#54: the man in seat 61, kids' cameras & the saturn return of the eu
sent from mikhela's iphone with love
mikhela:
Hello!
I’m Mikhela and I love a newsletter, particularly this newsletter! I think I met like 25,469 people from Sydney this summer in Berlin and Joss was the last one. The cherry on top, the icing on the cake, the creme de la creme! I’m convinced I met anyone who's anyone from Sydney this summer but if not I’ll be there in January on The Great Europe-Australia Winter Exchange (that’s right, insufferable ppl who live in Berlin are about to repay the favour and descend on Australia) and if we haven’t met…let’s be friends?
On a normal day I work remotely at my “fake” job for the UN which mainly involves spending too much money at cafes and being in the company of my friends while I do my silly little tasks. I love overintellectualising my feelings, underintellectualisng eating yummy food, and simply intellectualise the dumb things that happen around me. I was an editor for soft eis’s last issue bc I love editing other people’s work and hate doing my own. Including this bio. So here’s what’s been on my mind this week.
the sweetest little cupcake!
this is the online bit:
Once at a party, after a particularly euphoric track dropped and everyone put their hands in the air like they just don’t care, my friend Sophie turned to me close to tears and said “humans just really love music”. It was very profound. I was also very high. This instagram page makes that sentiment clear in a much more wholesome way. We love tiny sounds so much.
It’s not often that a random very masc man on instagram (or anywhere) has such a hold on me but there is something about the way this man uses his incredibly large knife to slice vegetables nonchalantly tossed onto smooth chopping boards and then cooked on a hot stone plucked from a stream that really…does it for me. Also interesting that the only people I know who also follow him are lesbians and gay men. Much to think about.
- hot
Anyone who planned an overseas trip before 2017 has surely come across and taken the advice of The Man in Seat 61. I recently discovered that he’s still sooo at it! He wins travel awards and gets asked to comment as an expert in very highly respected publications like the daily mail and was recently interviewed by the BBC on the closure of ticket offices around the world. Truly an inspiration to all niche but useful hobbyists. His main piece of advice? Never travel without a good book and a corkscrew. Thank you, sir.
this is the irl bit:
For my birthday this year my friends bought me a camera for babies and it has followed me round all summer taking beautifully low quality photos of my friends and being the perfect conversation starter (this thing single handedly taught me how to flirt). Somewhere between a way less cringe polaroid camera and a way cheaper film camera, it prints photos on receipt paper and blurs you to perfection. I got to have my very own “ballad of sexual dependency” moment this week when I put on an exhibition of all the photos I took during the summer (nudes included) and experienced the irl joy of seeing my friends see themselves in an exhibition :’)
The Saturn Return of the European Union
My friend Randon writes the weekly horoscopes for vice and everything I know (not much) about astrology comes from her. I’ve been informed that I’m officially going through my first saturn return and apparently its a big deal. When bitching about the state of the world over a bottle of wine and a bowl of pomegranate seeds, Randon dropped that the European Union is going through her first Saturn return too. Born on November 1st 1993, this icon is officially thirty, flirty and (not) thriving. It didn’t leave me much hope for my own return…she’s a mess rn.
Learning to play an instrument
Basically everyone in my life is either a DJ, producer, or a secret third (music) thing. Four and a half years in Berlin has left me highly susceptible to the cult of music but because no one wants to hear DJ sets of sad girl songs that totally ruin the mood I decided to learn to play the piano instead. Right now I’m teaching myself how to play Video Games by Lana Del Rey and Avril 14th by Aphex Twin. Watch this space, big things coming, recital dates dropping soon!!!
Tschüssi!