I realized yesterday I haven’t written an actual post beyond Link Parties in a very long time — in May, I’m hoping to fix that. I miss writing for myself and this blog, but I need to get on top of some other professional work that’s starting to get overwhelming. Thank you for reading, even when I don’t have much to say.
Here’s this week’s party:
1. A very interesting story on Coachella and its founder.
2. Daniel Patterson, Locol and a valiant goal to change fast food.
3. The DAMN. exit survey. My favorite answer: “Imagine being this much better at your job than everyone else.”
4. Tim Kaine, post-election and back in the Senate.
Somewhere in the sort-of-not-really desert, California, USA.
March was a marathon month, and I suspect the next 30 days are going to feel like a sprint. I kickstarted April with a day trip in and around the desert: a wildflower walk, a mirrored house art installation and the best milkshakes. April, here I come — no bad days.
This week I got promoted (!) and spent much of my work time planning a few projects that are not only going to make a positive difference in many students’ experiences, but make me feel more creatively fulfilled than ever before. I know that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
An out-of-this-world mural next to an LA coffee shop.
Here’s what I’ve read lately:
1. Margaret Atwood on The Handmaid’s Tale. (Thank you to Abi for the recommendation.)
2. This story about a food-service director in the unhealthiest city in America and how she revolutionized her students’ school lunches made me tear up — no child deserves to go without lunch, and the current political climate is edging that notion towards reality.
3. This interview with Jack White is surprisingly soft (in that he seems like an old soul) and very good.
And a bonus: I finally finished the first season of The Young Pope and really enjoyed it. If you’re cool with a chain-smoking pope / shady cardinals and find absurd Italian art cinema to be right up your alley, I’d recommend it.
2. Janet Mock brilliantly articulates why the federal government should protect trans rights.
3. Inside the diversity shakeup at the Oscars. (I hadn’t really thought about it, but it’s unsurprising to know that the behind-the-scenes lobbying and strategizing is very suspect.)
Here’s something I want to share that recently came back to me — in an episode of Twin Peaks (side note: I have a soft spot for this show and I hope the revival isn’t garbage), FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper gives the Twin Peaks sheriff, Harry Truman, a solid gold piece of advice. “Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret,” he says. “Every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it. Don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the men’s store, a catnap in your office chair, or two cups of good, hot black coffee.”
That’s the advice I also have for you. I’m not a big fan of the treat yo’self ethos that millennials like to use as an excuse for spending money, but both you and I should enjoy life’s small joys when they come. I hope you feel the same way.
Here’s what I read this week:
1. I already pre-ordered Joan Didion’s South and West weeks ago, and this review makes me excited to get my hands on it.
5. The fear of a feminist future. (This essay was written back in October pre-election and makes the assumption Hillary Clinton would be president, which makes this extra oooof.)
And a bonus: I’ve become a Candle Person and this one is my favorite so far.
1. This article about how the media treats leaks is good on its own, but I want to point out a sentence that contextualized John Podesta’s emails in an eye-opening way, at least for me: “the conversation around the emails became a battle over what they really were and the significance of how they came to be.”
Zoë Lance. 
