Updates! Links! Recommendations!

Sun-sleepy and sore from three days in the woods <3

Hello sweet subscribers thank you for being here !!!

I have some work-related projects I’m excited about finally coming together, so I thought I’d share those, along with a few recommendations for reading/watching/eating/etc.

I’m co-producing a docu-series with a team from Island TV and the KANPE foundation, focused on deconstructing the near constant media narrative we hear about violence in Haiti, and instead gives attention to art, music, trans rights, immigration, and politics. It’s a 3-part series that will be out in the Fall!

I mentioned in another newsletter the work I’ve been doing with Shelfy, the social media site-meets-publication, that serves as a combination of Myspace, Instagram, Goodreads, and Letterboxd. I actually helped edit this piece that came out last month, written by Rae Witte, which considers what it’s like dating someone with taste different from your own. Also keep an eye out for a Q&A we did with my old friend Tony Camaro, (who I wrote a profile on back in December) which should publish in the next couple of weeks. 

Edible Portland published a couple of fun local news stories I wrote, one about a low-waste grocery store and one about Maloof Wine’s summer tasting room.

Amidst writing and editing, late summer nights and sweet swim days, I finally got around to watching Problemista, directed by and starring Julio Torres. I have no idea what the difference between surrealism, fantasy, and magical realism is, but it’s filled with at least one of those. I loved this movie so much. It’s a brilliant and hilarious critique on the cruel bureaucracy of the immigration system, as it follows Torres’ character Alejandro as he tries to get an employer to sponsor his visa, allowing him to officially immigrate from El Salvador to the United States. This search leads him to Tilda Swinton’s character, Elizabeth, a high-strung and mostly unpleasant artist who’s trying to find an art gallery that will showcase the artwork of her cryogenically frozen husband. Torres starts working for her, and the movie follows his infuriating journey through this broken American system. I highly recommend watching, and it’s currently streaming on Max.

Also on the general topic of immigration, I just finished reading Lydia Kiesling’s novel The Golden State, which I was totally enraptured by. The book chronicles just a few days in the life of a mom and 2-year old daughter who take a sudden road trip from San Francisco to Altavista, and stay at the trailer the narrator Daphne’s grandparents left her. Daphne’s husband Engin, (her daughter Honey’s father) has been stuck in Turkey for eight months, where he’s from, after his Green Card was wrongfully taken from him at the airport when he tried to return to the States. This book covers a lot of ground for being a relatively simple and slow-moving story, from the mundane aspects of motherhood to anti-Muslim sentiment to secession movements in California, all with the backdrop of shrinking California towns baking in summer heat.

One more recommendation, taking a sharp turn from immigration narratives. Especially on hot days and with peak summer produce, I’ve been loving super quick and ideally very cold meals. One of my favorites as of late is a tomato nectarine salad. Cut up one of each, or use sungold cherry tomatoes sliced in half, add a little olive oil, salt, and pepper, ideally some torn basil and a little mozzarella, and cling to this dreamy season as long as we can. 

Last thing - I’m in search of music recommendations! If anyone wants to send me an album or artist, please do, and I’ll put together a list for the next newsletter.

I’ve joked with friends that I feel like my music interest peaked in the summer of 2017, when SZA’s Ctrl was playing everywhere I went; I’d bike home from work late at night listening to Tyler, the Creator’s Flower Boy; I’d cry over anything and everything to Frank Ocean’s Blonde. 

Aside from a Charli XCX obsession and a few albums that really hit within the last few years, I haven’t had this level of music adoration since. A few of the albums that have meant a lot to me since magical ~2017~ though, include Samia’s Honey, Cocteau Twin’s Heaven or Las Vegas, Japanese Breakfast’s Jubilee, Carole King’s Tapestry, Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud, Dijon’s Absolutely, Louis Prince’s Thirteen, Helado Negro’s This is How You Smile, and everything by Caroline Polachek, Channel Tres, and Sampha. Maybe the last seven years haven’t gone in vain music-wise, but still, send me anything you’re loving that I could also be loving. 

XO,

Alice