Weekly Roundup 6.23.19
I’ve been thinking about NYC a lot this week. In part because some mornings were unseasonably cool, and also because Gloria Vanderbilt died on Monday. Here’s years of my life summed up in one sentence: I moved to NYC to work for VH1, but ended up working as a receptionist/marketing assistant for (Gloria) Vanderbilt Home Furnishings. I never met her, she had no association with the company, but her original artwork, and photos of her, hung in our office and part of my job was to buy back anything of hers I found on eBay. She’s just part of my emotional connection to New York and I was sad to learn she died, even though she was 95 and at 93, she started an Instagram account - which, yes please. God, I hope when I’m 93 I teach myself how to use whatever insane technology we’re all using on Mars.
When I was in NYC last year, I stayed uptown and as I was walking to my hotel, I realized I was standing in front of my old office building and I stopped and snapped this picture. Our office was on the top floor, and after 9/11, I was so scared of heights, that I couldn’t go back to work, not to mention we were so high up, we could see Ground Zero. I don’t think we went back to that office until 2002.
Here are some things that entered my orbit this week.
Unlike every major news outlet, I’m leading with E. Jean Carroll’s list of Hideous Men who have assaulted and raped her, including our current sitting President.
A lot of people have been talking about this episode of WTF with Marc Maron where he interviews Eve Ensler. It’s hard to listen to (same content warning as E. Jean Carroll), but what she says about her father and the apology she finally had to give herself is powerful and helpful to hear.
Thus ending links to things that will make you cry, this article about Roxane Gay and her girlfriend Debbie Millman made my heart swell two sizes. It also taught me the word “celesbian”, aka celebrity lesbian, which I will be spending the rest of my life trying to work into sentences.
My friend Bernadette texted me this week, “Seems relevant to your interests,” and linked to this Atlantic article on 50 years of Jazzercise. Hashtag: it me.
Man, I read the NY Mag piece on WeWork and the insanity of the culture there. WHEW. I’ve heard rumblings from feminist sheroes, but I never knew enough about WeWork to know what’s wrong with it. Well, I do now! This article will take you 100 years to read, but it’s worth it. Come for the slogans and stay for the pitch to put WeWork on Mars (I’m not kidding).
I’m not a Taylor Swift fan, a fact I keep to myself because some of my closest friends are white women. You can’t swing a fallopian tube without hitting a Taylor Swift think-piece this week after the release of her new music video, “You Need To Calm Down”. My favorite take is episode “To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Taylor Swift” of Keep It.
P.S. Missed last week’s links? Catch up here!
