august inputs: sinead o'connor, emily in paris, diet pepsi, gatorwine
Things I read, listened to, watched, and drank this month
I’ve taken most of my culture consumption records offline this year, but I wanted to share some of the most significant inputs for me this month.
Why Sinéad O’Connor Matters, Allyson McCabe
I saw McCabe read at an event in Providence in August and I was really intrigued. My middle name is Sinéad (a fact I keep somewhat close to my chest because I was embarrassed by it for a long time) and I grew up knowing the name Sinéad O’Connor like it was the name of a saint. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I came to know the more common cultural association with her: bald, crazy, Irish woman who ripped up the picture of the Pope on SNL. Still, I basically missed her as a cultural event altogether, even in the years before she died.
One moment I’ve seen on TikTok is O’Connor’s performance of “Famine,” which draws the line between British colonialism of Ireland to the violence, abuse, and substance dependency she saw in her times.
The first time I saw this video was in the context of a Korean-American comparing it to Japan’s 35-year occupation of Korea, a fraction of the time England colonized Ireland.
McCabe’s book is an addition to the Music Matters series, a collection of books on musical greats, and it feels in keeping with the reappraisals of difficult women we’ve done over the last decade to add O’Connor to that mix. I’m glad she gets this moment, even despite some of her cringier moments. I read this book quickly and walked away with a better sense of who O’Connor was in the culture, why she was ridiculed so much, and the legacy she’s left behind.
I’ve been mainlining Lizzy Hadfield’s YouTube channel this month.
She lives between London and NYC and I really love her style, which skews toward basic blacks, blues, and greys, natural fibers and simple cuts. She’s a big outfit re-wearer, which is unfortunately pretty rare in the fashion influencer space. Her videos manage to sit in a tricky sweet spot between sublime appreciation of fashion and practicality.
Emily in Paris seasons 2-4
This week I was recovering from sweating/drinking/not sleeping for five days in Italy so I just popped the show on in the background and got sucked right back in. It reminds me that I don’t think I ever finished Younger…
“Diet Pepsi” by Addison Rae
Nothing but respect for MY song of the summer!!! Late summer for me has been about the violent clash between what Winking Lobotomized Bimbocore and my own brain’s return from war (🫡) which has made it possible for me to write and think for what feels like the first time in years.
Men Have Called Her Crazy, Anna Marie Tendler
I didn’t get an adavanced reader’s copy of this book but I wanted to write about it when it came out, so I read it all the day it came out. What a trip. I didn’t feel extremely compelled by it as a piece of literature, but I found it fascinating as a specimen of a specific moment of celebrity, parasociality, and gender politics in our culture. I have empathy for the position Tendler found herself in when she was thrust into the spotlight after her high-profile divorce, and I wonder what I would do in her shoes. Read my review on Defector here (gift link!).
The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence
I was so excited to see her for the first time but I was not prepared for her MAGNITUDE. I could have slept on the steps all night and been happy as a clam. I feel like I’ve eaten a huge Thanksgiving feast and I am filled up for a little bit on the resplendence of human accomplishment.
Gatorwine
Half light blue Gatorade (or Powerade, in our case), half red wine (doesn’t matter what kind). 100% cursed—and delicious. Read about it here.