- On the occasion of Mary Wilson’s passing this week, here is a celebration of the impossible glamour of The Supremes. (Vogue)
- “I’m here live, I’m not a cat.” This got shared a lot this week, but in case you didn’t see it, it’s hilarious. (Kottke)
- A pretty frankly upsetting article concerning the spike in anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S. (The Cut)
- This piece about Lisa Frank’s comeback—largely thanks to her son—is fascinating. (Bustle via Go Fug Yourself)
- Here are the best and worst commercials from the Super Bowl on Sunday. (Pajiba)
- Some of the Black-owned fashion brands worth paying attention to for spring. (Elle)
- How Ample Hills—a Brooklyn ice cream brand that was on the cusp of becoming the next Ben & Jerry’s—filed for Chapter 11 instead. (Marker)
- This nightmare tale of a roommate situation gone horribly wrong is pretty chilling. (The Cut)
- Do you agree with this ranking of all of the 2021 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nominees? (Vulture)
- This piece—on being single for the pandemic—is a couple of weeks old, but it really speaks to me. (NY Times)
- And finally: welcome to the year of the ox—and check out these neato illustrations of the animals of the lunar new year. (Colossal)
I loved the cat-lawyer, and his good-natured explanation about it later. Thank you, sir, I needed that spark of pure funny. I still do not believe that you are not a cat, though. Those eyes!
I’ve been trying to figure out why it’s so funny — I think it’s because they all are so serious and stay professional through the whole thing. It just makes it so much funnier. And the lawyer’s rising anxiety about not being able to remove the filter…
I read the NYTimes article on being single in the pandemic a couple of weeks ago when it was 1st published, but re read it today…the 2nd time made me even more depressed than the 1st time, especially the comments. As a single person i just miss people, seeing them live and in person, having face to face conversations. Sorry, zoom, FaceTime etc not the same…and there are days when i doesn’t see another live human, I’m ok with being single. I just never thought I’d end up being a hermit
I feel the same way, Karen. I don’t mind being on my own, but I did not sign up for this much solitude.
I’m a little surprised that they didn’t choose the Gwen Stefani T-mobile ad as one of the best. I thought it was pretty funny!
The LisaFrank story – ‘Merica. SMH.
Had my own Zoom cat filter moment last night while on my classic book club discussion and Gabe, my constantly attention-seeking cat, decided he needed to be a part of things. He’s persistent.
My daughter scooped for Ample Hills two summers during college. She did develop quite a biceps lol. What a sad story. Creatives don’t always make for the best business people.
The link for the Lunar New Year article sends me to the NYT article about being single in lockdown.
Sorry, I’ll fix
My vote for best Super Bowl commercial goes to the one Stephen Colbert made for the independent bookstore in my town: https://deadline.com/2021/02/stephen-colbert-tom-hanks-foggy-pines-books-sam-elliott-super-bowl-sunday-commercial-north-carolina-bookstore-late-show-1234689503/
If you don’t have an independent bookstore in your own community that needs your business, please consider giving them some love!
Along those lines…my local independent, BookPeople, does occasional online Zoom interviews with authors that anyone anywhere can watch and send in questions (you have to preregister, but it’s no biggie). I recently tuned into an Andrew Cotter interview that was hilarious and so worth the hour or so of my time. Don’t know if any other independent bookstores do the same, but I would love to have a list of those that do!
Check out 92Y and Politics&Prose, though you have to pay for many or sometimes, optionally donate.
CW, Pages Bookshop in Detroit has a regular calendar of on-line events. Check them out!
https://www.pagesbkshop.com/
This is great! My hometown of Chapel Hill has Flyleaf Books. They have a lot of virtual events. Check it out: https://www.flyleafbooks.com/
One more local bookstore– Community Bookstore in Brooklyn. Authors, mail-order, all that.
https://www.communitybookstore.net/
The loss of Mary Wilson drove me to do the “dancing” portion of my daily exercise to the top ten Supremes hits. As usual, this is a great list, Kim!
Thank you for sharing the article about the anti-Asian hate crimes. This uptick of violence has been going on for a year now where many of the innocent victims have been the elderly and women. But it’s more than acts of violence, the level of anti-Asian casual racism is out of control on social media and in real life.
Casual racism (against Asians, Blacks, and Latinos) and misogyny in real life is shocking right now. I live in a culturally mixed neighborhood and I can’t believe some of the names I’ve heard neighbors call other neighbors. Just yesterday a white male neighbor referred to another as the “n-word.” I yelled “no” at him and walked away. I guess he thought it was fine because I am white, but it is NOT. So disgusting!
Thank you for telling him that is not cool. This became much worse after the 2016 election “validated” out-in-the-open racism and outright encouraged it.