Gorg to be back 🥺
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My angels I'm BACK! That was the longest break I've taken since the beginning of writing this newsy (I think) and it honestly did me so goooood. I'm not gonna run you through EVERYTHING I did while I was in the states because there is just TOO MUCH TO SAY TODAY but I honestly felt like I was in a movie the WHOLE time?????? Anyway, here's my trip in brief:
San Francisco
I stayed in North Beach and holy shit I loved being in the Little Italy area
Went to the iconic Café Triéste (meeting place of some of the beat movement's most famous writers/ poets) and there were dudes playing bluegrass as I sipped my coffee and wrote in my silly lil journal
Popped into a lil Italian deli (like those ones you see all over TikTok) and got one of the guys to make me his favourite sandwich. I can confirm it was one of the BEST sammies I have ever had
Went to Alcatraz and learnt all about the buzzy escape attempts
Walked up Lombard Street which I've wanted to do since I was a kid OBSESSED with Midtown Madness
Went to see the Golden Gate Bridge, naturally. Also, it's named 'Golden,' it looks red, but is actually 'Orange Vermillion,' because according to the architect that colour would 'blend' better into the surroundings. The more you know
Went to the Haight Ashbury area which was psychedelic as hell (it was basically where the 1960s counter-culture movement started)
Saw the 'Painted Ladies'
Went to see Dermott Kennedy at The Greek Theatre which was AMAZING. Shared a joint with the two dudes sitting beside me at the concert, also amazing
Sacramento
Spent one full day here with my cousin and felt like I had to include it because I did the BEST thrifting of my life:
AND ALSO DROVE PAST THE HOUSE LADYBIRD PRETENDS TO LIVE IN:
Austin, TX
Ok so I wasn't expecting to love Austin as much as I did and I ALREADY WANT TO GO BACK!! Top line thoughts: SO FUCKING HOT (I was dripping the whole time), the people who flew me over (thank u Excellent 🥺) are now my absolute besties, I wanna come back PURELY for the live music and... ugh I just kinda fell in love with it??? Some more topline thoughts:
I stayed downtown and got incredibly lost scootering round in the HEAT multiple times
Drunk a lot of margaritas
Played a BUNCH of cornhole
Learnt how to do the Texas two-step (shoutout to Tom who was my partner for both cornhole AND the two-step 🥺)
Did a day of very fulfilling work/ chat about the future of work and how to make it WORK FOR US!!!!
More cornhole
THE MOST AMAZING BBQ I'VE EVER HAD
Went to Bumble HQ which was SO extra and SO cool (they have a glam room at work!!??)
And now for my fave story from the trip
It was my last night in Austin and I REALLY wanted to watch some more live music, so I went to a place that had been HEAVILY recommended to me called 'Pete's Duelling Piano Bar.' I sat down early and was the ONLY one in the bar, so I just wrote in my journal and did some cute main character shit. Anyway, the two musicians were taking requests all night and when they found out I was in NZ they played the only two NZ songs they knew - 'Don't Dream It's Over' and 'Royals' which was so cute. Then a group of dudes walked in and sit down behind me and they were from Australia!! One of them sees me and comes and sits down with me for a while and it turns out one of his parents is from NZ! Anyway, after a few hours of the show, his mates all leave and he comes and sits back down with me because he's loving it (and so true, it's SO good!!) Naturally, I've requested some Harry Styles and he's like 'oh I love Harry Styles so much these days' and then goes, 'I don't know if you know of this account called Shit You Should Care About...' and I'm like !!!!!! 'that's me!!!!!' (This was after we'd already been hanging out for hours and it was just the WILDEST moment.) He was so nice and a lil in shock I think, but he was actually such a legend and HOW SMALL IS THE WORLD THAT SOMEONE I MET IN AUSTIN LOVED HARRY BECAUSE OF SYSCA???
THEN the next day I was at a BBQ place and I hear someone yelling 'Luce!' as I'm walking out AND IT WAS HIM AND HIS MATES??? Austin legit felt so small by the end of my four days there and this was just so wholesome. Anyway, Ben, if you're reading this, see you in NZ in November xoxox
And now I'm home!!
I got off the plane, unpacked my things, and then went to see The Black Ferns vs Japan, and then The All Blacks vs Australia!!! I brought Hayden along and it was SO SO fun and also... TAIKA WAITITI AND ELIZABETH BANKS WERE RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!!? Honestly wtf is life right now??
Now I'm home & ready to start bringing you the news each morning again. I've missed you, and I've missed writing this silly lil thing for you each day - JUST LOVE U SO MUCH!!
Come have a coffee with us!?
Let's talk about Iran
Rihanna is headlining the Super Bowl half-time show
A gunman attacked a Russian school
Cuba votes to legalise same-sex marriage!
Come have a coffee with us!!??
So as you may or may not know, we're about to head on a SYSCA roadie, from Auckland to Dunedin (full timetable coming soon, but it starts earlyish Oct 👀.) Anyway, for those of you who don't go to uni, or who aren't in the lectures I'm speaking at, but wanna come hang out, we're gonna put on some coffee catch ups!! Our mates at Allpress are hooking us up with some of their fave spots in each ✨big✨ city to sit for a couple of hours and hang out with whoever wants to come! It's super chill - not a planned chat or anything - we just really want to meet some of you!
BUT FIRST PLZ DO THIS:
We'll give you locations closer to the date, but for right now YA GALS NEED SOME NUMBERS! Please, if you're keen to come have a coffee with us (they'll all be in the morning at some stage) tick some boxes on this lil form so we have a bit of an idea of how many of you we're gonna be seeing!! Feel free to drop in for as long or as short as you like - we just gotta know how much coffee we'll be getting through.
Register your interest here!!!
Let's talk about Iran
It's honestly been so difficult for me to be watching what's going on in Iran while I've been taking a break from the newsy, because I've been despo to write about it for you all - so here we go!
Some light background:
Last week, Iran's 'morality police' (undercover agents who enforce rules on how women dress/ present themselves) detained 22-year-old Mahsa Amini allegedly for 'wearing the mandatory headscarf improperly.'
While she was in police custody, Mahsa 'entered a coma', and two days later she died. Iranian police say that she died 'after a stroke and suffering cardiac arrest,' but other witnesses say she died after sustaining blows to the head. Photos of her from inside the have spread far and wide and sparked protests across the world.
Here's what Human Rights Watch reported on it:
"The Iranian news outlet Etemad reported that the morality police arrested Mahsa, who was with her brother, in front of the Haghani metro station in Tehran for what authorities described as “improper” hijab. They told her brother she was being taken to the morality police headquarters for an “educational and orientation class.” Two hours later, Mahsa’s brother discovered that his sister had been taken to a hospital. According to the media report, he said that while he was waiting for his sister outside the police headquarters, he and others heard screaming. Multiple women who left the building said, “they killed someone in there.”
Now, protesters are risking their lives
After hearing what happened to Mahsa, people have taken to the streets in protest for the last 10 nights. Women have been burning their headscarves, cutting off their hair, shouting 'death to the dictator' and just generally being incredibly fucking brave. Meanwhile, security forces have been firing off live rounds and killing them. Here are some notable facts about what's been going on:
Authorities have already killed at least 41 people (or 57, according to Human Rights Watch)
Iran has restricted access to some of the country's remaining social media apps like Whatsapp, Instagram and Skype (Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Telegram had previously been banned), and people are reporting a widespread loss of connectivity - so it's getting harder and harder for people on the ground to get word out about what's going on
Hundreds of demonstrators, reformist activists and journalists have been arrested
This is a huge deal
I can't stress how big of a deal this all is, but this paragraph from NBC does a pretty good job, so here you go:
"For the conservative Islamic theocracy of 86 million people, whose rigid laws forbid any dissent and impose fearsome punishments for those deemed a threat to the ruling regime, the acts of rebellion are huge — and the first time a protest movement of this scale has been led by women.
Appearing in public as a woman without the head covering is a criminal offense in Iran and carries the consequence of prison time."
As usual, I'll keep you updated as we know more.
Rihanna is headlining the Super Bowl half-time show
I do not care about the Super Bowl but I do care about Rihanna. There's actually not a lot for me to comment on (the headline basically tells you everything you need to know) except that she was asked to do this in 2019, but turned it down to show solidarity with NFL star Colin Kaepernick, who knelt during the pre-game national anthem in 2016.
But now it's 2022, and she's up for it. She broke the news by posting this to Twitter:
Can't wait to tune in!!
A gunman attacked a Russian school
Content warning: shooting.
God, sorry for what you're about to read - it's a lot for a Monday (but what's new when it comes to the ✨news✨ eh?) Yesterday a gunman opened fire in a school in central Russia, killing at least 15 people and injuring 24 others. 11 of those dead, and all but 2 of the 24 injured were children, and the gunman - a former student - died at the scene. He was wearing a t-shirt with a nazi symbol on it. More on this story here xx
Cuba votes to legalise same-sex marriage!
In better news, Cuba has just held a national referendum where about two-thirds of the population have voted to approve reforms in a new Family Code, which will allow:
same sex marriage
surrogate pregnancies
gay couples to adopt children
I know it feels bananas that we're still voting to make this kind of shit legal, but it's kinda big for Cuba who were still sending gay people to work camps in the 1960s and 70s. Also, a huge shoutout to the efforts of gay rights activists in Cuba who were the ones who pushed for these reforms!
Finally, a good tweet or two:
Canada Stabbings and New Prime Ministers (The Shit Show)
We interviewed FINNEAS (Culture Vulture)
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, who fled Iranian regime, among protesters cutting hair (Stuff)
James Earl Jones signs over rights to voice of Darth Vader to be replaced by AI (Mashable)
A $100 Million Bet on Finding the Next ‘Mr. Beast’ (The New York Times)
LinkedIn Ran Social Experiments on 20 Million Users Over Five Years (The New York Times)
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