✨Romanticising my 20s, again ✨
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This weekend was so blissful and wholesome and you’re actually getting a whole section on my Saturday night - but let me tell you what I got up to before that. On Friday night we had a cute flat night where we went a bar that the boys heard did 50c chicken wings, so naturally, we came, we saw, and we conquered too many wings.
Saturday was super spesh. My pal Ana (who did my lil Harry Styles dancing flower tattoo) came over (and so did the whole neighbourhood it felt like) and we ate ginger loaf (which was low-key 🌶spicy🌶) [wow luce, have you used enough brackets in this sentence yet???] while Ana gave me a cute as hell lil duck tattoo.
Why a duck u ask?? Well, my little brother Jimmy loooved ducks (a lot of you know this, because I love to link to a duck story whenever I can to honour him in this newsy.) One of you wonderful readers responded to a newsy edish where I mentioned ducks and told me that your Dad also had a thing for ducks, and when you lost him, you got a gorgeous duck tattoo in his honour. You attached a photo of it and it just really inspired me to get my own version of a lil duck. So thank you - you are all actively changing/ shaping my world, and it’s the most special thing ever.
Here’s my lil happy and content duck:
He’s in the same universe as my lil happy and content dancing flower, see:
After the tattoo we all sat and made beaded bracelets and rings together and really just let our inner children run free. It was cute as hell.
The rest of my weekend is chronicled down below in the first section of this newsy!!
PS, Flo and I rediscovered our absolute love for Matt Maeson’s song Cringe (I can’t believe I hadn’t put you onto this sooner - and yes I’ve added it to my playlist) but DAMN it might be one of my fave songs ever.
Romanticising our 20's, again
McDonald’s is coming back to Russia… kinda
The first January 6 hearing served up surprising revelations — that all point to Trump
Did The Sydney Morning Herald 'out' Rebel Wilson?
Zayn acknowledged One Direction in 2022!?
You can all stop worrying now, Seth Green got his bored ape back
Do you care about NFTs?
Romanticising my 20's
Since you all loved my story about romanticising my 20s a few months ago, I thought I'd give you more of that content today. Last week, after binging ‘Everything I Know About Love’ (yes, our favourite Dolly Alderton book has been turned into a TV show, no, it does not disappoint), the gals and I realised that we need to go out and have a real ✨romanticise our 20s✨ night. Now, I know it sounds odd/ underwhelming- to plan a night for no reason other than to have fun with your closest mates and really focus on enjoying (or romanticising) every little moment of it, but I’ll tell you what - I would highly recommend it.
The night began at a bar where everything was $8. That means all their drinks (including cocktails), and all their plates of food were only $8 - so naturally, we romanticised that. The gals arrived in top form (after a hilar text exchange in our separate taxis.) We played silly little games and had silly little drinks and did some silly little people watching for an hour or so before moving on to the next place. As we were walking to next place we decided that a 10min walk was FAR too long, so made a rule that the next bar we see we had to go into for a tequila shot. Even better? The random lil bar we entered was doing $5 rosé so we figured we could stay dignified for a little while longer. We ended up spending hours in this random little bar (we were the only ones there for quite a while too) and really getting into it with each other (as per.)
There’s just something so special about going out with the people who know every little thing about you. You re-tell the same stories, have all the exact same conversations that you’ve had a million times before - everything from orgasms and ex-boyfriends, to bad sexual experiences, to our personal grief and traumas - nothing is off the table, and anything you’re thinking or feeling is probs going to come out at some stage.
No one is trying to be anyone they’re not, or feels like they have to worry about how the world is perceiving them - all that matters in moments like these are the stars in the eyes of your best pals, and making sure we get at least one photo to look back on and remember the night.
[Luce note: Really oddly (and it’s making me kinda emo,) but as I’m writing this the song ‘My Friends’ by Oh Wonder has just played through twice, and I don’t have my Spotify on repeat, so if that’s not the universe telling us to get in our feels about our friends then idk what is.]
The night continued on to another bar where we stayed just long enough for me to get the number of a person I’ll never text, and then we decided to attend a house party. We ended up traipsing through two different incorrect house parties before making it to the one we were meant to be at. From here things are a bit blurry, but all I know is that I slipped on some wet steps (and landed on my back - yes I have huge bruises, yes I am still romanticising this, I’m sure it was funny) and we ended up back in a new bar dancing our asses off.
I don’t know what the point of this section is - maybe it’s to text your mates and tell them you love them? Maybe it’s to really focus on romanticising even the most normal of days/ nights? Maybe it’s scheduling in some time to be grateful for stuff? Maybe it’s just that you’re all my pen pals and this is how I’m feeling rn, so I wanted to share it with you.
Whatever the point is, thank you for listening, caring, and just being here. I’m romanticising the shit out of you.
Now, back to regular programming!!
McDonald’s is coming back to Russia… kinda
I've spoken about how McDonald's is pulling out of Russia in both this newsy and in an ep of The Shit Show, but what I haven't yet spoken about is the new brand that's gonna replace it. We don't know the name of this mysterious new Maccas-eque restaurant yet (tho apparently the McDonald’s app in Russia has been renamed as “My Burger”), but the image above is the logo (it's meant to be a burger and fries, but it's giving... cricket.)
It's also about to have its 'grand reopening,' timed to coincide with 'Russia Day' which is super symbolic of the new era of East/West relations:
The reopening is timed to coincide with Russia Day, marking the creation of the federation, at the very same location in Moscow’s Pushkin Square where McDonald’s first opened in Russia in 1990.
Then it was seen as a potent symbol of the opening up of the old Soviet economy to western companies, but now more than 1,000 former McDonald’s restaurants in Russia will be part of a new chain, partly as a result of western sanctions on economic activity with Russia.
The first January 6 hearing served up surprising revelations — that all point to Trump
The first hearing for the January 6, 2021 US Capitol attack happened last week, and if (like me) you find this kind of shit hard to follow, but know you should be following it, let me give you some of the key points:
What's the point of the hearings?
From CNN:
Thursday's hearing was the first in a series this month that will highlight the findings of the panel's investigation, which included interviews with more than 1,000 people about how Trump and his team tried to overturn the results of the 2020 election on multiple fronts.
From the NY Times:
The first prime-time hearing into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol this past week confronted the fundamental question that has haunted Mr. Trump, the 45th president, ever since he left office: Should he be prosecuted in a criminal court for his relentless efforts to defy the will of the voters and hang on to power?
What's in the hearings?
Using clips from the more than 1,000 depositions and interviews it conducted in the past year, compilation of footage from the attack on the Capitol, and live testimony from two witnesses, the committee outlined the case against the former president, culminating in a video presentation where rioter after rioter explicitly said they stormed the Capitol because Donald Trump told them to do so.
Did we find out anything new?
Um, yeah. Along with finding out that Trump was more involved (and vocal) than we thought, (at one point he said “And maybe our supporters have the right idea, Mike Pence deserves it,” after hearing that the mob was chanting “hang Mike Pence"), there were a bunch of other revelations throughout the hearing. If you're interested in a full rundown, here's a wrap up by CNN!
Did The Sydney Morning Herald 'out' Rebel Wilson?
Last week Rebel Wilson shared a cute as hell picture on Instagram of her and her "Disney princess," saying "I thought I was searching for a Disney Prince… but maybe what I really needed all this time was a Disney Princess 💗🌈💗#loveislove."
A day after she posted the photo, though, The Sydney Morning Herald published an opinion piece about it, saying:
In a perfect world, “outing” same-sex celebrity relationships should be a redundant concept in 2022. Love is love, right?
As Rebel Wilson knows, we do not live in a perfect world.
So, it was with an abundance of caution and respect that this media outlet emailed Rebel Wilson’s representatives on Thursday morning, giving her two days to comment on her new relationship with LA leisure wear designer Ramona Agruma, before publishing a single word.
Big mistake. Wilson opted to gazump the story, posting about her new “Disney Princess” on Instagram early Friday morning, the same platform she had previously used to brag about her handsome ex-boyfriend, wealthy American beer baron Jacob Busch.
This has... not gone down well. To me (and to a bunch of others I'm sure) this feels like the paper were giving Rebel a deadline to come out to the world (two days in fact), which is... not an okay thing to do at all??
And then when she decided to tell the world on her own terms (well, within the 48 hours given to her by the paper) they dragged her for 'gazumping' (overshadowing, swindling) the story? Like... this is someone's literal private life... how do they not care about that??
To balance that story out, let me put you on to the most heartwarming thread I read yesterday:
It's 2022 and Zayn Malik just acknowledged One Direction
He posted a video of himself singing that high note in 'You & I' to Instagram (and yeah, Louis liked the post.) We continue to be fed by these boys!
We can all stop worrying now - Seth Green got his bored ape back
I know you’ve all been so worried about this since I mentioned it a few weeks ago, so I thought I'd bring you an update on the kidnapped ape. It appears to have been returned 'home' to its original owner:
"Blockchain transaction records, which document the buying and selling of digital assets like NFTs, show the Bored Ape #8398 being transferred from Cheese’s NFT wallet to a wallet associated with Green on Tuesday. When asked about it in a Twitter Space for Green’s NFT company on Thursday, Green confirmed to BuzzFeed News that the ape “is home.”
Green apparently had to pay $300k to get it back though, which sucks for him. But now that we're at the end of this whole saga, one question remains unanswered in my mind:
Do we think the ape is still bored?
Speaking of NFTs - do you actually care?
Yesterday's mundane poll was also kinda research for me - I wanted to know how you all feel about NFTs. Naturally, I'm going to keep reporting on them/ web3 (I wouldn't be doing my job if I just ignored this HUGE thing going on in the world) but I just wanted a little bit of sense check. Here was the vibe:
1% of you said yes, you care
7% of you are interested in the concept
80% of you don't care at all
12% don't know how you feel yet
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This episode is a Shit Show :P (The Shit Show Podcast)
What we can all learn from the Johnny/Amber verdict (Culture Vulture Podcast)
Our fave nepotism baby, Maude Apatow, is writing a show about her life (Vanity Fair)
The State Finally Letting Teens Sleep In (The Atlantic)
So Much for Cutting Out the Middleman (The Atlantic)
How Nike and Adidas forged different paths into the metaverse (The Drum)
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