I recently watched a German horror movie from 1917, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and it was one of the coolest films I have ever seen. Then I spent a few hours watching The Circle. It’s called balance. I’ve been balancing a lot lately- Rear Window followed by Amazing Race, hours gardening outside followed by hours playing video games on the couch, time between small town Arizona and bit city LA, smoothies for breakfast and popcorn for dinner. In this new phase of my life I am trying to balance the person I have always been- driven, hard working, type A minus- with elements of the person I want to be- living day to day, peaceful, present, zen. It’s weird, the change in scenery from Los Angeles apartment to small house in a rural town has helped, but there’s still so much to figure out.
Today is the seventh anniversary of my organization, Spread The Vote + Project ID. At seven years, really seven and a half for me, the org is taking up far less of my time than it did in the beginning, when it was a 24 hour a day gig, and even the last several years when it’s been an 80-100 hour a week gig. As we’ve evolved and figured out what we’re doing and built a team, I have been able to take things off my plate, which is huge. But, I do still have an org to run, a budget to fundraise, a staff to manage. I can’t fully become the super zen forest girl of my dreams, I have to get grants and have meetings and strategies and stuff. Every example I have ever had on how to run an org has been a very masculine, Iacocca-inspired, Lean Startupesque kind of business. I spent my childhood reading Who Moved My Cheese and How To Win Friends and Influence People in my mother’s offices. Now, as the org and I both evolve, I am trying to figure out how to do it a little differently.
How do we grow and succeed and make an impact in a new way, and what does that new way even look like? Most of my team has been with me since the beginning, and for seven years we have worked together to build something we are prouder of than anything we have ever done, and we have also all changed a lot in those years. Most of the small humans on our team didn’t even exist seven years ago! We are so lucky to still be here and I am so proud of what we’ve built, and as we move forward in this unsteady world, there’s a lot to think about. But I still think it’s mostly about balance.
What to do
I know, it’s been a while, and I have a lot to catch you up on, so I’m only choosing the best of the best
Watch
The Jinx 2 (HBO)- The follow up is never as good as the original but anyone who watched The Jinx will definitely want to watch this new series. Some of the revelations are mind blowing and the new credits are just as much of a jam as season 1, which is saying something.
Baby Reindeer (Netflix)- WE ALL KNOW I AM IN A WAR WITH NETFLIX. The app has been deleted from all of my tvs and devices. BUT, I do still watch it at my grandmother’s house for some exceptions (mostly The Circle) and Baby Reindeer was one of them. This. Show. Is. Wild. AND. TRUE. Insert mind blow emoji. Pop some popcorn, stir up a martini, and settle in for a ride. But also we hate Netflix.
Columbo (Peacock)- I’ve been marathoning Columbo and it really just does not get any better than Peter Falk and his little trench coat. I just saw an episode with Johnny Cash, further cementing that this is the best cop show of all time.
Read/Listen
If you are somehow well rested because you did not spend the entire weekend feverishly refreshing Kendrick Lamar’s YouTube page then we have very different priorities. The hip hop world (and whatever Drake does) are in the middle of one of the greatest beefs of all time right now and you need to know about it. Whether it’s the pedophilia or blaming Meg for getting shot or appropriating black culture, there are so many reasons to hate Drake and it’s beautiful to watch the world’s first Pulitzer Prize winning rapper ruin his life with help from the first ever dissbeat and crowdsourced beef track competition courtesy of Metro.
There are a lot of articles explaining the beef but so far GQ’s is my favorite. Read it, listen to all of the tracks (warning: Meet the Grahams is one of the most disrespectful and difficult to listen to tracks of all time), follow the drama on TikTok, and then join the Drake hate train. Everyone else is on it.
Subscribe and Read
Most people know that Dracula is an epistolary novel but only the nerdiest nerds have read the novel in chronological order according to the dates of the letters. Enter: Dracula Daily, which is publishing the letters every day from May 3 through I believe November. You’ve only missed a few days so subscribe, catch up, and do a little Dracula LARPing.
ALSO IF YOU HAVE NOT BOUGHT MY BOOK YET YOU CAN GET IT HERE OR WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD AND IF YOU HAVE BOUGHT IT PLEASE LEAVE AN AMAZON REVIEW.
*Thanks Elise for kicking me in the butt and making me get back on the newsletter train.*