Algorithm-Free Reco List, No. 23
Stupid phones, smart birds, teen melodrama, etc.
Hello!
Time for the monthly collection of things and ideas I can’t shut up about. Let’s get right into it.
The Summer I Turned Pretty
Is this teen melodrama good, you might ask? And friend, I am here to inform you that you would be asking the wrong question. But for the record, it’s an absolute mess. It’s filled with Taylor Swift needle drops and teens being teens and manipulative adults and angst. So much angst. My only regret is not watching (and bullying all my friends into watching too) when it began airing in 2022. I’m yet to dive into season three, but at this juncture, I am firmly team Jeremiah.
“Touching things for the first time ever”
Incredible TikTok series, which is exactly what it sounds like.
Green Boy
A few weeks ago, a corpse flower named “Green Boy” bloomed at The Huntington Gardens. As a member (I love writing from the Chinese Garden), I kept my eye on the bloom, nabbed a ticket the second it began, waited in a sizable line, and got my sniff. It was gross. For those with inquiring minds, I’d describe the scent profile as “dumpster meets dead rodent stuck under the deck for a solid month in the summer, but earthier and more vegetal.”
KPop Demon Hunters
This is a perfect film. It’s 96 minutes, genuinely funny, appropriate to watch with a child, and front-to-back packed with the kind of flawless pop songs that are so catchy they feel inevitable, like they have existed since whenever pop music was invented. My only qualm was that it should have had a theatrical release.
This bird saying “hi baby” and then strutting off
Short Story Short
This is
’s newsletter where she keeps track of all the short stories she reads, stars her favorites, and then picks one each month to highly recommend, complete with a PDF download. Perfect newsletter concept! I’m also excited for her collection, My Dear You, which comes out next year.Amy Sedaris’ apartment, specifically this dollhouse fireplace
Look at it! (The rest of the tour is here.)
“Good vs. Productive”
I had noticed for awhile that I was measuring how “good” my day was based on how productive it was able to be. And then I read Arianna Rebolini’s Better (I wrote a bunch about it here), which helped me fully reframe this. I’ve ever started ending my morning pages with: Today will be productive if…[insert the three most important tasks I have to do]. and then Today will be good if…[insert truly anything that is not “productive”]. It’s so much nicer to both set the bar for “good” and recount “good” when you’re talking about things like walking around outside, being present, reaching out to a friend, etc. Sort of feels like double-dipping on my gratitude practice.
This review of The Unihertz Jelly 2
I will not climb onto my soapbox today about how we do not need new iPhones every year and buying into such a mentality is a poison. I will, HOWEVER, endorse this review of “The world's stupidest, smallest smartphone” by Dan Nosowitz via
. Yes, it’s three years old. But I had a blast reading a wildly detailed product review and further dive into the “fucked up phone” landscape, which is not something I ever imagined I’d enjoy. When my iPhone 12 mini (the last reasonably sized phone Apple ever made!) bites the dust, I will be strongly considering going freako mode.This newsletter brought to you by:
Trader Joe’s All Butter Apricot Shortbread Cookies, although I wish the packaging weren’t built in a lab to expediting staleness.
Spending the last week at StoryBoard workshopping with Rufi Thorpe and an impossibly talented/thoughtful cohort of other writers. Unabashedly grateful!
Michelle, the only person I know willing to match the energy of me ranting about how the villain of The Summer I Turned Pretty is secretly Susannah and we’d actually all be monsters if our moms nicknamed us “Belly.” (If you also watch TSITP, please tap in! If only for Michelle’s sanity!)
Okay I am OBSESSED with The Summer I Turned Pretty and am absolutely invested in whether or not you're still team Jeremiah when you start season 3. Is it a great show? No! Is it great television? YES!