Hi friends,
After an unintentional hiatus, Cold Brew is back in action. I missed this little corner of the Internet! As we inch closer to this newsletter’s 2nd birthday in just a few months, however, I think it’s due time to change things up a bit and keep it fresh. I’m not sure yet what the new-and-improved Cold Brew will look and feel like, but stay tuned. Anyway, I’m easing back into it today with some things I’ve read, consumed, appreciated over the last however-long:
First things first, essential reading by Jia Tolentino: We’re Not Going Back to the Time Before Roe v. Wade. We’re Going Somewhere Worse. No comment necessary.
A brief but interesting dive for the film and TV nerds reading this, on screenshot marketing.
Having recently attempted due diligence at Duolingo Portuguese (and having solely learnt gems like ‘the cat drinks a beer’), I found this Slate article delightfully worthwhile: Why Are Duolingo’s Sentences So Weird?
Filed under one of the most engrossing and educational New Yorker long-reads I’ve read in awhile: The Theft of the Commons: Across centuries, land that was collectively worked by the landless was claimed by the landed, and the age of private property was born. Few writers do class consciousness better than Eula Biss. This piece ties together so many threads that lie latent in contemporary society that we don’t tend to think about - including the way that language holds etymological weight from previous eras and ways of living.
How Messy Millennial Woman Became TV’s Most Tedious Trope, a great piece in the Guardian about the over-saturation of the television trend of hot-mess bad-decision-making millennial young women characters in the past 15 years. I agree, it’s getting old, and this is worth a read.
That said... the above article is in response to the recent release of Everything I Know About Love, the BBC adaptation loosely based on Dolly Alderton’s bestselling memoir, which I’ve been watching and very much enjoying. I don’t know if I think it’s a good series, but suppose I like it for the nostalgia/relatability factor? The girls are 24 in 2012, but in its specific hallmarks of early-20s malaise, it rings true for anyone who came of age in Britain in the past 10 years. (Also just some extremely of-this-demographic funny moments, like when the girls are taking drugs in a club toilet on a night out, and normally buttoned-up sidekick Birdy says with exhilaration: ‘I feel like I’m in Trainspotting!’ only to be promptly shot down by protagonist Maggie, who reminds Birdy that she’s literally wearing a dress by Karen Millen.)
An oldie but goodie: this 2018 interview from Bomb Magazine with poet Ada Limón (whose work I wrote about here).
Finally - been listening to new Kendrick Lamar and Maggie Rogers tunes, eating a lot of pastéis de nata, and reading The Book of Disquiet by Fernando Pessoa (finished it on the plane ride home, fittingly).
That’s all for today. ‘Til next time,
Maddy