Donate
There’s no personal note from either of us this time. Instead, we’d like to direct you to letter #39 for some resources on how to support the Black Lives Matter movement right now. If you’re looking for a few additional places to send your money this week, we recommend The Okra Project and GLITS.
We recommend
📽️ Last Black Man in San Francisco
This movie had been on my list for an achingly long time, and I finally watched it on my birthday. It was so fucking good, and so different than what I expected. The energy of this movie. Time can pass and you don’t really notice it, or time can drag on and you notice it, but this film pulls you in such a way that you feel like viewing itself is momentum. What a tragedy it got so little awards recognition. I don’t know a person that watched this movie that didn’t think it was spectacular. The cinematography is ridiculously cool—there are so many weird, surreal shots that make the weirdness so stunning? The performances are endearing and just spectacular. Highly recommend, especially for folks in the bay, especially if you’re a transplant. You can watch it on Amazon or Kanopy if your library participates.
– Summer
đź“ş Cardcaptor Sakura
I watched all of Cardcaptor Sakura for the first time a few months ago, right when the city was starting to shut down and I suddenly had a lot more time to myself. I was contemplating a rewatch of Sailor Moon, which I have always found comforting to have on in the background while puttering around in my apartment, but started watching Cardcaptor Sakura at the suggestion of a friend instead and quickly fell in love with it. It’s cute and fun and joyful and I promise it will make you feel good. And it’s on Netflix now, so you really have no choice but to fall in love with it, too.
– Jillian
đź”— Permadeath by Marlin M. Jenkins
This essay is exactly the type of writing I aspire to, and the type of writing I want to see in the world—Marlin is always so good at identifying the thing in a game, that thing that makes you attached and emotional, and making you reflect on what those attachments look like, what they mean—whether or not you’ve actually played the game being discussed. The prose is also just so fucking beautiful. More good video game writing! More treating video games like the art they are!
– Summer
🍽️ Eat a snack!
To be honest, I struggled a lot trying to think of a second recommendation this week. We always tend toward recommending media that we’re enjoying, which I love, because sharing a book or a movie or a video game with your friends is one of the greatest joys there is. But right now I want to recommend that you eat a snack, because that feels like the most honest and true recommendation I can give—eat a snack, or drink a glass of water, or take a shower, or go for a short walk outside, or do whatever other tiny thing you can do right now to take care of yourself. (My favorite snacks today have been cheez-its and blackberries. In case you wanted to know.)
– Jillian