vol #43: meat, serena shahidi & lemsip
sent from ari's iphone with love
ari:
Hi I’m Ari. I am a girl journalist and girl purveyor of fine words. They’re not the same, and I do them both. I work for VICE which means I am insufferable, professionally. My main passions include getting smarter [love to learn], being a girl [with other girls], making the men in my life pay for things [everything], amyl, and the feeling of being held in the hearts of the people I love.
Lately I’ve been entertaining myself with testing increasingly deranged ways to win the great war of my lifetime: me vs my job becoming my entire personality. I fear I have already lost.
Thanks for the mic Joss. These are my recommendations.
hot and smart!!!! you already know how we operate here…
this is the online bit
Serena Shahidi’s DOs and DONTs
If ur reading this newsletter u likely have taste, so there’s no need to introduce Miss Glamdemon2004. But, and here’s a shameless self-plug, when I recently visited NEW YORK CITY, I was like, who is the most iconic girl here that I can meet? And readers, it was she. We met at a natural wine bar in Brooklyn, and she was wearing heels. I’d like u to read the interview I did with her, because it really is just great.
Btw this was THE WORST interview I have ever conducted in my life. It was my fault – being underprepared, flippant, even, and also quite shy as I was. I blathered on and on, and as my mouth ran I looked into her eyes and I could hear her thoughts vibrating “hang on a damn minute– who’s the one being interviewed here?”. I cringed for a FULL WEEK after that interview. It HAUNTED ME. But the article is good. Because I am a girl wordsmith.
It’s a literary gossip rag written about darling Melbourne. If ur into the concept of New Yorkifying Melbourne’s cultural fabric, and the kind of writers who use words like “detritus” – as in “human detritus” and “detritus of our times” – twice in the same article, ur gonna love this. Despite the general unbearableness of the tone – super ultra self-aware elder millennials turning a literary gaze upon their own navigation of life in this city that has reduced itself to a cliche of cliches – there are a few rly good pieces in here with fantastic journalism. I fucking love gossip, even when I have no idea what the fuck they’re talking about.
I’ve enjoyed the delightful pang of envy when recognising the name of someone I vaguely know, or an event that I did not attend, as well as attempting to stalk all of the random names from the arts and literary worlds the authors ramble on about. It’s fun. I don’t pay for it but there are generally like three articles u can read for free.
Facebook events
I write the weekend guide for vice australia and every week i get down on my hands and knees and crawl through the very pits of facebook’s events section, state by state. You’d be mindblown how many out the gate things happen every weekend, especially in cities like adelaide and perth. The amount of paint and sip nights happening around the country at any given time should be studied. Come and try bachata, come and try salsa, dungeons and dragons nights, so many pregnancy classes. What is whiskey live? What is mystic sisters chill and chat? This weekend, illicit cruises is hosting a “friday night cruise” in perth. It’s something to do with cars, but what could be illicit about it? The world is a wild place. Open your eyes!!!!!!!
this is the irl bit
Meat
I was a label-reading vegan for like six years and before then I’d gone vegetarian on January 6 2014 and I have only recently decided to start experimenting with meat. Life is short and if ONCE MORE at a pub I was faced with options of a bowl of fries or a “Thai curry” to eat I’d lose it. I always opted for the chips btw bc you’d have to be some kind of pervert to order a curry from the goddamn Union. I have been enjoying discovering the delights of meat, but not all meat. I’m thinking some people really just get attached to meat because it is there. For instance, I like to eat the crunchy seasoned coating off of KFC chicken but the actual chicken tastes like licking the floor of a barnyard with added notes of sweat, sadness and death. The meat I like so far in no particular order:
A steak with pommes frites. So carnal, so classic.
All fish and seafood. Actually to be honest the entire time I was vegan I ate anchovies. That’s NOT a fish, it’s a seasoning.
Beef tongue tacos from Mesa Verde
Lamb kebab
ALL cured meats
I guess this is more me asking u for recommendations, or maybe u can take this as a recommendation to get really spreadsheety, statistical, unlikeable and weird with ur food preferences. Idk.
Solo thrifting adventures
This is the only thing that actually resets my brain. U need to commute to distant-ish suburbs, ideally alone, and just look around. I like to use thrifting as my north star, so I’ll look up an area which seems to have a large density of op shops, go there, and explore. This is so much fun if u have a car or live in Melbourne which is teeeny teeeny tiny, but I know it is possible in Sydney too. U just need to believe in the healing potential of such an adventure, and that it is worth a 40 minute-1.5hr commute. The commute is time to meditate, listen to music, and vibe. In Melbourne the end of the line is a destination. U can go to Greensborough, Werribee, or even Frankston! Get ur ass on that train!
I did this without a car the last time I was in Sydney and ended up in Maroubra [which by the way has FIVE op shops off one main street, jackpot]. I told my friend I’d been to Maroubra and she was like omg how was the beach and I was like there’s a beach?
Lemsip
I’ve been plagued by the flu lately and my bf introduced me to Lemsip which I’ve never had in my life bc my parents didn’t believe in flu meds/painkillers/soothing mechanisms when I was a kid. He fed it to me once when I was ill and wrapped in blankies and now I associate it with the luxury of being looked after and swaddled like a baby. It’s so good. I think it has painkillers in it or something because it’s addictive.
cheerio!!!