Do You Have A Quest? 🗺
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My angels!! How are you? I'm happy, distracted, and full of love from all your kind kind words about my piece on being happy or distracted yesterday. I love it when things that feel like unique experiences are in fact incredibly shared ones, and I love you 🥺🥺
Speaking of distracted (or NOT distracted, as they wanted to make clear) look at this response to the newsy I got yesterday:
"I got into a car crash while listening to ur latest Culture Vulture ep (not cause I was distracted, I was driving into Epsom from Kumeu and you know how quickly people stop and start on the motorway sometimes...)
It scared the shit out of me cause it’s my first car crash as a driver and I was driving alone BUT I’m now reading the newsy to distract myself and it made me feel a bit better! So I think distraction makes me happier at least. Hope this makes sense cause I’m still shaken up lol anyway have a great day love the work you do. xx"
First of all, we hope Culture Vulture isn't becoming a safety hazard and really hope you're okay, second of all that is PEAK shit you should care about devotion/ engagement and we love you for it, third of all, well done relating it back to the happy/ distracted question!
And also, as I'm SLOWLY making my way through all your responses to me over the roadie, I'm seeing cute messages like this that just make me so damn happy. Plz keep sending me things like this to lift my mood (or just keep me distracted):
The meet up in Welly was quintessential meet up goals. You all were the most welcoming and genuinely caring bunch of people. I felt like I was coming over to catch up with an old friend when I was greeted upon arrival.
Thank you so much for reminding me that not all of society is broken.
I look forward to seeing you all flourish amongst the societal angst that's being exacerbated outside of our control and reawaken a collective consciousness that strives for enlightenment over the status quo.
Your friend always xx
Ugh enough of me gushing about you all for a sec - let's talk about some ✨news✨
Bel Chimes In: On why we all need a quest
We’re getting a new season of The White Lotus!!
Do NZ Rugby give a shit about the Black Ferns?
Thursday throwback: Downtown
Are YOU happy, or just distracted?
Bel Chimes In: On why we all need a quest
This section is written by my crush, the refreshing-as-a-house-chardonnay-on-a-steamy-day, Bel Hawkins. You should check out more of her beautiful words here.
Hi, how’ve you been?! Um, me, well — over the long weekend here in Aotearoa, I went to a music festival (and stayed up dancing until 3am - why am I flexing this? Because it’s good to know you can still be a cool girl every now and then!). And then on the Sunday night, one of my besties hosted a Diwali party which was the most gorge evening ever — long tables of delicious Indian food and colour and friends and candles. We kept laughing about how scenes from the evening looked like stock footage TVNZ plays each year to celebrate summer coming, sung rap songs in the kitchen and kept the doors open all night to let prosperity find us.
All of this is to say that life can be incredibly imperfect sometimes, but amidst it all, there are those moments of perfection where it feels like the moon tips on a certain angle, and for a sliver of time, everything is beautiful and everything as it should be.
In this week’s Chime, I wanted to talk to you about the concept of having a quest. I became a bit obsessed with this when I was at design school and studying the work of Stefan Sagmeister, who closes down his New York studio every seven years to creatively regenerate. A totally unfeasible thing for most people to do, I know. But I’ve always loved the idea of having one quest each year (instead of every seven) to shape my life around. Some of them have been wild or recklessly ambitious (start my own business, walk the entire width of Spain) and others have been softer, gentler, but equally important (learn to phoenix, play music again, get really good at being my full self).
I think quests (which are different to goals, I think, cos firstly, they sound like main character energy, but secondly, they’re kinda… spiritual? I’m not religious but hope you get what I mean), they give you a sense of energy outside of the eat/sleep/work/repeat rhythm of being alive. But also this feeling that all those dreams you have kicking around the loose papers of your life just might have the opportunity to live themselves out — if you let them. We're here for it <3
We’re getting a new season of The White Lotus!!
This episode is brought to you by our besties at Neon - our fave New Zealand streaming service - and the release of The White Lotus Season 2! Stream it on Neon from October 31st!
Ok so during lockdown last year (eek sorry for bringing THAT back up) you might remember that Liv and I (and Flo actually) were OBSESSED with The White Lotus (we actually did a WHOLE podcast episode recapping and unpacking the season because there was SO much to talk about.)
The White Privilege of The White Lotus - Culture Vulture | Podcast on Spotify — open.spotify.com
A bumper bloody edition of Culture Vulture about The White Lotus - there is just SO MUCH TO GO INTO!
For anyone who needs a recap, this show is Mike White’s baby (known for School of Rock and Freaks and Geeks) and it followed just the most chaotic events you could IMAGINE at the White Lotus resort in Hawaii.
But, as much as the show seems light, the BEST part about it is that it really makes you think about everything - from the setting in Hawaii and whether vacationing in other people’s realities is ethical (it’s not), to showing why it’s so hard for people to leave emotionally abusive relationships (or even recognise them at times.)
Season Two is launching on October 31st - it’s set in Italy this time round, and is apparently ‘even more sinister’ so we will all DEFS be tuning in.
You can too by signing up to a free 7 day trial of Neon here.
Do NZ Rugby give a shit about the Black Ferns?
It kinda doesn't feel that way. All of you know (coz we've talked about it in here) that right now we've got the womens Rugby World Cup being hosted right here in Aotearoa, and our gorg team - the Black Ferns - are in the quarter final against Wales - WOO!
What's not 'woo!' is that someone, somewhere, decided that it was a good idea to schedule an All Blacks match at the same time as the Black Ferns quarter final. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out why this sucks. Women's sport - particularly rugby - is already taken as less of a big deal than men's, and this decision totally undermines the wonderful wahine playing their damn hearts out to get to the quarter finals!!
Here's the always insightful Mad Chapman, talking about it in The Spinoff:
"There’s an unwritten rule in New Zealand politics – one that has been duly followed since the dawn of time – that general elections won’t be scheduled on the same day as an All Blacks test at home. Every three years, when the prime minister sits down to discuss possible election dates, the All Blacks schedule will be noted. That’s how much attention the All Blacks grab."
And on NZ Rugby's response:
Today, in a written statement, NZR addressed the clash and revealed the reason behind the schedule clash: They forgot that the Black Ferns were playing on Saturday.
“Unfortunately, when Japan Rugby set the kick-off time for the All Blacks Test, NZR did not take
into account the Rugby World Cup stipulation that the host nation would play in the
Quarterfinal 2 timeslot regardless of pool results and may inadvertently cause a clash,” read the statement.
I say we all watch the Black Ferns and Wales play live and delay watching the All Blacks!!!
Thursday throwback: Downtown
Last night Rubes and I had dinner with some wonderful ladies (one of whom I know for sure will be reading this), and we were talking about who we're loving right now (The 1975, Harry Styles, King Princess...) when one of the ladies said she was OBSESSED with Macklemore. This felt random, but Rubes and I respected it, and Rubes mentioned that for a long time Downtown was (and kinda is still when I think about it) a song we were OBSESSED WITH. We actually played it on our roadie and I can confirm: it still hits.
Anyway, when she found out we hadn't seen the music video (which she said they 'shut down the whole of New York' for... and then quickly backtracked) she was MORTIFIED, so we promised her that we'd not only watch it, but it might even get a shoutout in the newsy. So without further ado, the 'Downtown' music vid everyone:
Are you happy or just distracted?
After writing about this yesterday I took it to you on Instagram to see how you're all feeling!
13% of you are happy
35% of you are distracted
36% of you are both
15% of you are neither
This was actually very enlightening and I love finding out more about how you all are and not just about how you think (which I also love) xxxx
And finally:
Midnights & Militaries (Culture Vulture)
Fat Bears, Kanye West, Missiles & F1 (The Shit Show)
North Korea tensions: Why is Kim Jong-un upping the pressure? (BBC)
Rihanna Returns With New Song for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Vulture)
In Defence of Soft News (Craccum)
SYSCA playlists (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
