five things #3: some pics
it's been a long week (it's wednesday)
Sorry for being late! It took only two weeks to fall off the bandwagon, but I promise that the hellish week that I’ve had has been to blame. CNY 2024 is proving to be insane, and I almost wish it was how it was last year when a death in the family meant we had absolutely nothing to do but play mahjong. I have far too few brain cells left to write much this week, so here is a post full of photos instead.
If you’re celebrating this year, Gong Xi Fa Cai! If you aren’t, I hope you get all the rest you crave.
I.
It’s been a harrowing few days, so the fucks-field I tend has gone fallow.
The kitchen sink and fridge have given up on me, the cats (Arthur) are peeing in protest, and there is too much to clean before Chinese New Year, and anyone I could have hired has already gone on holiday. I’ve had cleaners and couriers cancel on me, and the minor inconvenience of a broken ticketing machine nearly brought me to tears. I had had a little piece about my office window planned, but instead, please have a picture of the cat tree I built when I was so angry that I couldn’t sleep.
II.
In my newsletter about pulping your unwanted books, I mentioned Thorstein Veblen, who coined the term “conspicuous consumption” back in 1899. What I didn’t mention — or know — was that Veblen was hot.
The slouch! The giant moustache! The perfectly angled arm suggesting an insouciance that is completely absent in the face of the laconic intensity of his stare! Eyes that seem to peer straight to the bottom of the world, shadowed by cynicism but also the immense wisdom beyond his time! The artfully rumpled clothes of a university don, but on the body of a recluse living in the Swiss mountains! The weird, greasy centre-parted hair, that pretends to imply schoolboy, but all you can think of is a dark room in a Soviet-era prison lit by a single hanging lightbulb, a white tank and grey trousers, nothing but a bench, leathers, and maybe a drain! The size of him! This s what people want Adam Driver to be but what he desperately cannot achieve!
If you knew he was hot, I am offended you didn’t tell me.
III.
If you weren’t on Twitter during the 2024 Grammys, you might have missed the outpouring of love for Tracy Chapman, who performed her classic hit “Fast Car” alongside Luke Combs, the white country dude who helped bring the song back to mainstream consciousness before immediately benefiting from a TikTok bump.
I don’t have much to say about it except that I watched the clips of Chapman perform like 20 times, and the radiance of her face!!! I kept crying!!! Luke Combs!!!!
Here it is if you haven’t seen it:
https://twitter.com/RealBrittain/status/1754316190552375724
IV.
I was — how would you put it — extremely excited about a new Taylor album and I have more I want to say about it next week, but the immediate thoughts are: “When did we get catapulted back to 2013?????”
V.
Over the last three years I’ve lived with at least 1 cat, and this last bit is dedicated to Smudge, who was a real one the whole time we were housemates. I’m a little sad that I don’t get to see him everyday now that we’ve both moved, but I hope he’s doing okay and enjoying his new home.
We’ve not moved far from each other, but it’ll be different now that we’re not living in the same space anymore.
Much love,
Sam.