Reading List: My Year Of Playing Guitar Every Darned Day Has Reminded Me That Knowing How To Play G, Em, Am, C And F Means You Can Play Most Tunes That Are Fun To Sing. Yay For Practice.
Good morning, my doves! Missive’s coming at you a bit late this morning, since I am trying to practice what I preach as a manager and take a day to get all of the appointments I’ve put off for the past year on the calendar. And as a part of that, I am writing this from outside the Ferry Building in SF, listening to sassy seagulls and the chatter of the far-fewer commuters than I am used to. When I lived In Oakland, I sometimes got to work via the Ferry, which meant jumping on a boat with a bunch of strangers, sailing under the Bay Bridge with the sun at our backs, smelling boat fuel and far-off salt and eucalyptus, disembarking as a throng, jostling backpacks and elbows, heads down in phones. Today, it’s quiet - a faint chill lingering from the morning fog, (presumably) vaccinated walkers and joggers taking advantage of the new CDC guidelines, and I sit with a decaf Blue Bottle on an International Orange picnic table as brackish bay water slaps against the pier. It’s pretty incredible and just what I need this morning.
So let’s get to the long reads, shall we?
Tayla Zaxm, What ultimate Frisbee can teach us about Jon Ossoff (Forward) - My goodness, as I mention in the tweet below, I am already a huge Ossoff fan but let me tell you, I would have had the biggest crush on Jon Ossoff in high school and I am one hundred percent convinced he would have been too cool for me.
Eve Crawford Peyton, I Was 12 When We Met (Slate) - Content warning: contains references to grooming and sexual assault. I mentioned a few months ago how good I found Jamie Loftus’s “Lolita Podcast” but how hard I found it to get through. This first person account of incidents with Roth biographer Blake Bailey, currently accused of sexual assault and other abuses of the teacher/student relationship, is devastating. And also reminds me of a tweet I saw that I can’t find now that said something about how we call 16-year-olds “girls” when they have political opinions, but “young women” when they’re being preyed upon by men (see also: the latestDaily Beast bombshell on Matt Gaetz.)
Ben Jacobs, Elected and extremely online: modern political life is bad for us all (The News Station) I love me some snarky politician tweets like the rest of us, but agree wholeheartedly that we all need to step away from our phones right about now.
Talia Lavin, Get ready for Blob Girl Summer (INSIDER) - As someone who is personally struggling with what it means to emerge back into society with the body I am in—which may have gained a few pounds and got nice and squishy, but it got me through a damned pandemic by myself in a studio apartment!!—Lavin’s piece hit deep.
Casey Newton, 🚨 What really happened at Basecamp (Platformer) - All I will say is that Casey Newton is SO DAMNED GOOD AT HIS JOB.
Anyhoo, that’s it, that’s all! Have a restful weekend, schedule that jab if you are able, get outside if you can, wear your darned mask when you need to, and be kind to yourself, won’t you?
xoxo Amy