Weekend Reads #277
Weekend Reads
The loneliness of Jodie Foster. (The Atlantic – gift article)
How foraging taught me middle-aged self-acceptance. (Outside)
Return fraud is a rampant problem for both shoppers and retailers — and the mishaps often make for viral videos on TikTok. (New York Times – gift article)
Maker of Tinder, Hinge sued over ‘addictive' dating apps that put profits over love. (NPR)
Butcher shops have been struggling to survive. But now women are picking up the knife. (Longreads)
Capital One will buy Discover for $35 billion in deal that combines major US credit card companies. (AP)
Could you pass the Presidential Physical Fitness Test today? (New York Times – gift article)
All week I've been waking up hot around 3am; yesterday I realized it's because I put my silk pillowcase on the wrong pillow. When I sleep on this pillow, I don't overheat like with other pillows. Made me realize what a good purchase it has been!
The year after a denied abortion. (ProPublica)
Target announces collaboration with Diane von Furstenberg for affordable spring collection. (Target)
How ‘she’s not a girl’s girl’ became the worst insult. (Elle)
An uptick in hate crimes and anti-LGBTQ legislation has some Tennessee churches on edge — even as they provide sanctuaries for those who fear being attacked. (Washington Post – gift article)
Frankenpixie Dream Girl: On Yorgos Lanthimos's “Poor Things.” (MUBI)
I really love this “Old Sport” sweatshirt. Do I need it?
Seeking social media stardom for their underage daughters, mothers post images of them on Instagram. The accounts draw men sexually attracted to children, and they sometimes pay to see more. (New York Times – gift article)
Is your Instagram husband good enough for the internet? (Glamour)
That “Soft Life” influencer you love? She's actually a Tradwife propagandist, FYI. (Friday Things)
How X (FKA Twitter) is trying to win over influencers. (New York Times – gift article)
And in case you haven't found a troop to order Girl Scout cookies, this is the last weekend my daughter is selling and they can be shipped anywhere in the U.S.! You can order them at this link.
Hear/See/Read
The Tourist is a six-part series that originally was on BBC, then on Max, and is now on Netflix. Starring Jamie Dornan (50 Shades, Belfast) and Danielle Macdonald (Dumplin', Bird Box), The Tourist Season 2 will drop at the end of this month so we decided to check out the first season.
When I first saw this series hyped on Max, I was not interested. An Irishman is being chased, gets in a car accident, has total amnesia, and is trying to figure out who he is and why folks are trying to kill him. I already saw Inception, and with the world as it is right now, the last thing I need is violence as a form of entertainment. But then Netflix had it, and my husband read a positive review, and it was by the producers of Fleabag so I was willing to take a chance.
I enjoyed The Tourist, and enjoyed it more than my husband did. I found it inventive, charming yet dark, and was looking forward to the next episode. I appreciated there were no clear good or bad characters, and that I was regularly surprised by the turn of events.
Dornan has always been under the radar for me (even being in the fabulous Barb and Star), but he really was perfect for this role. And Macdonald played Helen so perfectly, in such a relatable manner. She was delightful. I enjoyed this series so much that I am a bit concerned about how Season 2 will fare or how it will play out.
Unsurprisingly, I began watching The New Look, a series on Apple TV that tells the story of Christian Dior and his contemporaries during World War II and how he launched “The New Look” of modern fashion. It is important to go into this series with the understanding it may be based on true events, but it is not historically accurate.
Coco Chanel was a well-known antisemite, homophobe, and all-around horrible person. This series makes her out to be forced into such a situation. While Juliette Binoche is fantastic as Chanel, it doesn't change the fact that her role is, as this title from a New Look review by Hey Alma, “girlbossing” being a Nazi sympathizer.
I continue to watch The New Look because I know the facts and can separate them from fiction. The acting and cast are superb, the sets and cinematography are lovely, and Dior's story is more factual and not as well known. I am only two and a half episodes in, and while I will continue to watch it, it is not so compelling that I yearn for the next episode.
For Your Entertainment
It's amazing how Puerto Rico is part of the United States, yet we hear so little about it in our news and pop culture. I went to YouTube to find a song for Weekend Reads and was fed a video from Residente, an award-winning Puerto Rican rapper, singer, and filmmaker who has been creating hits since 2005, first with the group Calle 13 and then as a solo artist. After doing some Googling on Residente, I realized I had heard of him and seen him on awards shows with the likes of Bad Bunny, but he never was really on my radar. Well, now he is.
An artist, activist, and philanthropist, René Pérez Joglar, who performs under the name Residente, has won 4 American GRAMMY awards and 27 Latin GRAMMYs, holding the record for the most Latin GRAMMY wins of any artist. This week, releasing his first album in seven years, Residente continues to use his music to speak out about injustice and political issues, artistically use technology and science, and speak from the heart.
“Bajo Los Escombros,” which translates to “under the debris” is a single on his latest album where he shares his support of Palestine. Joglar shares that the single “313” is an ode to the passage of time and the preciousness of life, inspired by a friend’s passing and his reflections on growing older. The video for “313” blew me away and I had to share it with you:
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I hope Target can limit purchases so that everyone interested has a chance to purchase from the DvF collection. I’m interested but pessimistic about being able to get anything. I guess the Old Sport shirt will have to do, lol!
I usually find that things go back in stock a week or so after the deluge of bulk shoppers. Also stores usually keep items longer than online. Even with waiting until a reasonable wakeup hour I can usually grab one or two things I like from the designer collections. And isn’t that Old Sport shirt too cute? LOVE
LOVED the Jodie Foster piece (I really enjoyed Night Country) and the ProPublica follow up, thanks for some really thought provoking reads.
I’m a mid-millenial who met my husband on Hinge, for me truly the app served it’s purpose and was deleted. Every app, every website at the heart of their business is designed to become an addiction or a ‘habit’ – repeat customers are the bread and butter of business.
The NYT article on the influencer moms and their underage girls was so alarming. I forced myself to read the entire article, and it just made me feel ill. At best, the moms are just clueless (are they though?) and at the worst, they are complicit and they are escalating it. If you can’t trust your parent to keep you safe, who can you trust? I’m a children’s librarian, and social media and screen time seems scarier than it’s ever been in my 15+ years of working with kids. And now I’m a mom of an almost 2 year old, and I feel such a responsibility to keep her safe online.
About that Joanie “Old Sport” sweatshirt…maybe give it a try! I succumbed to one of Joanie’s dresses, in a spectacularly bonkers print (from 1953 by the artist Eduardo Paolozzi.) At first I thought the dress was an indulgence, but it’s so comfortable and wearable that I’ve been reaching for it again and again.
The video for “313” has me in tears. It WAS beautiful, and even though I couldn’t understand a word, I got it. Thank you for spreading the word!
Right? Positively stunning and so powerful, I saw it and had to know more!
The NYT piece on online returns fraud is the tip of an iceberg I didn’t know existed until last month. I returned 2 pairs of women’s pants to a well-known retailer I’ll call B — B credited my account and all was well, until I rec’d an email from B’s warehouse a few weeks later telling me, sorry, you returned a men’s suit instead of the pants, we’re mailing the suit back to you and charging your account. Huh? There’s not even a suit-wearing man in my household, how could this be? I then chatted with a very informative customer service agent, who explained how criminals mail back thrift store items in place of the real items, often weighing them to make sure the weights of the packages are similar. These criminals then keep the real items and resell them. This infuriates me! I can also see how difficult it would be to prevent. And BTW, I had to accept the men’s suit package, take photos of it, donate it, then call again for a refund. What a total pain!
This Christmas, I ordered Emerson a pair of Nike Dunks from a reputable retailer. She wore them to school and a sneakerhead friend shared they were counterfeit. I shared on IG stories and folks shared they too experienced the same even from the Nike website directly because folks buy the real and return dupes and make a profit.
I’m watching Season 1 of The Tourist now & really enjoying it! Did not know that there is a Season 2 so I’m happy to hear that. Macdonald is such a delightful actor in everything I’ve seen her in. I did not realize she was Australian until I came across the show on Netflix & read about it on IMBD.
I’m reading through your articles & having trouble finishing the ones about the moms running their daughters instagram accounts & the tradwife influencers (tradwife is a new word for me!). They are both making me feel nauseous. How can any parent use their daughters’ bodies for clickbait? It’s just sickening to me, knowing how many creeps are on the internet & knowing so many people who have been hurt in real life by these types of people. Not to mention, they are exploiting their own children who are really not mature enough to make good decisions about being shown on social media.
And then the tradwife—showing a fake reality & encouraging girls & women to aspire to that. Wow—all that women in this country have had to fight for to try to be our own people, make a fair & comparable wage to men, have equal rights, etc. And we’ve got other women trying to take that away & not showing what goes on behind the scenes to make that “lifestyle” actually happen. After living through the Trump years, I just have so much anxiety about the ways we are turning back the clock here. It blows my mind & frightens me.
Those two articles really bothered me, too. I feel as an influencer I need to keep folks abreast of all the nefarious things happening in this world. It’s scary how things like this are happening and packaged up in such a pretty package.
Inkwell Threads is another source for literary-themed Ts and sweatshirts. With an emphasis on Austen.
Out of print, which iirc is part of Harper Collins, also has literary-themed attire & accessories. I had to get the library stamp T.
Oooh, thank you for these resources!