🐣 goo goo gaga i adult teen 🐣

On adult babying, with many a trend thought starter.

More Than 5,000 Dead in Libya
The floods in Libya are very sad and has been compared to post-Hurricane Kartina New Orleans several times. It seems like…every week there’s a different natural disaster!

World at ‘beginning of end’ of fossil fuel era
Earth outside safe operating space for humanity’
Shot, chaser.

iPhone 15 Changes to Its USB-C Charger
Backhanded win for the world and our having too many cords!! (Also, the new double tap feature for the watch…is already available, as it is an accessibility tool.) (Also also: Apple, how are you going to un-radiate my brain because I’ve slept next to my iPhone 12 since I got it?)

McCarthy Orders Biden Impeachment Inquiry
losers (meanwhile, Hunter “The Loser” Biden was indicted)

North Korea's Kim arrives in eastern Russian city
Russia's Putin praises Elon Musk
More losers!!!!! The Elon hits from the book keep coming too.

Romney to Retire, Calling for a 'New Generation'
An aging representative advocating for a “new generation of leaders”? In my America? UNHEARD OF!! Rare w.

Tim Gurner call for more unemployment
This week in Eat The Rich: an Australian multi-millionaire said “we need to see unemployment rise” and that companies need to “kill that attitude” of employee arrogance after Covid. (Meanwhile, you have employees posting bootlicking shit like this.)

Unprecedented Strike at All Three Detroit Automakers
Grindr loses half its staff after return-to-office
"Labor is definitely having a moment"
Union news of the week! The auto union leader is great, and Grindr’s “return-to-office” item was actually a union busting move.

Seattle police officer joked after woman's death
"Jaahnavi Kandulanwas 26 years old 💜"
This is absolutely disgusting and very, very sad. What morally depraved shitheads!

MGM casino hack, explained
I truly do not care about the Vegas hacking, but it’s “big news” this week.

CDC Recommends New Covid Vaccines for All
Get your new Covid shot!! The CDC says you need one!!

Common over-the-counter decongestant doesn't work
Also stop buying Sudafed: it doesn’t work! Officially, the FDA says!!

A ufologist claims to show 2 alien corpses
Big story of the week! And their little faces! This is so unserious, especially considering the scientist “has previously been associated with claims of ‘alien’ discoveries that have later been debunked.” (Related: the phrase “unboxing aliens” which is…so good.)

9/11 was on Monday, which also meant Monday was a social media holiday: who is going to goof the greatest by trying to acknowledge the Boomer-est sad day of the year? Was it DraftKings? Your local supermarket? A queerphobic poster? A Timothee Chalamet stan? Madison Cawthorn? Cats who can talk? Beyoncé?

No, no: it was none of them. The goofiest was Gen Z, as there was chatter that a lot of young people’s only understand this day in American history via memes. Enough has been said about 9/11 memes (which I love), but the result of Millennial-types using the day’s imagery and words as “jokes” (think Bush learning about 9/11, think Glitter) has trickled down to younger people identifying the visual language as reaction images instead of reality. This was repeated again and again on Monday, as stories of the disconnect between the lived reality of September 11 and young people seeing this as a bit of an lol fairy tale. This is no discredit to Gen Z – and has more to do with over-patriotic attitudes and an inability for older and generations to connect – but it speaks to a larger Gen Z (and internet) problem: a stunning lack of self-awareness.

Yes, this can be attributed to youth-based crassness and the general child genius power one feels in their teens and twenties before the weight of reality crashes into you in your thirties. But the bigger subject that this is couched in is the combining of this lack of self-awareness with a distinct ignorance of time. Yes, of course, younger people are getting older younger and are generally “smarter” because of the internet – but this has also created an infrastructure of willful ignorance and overconfidence, a truly dreadful combination. I see this most with the “teenager in your 20s” trend, which is a reskinned version of the Millennial “adulting” and “I’m baby” trends. To be an adult child – parents teaching you how to commute, playing dumb to eschew responsibility, not knowing how to say “debt” – is to adopt the performance of adulthood without accepting any of the responsibility or work. Combined with girl shopping and girl math and girl dinner, adulthood – Life. – becomes an aesthetic, a role playing, instead of a reality.

This feels like another checking-of-a-box in the boomerification of Gen Z, a subject we’ve discussed before. Perhaps it’s that snappy lack-of-grace and coarse demandingness, but the lines between the two groups inch closer, becoming a distorted mirror depicting differences in the details but the same spirit. This is also very interesting when compared to Gen A, who are in the toilet and over-sexualized, using our language while acting in their own coming of age movies.

Time is key. The one thing that all of us have – which we experience in our own way, which is understood individually – is time. The older you get, the more aware of how your experience of time shapes your world and world view, which allows a grace and sympathetic pity instead of anger when encountering such differences. But, for the child, this is difficult to see and understand. But for the child in their twenties? Understanding time can go a long way – and that takes thinking beyond the present. Naturally, to do so would mean growing up.

Hot Chip Challenge Led to 14-Year-Old’s Death
Oof.

'Fried rice syndrome' is freaking out TikTok
“bacteria called Bacillus cereus”
Big talk on TikTok this week about “fried rice syndrome” and how you can die from eating starchy foods left out. In other news…yall need to know basic food safety!!

How over is NYC Airbnb?
There has been so much talk about how Airbnb is on the decline. I still use it but…it definitely doesn’t hit the same as it did!

The Real Houselife of Jenna Lyons
I have long been a Jenna Lyons lover and am fascinated by her pivot-to-RHONY but, having seen her HBO show, I know this is to sell fake eyelashes. The feature explores this – and is good!

The babysitter who inspired The Virgin Suicides
My favorite story of the week, the author Jeffrey Eugenides explains the inspiration for his book The Virgin Suicides. It’s interesting! Especially the part about the high school teacher (which…sounds like the teacher needs to uplevel their game).

How birthdays became week-long blowouts
I have been a week-long-birthday celebrator for years, ever since the late aughts when I was living with my aunt who always abided by this belief. And it’s true! When else do you get to celebrate yourself? If you’re not a selfish person who over-indulges, take that week to do you.

Boebert escorted out of 'Beetlejuice'
Absolutely delicious. There’s video too! And she was groping!!

“volunteering for large tech companies”
This Morning Brew TikTok will put tech and social media use in a different perspective.

fabric presents Saoirse
Beige at Movement Detroit 2023
Two recent mixes that have gotten me through this week: Saoirse’s fabric mix is maybe the best dance release of the year, but is most remarkable to me as her way of mixing sounds is so painterly, gestural, like filling a canvas; Beige’s mix is a collage that yields the spiritual, using music you know (and don’t know) to give a sense of communing, which certainly plays into their young oeuvre of divinity interrogating dance. Both are fun, but are deeper than they appear!

I’m moving to a new apartment (Ugh.) (But yay!) and my time has been sucked up by packing and logistics. Fun! Here are a few loglines of essays I wanted to write but didn’t have time to. Pick your favorite and imagine I rambled about it for 800 more words!!

• Not So Sweethearts: Was this the summer where the dazzle of celebrity ended? What started with Lizzo, what was hammered home by Doja, and has been belabored now by Ashton and Mila and Oprah and Drew. We even got white woman tears!! And Sean Penn talking about melting his Oscar. Celebrities without handlers are now inadvertent tools to hammer home what the multi-millionaires are saying: we are dumb, we are not like you, and you should strip us of our power.

• The Power & Pain of Fandom: Fandom is taking a turn, as their lust for more is resulting in mania. See the Harry Styles fans driven crazy by AI leaks, see the Club Chalamet extended meltdown – and all of it is based on their desire for more. Perhaps this will drive fans to set boundaries? Again: Doja was right. Being a stan is embarrassing!

• Friends For Friend: The friendship industrial complex is churning again!! I’ve written about friendships again and again and, as someone basically friendless in a new city, I can say: yes, we need help and, yes, we all need to play. (Related and not: a battle of the sexes emerged on TikTok this week: men are always thinking about the Roman Empire while women are always thinking about an ex-best friend. By this metric, I am firmly non-male.)

• Cringe 3.0: Something is happening with over-sharing and I think it has to do with a new way of (over-)sharing done by Millennials, which does and doesn’t play into a self-awareness of cringe (and might have more to do with loneliness). The best example is the viral and painful “love surge” which inspired a lot of reactions, but there’s a similar vibe from pancake girl and the adopting of the best friend. I think this has to do with making every little part of your life consumable, but not knowing what is edible.

• Home, The Amusement Park: At the intersection of secularism and Disney Adults, we have Halloween 2023. What do I mean? I wrote last year about how Halloween decorations are more plentiful and showing up earlier, which has now evolved into the feeling that decorating your house is an exercise in turning your home into a Disney ride. This isn’t “bad,” but all these decorations are going to go in landfills, there are certainly better uses of our time, and all of this is orchestrated by stores. What irks me most is it takes an inherently creative act (Decorating!) and turns it into the least interesting thing possible (Shopping!). 

• Our Dolls, Ourselves: We all see ourselves as the outsider, no matter how much on the inside we are. This is why we root so hard (and identify with) the underdog! This has become a neo-viral formula too, which brands and advertising is progressively glomming onto. What do I mean? Meet @grwmwithlily8, an adorable high school sophomore with epidermolysis bullosa who started the week with zero followers and is ending it with over 75K (as of this writing) all because she makes grwm content to share her positivity. She is visibly different and sweet, her spark undeniable. There’s a similar feeling with the viral dancing and kicking queens from China, who have become memes due to difference (although they are willing participants). This trend is where voyeurism meets 2020s self-othering.

And, just like that, I accidentally wrote too much. Whoops!

"we come to this place"
Best social ad this year.

“why am i poor”
"these auction options are....?"
“Cocktails and 9/11”
“auction is getting out of hand”
“tries to read”
“David Cronenberg will tell”
The SAG/WGA auctions created a lot of memes.

"so unapologetically white"
“Lil Mama shrugged”
“iconically exited the VMAs”
“performances by dorgle”
“not saweetie forgetting she’s there to work”
“teacher told me to read”
“y’all….”
“saweetie at the vmas”
The VMAs were lame, but a roundup of funny takes and other miscellanea. The last four items about Saweetie are all of us at our jobs.

“a backlot for influencers”
I have a few friends who are in Dubai and, while I occasionally think it could be interesting, this is the best take. Does anyone…actually live there?

“telfeezy”
"girl dinner"
These NYC Y2K dream girls and their Telfar bags are the conductors in the train that is my brain (and A24 hired them to make a video).

“difference between dressing and stuffing”
And I would like both of their cooking!

“Do you have time for God?”
A perfect, perfect TikTok.

“it said sauce here??”
As someone said in the comments, this is a food review in Simlish that makes you feel like you’re having a stroke.

"TOAD GASOLINA"
Please watch AI Toad from Super Mario sing “Gasolina.”

And, finally, me to myself after I send out this email.

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