Emchap's Shit from the Internet 2/28/18 🍠
As of Sunday, I have officially decamped from my Airbnb into what I might optimistically call a live/work situation with my apartment's couch, which is to say that I both sleep on and work from it. It's not ideal, but it does afford me a generous view of my cat trying to stick his paw into the furnace in the hallway, because my cat is a beautiful idiot jock.
I spent this weekend catching up with friends and visiting The Last Bookstore and dipping into an erotic fiber arts exhibit (shoot by self-parody and straight on 'til morning), and it was good for consoling the sort of aimless loneliness that creeps up on you if you've been in the middle of moving for the last three months. (The first two, with packing and purging; the last, with waiting for my things to arrive.) As I told a friend on the phone this weekend, I'm excited to begin living in Los Angeles, rather than to continue moving to it.
(Truckpdate is that I should hopefully have my things by this weekend, with an Ikea shipment coming the week after, praise be to transit Jesus.)
But, things aren't all totally glum. While trying to find a place to have my face threaded this week (a quest made more difficult by the fact that LA has a 3:1 dispensary:threading salon ratio, having presumably replaced all the threaders with laser hair removal), I discovered the international bakery down the street. They specialize in ponchiks, which it turns out are Armenian donuts (I live next to Little Armenia and keep disappointing older women at bus stops by not being Armenian), and for $1.75 they sold me a donut full of molten dulce de leche, fried while I waited, covered in powdered sugar. I burned the entire fuck out of my hands when the caramel made a run for it during an over-enthusiastic bite, but it was absolutely worth it.
Shit to read
The new Janelle Monáe singles are out (perfection) and this article looks at her nod to bisexual lighting (which I, an Extremely Online person, was somehow not aware of) within her videos, and I hope to everything she goes touring out here this year.
This woman wrote a memoir about discovering in her late 20s that she was/is a lesbian, and this interview with her is very good. I look forward to reading the book.
Helen Rosner's food writing is so good, and I loved her review of Ugly Delicious, which I am now watching and which is making me itch to have my cast iron and my cookbooks back.
NYT drama is the best drama (and the opinion section can go fuuuuuuuck itself).
This article summarized a whole lot of feelings for me about the liberal dudes who do not share an additional axis of marginalization in my life.
I have no feelings about Crown Royal bags but I loved this article about using them to carry stuff.
Always here for McElroy #content, and I liked the point raised here about works that inspire audiences versus fandoms.
Arthur Miller was not a good dude.
More info on Mal Ortberg's new book and confirmation of transition. I am excited to read it!
Leandra Medine has written some of my absolute favorite content on pregnancy and bodies and love this last year, and this piece as she nears birth is no different.
Shit to eat
Go to the Von's near your house.
Realize that it's just a Kroger, like literally owned by the Kroger company, but feel a weird sad pang of unfamiliarity because it's not laid out quite like you'd expect, and you have to buy scissors so you can open the box for your new toaster oven.
In a moment of quiet existential unhappiness, notice that there are mini Crunch eggs for sale for Easter.
Nab a bag for $3.
Toss them in the freezer.
Eat like 14 a day until the bag runs out, and pretend that the salads you're eating for lunch balance this out nutritionally.
Shit to listen to
This interview with a fat model is just really great and compelling.
I'm sure you've seen the "Make Me Feel" video (so good) and the "Django Jane" video (so like, she murdered Jidenna, right? why is no one acknowledging this in coverage of this video? I flipped and did an entire deep text analysis of this with a friend this week.) but if you haven't GO DO SO.
New Dessa album! My favorite tracks are "Fire Drills" and "Shrimp".
Shit to buy
I ordered this goofy water fountain for my cat because I haven't seen him drink water since we moved? (He is still quite lively and normal and I've seen urine in the litter box so I assume he's just drinking water when I don't notice, but of course I worry because I worry about everything.)
Cherry jam is good and you should eat some.
Buy all the books I talked about up top. Yes I am too lazy to make affiliate links.
I signed up for Trunk Club so some nice internet stranger will send me clothes. She found me some cute pencil skirts and some BRIGHT-ass pants, so I'm interested to see if I like any of it. Join me in this journey!