December 19, 2018
It’s the last newsletter of 2018, y’all. Let’s get into it.
Notes from Summer: MY SEMESTER IS DONE AND I CAN RELAX (while I sift through fifteen books on diasporic poetry and poetics of memory!). All I want to do is watch cartoons, read poems, and make the occasional profit from editing other people’s work. Please send people to my DMs if they need some extra eyes. I have two that actually work really poorly but I do wear glasses!
Notes from Jillian: I’m in a book! The wonderful people at Glitch have put together a book full of some of the projects made by the Glitch community this year, and I’m in it! shouldidoit.glitch.me is a website I made one afternoon because my boyfriend has a really hard time saying no to freelance work, and I wanted to make a tool that would help him figure out which projects are actually worth taking on—turns out that’s something a lot of us need. Check it out on page 20 of Looky What We Made.
George is my friend & kin & community; we found each other by way of Palestinian flags in our Twitter bios and, I would say, have been pals since. In addition to being my friend, they are also one of the most prolific writers I know, with a gajillion pubs that are all like, the Best Poem(s) You’ve Ever Read, a full length collection coming way of 2020, and their already-released chapbook al youm is a masterpiece, demonstrating their ridiculous mastery of language as image and text as formula all at once. the specimen’s apology is no different, building and building upon George’s talent, making me wish I knew more math, making me re-read over & over again, making me want to write, making me warm, giving that overwhelming feeling of so much-ness. The illustrations by Leila are eerie/stunning, too, a perfect complement to George’s eerie/stunning work. Pre-order it here.
– Summer
Stardew Valley might be only good thing we have left in this world, truly. If you don’t already know what it is, please google it, because I do not have time to explain to you how wonderful it is to log off for a few hours and escape into a world where the only thing I have to worry about is my adorable farm and its adorable chickens and my adorable purple-haired wife, Abigail.
Stardew Valley recently added multiplayer support for PC and the Switch and it is…fantastic. I’ve coaxed my boyfriend into playing with me a few times, and I plan to bug all of my friends to start playing with me too, because my dream has always been to live in side-by-side cabins and water plants with the people I love.
– Jillian
I was introduced to Gourmet Makes by two friends attempting to reel me in from an anxiety spiral…it was the perfect choice. It is a well-known fact that I love watching food get made and I also love people trying their best and Claire Saffitz is a beautiful combination of both. The most wonderful thing about this series is the absolute lack of payoff—Claire presents perfectly recreated junk food to her colleagues at Bon Appetit, they take a bite, and say good job. It seems anticlimactic, but I know the feeling captured in her tired smile. I can’t say I’ve replicated kit-kats before in my kitchen’s shitty, shitty oven, but I have cooked meals that my friends have liked. I have cooked meals that my friends have liked even though I was floundering the entire time. The affirmation that even though you don’t know what you are doing, you do know what you are doing is the only good feeling. The payoff is joy. You can learn a little food science, too.
– Summer
I recently met the love of my life and it is this ridiculous furry blue coat that I bought myself as “self-care.” Ever since I read this Amanda Mull piece on silly winter coats, I’ve been jealous of everyone I see wearing huge, furry, colorful jackets like it’s the most casual thing in the world. So I finally did it! And it was the best purchase I’ve made in a long time. 10/10 highly recommend.
– Jillian