Tag: cool shit on the internet

Three things that, much to my surprise, gave me goosebumps this week

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Eminem’s verses on “Caterpillar”

I rely on Justin to keep me musically relevant and he played this song for me last night on our drive home from Denny’s (home of the 11:30 pm breakfast-skillet-sanity-saver). Eminem is a genius. His syncopation, cadence, rhyme, and god-like wit are on full display in this song. What a fucking writer.

Jen’s death scene on “Dawson’s Creek”

We finally finished the last season of “Dawson’s Creek” on Hulu following a binge of all the seasons. It was my first time watching any of it, but I knew (because I didn’t live under a rock in the early 2000s like I kind of do now) that Pacey gets the gal and Jen bites the dust.

That said, I think I would have cried at poor, lovely Jen’s death regardless, but goosebumps? That was courtesy how subtly, reverently they shot this. I love the choice to make the scene include only Jen and Grams in the room; a nod to the special relationship these two share and how, I think, Grams is really Jen’s soulmate, not Jack.

One final breath and a peaceful farewell while Grams is sleeping. It’s so soft, that goodbye from Jen. We don’t get to see her face full on through most of the scene, graciously giving us one last chance to see life from Jen’s perspective. And of course Grams knows immediately that Jen has died. Grams always knows. Grams carries Jennifer in her heart. “I’ll see you soon, child.” So gentle and loving a send off. So perfect for these two.

Bravo, 20 years later. Holds up.

The robot dress in “McQueen” the documentary

In an attempt to get as much out of our Movie Passes as possible before it goes popcorn-stuffed-belly up, we’ve been seeing a lot of movies lately, including “McQueen,” the visual feasty documentary about poor English boy turned fashion world icon Alexander McQueen.

1) Yes, go see it. 2) Justin and I both were a bit surprised when I reacted so physically to the robot dress scene from his 1999 runway show. I started CRYING and, of course, had the aforementioned goosebumps. It was surprising because there was no real lead-up to this footage; it wasn’t supposed to be this super emotional moment. But it was for me and I’ve been trying to figure out why.

Here’s what I’ve landed on: This robot spray paint dress finale happened in the midst of the Y2K scare, thus, everyone kind of saw these robots as menacing the model and destroying her virginal gown. But when I watched it, I thought it was so hopeful! The robots dance with the model, learn to move with her and try to learn her language, and then they add something to her experience. Sure, what they do to her dress is messy and has an underlying violence to it, but I see in this choice McQueen’s optimism, his openness, his ability to find something beautiful in the darkest places. Contrast that with his last runway show, “Plato’s Atlantis,” right before his suicide in 2010. The “robots” of that famous show were cameras that moved in front of the audience and in front of the models; watching, waiting, judging with a lens. In those robots, the violence was clear, the battle lines drawn, the hope gone. We should have known then the tragedy to come.

Seven things I’m loving this month

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The “Sorry to Bother You” soundtrack

Listen here. Go see the movie, too! So absurd. So perfect.

This scene and dialogue from “Peaky Blinders”

I finally caught up on the latest season (it came out last December). Despite the novel-esque length of each episode, I finished it in two days because I’m obsessed with all these characters (once, of course, I remember they exist in my magic TV box and are poised for viewing pleasure).

Anyway, this scene, where our fave anti-hero goes on a vacation only to find rest does not suit him or his repressed PTSD/ anxiety/ depression/ devils, gave me goosebumps. It’s set to Radiohead’s “Pyramid Song,” which is perfectly haunting for a clip of man left alone with nothing but his terrible thoughts.

One line, though, is what really did me in. When Tommy’s housekeeper asks him if he’s alright, says he doesn’t look good, Tommy responds: “I know what this is. It’s just myself talking to myself about myself.” Never have I heard a more perfect description of the downward spiral.

Band-Aids by Oh Joy!

So, Radiohead for the mental wounds, these cute lil guys for the physical ones. The limited edition line is sold at Target and features the colorful work of one of my favorite design bloggers, Oh Joy!

Burt’s Bees tinted lip balm in Red Dahila

Perfect for melty hot days, when you need a pop of color that won’t dry out. It looks much more natural than a lipstick and keeps your kisser smooth. More color ways here.

Pretty Cool popsicles in Logan’s Square

This new novelty shop opened earlier this month. I tried the stick-ified peanut butter ice cream dipped in chocolate and crushed potato chips. Yeah, it was as good as it sounds.

The art of Small Ditch

Go follow @smallditch on Instagram to see the most adorable and clever reinterpretations of found nature into fashion shots. (Thanks, Jealous Curator, as always, for the hookup.)

“The Magic of Not Giving a Fuck” speech by Sarah Knight

I prescribe one viewing each morning. To be watched as many times as necessary.

The 1% you can actually control

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I keep listening to this speech by writer James Clear from the 2017 Craft + Commerce conference. In it, he gives great advice for staying productive throughout the work week. For example, he has his assistant change his social media passwords every Monday so he can’t log in (and, thus, be totally distracted) until the weekend. I know most of us don’t have personal assistants, but we do have opposable thumbs that can turn off our phones during precious writing hours. But the most meaningful aspect of his talk is how succinctly he puts something we all know instinctually but don’t act on realistically: If you get 1% better at whatever you’re working on every day, you’re going to be in a much better place after a year has passed.

Whenever I get down on myself about not accomplishing enough in regards to a pressing deadline whose harbor I’m about to crash into, I remember this speech and I’ll ask myself, “Am I 1% closer to my goal? Is what I did today 1% better than what I did yesterday?” The answers are usually yes and yes. And that’s a win.

What are you doing today to make yourself 1% better or push your project 1% forward?

Art you should know: Watercolor tattoos by Amanda Wachob

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Amanda Wachob is a New York-based tattoo artist whose method gets rid of the black border around a tattoo, opening the piece up for a softer, blended look with fluid lines that resemble watercolor paintings or gestural paint strokes. (Watch her and other pros talk about the watercolor tattoo movement here.)

By Amanda Wachob

If you want her to ink you next, good luck. Her waitlist is supposedly years long. Luckily, there are plenty of other ways for you to get your eyes on her work.

She prints hyper-close images of her skin tattoos on to silk canvases, and collaborates on super cool projects, such as the Skin Data project with neuroscientist Maxwell Bertolero. The pair recorded the time and voltage of her tattoo machine’s power supply as she created several tattoos, and they made images based on the data that resulted. I also really dig her collaboration with conceptual artist Mary Ellen Carroll, called HOLÉ. Participants wore an article of clothing with a hole in it and the artists then “filled the hole” with tattoo ink as if to say “all holes can be fixed permanently.”

By Amanda Wachob

In Amanda’s Bloodlines series, she tattoos a subject with meaningful shapes in a non-permanent water line. The body will eventually heal the tattoo and dissolve the mark into the skin, the energy of the symbol also absorbed symbolically into the person.

And while her specialty is skin, don’t miss her work on fruit. Tattoo artists practice on plant rinds before moving on to human skin. I’m particularly smitten by her lemon tattooed with the word “tryst.” What a great word, especially to betroth the bitter, beautiful, impermanent lemon.

Five things I’m loving this month

Jackie Mantey 1 Comment

“Good Thing” by Leon Bridges

Leon’s new album “Good Thing” is *the* sound for summer 2018. Though, I’d probably make that sentence work for whatever season he released it in. This is modern soul music at its sickest. Start with “Bad Bad News” and just try not to let those hips swing a lil.

Online video workouts

I’m always looking for workout ideas to supplement my runs in the summer, when I prefer to run outside and avoid the sticky, sweaty, suffocatingly indoors indoor gym. DoYogaWithMe.com is a great resource for free yoga sequences led by expert instructors. I like this one for core strength and stretch.

I also recently found this series between Nicole from the blog Pumps & Iron and Hyatt Place. Nicole shows you how to do quick, easy indoor workouts inside Hyatt hotel rooms. (Five stars for a smart branding opportunity, Hyatt!) I’m still working my way through all of these, but this five-minute pyramid workout is a great place to start.

@concepttalk on Instagram

Published by sister site Neon Talk, Concept Talk posts old photos of retro products, interiors, and ad concepts. The visuals are rad and really weird, which is a nice/ often-startling change of pace between all the baby pics in my feed. Follow Concept Talk here.

“Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng

Everyone I know who likes to read has been raving about this book since it came out late last year. It was one of my options for a Book of the Month Club selection, but I picked another title, not yet knowing how good/ beloved this book would be! Thus, I’ve been waiting for it from the library for montttths.

It finally came in on Friday. I picked it up on Saturday. And I finished it on Sunday.

This book is so good! Not only is it fast-paced, pumping with mystery, and beautifully written, I loved that it told so many women’s stories and explored empathy-as-moralistic-value—that complicated, perilous thing—so well.

I also loved how gently she delivered the recurring theme of seeing ourselves in other people, or imagining our lives reflected in that of others’ experiences (and all the ways that seeing can take shape).

Time Magazine’s The Vault

Time Magazine’s cover story by Steven Brill was titled “How Baby Boomers Broke America,” but the real point of his examination of how the last 50 years led us to our current state of affairs is not about pitting one generation against another. In fact, it’s not about pitting political sides against each other either. It’s about how the unprotected have been pitted against each other in an effort to surreptitiously further protect the already protected.

That, rather than a split between Democrats and Republicans, is the real polarization that has broken America since the 1960s. It’s the protected vs. the unprotected, the common good vs. maximizing and protecting the elite winners’ winnings.

Read the full article here, the hit up this page called The Vault, where you can see all of Time’s cover stories from the past few months and click the links to read them directly.

Best-of commencement quotes about work to get you to the long weekend

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On the tedium of daily life

“And I submit that this is what the real, no-bull- value of your liberal-arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default-setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone, day in and day out. … There happen to be whole large parts of adult American life that nobody talks about in commencement speeches. One such part involves boredom, routine, and petty frustration. … The point is that petty, frustrating crap like this is exactly where the work of choosing comes in. … The fact is that, in the day-to-day trenches of adult existence, banal platitudes can have life-or-death importance.  … You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.”

David Foster Wallace, Kenyon College 2005 (This whole speech is one of my favorite pieces of writing. Read it here.)

Lesson: We’re all in the same boat. If today doesn’t feel like a grand, extraordinary, “Oh the places you will go!,” choose-your-own adventure, that’s OK. Most days won’t. Just keep swimming. You choose. Choose love. Even when life fucking sucks.

On why we go to work when we could be focused on the side hustle

“Your job is not always going to fulfill you. There will be some days that you just might be bored. Other days you may not feel like going to work at all. Go anyway, and remember that your job is not who you are. It’s just what you are doing on the way to who you will become. With every remedial chore, every boss who takes credit for your ideas — that is going to happen — look for the lessons, because the lessons are always there.”

Oprah Winfrey, USC 2018

Lesson: Don’t freak out. Dreams take time. And the time will pass anyway. Sometimes you have to hustle for the side hustle.  

 

On not succumbing to power-hungry workaholism

“Acknowledging the wisdom and experience of a forklift operator or security guard with 30 years on the job doesn’t diminish your own experience. Acknowledging the sacrifice of others that enabled you to be in this position does not diminish the sacrifices you made on your own.”

Founder & CEO of Chobani Hamdi Ulukaya, Wharton MBA 2018

Lesson: Value all work. See yourself in others and things will go a lot easier. Be grateful; constantly. Don’t take yourself so seriously.

On being happy with what you have

“I’m Batman.”

Michael Keaton, Kent State 2018

Lesson: Don’t settle, sure, but also know you can’t ever have ***the*** dream job. That belongs to Michael Keaton.

Five things I’m loving this month

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E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G in Ricky Gervais’ new Netflix special “Humanity”

Ricky’s thoughts on free speech (and the left’s weirdly ironic recent infringement on it), people, and the wild weird world of Twitter trolls is so cathartic.

“That’s what the world is like. People take everything personally. They think the world revolves around them, particularly on Twitter. I’m not tweeting anyone, I’m just tweeting. I don’t know who’s following me. I’ve got 12 million followers. They can be following me without me knowing, choose to read my tweet, and then take that personally. That’s like going into a town square, seeing a big noticeboard saying “Guitar lessons”, and you go, “But I don’t fucking want guitar lessons!” What’s this? There’s a number here. Right, call that. Are you giving guitar lessons? I don’t fucking want any! Fine! It’s not for you, then. Just walk away. Don’t worry about it.” From “Humanity” by Ricky Gervais

The Poem-A-Day newsletter

From the Academy of American Poets’ Poets.org. Sign up here for daily inspiration, new words, or interesting imagery that’ll scratch at your door for the rest of the day.

“I am poisoned with the rage of song.” From “Orion Dead” by H.D.

“Good as Hell” by Lizzo

I kind of forgot about this song until I saw it in a scene from the movie “Blockers,” a charming new comedy starring John Cena, Leslie Mann and the best Uber joke I’ve ever heard thanks in part, fittingly, to its perfect timing. Anyway, this song is so fun and feels as good as summer, ice cream and self-love taste!

This sweet snack

As I try to eat better and quit smoking (adfljkadf!!!), I fend off sugar cravings with this simple-to-make snack: two apples cut in fours, slathered in JIF natural creamy peanut butter (“Moms like you, as well as recovering addicts, choose JIF, choooOOOOose JIF!”), sprinkled with Viki’s blueberry almond granola.

Pro tip: This tastes 5% better when granola is sprinkled on a la Salt Bae.

 This drawing by my nephew

I haven’t much time to find more to love this month. I’ve been working my little tail off more than usual in preparation for some time off ahead.

So much so I won April’s Family Member of the Month Award!

I guess I love that I am able to get work that supports me and my family, work that is adjacent to other things I love and requires a skill I am ever thankful to have and be good at. But that doesn’t make for a fun post.

So here’s this shark attack drawing by my 10-year-old nephew that I keep on my bulletin board by my office computer. He showed me this via FaceTime one evening. I was so impressed by it, I asked my sister to save it for me:

Look at this god damn Renaissance-y masterpiece; there’s so much happening in it. I look at it a lot while I’m working. It reminds me to play. To have fun. To be creative. To do what I love and, oh yeah, tell the people I love I said hi despite a mounting to-do list.

Also it reminds me of this: Never enter shark infested water without a badass robot submarine that can shoot spears while effortlessly arm wrestling a hammerhead into cat food.

Pew pew pew!

Things I’m loving this month

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The New York Times obituary series “Overlooked”

In honor of International Women’s Day on March 8, The New York Times unveiled a pretty genius idea: A series of obituaries for influential women who had been overlooked by history and the iconic paper, which called itself out as follows:

Since 1851, The New York Times has published thousands of obituaries: of heads of state, opera singers, the inventor of Stove Top stuffing and the namer of the Slinky. The vast majority chronicled the lives of men, mostly white ones; even in the last two years, just over one in five of our subjects were female.

Included in the series, called Overlooked, are obits for names you’ll know, like Ida B. Wells and Charlotte Bronte, as well as little known women who deserve their due, like transgender and LGBT rights pioneer Marsha P. Johnson; Emily Warren Roebling, who oversaw the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge after her engineer husband fell ill; and the first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace.

Bookmark the interactive page and take your time to digest each woman’s story. It’s worth it.

Quartz Daily Brief

The Daily Brief is the email roundup of the “most important and interesting news from the global economy.” Quartz always makes this kind of news interesting with a unique voice, and The Daily Brief is the curation of both that you didn’t know you’ve been looking for. I’ve learned about everything from international trade to emo Japanese teens and why they matter to the tea market. Subscribe here.

Kinder beauty products

Oy. Plastic. Human cruelty. Animal cruelty. Etc.

I’m trying to be more conscious about my consumption, and I’m happy to report on two beauty products you can buy at your local drug store (read: they’re accessible and inexpensive) that are sensitive to all of the above AND actually work. Because that’s important too…

Love Beauty and Planet is a new-to-me brand of skin and hair products that are packaged in 100% recycled bottles, sourced from sustainable growers who provide fair wage jobs, and vegan/ not tested on animals. The bottles save 900 tons of CO2 per year, and for every ton of of carbon it emits, the company donates to clean-air organizations. That’s cool.

I’ve been using the coconut oil and ylang ylang shampoo and conditioner and I love the smell. They work as well as any other shampoo or conditioner I’ve ever bought.

All the alarming news reports of plastic in our oceans and the sick, sad tale of the exfoliating microbead, which I’d long unknowingly relied upon, has had me searching for a facial exfoliating scrub that is naturally derived but still feels effective. Found one!

Comedian Roy Wood Jr.’s special “Father Figure”

Roy Wood Jr.’s joke about the difference between white patriotic songs (about America) and black patriotic songs (about American cities that are safe for black people) is one of the funniest, most astute observations I’ve heard in a long time. Watch the full special here.

Soccer Mommy’s new album “Clean”

Float away on new sad dreamy poppy punky hooks by Soccer Mommy’s Sophie Allison. I hope they book her on Pitchfork this year.

Six things I’m loving this month

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A new email newsletter

If you’re interested in gender, sexuality, choice and human rights news, sign up for The #MeToo Moment, a new email newsletter produced by The New York Times. It curates stories on these subjects into a streamlined list of reports and has additional content that’s both informative and interesting.

The short story “Cat Person” in The New Yorker

Of course. Of course! The first short fiction story in New Yorker history to go Internet viral is about cats. It’s also about consent, dating, hooking up and connecting with another human during a cultural paradigm shift. Read it or listen to the author read it here!

New music

“Soul of a Woman” is the posthumous Sharon Jones album with her band The Dap-Kings. Listen to all of it. Dance. Swoon. Cry that she’s gone. Smile that she lived. Repeat.

Pharrell is a genius. Like, greatest musician of our time. His band’s new album, “No One Ever Really Dies,” isn’t their best but it’s still great, because Pharrell. This song, “Don’t Don’t Do It,”  is my favorite. Deceptively catchy, complete with a banging Kendrick Lamar verse, its hyped up beat belies the song’s infuriating subject matter: police brutality.

Beauty despite chaos. Respite despite rage.

Only Sufjan Stevens could write a song that humanizes Tonya Harding. So he did.

Hey also, if you haven’t watched the “30 For 30” about Tonya Harding–which reminded me Tonya Harding has a story that’s worth humanizing in the first place–do it on your holiday break.

 

@memorialstitches

Witchy embroidery art

My work on Mildly Depressed has made me a fangirl of embroidery art of all kinds. I love seeing the varied ways people take on this timeless craft. Mid-rabbit hole search on Instagram, I found these two artists, @memorialstitches and @adipocere, and I want all of their pieces. Not only does their aesthetic look punk rock cool, I dig the symbolism of reinterpreting the disreputable legacy of woman-as-witch through a skillset traditionally reserved for “nice women.” Also, men doing cross stitch and embroidery = awesome. Creative mediums shouldn’t be gendered spaces.

@adipocere

Soviet Art Put To The Test at Art Institute Chicago, through Jan. 15

Trying to decide what museum membership to gift myself for Christmas so I can feel motivated to do cultured things next year and also deduct on my taxes before the new tax bill gets rid of such wonderful things

I think I’ll be going with the Art Institute of Chicago. Maybe the symphony?

“Thoughts While Attending the First Symphony in the Series My Wife Wanted to Buy” performed by Jim Gaffigan

Before

After

Smile Direct Club

This is my last month of wearing invisible aligners from Smile Direct Club! These were my 31st birthday present to myself. I never wore my braces properly (sorry, Mom) and my teeth were shifting something fierce. What sold me on them was that they were nearly 70% cheaper than Invisalign AND I only had to do one appointment for the whole experience. The rest of the time, my aligners were mailed to me. At my first–and only–visit to their offices, I received a wand scan that sent photos of my mouth to their labs somewhere magical. They then formed a plan for moving my teeth slowly each month. At the beginning of each month, they’d mail me three sets of braces. Two sets I wore for one week each, and the last set I wore for two weeks.

I’m so happy with the results. The complaints that this genius company gets dinged for in online reviews are true: The aligners can cut into your gums and can be painful, but I would just trim mine with the kind scissors I use to cut my bangs (really) and then softened the plastic with the nail file they provide (yes, really); also, they haven’t gotten down the timing of mailing these things yet. I think they get backed up with orders because they’re growing so quickly. That said, every time I called customer service to complain about aligners that were delivered a few weeks late, they’d give me money back. They also gave me free retainers (around $100). So, total, my new smile only cost me about a grand. Worth every penny. 🙂

Six things I’m loving this month

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Edgar Allan Poe

I copped a book of Poe’s spookiest stories from my family’s dusty bookshelf a few years ago. I was attracted to its crazy weird illustrations and only recently started reading its even crazier, weirder stories. So fucked up and perfectly delightful this time of year.

Imagine my continued delight, then, when PBS posted its newest episode of American Masters to my Roku box.

“Buried Alive” looks at Poe’s troubled life, his messed up attraction to a 13-year-old cousin, his unwavering criticism of American literature which turned out to be the boost it needed to truly establish itself, his development of the detective trope that’s so familiar to us today, his alcoholism, his work ethic, his mysterious death… Spooooooky…

Andrew Wyeth artwork

Ugh. Chicago has been gray and overcast for weeks. It’s so depressing. Thus, my newfound attraction to Andrew Wyeth paintings.

A 20th century realist, Wyeth’s work shows, with deft minimalism, the gray scenes of life that are somehow optimistic in their acceptance of #thestruggleisreal.

 

See also: Otto Dix

Maybe all that Poe and the, shall we say, stressful state of things in this country socially, has me drawn to images of the grotesque. This “Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden,” painted by the Expressionist Otto Dix in 1926, had me double take when I scrolled past it on Pinterest. I love the arresting colors, her war-worn face, her distracting fingers (that’s so Dix!), her Germanness, her “new woman”ness, her uglyness, her Bubikof (watch below), her drooping panty hose. Not to mention that color.
Learn more about her (spoiler: not actually a journalist, despite the title).

“The Madam,” by Otto Dix, 1923

Sincere Engineer and the Girl Punk Spotify playlist

Sincere Engineer is the band name of Deanna Belos, a Chicago musician who just released “Rhombitian” in October. Clashing and dark, but vibrant too. I love it. Check it out on Spotify. She’s performing Nov. 10 at Township Chicago to celebrate the album’s release. Throw ‘bows with you there?

Sincere Engineer’s sound has made me hungry for more savage punk girls. Enter: Girl Punk playlist on Spotify. Best Coast, Punch, Trash Kit, Whore Paint, Cyndi and Sinead, just to name a few. Thank you to whomever put that shit together. You’ve been keeping me sane in this Chicago fall fog.

GlitterMoneyyy

Also obsessed with the new album “Twurk for the Nation” by Chicago rappers GlitterMoneyyy. I saw these two perform at The Shithole and laughed my ass off.

No fucks are given as they skewer social commentary with a dildo. XOXOXOxoxoxoxoxoxOXOXXo. Do yourself a favor and listen to “Validate Me.” Or all of it, really.

 

Watching this Russian probe unfold

More terrifying than Poe. More dark than Wyeth. More gut-wrenching than a punk scream. Learning how much the world has changed when we weren’t even paying attention is a 21st century American horror story. It’s. Fascinating.

On this week’s Episode 47 of FemComPod, Justin and I disagree about the conclusion of the Atlantic article below but don’t disagree on how interesting the findings in it are. Listen to the article and then watch a live recording of the podcast below. Welcome to the brave new media world.