🟨⬜️U Rock My Wordle ⬛️🟩
Mōrena lil shits!!
It came to my attention (via ALL OF YOU), that yesterday as I was caught up in the excitement of it being the first of the month in New Zealand, I forgot to mention that it was another extremely important day - Harry Styles’ birthday. Luckily for me, timezones are a thing, so for a lot of you, it’s today. So never fear! I shall honour it today with the Brits!
An update on me (since you're asking): yesterday I watched the latest episode of Euphoria (loved it), started reading ‘To Paradise’ by Hanya Yanagihara (not far through enough yet to comment), recorded a GREAT episode of Culture Vulture with Liv, and then went to pick up a couch. Good day I reckon!
Help pay my rent?? 🥺 — www.getrevue.co
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In today’s newsletter:
I predicted Wordle being bought by The New York Times
Dolce & Gabbana are dropping animal fur for an 'eco' alternative
Sydney Sweeney, Jay-Z, and Spotify’s Podcast Politics
A word on the Euphoria soundtrack
How TikTok Helped Fuel The Best-Selling Year For Print Books
Were Ross and Rachel on a break?
The New York Times bought Wordle because the world can’t have nice things
Ok, I’m going to have to start off with a bit of a humble brag moment here. In my first newsletter of the year as I was gushing about wordle I wrote this:
“My prediction is that The New York Times will either buy Wordle, or we’ll see “copy/acquire/kill” in action and someone will replicate it and chuck in a bunch of ads/ charge us to play/ make it into an app.”
AND NOW THE NEW YORK TIMES HAS GONE AND BOUGHT IT??? Also, I’m pretty sure a few reporters from the NY Times read this newsletter (hi my angels) so MAYBE I PLANTED THE IDEA???
Anyway, the details. Yesterday it was announced that The New York Times bought Wordle, our favourite, non-commercial, non-addictive block game of joy, for a price “in the low seven figures.” But don’t worry - the Times have said that it’s going to remain free for both new and existing players. Regardless, what followed was… a lot of Twitter outrage (couldn’t have predicted that.) And yes, I did take part:
The reason I predicted this was because The New York Times is known for their games. The crossword, Spelling Bee - it makes sense for them to want to snap up Wordle - I guess we were all just hoping they wouldn’t. But look, everyone is just looking out for themselves in this dog eat dog wordle, so I don’t really blame Josh (the creator.) Here’s what he said about the whole thing:
NEW EPISODE OF CULTURE VULTURE
Sydney Sweeney, Jay-Z, & Spotify's Podcast Politics — open.spotify.com
This week before we even get into the episode Liv spills a HUGE secret (one you won't want to miss.) Then we talk about Sydney Sweeney, a potential Fyre Festival 2.0, someone crashing into Taylor Swift's house and why rap lyrics shouldn't be used as evidence in court.
AND THEN THE MAIN EVENT - JOE ROGAN VS SPOTIFY and the idea that when you pay someone to be on your platform you have more of a responsibility to keep other people safe than if they were just uploading podcasts themselves.
Dolce & Gabbana are dropping animal fur for an 'eco' alternative
Are they fur real? In a joint statement with animal rights group Humane Society International, Dolce & Gabbana have announced that they’ll be phasing out fur from this year onwards and working with "master furriers" to create "a sustainable faux fur alternative that uses recycled and recyclable materials
If you were interested, Gucci did this furst in 2017, Chanel, Prada and Burberry have all made similar pledges, and Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen and Balenciaga are said to do the same by 2022!
Why the ‘Euphoria’ Teens Listen to Sinead O’Connor, Tupac and Selena
One of the things I love the most about Euphoria (and there are many) is the soundtrack (I was actually listening to it at work yesterday to get me hyped!) The score is done by Labyrinth (who also made a cameo in this weeks episode) and every fucking song is so well-curated (or created, hi new Lana!) that my ears want to scream with delight every time I hear a new melody. In this piece which is talking ALL about the soundtrack (and you should defs read if ur a nerd like me), Euphoria is described as “the maximalist hallucination of high school” which is the description of the show that I WISH I’D WRITTEN/COME UP WITH. AND it’s SO TRUE even when it comes to music. These episodes are literally JAMMED with music, but it works???
Often cramming a couple of dozen tracks into a single hour — from the underground to the instantly recognizable, the 1950s to the 2020s — the show doesn’t do emphatic needle-drops so much as a TikTokian shuffle of aural and visual stimuli, bouncing between genres, eras and moods.
If you’re into this shit then you should go and read this or listen to the official soundtrack!!
How TikTok Helped Fuel The Best-Selling Year For Print Books
I love #Booktok and I love this story!! It’s just been reported that in 2021, U.S. readers purchased 825 million copies of print books - the best-selling year for print books since NPD Bookscan began tracking data in 2004 - and analysts reckon it’s because young people have been posting about them on social media.
Personally, I find it really hard to select a book (and I will rarely EVER do it) without a recommendation (bring back the book club I say 👀) which is why I LOVE booktok!! So far I’ve bought Song Of Achilles and a Colleen Hoover book, but am definitely open to continue being influenced by heavy readers (who can also give me a nice 30-second review). Also just yay for print books!
Were Ross and Rachel on a break?
The response I got to this in my DMs was overwhelmingly... ‘yes but that does NOT make it ok!!!’ Still:
63% of you said yes
37% of you said no
Today’s poll is one of the more fucked up ones, so go have your vote over on our insta story!
Tom Brady is retiring (BBC)
Elon Musk Tries, Fails to Pay Teenager to Stop Stalking His Location (Futurism)
MGK and Travis Barker’s Matching Tattoo Saga Is a True Nightmare (The Cut)
Sydney Sweeney, Jay-Z, & Spotify's Podcast Politics (Culture Vulture)
Are Group Chats Dead? (NY Times)
Sexy M&M's, BoJo's partying and a whole lot of world updates! (The Shit Show)
GET A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL TO WATCH EUPHORIA OR YELLOWJACKETS! (Neon)
You can listen to us talk about all things pop culture on Culture Vulture, about THE WORLD on The Shit Show or watch us explain the internet on Extremely Online.
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