2023 is already embarro 🤡
Cringing from the US to the UK 🧃
Holy shit my angels, it’s so nice to be home!! Every year I get so excited for a bit of a break from living in the news, getting up at 5am to write this thing for you, and just having a bit of ✨time off✨ and every year, after a week of not doing it… I miss you a stupid amount (hence why I’ve remained active in our cute Substack chats.) So, it’s fucking glorious that I’m back, and that you’re back, and that we finally get to start the New Year together!!!
I know that on the first newsy back of the New Year you’re always despo to hear about my holiday and one thing about me? Imma give you what you want (but I’ll try and keep it short I promise.) So! I came back to my hometown for Christmas and had a cute silly szn which included most of my hometown besties, a SYSCA chrismas party (where Ruby got me my FAVE 1975 record that I couldn’t find anywhere 🥺🥺), and our annual xmas eve party at my dad’s house (where Ruby’s dad brings his guitar and we all get smashed and sing Christmas carols before heading out to like the one pub that opens in Blenheim on xmas eve.)
On Boxing Day I packed up and headed down south to Lake Aviemore (where we camp every year) and it was bliss. There’s literally nothing to do except swim, read and eat (you legit have to bathe in the lake and bike 5 mins to the nearest toilet - it’s suuuuper low key.) This year - to my disappointment - there was reception there, but I still stayed OFFLINE as much as possible and just enjoyed the nature.
Here are a few sentences that sum up my holiday:
Arriving at a two-gate airport. Home. Childhood posters still being up. Wearing faux fur with Rubes and getting blanked by an ex. Scratchies and croissants on Christmas. Driving eight hours down familiar roads. The entire The 1975 discography. Twice. Arriving. A punctured air mattress. A leaky tent. Instant coffee. A diet of bacon and eggs. Swimming in James. Getting my breath stolen by the Te Moana river. Getting my breath stolen again re-watching ‘Fred Goes Swimming. The long road home. A near miss (don’t tell Dad.) Leaving from a two-gate airport. Home again.
[that felt very 🔔Bel🔔 of me]
Here are a few pics that sum up my holiday:
My 🪄quests🪄 for the new year
This year I’ve decided that instead of making ‘resolutions’ or ‘goals’ we’re doing what Bel wants us to do - and reframing them as 🪄quests🪄 (you can drop yours here where we’ve all been sharing them!!) Mine are:
Learn how to do cryptic crosswords
Spend more money on media I love (I’m looking at u Andrew Callaghan/ Channel 5 News)
Put beautiful things on the wall in my house
Fix the shredded tyre that’s sitting in my boot
Put more energy into my 💌chosen family💌 (espesh coz Liv and Rubes are leaving me🥺)
And now a list of what I’ve been into this summer!!
Things I’ve watched and loved:
Whiplash (been meaning to watch this since Miles Teller was in the latest Top Gun)
This Place Rules, Andrew Callaghan
This is an HBO doco on by Andrew Callaghan (the most goated journo there is) about the lead-up to the Jan 6th riots. He has exclusive access to Alex Jones, tackles every interview with ‘radical empathy’ and honestly does a fucking good job with this whole movie
Freaky Friday (a classic rewatch)
School of Rock (had to get my Ned Schneebly fix)
Things I’ve read (reviews for all of these in our SYSCA Library which you have access to if you’re a paid subscriber!!)
Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
Mad Honey, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Finney
House of Kwa, Mimi Kwa
Things I’ve listened to:
Hold The Girl, Rina Sawayama (Album)
five seconds flat, Lizzie McAlpine (Album)
Preachers Daughter, Ethel Cain (Album)
Stick Season, Noah Kahan (Album)
Who Will Save Your Soul, Jewel (Song)
Kill Her Freak Out, Samia (Song)
Mr. Percocet, Noah Cyrus (Song)
The Entire 1975 Discography (notable mentions: Menswear, Ugh!, The Ballad Of Me And My Brain, If I Believe You)
I’m aware that this has been all about ME for a long time, and I promise we will talk about some news in a sec (and we will be back to a more usual news round-up tomorrow) but I have another big and exciting announcement…
🔔Bel Chimes In: WITH A WHOLE NEW NEWSLETTER 🔔
[Luce note: We SEE how much you all adore Bel - who ‘Chimes in’ every Thursday with her hot and witchy musings on life and all the pleasures and dangers that come with it, so we thought she’d better have her own bloody newsy!!! So, if you’re a paid subscriber to the daily newsy you’re going to be getting Bel in your inbox every Saturday!!! Now I’ll shut up and let her tell you a lil more about it.]
Besties! I'm SO excited to be taking the quill of the Saturday Subscriber newsy. Liv has done such an amazing job of writing to you for a whole year and I LOVE so much that she's following her arrow and is about to take on the world!
From me, you can expect a cute smorgasbord of things that AREN'T news as you wake up on the weekend. Poems. Cute recs. Musings on pleasures, dangers, softcore philosophy and, anything else I'm thinking that will be extremely cute/useful/insightful/hopefully funny for you.
Money is so just like - ugh - right? I totally get it. But, if you can afford it, paying to subscribe means I can keep the lights in my treehouse on when I write these for you late at night, Luce and the team can pay their rent in this dizzy, expensive city (and keep bringing you news every single damn day), and we can keep being this extremely cute heartbeat of a place on the internet that costs less than a gym membership or an osteopath appointment or a panic buy from a chic website. Food for thought...
Anyway — ugh, it's gonna be so good! Talk to you VERY soon, Bel xx
It’s 2023 and America is… still embarro
And in the UK things aren’t going much better
But China reopens borders to tourists for the first time since 2020
AND I was interviewed in a Very Serious Publication about something Very Serious which is cool
It’s 2023 and America is… still embarro
It would be naive of me to think that 2023 was the year that I got to stop covering America so much, but as long as they continue to be doing things that are *shivers* unprecedented, I will continue trying to bring you non-depressing recaps of it. And the first non-depresso recap for this year is that it took 15 attempts for the US to elect Kevin McCarthy (Republican) as the speaker of the house, even though they (Republicans) have a majority in the chamber.
To anyone that doesn’t follow US politics (I don’t either, tbh) you might be wondering why this is newsworthy. Well, the Speaker of the House is an immensely powerful role that “sets the House's legislative agenda, controls committee assignments, sets the vote and work calendar, and is responsible for keeping their party members unified behind major initiatives.” (They also do a lot of Speaking with a capital S I assume. Maybe I’d make a good Speaker? I do it in my house?A lot? I digress.) The other reason this is kinda huge, is because it’s the first time since 1860 that it’s taken this many votes to secure a speaker.
And why’d it take so long?? Because of the “hard-right members of his party who did not trust him [McCarthy] to sufficiently adhere to conservative doctrine if given power.” Basically, a bunch of republicans thought he wasn’t going to be conservative enough.
And why do we care? Well, mostly because it was kinda historic, kinda a meme, and just kinda shows the state of America right now (again, you should ALL go and watch ‘This Place Rules on HBO.)
And over in embarro UK news: Prince Harry is gonna be paying his BILLS with this upcoming book
Prince Harry (not our prince Harry Styles - the ex-royal one) really said he’s not being silent OR silenced anymore… in fact, he’s gonna be quite loud about pretty much everything (or at least how he sees everything) from now on. He’s about to release a book (which I will not be naming unless they want to pay us for promo) and I just wanna show you a few of the headlines that I’ve seen floating around the lead-up to the release (well… after it was apparently ‘leaked’ in Spain):
As you can see, it’s… a lot. And Liv and I will be doing a whole ass Culture Vulture episode where we unpack this properly - don’t you worry!! But, as much as I’m all for sharing your truth/ getting what’s yours/ all that good shit, this doesn’t feel like a road to privacy OR a relaxing life outside of the royals, if that’s what Harry and Meghan are after. Anyway, I’m sure if you’re not already you’re ABOUT to be sick of all the op-eds that are gonna be shoved down our throats about this, so lemme know YOUR thoughts on this saga in the comments (yours are the only takes I want to see) and ALSO let me know if after our Culture Vulture episode on it, you want this to be a 👑 royal free ⛔️ zone!!
China reopens borders to tourists for the first time since 2020
Huuuuge day for tourism in China, as they reopen their borders for the first time since May 2020. Yup - that means no quarantine, but they still need a negative PCR test to be taken within 48 hours of travelling. More here!
I was interviewed in a Very Serious Publication about something Very Serious
It sucks to have peaked in 2023 before 2023 has even really started, but one of my fave journos of all time (Rebecca Jennings from Vox) reached out to me at the end of last year with some questions about one Matty Healy - questions that I was incredibly happy (and qualified) to answer. She took a few of those answers and turned it into a Very Good Piece about the internet’s collective horniness for Matty Healy atm and I think you should all read it. Here’s a lil Luce moment":
Lucy Blakiston, like many other 25-year-olds, discovered The 1975 on Tumblr when she was in high school after the release of the band’s eponymous 2013 album. Soon after, Healy built a big following on Twitter and Instagram, where he ranted, shitposted, and, sometimes, beefed with other famous people (“I don’t know what the fuck that is but I love that song about being in a phone box or whatever it is,” he once tweeted at Maroon 5 after they implied The 1975 copied their album artwork). “We’re so used to seeing celebrities being so manufactured, living and dying by their publicists, made for our consumption,” she explains. “There’s something really enticing about someone that seems unpolished.”
It seems I talked for FAR TOO LONG about me at the start of this edish (I missed u ok) so in the name of time I’ll save the rest of the news for tomorrow! Love u!! Also - upgrade to a paid plan and help keep us in business will ya?? 🥺🥺
Today’s mundane poll:
Some links from my summer reading!!
Is Channel 5 the Future of News? (Esquire)
I May Have Started a Rumor About K-Pop, and It May Be Ruining My Life (The New York Times)
The Left’s Fever Is Breaking (The New York Times)
Not the gingernuts 💀💀💀
She’s back!!!! I missed you and hope you had a good break 💕