Met Gala bangers, fake books, songs by female actors, and who is the mole?

This week’s giveaway is ‘Cold People’ by Tom Rob Smith.

May 02, 2023

You know when you have one of those week’s where you feel in the wars in many small ways? That was me this week – Tuesday night I fell in aerials class and thought I’d broken my toe. I got x-rays and thankfully there’s no break, but I spent two days non-stop in a moonboot and it’s been super-sore since then, plus turning some cool shades of purple and blue. Most of last week I spent in a ‘light’ (still painful, but able to function) migraine haze, then two nights ago something bit me under my eye. I’m lumpy, bumpy, bruised, and feeling very, very sorry for myself.

The good news? I’ve had plenty of time while I haven’t been able to do much, other than limp between the bed, the couch, and the bathroom, to write. I’ve been working on a magazine article about sleep, which seems appropriate. I’ve been sending out flash fiction pieces to literary journals. There’s always plenty to do between writing this newsletter, freelance writing work, adding words to my novel manuscript, and writing new short stories and essays. Plus, social media aka the ultimate time-suck.

Some more answers have come through on the reader survey I’ve been doing, which is great. If you’ve held off, but are still interested in throwing a few answers my way (it will literally take under a minute), the link is here. This is the last week it’ll be open, so speak now or forever hold your peace.

Thanks very much, folks. Have a rad week!

News

1. Please say it ain’t so – people are decorating their homes with fake books. I’m all for the ‘to each their own’ mentality, but this just sounds like the worst of all worlds. I’d rather people bought books they were never intending to read. At least that still helps authors earn a living and if anyone housesits for you sometime, they have a library’s worth of options to entertain them. Or maybe instead of a faux display of books, you could fill your wall with a nice painting instead. I guess there’s a place for it, like the guy trying to disguise his garage home office, but this makes me a little bit sad.

2. I sure hope we’ve moved past tearing down people’s looks on the red carpet and horrid ‘hot or not’ lists, so I’m just gonna nominate the looks giving me life from the 2023 Met Gala and steer clear of criticising the attendees. This year, the fashion event is themed in honour of Karl Lagerfeld. It’s time to go big or go home, people! I’m really appreciating Rihanna’s ridiculously oversized-and-eye-catching puffy white flower coat and full skirt and Mary J. Blige’s very splitty blue-and-black coordinated dress and thigh high boots. Janelle Monae looked whimsically fabulous in a black-and-white ballroom coat fit for an Alice in Wonderland character, while Stephanie Hsu’s sparkly shirt-turned-dress also felt mighty appropriate considering the honouree and included pockets – win!

3. Extremely here for this – an Australian pairing is competing in a same-sex ballroom dancing championship in the UK, with trans and non-binary people also free to compete in whichever category they feel most comfortable in. The fellas are also advocating for more flexibility in traditional dance couples as far as who’s the leader and who’s the follower. Pretty sure I already did this back when I tried ballroom, which basically amounted to me strong-arming several old blokes I was paired with around the dance floor. I ain’t no follower, lol. Anyway, good on them.

Reviews

1. I tried Marc Jacobs ‘Perfect’ body lotion and I dunno, man. It’s an expensive lotion ($68 for 200ml) that smells like a sweet and very generic, slightly headache-inducing soap. Halfway between a cream and a gel, it goes on nicely and doesn’t leave your skin greasy once absorbed, so that’s a plus. I’d say it’s best purchased as an exy special-occasion gift for a Marc Jacobs-obsessed teen, but personally I’d just get them a Bluetooth speaker or a few graphic novels and call it a day.

2. PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: I don’t know whether you remember, but I certainly do – there was a TV show on free-to-air yonks ago called The Mole. It was probably the reality show I loved most out of any I’ve ever seen. (It didn’t hurt that I low-key knew one of the contestants in the first season and they made it quite far in the show.) If you’ve never watched it, a group of 10 or so players complete various tasks to add to a prize pot of money, but one of them is a traitor. Each episode, the contestants answer a set of questions about who the mole is, with the person scoring the most wrong answers being eliminated. I even had a birthday party themed around the show back in the day, with my partner organizing who the mole was so I didn’t know and could guess along with my other friends there. Loads of fun!!! Anyway, imagine my glee when I discovered a new season of the US version of the show on Netflix over the weekend. Set in Australia, as well! So of course, I had to binge the whole thing. It certainly lived up to expectations. And I was right about the mole in the end, although I wasn’t onto them from the start. Too many contestants were playing an excellent game of trying to look mole-like to confuse other players. Get onto this, particularly if you have a sick day and are looking for some light entertainment.

What I’m Feelin’ Right Now

Yayoi Kusama’s collection for Louis Vuitton and the accompanying Instagram filter, available here.
Cream-coloured everything.
Moroccan food – all my meals in a tagine from now on, please. : )
Cropped bomber jackets.
‘Beautiful’ by Anne-Marie.
Orange and yellow poppies.
Middle parts.

Giveaway

The winner of Really Good, Actually by Monica Heisey from last week’s giveaway is Rosalyn McFarlane. Hooray! Rosalyn, I’ve emailed you.

This week’s giveaway is Cold People by Tom Rob Smith. Pop your name and email address in here to enter.

Playlist of the Week

Actresses you might not have expected to release music, but have … and I’m lowkey into it:

1. Hardly Wait – Juliette Lewis

2. Look Up – Toni Collette & The Finish

3. Hope Has Wings – Brie Larson

4. Only When You’re Close - Zendaya

5. Fever – Katey Sagal

6. I Wanna Be – Emma Roberts

7. Lil Gems - Nikki Fre$h [aka Nicole Ritchie]

8. Two Against The World – Rose McGowan

9. Words I Couldn’t Say – Leighton Meester

10. BareNaked – Video Version – Jennifer Love Hewitt

11. Anywhere I Lay My Head – Scarlett Johansson

12. Loved – Lucy Hale

13. Rumors – Lindsay Lohan

14. Everything I’ve Got in My Pocket – Minnie Driver

15. The Alien Song – Milla Jovovich