5 recommendations

for your summer enjoyment

Happy July!

bonus rec: do the dishes with a mouse on your lap

I present to you a very casual summer recommendation list. Back soon with some updates on the podcast.

1.

David and I just finished season 5 of The Bureau (THE FRENCH VERSION). If you have not watched it yet, lucky you. If you loved The Americans, this is for you. What an absolute gift to look forward to our nightly TV time. Available on Prime.

2.

Reading this gorgeous essay by Lisa made me think about how little people talk about the realities of life with a “troubled” child. Her essay is brave, thoughtful, and just unmatched in its wisdom. Turn towards the hardest parts, she reminds us. And of course, my perennial favorite, we know nothing. I cried so much reading it that I had to wash my eyes so I didn’t get a stye.

3.

FACES. Every other Saturday, I remember that on Sunday, I will have a new Diabolical Lies to listen to and I get very happy. It is my favorite podcast. In many ways, it is my whole personality. Yesterday’s episode was about the botox psyop — the oft-cited but poorly supported explanation that getting injectables leads to professional success (i.e. better-maintained people earn more money). It was in response to our hero Haley Nahman’s perfect essay on botox from earlier this year.

Something that they didn’t spend much time on, but that I think about a lot, is that people actually prefer to look at un-injected faces. If our culture hadn’t scrambled our brains so thoroughly, we would admit that natural faces are more pleasing to the eye, particularly in motion. A time-immune face unsettles us. (Of course, disclaimer that many people disagree with me. Personal choice. Preferences. etc.)

my wrinkles at 43. more en route.

I thought of a text I got yesterday from my podcast producer, Helena. There is a part of our pilot that has children playing. She asked for the actual audio from the moment. If I didn’t have it, she could use some from a sound library. But the real thing is often better, she said, because “I am a believer in the frisson of the real!”

The frisson of the real. I think about that with faces. Not just that lines show all the smiles we have smiled and we should be proud for the wisdom age has granted us (which is a little pollyanna-ish). Instead, I think it’s more basic. Our faces age because we age. There is something in us that craves the truth. And that truth is a little saggy with a lot less collagen.

4.

When I lived in Berkeley in 2015, I visited the closest coffee shop every morning. It was called Alchemy (on Alcatraz Ave). I sat on their Ikea sofa and drank my espresso and had a baguette with butter, blue cheese, and honey. I’ve been making that at home and maybe it truly is the perfect food, or maybe it just brings me back to that particular moment in my life. Let me know.

my 2015 big-headed soulmate of a dog. RIP Ben Nevis.

yesterday’s toast. Those with different palates may want to reduce the amount of blue cheese.

I hope you have access to climate control, wherever you are.