15 things Avi consumed this week

The boyfriend experience...

This July, I’m having guest writers contribute their own 15 things lists, which I’ll be sending out to everyone every Friday. To access my weekly 15 things lists the rest of the year, become a paying subscriber.

Hi!

You really can’t tell from looking but this isn’t Haley. It’s actually her boyfriend Avi, nepotisming his way into a writing gig while the haters and losers gnash their teeth. In fact, despite having a STEM degree (ugh) I’m the first of four guest authors for this segment in July and am excited to let you all peek into my world! Hell, maybe we’ll even strike up a one-sided parasocial thing. Doesn’t that sound nice?

1. This piece by James Grieg for Gawker on the performance of ADHD as an identity on the world wide web. I’m personally annoyed by everything I see online about ADHD and therefore am annoyed to be contributing to the discourse but this piece really captured a lot of my feelings of being too old for the internet now.

2. A borscht martini from Anyway Cafe and a puttanesca martini from HiHi Room. I will say—martinis are perfect. Mixing gin with vermouth was an inspired decision by someone who saw the potential in creating a drink by mixing booze w booze. The borcsh-tini was exactly like sipping a cold soup and getting tipsy (7/10) and the puttini-esca was surprisingly regular for a cocktail with fish in it (8/10).

   

   Puttini-esca: Dorothy Parker gin, vermouths, caper, anchovy, tomato, olive bitters, taggiasca olive garnish

3. Is this a new meme? Exhibit A, exhibit B. I love the smell of naPAWm in the morning? Wait I can do better give me a minute

4. “Drake Is Still on Vacation,” by Craig Jenkins for Vulture on the new Drake album. I’ve felt torn about the new Drake album. At first I thought it was a bit too self-indulgent and in need of an edit but ultimately I’m coming around. “Drake is sort of like a rock-star venture capitalist,” Jenkins writes. “He latches onto a great idea, and it creates a feeding frenzy, and sometimes the original idea gets watered down, but there’s a lot of money in following the sure bet around.”

5. The video for “Higher Love” by Steve Winwood. How does this slap so hard? I’ll tell you. Chaka Khan on the backing vocals and Nile Rodgers on guitar.

6. Some imported snacks from a new local store, which Haley and I have been curious about for a while. We finally went in while on a walk on a particularly hot day and, immediately struck by the lack of A/C in there, I tapped into the Bodega Santa mindset and bought a few overpriced snacks: pizza-flavored chips (surprisingly good), lychee Skittles (unsurprisingly bad), and something called “chocolatey tree stumps.”

   

   They had melted into a single chocolate tree blob…felt like a metaphor

7. Two eps of Citations Needed: one about the manufactured mystique of the courts, and another about the absolutely pathetic response to the Supreme Court decision from the Democratic Party. But while Democrats continue to remix kneeling in a Kente cloth forever, Carl Beijer outlines a way forward for the Biden admin to bring to heel a court determined to undermine the pillars of the Great Society and New Deal. (Sorry you have to subscribe to his newsletter to read the whole thing, but it’s free!)

8. This Sharon Stone tweet, which I’ve re-read at least 50 times like it’s some kind of riddle: 

   Sharon Stone @sharonstone

   I am PROUD to be a WOMAN working for @LensCrafters. In this traditional time and anytime ❣️

   “In this traditional time” OR “anytime”

   ???????

9. The movie Legend, which Ridley Scott made after Alien and Blade Runner. I loved it (Haley less so) because it was so earnestly made. I feel like every movie now is winking at the audience, a cloying self-awareness I find neurotic and unbearable. Tim Curry absolutely rules in this and seeing a baby Tom Cruise with his original teeth is a strange viewing experience knowing his trajectory.

10. This YouTube recipe for cauliflower from this Bengali food blog I like Bong Eats (lol) along with some keema and a recipe for egg curry from Madhur Jaffrey’s cookbook. It all turned out pretty mid but it was nice to know that the ancestors were looking down from above scoffing. 

11. A so-so roll of film back, with hits from yours truly and fan fav Danny. It’s cool how film does such an amazing job of capturing the character of the light and then I blow through most of the roll on overcast days.

    

    Dear Danny IRL

    

    For some reason Phoebe Bridgers didn’t reschedule her show despite how bad the weather was for pics

    

    Here I am

12. This David Roth piece on how Starship Troopers aligns with this particular moment of American decline. I re-read it because I recently finished Chaos by Tom O’Neill (a book about Charles Manson) where I learned that Robert Heinlein, who wrote the book Starship Troopers that Paul Verhoeven putatively based his movie on, also wrote Stranger in a Strange Land, which features the free-love communes that Charles Manson supposedly became very obsessed with.

13. A few George Harrison albums. I’ve been playing All Things Must Pass on repeat since my friend Daniel gifted me the record, but he also recommended some other albums that contain some real rock-and-roll slaps. Specifically, “Be Here Now” off Living In The Material World and “Far East Man.”

14. One episode of the new season of Love Island UK on Hulu. I’m not a serious TV-watcher but I have a fondness for this show, sort of a stockholm-by-proxy situation (Haley loves it). During this viewing I was particularly enamored by the microphones they wear around their necks, which visually felt to me like a cross between a noose and a cowbell, kinda apt. I sometimes find myself wondering how I’d react to the low-grade torture that is being isolated with nothing to do except gossip and date and play dumb flirty games and do push-ups. It’s also really funny that the islanders do not appear to control the bedroom lights and just get blasted by the awful halogens first thing in the morning like kids in a Dr. Phil boot camp episode.

15. This amazing map of all the tributaries of the Mississippi River: 

Should we destroy all modern cities and rebuild America in harmony with the natural beauty that abounds? Leave it in the comments.

Rec of the week: Based on this list, who do you think Haley should leave me for?

Ok well that’s it for me. Hope you enjoy your long weekend celebrating America, you know I will. 

Avi

ed note: Avi’s own Friday newsletter is currently live on his IG story