Hacking as Self-Care, And Other 2019 SXSW Panel Ideas (You're Welcome.)
Sweethearts! It’s Monday, it’s mid-October, and I actually ventured out of my apartment to go to a music festival in the hot, hot sun yesterday - my slight sunburn can attest to my with-it-ness.
LAST CALL FOR ODD SALON PITCHES! Y’all, I’m curating Odd Salon HERO on Nov 5 and am still on the lookout for great stories to be told, and the storytellers to tell them! So If you’ve been to Odd Salon and are interested in pitching, please head on over to OddSalon.com/Speak and get those submissions in!
TO THE INTERNET!
The fabulous fabric footwear company TOM’S had their email management system hacked, and the result was… kind of nice?
This story about how in SF’s Mission district, internet star Otis the Pug was stolen and then recovered is so very interesting and painstakingly reported, and includes a bittersweet coda.
I liked this piece on the mental and emotional weight of hidden domestic labors, and how an imbalance of awareness and performance can place great strain on any relationship, though I think has two separate theses. One, that the gulf between one half of a partnership volunteering to do a project with little-to-no awareness of the full extent of planning and effort that goes into it can lead to resentment, in that it can reveal how one half of the partnership is unaware of the amount of actual work performed by the other. And two, because of our socialization, the uneven distribution of those labors tend to fall on women: “And cooking is still a highly feminized pursuit; it's a skill girls are implicitly expected not only to learn, but enjoy doing. To be feminine, we are told, we must be hospitable, nurturing, giving — qualities that are intimately bound up with feeding those around us.”
And finally, kicking it over to McSweeney’s for your Monday cringe-take: It’s Extremely Divisive Of You To Tell The Truth. Here’s your satirical meditation for the day: “What’s scary is that you don’t understand how your words affect other people. When you say true stuff, then other people might get the disturbing idea to research what you said, learn something, and then continue to learn things.”
Hey, I like you. Be kind to each other.
Xoxo Amy