WRITING
I am once again asking you to watch Netflix’s Too Hot To Handle, only so you can click this link and this link without getting spoiled. Other than that, writing about celebrities is a little weird right now. You kind of just have to pray they do something stupid/relatable/weird during quarantine, and with that in mind, thank god Ariana Grande is beefing with a TikTok creator who impersonates her. I wrote about people on TikTok who have doppelgangers or otherwise impersonate celebrities as their whole thing a few weeks ago, and while it’s just a 2020 version of an Elvis impersonator or changing your Facebook profile picture to your celebrity lookalike, the omnipresent nature of social media these days can blur the line between something you do for fun and something you can’t escape.
PODCAST
Thank you to everyone who listened to the first episode of Most Embarrassing Thing On The Internet! The plan going forward is a new episode every other Monday, so keep an eye out for my conversation with Sesali Bowen in the next few days! (Listen to the first episode with Maya Kosoff here.)
QUARANTINE
I had a hard time looking at the news this week. It wasn’t because it was reporting anything horrific, but because I started getting too wrapped up in trying to manufacture some kind of timeline — which just resulted in me feeling frustrated and impatient with my current situation. It’s easy to feel powerless, but the choice we make to stay safe and inside every day has resulted in charts like this:
While we keep staying home — because this good news only emphasizes how we have to keep staying home if we want to see more progress, as much as I want to put on a hazmat suit and leap directly on top of my friends in their Brooklyn apartments — here are some ways to support causes and businesses that are suffering:
Buy stamps from the USPS! The service took a huge hit from the pandemic but is one of the most essential businesses keeping America running, and it’s under threat. Stamps are how they make money, and I just bought enough of these Earth Day stamps to last me the rest of my life.
Pre-order Serving New York! This e-book has 45 recipes from NYC restaurants like Olmsted, Momofuku, King, Charlie Bird, Llama Inn, and the NoMad and 100% of the proceeds go to ROAR (Relief Opportunities for All Restaurants) x Robin Hood’s restaurant relief fund to support these restaurants during the pandemic so they can still be there for me to get drunk at when it’s over.
Donate to BKLYN Clay! I’ve been taking pottery classes since 2017 and was about to start another one at BKLYN Clay when the pandemic hit. This week they held bingo and a lottery in support of their teachers fund, which you can still support here.