updates!

+reading/watching/listening <3

oh, september!

Dear friends, 

Oh my goodness. Life has been extraordinarily nonstop the past month; mostly good things, but exhausting nonetheless. I hope you’ll forgive the sparse content. I promise to make up for it this fall. In fact, I think I’ll be experimenting with some different variations of the “Friday” (ha) love note. I’m not sure the usual Reading/Watching/Listening list behind the paywall is living up to its full potential. Stay tuned for some trial and error, but I think it’ll be fun. 

In the meantime, one more traditional RWL (+Joy & Attention). But first, some updates! 

I had a great conversation with Amy Hoggart of the What’s Left? newsletter. Amy interviews folks on the Left (broadly defined) and I was her first anarchist. It’s really meaningful for me to expand on and demystify my political views, so this was a good time. You can listen to our talk in full when Amy releases it on her page (worth the subscription!). Here’s a little preview. 

In workshop news, my six-week memoir container, EXCAVATIONS, is sold out! We have an incredible crew, I’m really excited. There were also several of you who expressed interest for another round, so I’m pretty certain I’ll be hosting round two in late winter/early spring (which, like autumn, is an excellent time to be writing). Let me know if you want to get on the waitlist for that!

I’ve been so inconsistent, I’m not going to ask for subscription money this week, but I would love if you donated to one of these GoFundMes: for my best friend, who lost two sisters in two months; for monthly donations to get aid directly to Palestinians; for a dog who needs life-saving care.

Okay okay, below! A hearty roundup of reading recommendations on grief, men, OnlyFans, answering machines, and more! Plus, a musical gift for the transition into autumn; my review of Weapons; and a list of wonderful things from the past few weeks. <3 

I hope you are as well as you can be, I hope that you are finding ways to contribute to the well-being of the people around you, too. 

love & solidarity,

raechel  

Reading. 

For Prism, Peter wrote a beautiful and thoroughly researched piece about environmental devastation on the Chesapeake Bay. A lot of his research took place when we were in Virginia in June. Give it a read. 

A grim and insightful look into the motivations of the mega-rich. (Hint: it’s less about money and more about control.) 

A thought-provoking and in-depth piece on the RICO charges against OnlyFans. 

Given how absurdly busy things have been, I missed a bunch of newsletters this month (if you have one and I normally give you a heart, and I didn’t this month, ping me, I probably am sad to have not had time with it!), but here are a handful I caught and loved: Patrick Nathan on nostalgia; Frankie de la Cretaz reads the Travis Kelce GQ shoot as camp; Margeaux Feldman’s relatable essay on tendencies toward self-sabotage; Megan Falley is writing through her grief since losing Andrea Gibson, and every entry is a heartbreaking and beautiful gift; Niko Stratis is nostalgic for answering machines via The Postal Service; & I want to make sticky notes of all of Alicia Kennedy’s wise affirmations. Devin Kate Pope writes Against Delivery, and I echo every bit (I could count on one hand how often P and I ordered delivery before his cancer diagnosis, then we got Door Dash giftcards, and it became a bit more of a 1-2/month habit (which we were grateful for); I am hoping to get back to an ‘almost never’ relationship to it again, but moving week was a huge exception…we had no access to our pots & pans, so we ordered a lot!). I appreciated so much of what mindy isser is thinking through in her recent essay, “against hating men.” 

Watching. 

My tv/movie media consumption plummeted the past month+. Things have been so busy and we also couldn’t get our Roku to work in the new place. Womp. I miss my stories! But I did see Weapons and here’s the little video I made for my silly little FilmTok movie review. 😀 (I am planning on getting more polished with these, this one is very much off-the-cuff, as evidenced by me not even preparing enough to remember Julia Garner’s name.) 

@raecheljolieA messy, cranky review of #WEAPONS #moviereview #weaponsmovie

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Listening. 

Big Thief understands that we need some version of adrienne lenker to help begin an autumn. <3 The new album is lovely, and, on some songs, experiments with styles outside of classic indie rock. You won’t be surprised to learn that my favorite track is the dreamy, romantic ode to Los Angeles. 

Joy & Attention. 

nesting in the new home.⇼ the kitties enjoying the new space, especially their delight on stairs! ⇼the sycamore against the sunset. ⇼heron friends.⇼ turtle friends. ⇼soup (and having the weather where craving soup makes sense).⇼ second-hand furniture.⇼ indulging a decades-long-ignored interior decorating itch. reading fiction (!). ⇼also….getting excited about writing fiction (!!!).⇼ the folks who have agreed to blurb my book (absolute icons, all of them). ⇼friendship. ⇼a warm & delightful wedding celebration, and feeling grateful for so many friends and comrades.⇼ also feeling grateful for classic wedding dance-party/singalongs to “Deceptacon” and “Baby, I’m an Anarchist” (you know, the ol’ standards). ⇼the undeniable massive reduction in stress i’m feeling in my new teaching job. ⇼laughing with P, who is such a silly goose.⇼ my mom and my uncle, and how lucky i am to like & love & be so supported by my bio-fam. ⇼painting my walls! ⇼feeling excited for a lot of diy home repair/anarcho-trad lifestyleism! ⇼some exciting byline possibilities.⇼ chilly overcast days that promise the equinox is near.⇼ &all of you, always, truly: thank you for being here!!!