The Weekly Spill #4
It's Labor Slay Weekend Divas
Labor Day Weekend. The official end of Summer. The time when we… celebrate labor? The time when your mother tells you that you have to stop wearing white. The time that you panic that you didn’t make the most of Summer and now it’s over. The time that you overpay for a weekend in the Hamptons just to feel something. Gotta love it! If you find yourself around someone bored by their extra day off, please feel free to direct them to this newsletter. Then the two of you can discuss all of the things that I’ve been thinking about this week. Such as:
Adult Drama by Natalie Beach:
I read Adult Drama last weekend and I have thoughts. The collection of essays is….not good.
I’ll just go ahead and assume that all of you reading this have a base knowledge of the Caroline Calloway and Natalie Beach drama.
All of Caroline’s annoying tendencies (playing the victim, self-mythologizing, a total lack of self-awareness) Natalie has too. This is probably why they worked so well together. The difference is that she lacks Caroline’s raw charisma and she knows it, is embarrassed about it, and is going to try to make you feel bad for noticing it. In her Vanity Fair piece, Lili Anolik says “The problem could be Beach’s personality, the opposite of Calloway’s: self-deprecating, restrained, unpersuaded that she’s interesting enough to carry an essay, never mind a whole book.”
This book is a mess, I think it was most likely rushed through the editing process in order to be released in time to piggyback off of the Scammer press. The essays are clunky and all over the place. You can feel the effort to shape what the public thinks of her in the writing. She is trying so hard to come off as a certain type of person, adding in random references to things that don’t quite connect. It feels like she is grasping at straws trying to prove that she is worth listening to, that she is different. She throws in these asides that feel like disclaimers because she really wants you to know that she is #woke and a good person. You can feel her fear of being canceled. Ironic isn’t it?
The only time her writing is even close to interesting is when she writes about Caroline. And that is her curse. She needs Caroline to make her interesting. I haven’t read Scammer yet (though I did listen to the CMBC episodes) because at the moment you have to get it through Caroline who seems to be gluing the books together in her home and they are like $60. Natalie really needed to hit it out of the park with this book to prove that maybe she used Caroline as a jumping point, but that her talent is what is going to keep her in the air. Unfortunately, she fell flat.
This photo of Anna Wintour and Vera Wang at the US Open:
I’m obsessed with this photo. It immediately went into my reaction folder. A picture says a thousand words, and all of their words are bitchy and sarcastic. Somehow they are the physical embodiment of this tweet:
Notes On Taste by Brie Wolfson: I revisit this essay pretty often. I think it is brilliant and required reading for everyone.
McDonaldland Cookies:
I found an archive of vintage McDonald’s stuff a few days ago and when I saw a photo of the McDonaldland coookies I was instantly catapulted back into my childhood. Our world is so divided right now, but I think being able to get what are essentially animal cookies at the drive-through is vital to healing that divide. Bring these back! While on the topic, what happened to the cinnamelts? I need answers.
REGOT-ing:
this is how slay your mantle would look if you RECOT This is when you have achieved the coveted EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) and also won a Razzie. This combination is perfect, and it should be the ultimate goal. Only a true legend can do it all, be the greatest star and the biggest flop. The REGOT club is small, a mere two people have achieved this honor. They happen to be two people whose work I love: legendary composer of everyone’s childhood, Alan Menken, and certified icon Liza Minnelli.
Vignette Books: I’ve been following this recently launched used bookshop on Instagram for a few weeks. You can take the quiz on their website (or take a look at the descriptions of each one) to figure out which kind of reader you are, and then they send you books based on that. The exciting part is that you have no idea which books you will get until you receive the package in the mail. I took the quiz and got The Hot Girl, but I’m also intrigued by The Modern and The Light.
this is so me vibes I think this is a really fun way to shop for used books, and to maybe find a book that wasn’t on your radar. Also, all of the branding is so cute.
Bottoms: I saw Bottoms on Monday and loved it. It is hilarious and I predict it will become a cult classic. Heathers is one of my favorite movies, and this is probably the closest anyone’s ever gotten to recreating its magic. I can’t believe that the people who made this are basically my age.
Also, shoutout to the team at New York Magazine for this cover shoot.
Xylk Lorena, the designer behind the bags I am obsessed with these. I’ve had them bookmarked for a long time, but I can never decide which color to get. The irony is that these have become more of a fashion girl item than an actual Birkin. Slay.
Dolly Parton’s #1 Pet Peeve: So true diva!
