I have published
the links
that were in
the google doc
and which
you were probably
saving
for next week
Forgive me
they were time-sensivitive
so funny
and so clickable
To-do list:
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Links:
Clare Coffey for Gawker with some tough love.
Esther O’Reilly at Patheos on how The Gospel Coalition is getting kinda sussy. [Dad you might want to glance at this one. I think she picked a few choice examples out of hundreds available. –Sarah]
N.B.:
Would you guys be into this?
Weddings:
This week, in celebration of their anniversary this past Saturday, August 13, the girls will be commenting on the wedding of two of the most important historical figures of the twenty-first century, Edward Cullen and Bella Swan.
Clare isn’t really sure what’s going on with all the canopy of baby’s breath[? Fact check this, somebody, please. —C][I thought it was nice? –Sarah] but thinks more women should consider a full-length sleeve for their weddings. It elongates and slims the arms and when done right make short queens look taller. The vows here were a little whack, though: bride and groom each only said half of them. Marriage is fifty-fifty, she guesses? Anyway, Rosalie probably could have introduced her brother to a little product called bronzer, just for the day; his pallor probably wasn’t great in photos. It certainly washed him out in the videography.
Amy thinks the dress is modest and pretty but doesn’t understand why Bella and Edward kissed for so long. Congratulations to them, though
Sarah does not really know the plot of Twilight, but she thinks the groom is a vampire, and this made the (very long) kissing portion rather uncomfortable for her. She agrees with Clare: it is hard to top the elegance of the long sleeved dress. All in all, if Bella and her father had not looked like a stepdad and stepdaughter after a fight it would have been a lovely wedding.
Gaby likes the autumn tones. She thinks Bella looks sick (realistic.)
Food:
Clare tackled barbacoa this week. It was really good! She also made a corn salad. Somehow, she only just got around to trying Ben’s Chili Bowl, a DC institution that she is pretty sure Obama visited once. She went there after an event called NerdNite, about which she had mixed feelings. More on that later. Anyway, at Ben’s, she ordered a chili dog, which posed some logistical challenges to her: how does one go about eating such a thing? But ultimately she enjoyed it. Okay, last thing: today she went to a lovely cookout at the childhood home of Rachel, friend of the newsletter. There, she ate a delicious hamburger with a bright and herbaceous guacamole on it and a side of a luscious watermelon and feta salad. Ten out of ten would recommend partying (and eating!) with Rachel.
Sarah had a meeting with the managing editor on Saturday. They ate this picnic at the “Toby Terrace” outside the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Music:
Ok so at that event we were just telling you about that Clare went to, NerdNite, this guy who said he wasn’t a guy gave a presentation on synth music. It was really interesting. The only problem was that he ended his presentation with this big anthemic declaration that “synthesizers have always been queer.” That raises some questions for Clare—mostly, like, um, wat ? But the music itself, and its history, was actually pretty cool. For instance, the day this one synth musician guy was supposed to be defending his dissertation on something synth-y, he got into the elevator in his academic building and was so taken by the sounds it made—the little ringing noises, she presumes—that he started riding it between floors, jumping up and down to discover some tonal thing or another. This resulted in the elevator breaking between the fourth and fifth floors. It took the dissertation committee five hours to find him. She admires that level of commitment to art.
Amy went to see Fleet Foxes. It was such a normal show (as opposed to the last one she went to where a boomer sang about clean water or something). Everything sounded great, especially the vocals and harmonies. They didn’t play one of her favorites, I’m Not My Season, but that’s ok because they closed the show with Helplessness Blues. The weather was perfect and there was a pretty full moon over the amphitheater. And uhhhh if Amy had an orchard she’d work ‘til she’s sore.
Sarah went for a hike with her friend and they ate fruit pouches in the car and listened to Lana.
Poem:
A Child Bird-Scarer
After an illustration in Life in Victorian England
I started at six with a tin and a stick
scattering creatures from sharp seed sown
In Shalbourne furrows. Stones moved
what clamor couldn’t—starlings, crows,
a clattering of jackdaws rose
to perch on dormer sills and startle
their own glass-bent reflections, escape
a joke at which they alone cackled.
My boy, master chastened, mind
those beasts—see that seed takes.
So I lurked fencerows and puddles,
frightening what I knew would fly.
Sometimes a cruelty rose in me
I could not tell apart from all
I pitched at them. The stick I clutched
has doubled now in length, the tin
turned tines. Haymaking days, I wade
knee-deep in crop to stook, then bale.
I’ll steal away tonight and lie
atop the brittle piles, watch stars
as small as seeds I’d sown myself.
What I remember best is chasing
a field full of black wings knowing
they would only lift, loll, and drift
one hill over, far enough they might
forget whatever it is they feared.
Joseph J. Capista, from Intrusive Beauty, 2019 [A recent work to prove poetry isn’t dead (may poetry rest in peace). Truthfully, there are moments in this one that I would have edited out: I think there are times it is simply trying to show off how well-researched it is (look at all these words I know about haymaking!), and I’m almost completely intolerant of the alliterative. Nonetheless, I think about this poem with some frequency. There is something psychologically interesting about the speaker: toward the beginning of the poem is an image of a startled, distorted reflection of birds in glass—and then the birds become mirrors unto themselves, in which this boy sees all of his cowardice and rage. —C]
What we’re reading:
Clare is still working on her Bible. Brick by brick, my citizens.
Amy was listening to The Goldfinch on audiobook. Unfortunately she was laying face down in the sand on the beach and fell asleep with it on so now she’s not sure where she’s at. If she ever picks it back up she’ll make sure to stay awake.
Sarah did not read much this week, but she ordered Rabbit, Run by John Updike to celebrate updikegoat earning 100 followers on twitter.
Exhortations:
Read your Bible and eat your breakfast this morning 💖💖💖
Request for approval:
Is this okay?