi-istic as of yet. The verdict is in: Deez Links approves of HTG.
OH! One last thing. I’m doing a digital etiquette advice column with Steffi Cao for Fast Company later this summer, where we’re going to answer your most pressing questions about How To Conduct Oneself Online. I know you guys have some good questions. Hit reply and email me yours, and we might run it in the column!
^^Like this kind of Q, though we’re looking for more non-IG related etiquette ones!
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Lisa Crain makes art called microcalligraphy, and you can look at her portfolio here to see her work, request prints, and message her for commissions. Hozier fans, you'll want to see this.
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