Issue 21
Welcome to The Unreliable Newsletter, my digital collection of curiosities and thoughts. I find that my interests do not fit any one particular subject and I hoard knowledge around history, fine arts, literature, music, social issues, and pop culture - there is nothing I enjoy more than sharing it with anyone who will listen. It is important to a reader of my newsletter to know the context in which I live; I have a chronic illness- which deeply impacts the way that I approach the world. I will often discuss it within my posts, and it is also what makes this newsletter so unreliable. A number of my readers bookmark my posts and continually return to it over and over period of time - I think that is an excellent way to approach it. Thank you for allowing me to contribute to your day.
something I have been thinking about
Hello my fine feathered friends. What a bout of brain fog I have had, which has made me a very bad Substacker. I have a few half written essays that I have started and not finished over the past few months and maybe one day they will be released into the world. I have been using what little brain power I have for my day job and becoming the Seattle Kraken’s (ice hockey) number one fan. I have only missed one game and that was not my fault.
I have been working on this newsletter on and off for a few months and I just need to send it out. Brain fog is truly one of the most excruciating things I have experienced. My brain is constantly full of dense fog and it makes the simplest things 1000 times harder than they need to be.
So I am going to strive for good enough for this one. I hope everyone is finding joy in something.
something short to read/watch/listen to
I was pretty riveted by Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara, a documentary by Erin Lee Carr (the daughter of the late great David Carr). As a side note - you can now watch the newest season (season 9) of Catfish: the TV show on HULU.
Rebecca Makkai’s commentary on her Zillow discoveries are pretty hilarious.
The Wondery podcast series, The Rise and Fall of Jodi Franke, about the former Mormon family vlogger Ruby Franke and therapist Jodi Hildebrandt child abuse case is very well done. If you are unfamiliar with the case- the child abuse is pretty extreme, just a heads up. Some of this story reminds me of the podcast, The Turning: The Sisters who Left, that exposed the abuse that happened within Mother Teresa’s Catholic order, the Missionaries of Charity- which was pretty shocking.
This Alex Edelman special is genius.
Illustrator and textile artist Domenica More Gordon's made a pilgrimage to Charleston House (the home of Venessa Bell and Duncan Grant) and made the most fantastic felted dogs, including one of Leonard Woolf, Dora Carrington, and Maynard Keynes.
I have expressed my love for the show Somebody Somewhere (the most underrated show ever) before on this newsletter a few times, Bridget Everett, the shows creator, writer, and star of the show did a really gorgeous and brave interview on the Modern Love podcast and reads a very special Modern Love essay about platonic love and deep friendship with a significant age gap- When Your Greatest Romance is Friendship.
Did you know that SALVADOR DALI wrote a cookbook?!?!
something from an archive
I found this while in my meaning of time rabbit hole
some more visual enrichment
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We also watch Somebody Somewhere and love it. We just watched the wedding last night and were both amused and touched.
Loved “Somebody Somewhere” Brilliant series and now one of my all time favorites.