Blue-y

Well goodness. This week has been... glorious. I haven't been this happy since gay marriage was legalized. That was 2015, by the way. June 26, 2015.

Eleven days before, Donald Trump had descended an escalator in one of his trashy towers and declared his candidacy. We all laughed at him. A Black man was president, for god's sake. We were done with racism and greed - two things Trump stood for from birth - and it was time to move into a future full of equality and free healthcare. When the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage a week later, it seemed one final nail in the coffin of 1950s America.

But of course it wasn't, not by a long shot. I'm not naive enough to believe that the past decade has been the last gasp of late-stage capitalism and all of its attendant ills. These vile toads are still in the White House, after all.

Even as the depth of work we have in front of us seems overwhelming, I'm still unearthing layers of joy that went dormant long ago. When my oldest remarked that "Greg Abbott is the only governor I've ever known," it sparked a new flare of hope. Gen Z doesn't know what it feels like to be respected by their government. To be proud of where they're from. I can't wait for them to find out.

📺 Kate Berlant: Parmesan (HBO)
I know you want to laugh, and boy will you. Kate is a damn pro, with super dry wit and a rubber face. I also spent a good 30 minutes ogling her hair. It is hypnotic.

🎥 Touch of Evil (Prime, Tubi)
Charlton Heston is painfully miscast but the rest of the movie is such insane perfection that it really doesn’t matter. Every single shot is a work of art in its composition and lighting. The dialogue and the opening tracking shot - possibly the most famous one in cinema history - and Marlene Fucking Dietrich and Orson Welles making himself super gross. Just wow wow wow.

📖 Stoner
Originally published in 1965, this surprisingly absorbing novel found new popularity after trending on BookTok. I am not on the Tok, so I probably came to it from a rec by New York Magazine, which is how most of these things happen. Oh wait I just googled and it trended because Hudson Williams recommended it. Ha! ANYWAY. It's good. You should read it.

I'm going to go party in the streets and hope you will too.

xoxo,
Carla