20. The Week in Me

Jul 08, 2023

I think I’m sticking with this title for my weekly recommendation newsletters. As I say on first dates, job interviews, and to the woman behind the pane of glass at the DMV, “I may be a woman, but I am no lady.”

Read:

I, like any pink-blooded American, am very, very excited about the Barbie movie. I have been laughing with and at Issa Rae since The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (the upside-down guitar serenade is burned into my retinas and Fallopian tubes to this day). I do not dream of labor, but I do sometimes fantasize about working for Margot Robbie’s production company LuckyChap. Hari Nef’s arc on the second season of Transparent is the most meaningful work I have ever seen as a Jew, and I would define it as the catalyst of my journey into my Jewish heritage and identity. There is a lot, individually, that has drawn me to this movie, and it’s a gift that it drops the day (July 21) before my birthday!

Here’s a profile on how it came to be, that led me to open 12 supplemental links about the development of the movie’s balance between satire and brand reverence, the recent pivot towards IP marketing by Mattel, and the global shortage of Barbie pink paint at the hands of Barbie’s set designers and builders.

I have one note about this movie, and for all of the collective joy this movie is primed to bring, it needs to be said:

My sweetie sweetie sweetie friend

Courtney LeSueur

contributed to

Dust On The VCR

this week to discuss the cult classic Drop Dead Gorgeous.

Dust On The VCR

Preserving the Cult Classic Status of Drop Dead Gorgeous (1999) Through Design

Guest post alert! Jeremy here, and I’m very excited that Courtney LeSueur is expanding her contributions to this newsletter via the written word. Courtney is kinda the creative director of this newsletter, since she came up with our amazing Dusty logo, which allowed me to go crazy with some subscriber merch. Anyway, since you already know she's an amazi…

2 years ago · 3 likes · 5 comments · Courtney LeSueur

Courtney also developed a brand-new collection around the movie for Super Yaki! You can shop that here.

In “I know too many people” news: Hattie Jean Hayes wrote about this collection in her newsletter, having no idea that 1. Courtney and I are buddies and 2. that Courtney’s relationship with Super Yaki developed because I messaged them yelling at them to hire her. It worked! I didn’t even know them like that! I was just being a *old Man Caruthers from Scooby-Doo voice* meddling kid. Her first collection, for Grease 2, was brilliant as well1, and I look forward (with pride) to what’s coming next.

Hattie Jean Hayes

I'm a Bad Swiftie and So Can You

Weeks after Taylor Swift released 1989, SNL did a sketch called “Swiftamine.” Like Dramamine, the fictional drug was intended to relieve nausea and vertigo, because in the fall of 2014, “realizing you love Taylor Swift” became “the leading cause of vertigo in adults…

2 years ago · 5 likes · Hattie Jean Hayes

Hattie also wrote an excellent long essay that you can read for free (it was previously for paid subscribers) about Taylor Swift, queerness, and the myth of your queerness or your fandom ever being “good enough.” This is particularly relevant since Taylor re-released her 2010 album Speak Now today (I got to explain Taylor’s reclamation of her masters to my unaware and ultimately very impressed dad this week) and I have had it (which actually means “Dear John” and “Dear John” alone because it has been a shocking, tectonically-shifting, freeing week) on repeat all morning.

I fucking hate David Zaslav, and how GQ took Jason Bailey’s incisive piece on how he’s a schmuck of the highest (lowest) order to the abattoir, possibly because of a gaspworthy conflict of interest…may the prole (Prestige Television Twitter) uprising commence.

My bestie Jason texted this to me at the time of writing and…Harrison, girl…this one is out here missing the cockpits for the trees. Take up crochet. Or maybe something without sharp crafting implements. Looming?

In related reading news, New York City women-and-Asian-owned bookstore Yu and Me experienced a horrific fire, and they are seeking financial support to allay the loss of profit that comes with an unexpected closure for rebuild and repair - Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast), Vanessa Chan, Celeste Ng, “Marvel’s Simu Liu” to quote my dearly departed The Other Two, Roxane Gay, and Emma Straub have all contributed. Be like them. Beyond GoFundMe, you can also purchase books from their store via this Bookshop.org link.

I love cult shit the way basicer bitches love true crime and sourdough starters. And, thanks to

Yashar Ali

, we have PROOF THAT SHELLY MISCAVIGE WAS ALIVE AS OF 2010. This is, to quote our current acting President, a “big fucking deal.” Also, no one listens to me about this, but please remember that Tom Cruise absolutely knows where this broad is being kept and brainwashed before you publicly decree him your Flowbeeheaded Kendall Roy babygirl.

Lastly, this stupid tweet from my friend Mike:

Watch:

I went to The Metrograph yesterday to watch Flash Gordon on the big screen. I have only seen it once before, and I loved it so much more seeing its vivid colors, outlandish sets, and Timothy Dalton’s chin dimple on the big screen in a room of people laughing (and one dude behind me sniffling the entire length of the movie as if snorting the world’s longest rail of yayo) at Flash’s perfectly acted, perfectly written introduction:

The cheer Dale does for him in this scene is what Julia Louis Dreyfus watched, surely, to summon the essence of Elaine’s “little kicks.”

Also, Jesus Criminy Christ, Topol in this movie. Y’all can have Sam Jones, and Max Von Sydow for you fucking eyebrow fetishist freaks, and I know I have within this single calendar week already expressed Posthumous Pussy Feelings about one recently dead iconic actor - let alone that this wouldn’t even be the only recently dead iconic Jewish actor - but…if your dad looks like this and is divorced (I have standards these days…well, sometimes…depends on how hot your dad is) send him my number. I’m your mommy now.

Intrusive Thoughts with Tara:

I quote the 10 Things I Hate About You bloopers more than I quote the actual film. “I want some cawwwwwfeeeeeee.” “A prophylactic? A prophylactic? Ahh!”