Oh my fracking god
Rupaul wants you to let him frack in peace + a Super Tuesday debrief & modern euphoria 𓆩♡𓆪
Angels!!! I’m so happy to be here and crawling out of my covid haze (made so much easier by all of you and your well wishes.) I’ve been watching endless amounts of Girls, Pretty Little Liars, Gossip Girl, and have just started The Sopranos (any fans in the newsy? Let me know!) I’ve also been sleeping more than I’ve EVER slept before, but in the waking hours I’ve decided that I want to make it my mission to publish any cool/ cute/ smart internet or pop culture writers over on
because honestly? There’s not much I love more than helping people get their words out there.More info here if you’re interested!
That’s all from me, enjoy the newsy, I love you xxxxx
✿⊰𖡼𖥧𖤣❀ BEL CHIMES IN ❀𖤣𖥧𖡼⊱✿
This section is written by the refreshing-as-a-house-chardonnay-on-a-steamy-day (and co-author of our debut book Make It Make Sense) Bel Hawkins. Each week Bel comes here to chime in about the things she’s been loling at, yearning for, or totally mystified by. Luckily for us, she also writes our Sunday advice column ‘Wait, But What?’ for all our paying supporters who want to make sense of the world!! Upgrade your plan to get her newsy here!
Bel Chimes In: On Modern Euphoria
Hi crushes! She's up! She's alive! She's back out in the world again just as Luce crashes down with Covid... ugh. What's the rule of phoenixing again? No one can be thriving all the time because that's not real life living. Still seems unfair sometimes.
Anyway, I've been listening to Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Emotion’ album on repeat this week as a euphoric-inducing play on my way to meet friends or walking to Portuguese lessons and it has given me life! I first listened to it on a spontaneous road trip up to Newcastle for a writer's festival a car filled with fun strangers and it was, for some reason, the only music someone had downloaded on their phone and an extremely gorgeous memory of mine.
This got me thinking (God, I can never write that and take myself seriously without hearing Carrie Bradshaw's voice in my head) a lot about joy. It was one of the notes Luce and I got back on our manuscript draft (to inject more lightness into the work, lol), and I wonder if joy itself is a wider thing we’re all battling with a little. We know so much about what’s happening in the world, and it can feel so challenging at times to hold conflicting things at once: feeling bad and chasing down good.
This is where 'Modern Euphoria' comes in. You know I j'adore naming things. I especially love naming soft feelings with more academic-sounding phrases as they sound like something a man in a meeting would sit up and finally listen to or a strategist in an advertising campaign would be like, ‘yeah, it’s all about this concept! It’s trending!’ and then, well, in my witch vision of the future, everyone's feeling it.
So, this one's all about silly little micro joys that give us a thrill and stop making us feel like everything has to be aesthetic and perfect. Wishing you a gorge week manifesting and making some of this Modern Euphoria. As Mary Oliver says, joy is not made to be a crumb! Don’t hesitate when it comes. See you this weekend!
⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ IN THE NEWS⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖
Yesterday it was Super Tuesday: here’s how it played out
For any non-Americans among us (me too, hi) let me give you a quick refresher of what Super Tuesday is — it’s basically the day when the largest number of states will be holding presidential primaries or caucuses.
Going into it, Biden was the leading contender for the Democratic nomination (with no substantial challenger), while Trump was ahead of former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley in the Republican nomination race.
The results were pretty predictable
Trump and Joe Biden remain on course to be the Republican and Democratic candidates for the general election in November
Biden won Democratic nominating contests in 14 states
Trump won 14 Republican contests
Nikki Haley formally announced that she will be dropping out of the race
I’m low-key scared
Over on Close Friends: I re-introduced myself to all our NEWBIES and we brainstormed how the HELL we should market our book ‘Make It Make Sense’ (lmk if you have any ideas)
And in the Book Club chat: OMG I’M ONLY A FEW PAGES IN AND I AM RELATING SO HARD TO OUR BOOK CLUB PICK FOR THIS MONTH (Green Dot)
What Bel’s talking about in Wait, But What?
Last week it was WTF to do when you can’t afford you friends idea of fun (unpaywalled now!) and this week it’s all about FAILURE.
☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★ ON THE WEB ☆⋆｡𖦹°‧★
RuPaul wants us all to just frack off
A weird headline to scroll past today, but apparently RuPaul is into… fracking?
Luce note: Fracking is a drilling method used to extract petroleum (oil) or natural gas from deep in the planet.
Upon reading a little bit more, it seems that this has actually been a bit of a meme since he revealed in a 2020 interview with NPR what goes on at his husband’s Wyoming ranch:
“A modern ranch, 21st-century ranch, is really land management,” he said at the time. “It is — you lease the mineral rights to oil companies. And you sell water to oil companies.”
It was then discovered (by Gizmodo) that on just 10,000 of Georges’s 66,000-acres, there were 35 active oil and gas wells.
The reason this is all coming up again now is because he’s recently made it clear that he would like to wipe this oil smudge off his reputation. In a New Yorker article released on March 1st he addressed the fracking thing, saying:
“Do you buy gas?” he said to me. “Before you point the finger, smell it first, bitch.” He sounds weary when discussing these controversies. “There’s no combination of words I can put together that would soothe the mob,” he said.
What do you think? Are we being hypocrites? Do we leave him alone? Are you fracked off?
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The micro joys 🤍 definitely what we need to focus on in this life!
Also cackling at “I especially love naming soft feelings with more academic-sounding phrases as they sound like something a man in a meeting would sit up and finally listen to or a strategist in an advertising campaign would be like, ‘yeah, it’s all about this concept! It’s trending!’ “
GOLD (as always!)
Re: RuPaul and managing his fracking rap: It's not about a given "combination of words." It's about actions. ACTIONS. So, turn your "managed land" into a garden of regenerative agriculture and then we can talk, using any "combination of words" ‚ because then they will actually mean something.