we’d be happier if we dreamt more 🌅

On the need for imagination in an increasingly cynical world, and an interview with a musician bring back dionysian pleasure.

Aug 30, 2026

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I meant to do this last week but, this week in NYC, I’m going to be attending the Semafor Business on Luxury event, if anyone else is going to be there. This is a light week for me, thank heavens, but the following week I’ll be doing more things and will be sure to share.
🦿HIP REPLACEMENT🦿 this week features returning guest ANU who joins Ben Dietz and I to chat Gen Z’s love of theaters, generational thoughts on socialism, and Buc-ee’s as a symbol of the widening cultural influence of the south. Listen on Substack, YouTube, and Spotify!

Nepal Flood Kills 157, Hundreds Missing
What probably triggered the Nepal flood
“terrifying wall of water”
“heavy flooding”

The Nepalese flood is one of the more devastating things captured on video, a disaster that feels like we shouldn’t be seeing (And maybe we shouldn’t!) but also allows us to witness what happens when the world collapses due to our enabling climate shifts. Why is this a climate thing? The flood was caused by the melting of mountain glaciers, which triggered an avalanche turned landslide turned flood. (Logging for posterity too: the tornado in France.)

Oceans hit hottest temperature on record

“The average surface temperature was 21.1C” which, for my Americans, means the water is nearly 70º F. Disgusting, not because that’s an “uncomfortable” temperature to swim in but because this is inclusive of waters outside polar regions, which should not be that warm. Similarly, LA shouldn’t be this humid!!

Meta to Pay $17.1B Over Social Media Addiction

A huge deal! Which plays into the wider picture of global “regulation” of social media. Stay tuned, as this story is far from over (and whose meaning is murky, even if “a win”).

Anthropic wants investors it’s worth $30T
“> world GDP: ~$120T”
Bill Gates warns ‘there is no plan’ for AI

Two sides of the same sham coin: Anthropic saying its potential revenue is a fourth of the global GDP is delulu, as is Bill Gates trying to storm the conversation as if a champion of the people. All losers, none of which benefit the real people they claim to be “helping.” At least Australia banned AI music from its charts, which is another performative techno-political gesture from the country.

Black Communities Left in the Dark

Power outages are having a moment, specifically around Black communities who are being literally left in the dark. Meanwhile, Trump is rambling about Lake Ontario in a cadence that sounds like his fucking dentures are falling out, all obscuring an ongoing history of fucking over places like Gary.

Court eases path for limits on mail-in ballots

This week in dissolving democracy, less in the action (Which is very anti-democratic.) but more in casting incredible doubt about the efficacy of voting in a country where it’s hard enough to get people voting in the first place.

Two Unvaccinated People Died From Measles
RFK’s anti-vax statements prove critics correct

How fast we jump from last week’s back-to-school anti-vax rumblings to the deaths of unvaccinated adults from measles, which RFK says is “fabricated.” Sure. Either way, don’t let this news obscure rising American Covid rates! Curious when to get vaccinated for flu and Covid this year? Your Local Epidemiologist says to try to hold off until October or November, if you can. (A coda here, or at least funny for my cradle Catholics: Florida Catholics have swatted away state law regarding vaccines for kids being optional, as the faith believes in science. My nascent Catholicism is certainly being piqued!)

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Margaret Qualley wore Matthieu Blazy’s Chanel half-shoe to the premiere of The Dog Stars, which became an object of the public’s imagination. The shoes are heels laced at the ankle, a design evocative of the Vibram FiveFingers toe shoes that pull back further on the design, placing your unadorned feet on a pedestal. The design platforms the human body and has inspired a discourse that is both surprising and stupid but interesting: “At least her heels were protected?” The Cut joked, W described them as both “disintegrated” and “cheeky,” Marie Claire remarked on her coordinated pedicure, and Who What Wear commended the actress for her bravery. “Hop on the freaky shoe grind,” Mandy Lee @oldloserinbrooklyn said, explaining that the shoe is less a sarcastic statement and more a fabulous flex few could pull off. The best analysis came from rian phin, who framed the shoe as a “symbol of human fragility.” “It’s a beautiful demonstration of risk and self-sacrifice,” she explained, connecting the impracticality of the design with imagination, fantasy, whimsy. “If she did wear it anywhere other than a red carpet, she’s putting herself in harm’s way,” Rian added. These shoes work — and are so divisive — because they call attention to life and humanity, whose lack of functionality questions usefulness in times where everything must “work,” where there is little grace for the imperfect or unable. This can be disorienting in such inhumane times.

The 2020s has mostly been a hangover of the 2010s, but Margaret and her half-shoes feel like a peek into the future: it’s not that the design will be ubiquitous but this pleasure in a fantasy provided by Blazy is a feeling that could (and should) come “after” this moment. When we compare Blazy’s Chanel to something like Demna’s Gucci, you see a light at the end of the tunnel, or a framing of the then with the now. Demna’s approach is deeply ironic and quite cynical, which is why his Balenciaga “naked” shoe from last year failed to capture the same public imagination. His latest brand moment for Gucci featuring Kate Moss lipsynching to “Wicked Game” isn’t getting the same buzz either, crumpling under a second’s long red carpet moment. The “artistic” ad is a remaking of The Knife’s “Pass This On” that extends a campaign involving figures like a literally leathery Tom Brady. The ad is beautiful and touching in a way, but the context is placed within the designer’s language and associations with communities shadowed by war and class appropriations, offering Eastern European taboo sex appeal at a time when such taboos are a reality for many. (Plus, rhyming the campaign with The Knife’s video and song feels hollow considering the original framed a drag artist singing a song about taboo love as people stare her down, threatening with looks, only for the ice to break. A brand mirroring this without a queer centering feels like an aging mouth without teeth.) There is no joke in this ad, despite the antithetical spring-y “Primavera” title as it debuts in autumn’s eve. There is no fantasy, no cheer, but plenty of pantomime. The response was subdued: V spoke of moments of desire recognized; “He believes we need those IRL moments,” Nylon said of Demna’s gesture; WWD emphasized strangers falling in love; InStyle claimed the backless back of Kate’s dress was the real star of the video. The connection to The Knife was what broke most in my feed. “Performance” is a word that comes to mind, much like Gucci’s sponsoring Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodríguez’s recent “wedding” in Vogue. “Is this a joke?” you wonder upon encounter. “Am I being pranked?” That mindset feels very Demna — and very 2010s, specifically the twilight years that started in 2015 and have continued through now.

These design and “advertising” expressions represent the opposite of a spectrum, one based in optimism versus one based in cynicism. It feels like a very good way of diagnosing the present, as a means of categorizing both creations and political happenings that help to understand positioning divorced from aesthetic, focusing instead on feeling, tone, and values. Here’s how I would define them —

The Chanel half-shoe and the work of Matthieu Blazy are an expression of heightened Charm, which I would call “whimsy” if that word hadn’t recently been hijacked. You could also call it “fantasy” but that evokes a world of books and media too based in alternate universes, which isn’t what such creations are doing: Charm isn’t about escapism but about humanity, about personage and the marks of people. Charm uses curiosity and wonder to create intrigue. Both The Odyssey and Backrooms appealed because they used Charm to reconnect people to themselves via practical effects and the non-manufactured. The non-plastic surgeried face, the body as it were, is a form of Charm: think Pamela Anderson’s non-makeup; Aimee Lou Wood and Ayo Edebiri’s smiles; people lusting over that one guy in Maddie’s Secret. “Ugliness” in and of itself isn’t automatically in the realm of Charm, but the rise of imperfections and messiness in design fits. Dolly Parton was distilled Charm, which is why she had universal appeal. Charm is why former Bloomberg Businessweek covers went viral this week, as its balancing of human creativity with digital design savvy that were beautiful without need, a surprise within political miasma. Charm is about earnestness more than authenticity, about the risk and reward of our fragility. Not hand-made, but certainly tied to friction, Charm gifts, making you better thanks to the magic of possibility. Charm is fiction. The temptation of alternatives and the non-normative: that is Charm, which thrives within our context of the over-optimized, over-homogenized now. (This is why and how Charm diverts from the “whimsy” trend: this is a worldview and not a single “look” but a collection of attitudes and executions.)

The Gucci “Primavera” ad and the extended work of Demna are Troll expressions, items based in duping and cynicism, in taking big and small advantages that are always at the expense of someone or something. A reference is always required and thrives when you care not to find the source. Troll expressions are about puzzlement and confusion that intend to deceive. Troll expressions sell instead give. The irony culture of this century is a Troll tendency. Internet trolling lies under the surface of this, but the Troll expression is more based in eye-rolling and “being clever” to the point of extreme fabrication. The culture of “looksmaxxing” is a fitting Troll creation in that it’s a culture based in comparison requiring constant modification to one’s personal, physical design to unmake oneself in the image of another: robbing yourself of possibility is supreme Troll. AI creations and their being a construction of references are an easy expression of this mindset, less in that it is anti-human and more that it is a shuffling around other, better ideas delivered in a way that assumes you — The Viewer — are not smart enough to deconstruct the parts that would collapse the whole. See the viral AI meme mashup video from this week as an example. Tate McRae too is a good example: an artist whose oeuvre is designed to be in the shadow of an artist like Britney Spears, a career made from cribbing. Accordingly, troll expressions are without a point of view and never have something meaningful to say. Whether aware of this or not, the 2020s culture of “aesthetics” is this too, as is the move of any and all social platforms taking and recycling the features of other platforms. The Troll isn’t something as simple as a “lack of originality”; Troll is about taking advantage of or manipulating The Viewer, making one feel “good enough” to take action that ultimately serves them only in the short term. Troll isn’t about imagination but about giving orders. This view doesn’t offer any meaning: it is about association, fabrication, and capitalization. It is not the watches being sold but the dark interior of the trenchcoat.

What lies in between? If Charm is the bright sky above and a Troll is lurking under our feat, a tired Goat wanders through the middle, wondering which way to go: think Jonathan Anderson’s Dior, the state of Marvel and Pixar, and something like Chanty Beluga. These are aimless products that are seeking meaning.

Increasingly, much of culture — like digital conversations, like much of “brand” culture — feel less and less valuable, less and less interesting: this isn’t an issue of “authenticity” (Ugh.) but more that there is no longer an acknowledgement of a person’s humanity and their capacity to dream, to imagine, to want more than spending their money and becoming “hot.” Few are offering people a legitimate better vision of themselves and a means to help them, in ways that go beyond the surface-level of fashion, beauty, and wellness. (All ironic, given the half-shoe is a fashion item.) So much of the world now is about squeezing “customers,” encouraging them into distraction out of themselves and their situation instead of offering them sympathetic guidance, hearing them and helping in the accomplishment of a dream that can become reality: we are steeped in the cynical culture of the Troll. Thus the appeal of the Chanel half-shoe, thus the appeal of the Charm: that is why this conversation dominated the zeitgeist recently. It is a call outside of yourself, to consider non-selfish possibility and to dream together. Such optimism and whimsy without judgement is too sweet to conquer the world, but this is an exercise we can learn plenty from. Imagination without judgement. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could make such a graceful state the norm?

Dolly Died After ‘Brief Battle with Cancer’
“Great Subversive Drag Artist”
“chose to not be a billionaire”
“We weren’t allowed to both adopt”
“won’t ever see anything like this”

Undoubtedly you all heard this news, and the news of Tim Curry. Here are a few memorials I found special, as this feels like a cultural moment that is increasingly rare, in its cross-political nature and of its being about one of the few universally beloved “good” persons. Again: Charm!! And her death announcement being delivered by her nephew? A huge moment for nephews worldwide, which I am specifically saying as a call out to all my gay nephews out there with fabulous aunts. They are ours to champion and eulogize 🥲

Judge strikes Texas ban on drag shows

“The solution is relatively simple ... just don’t go,” the Judge wrote: iconic. He also cited Dolly in his dissent.

Volunteers keep shops alive, billionaire profits

A startling story about the connection between recycling companies preying on over-taxed charity and thrift shops which then creates waste overseas — all of which lines the pockets of people like a Lichtenstein billionaire prince. This ties to stories like private equity killing thrift stores.

Mark Ruffalo fires back at Paramount
“This is the video”

The Mark Ruffalo antisemitism hullaballoo is further confirmation that the Israeli state culture machine is flatlining, as public opinion has soured on the subject given widening knowledge of not only genocide but the country’s meddling in domestic politics. Larry Ellison can try to spin the story — and conflate Jews with Israel — but you have to be pretty new to be duped by it.

What makes expensive paintings expensive?

This feels like something Andrew McClintock and I talked about over coffee in January, that those without a desire to support the arts are distorting the market. “A billionaire class with deep, deep pockets is now pursuing names as if they are brands,” as the story says, revealing a pissing contest over dead people: a Troll expression, that does little for the art world now other than provide a small space for masturbation.

Oura lawsuit about sleep-tracking accuracy
“number generator”

I fear many are being scammed by these “metrics,” in the same way we’re being scammed by AI. Unoptimize! Now!!!

World-class wine made in Sweden
Why we should stop eating lettuce
These Cookies Are 3D-Printed and Plastic
How chicken conquered the world

A few stories about food at the end of the world: we have climate change enabling a grim silver lining that is Swedish wine, anti-lettuce stances that are as smart as they are ridiculous, recycling plastics via foodifying them, and the climate-and-recession indicator that is chicken supremacy. All interesting! But each indicative of wider problems.

‘Loneliness influencers’ embrace being alone
Talking to a bot won’t cure loneliness
“taking your own life”
“are very lonely”

These first stories are things-you-know that are-not-new but I’m sharing them as a means to get to the latter two, bundling up this trend: loneliness is a definitive 2020s trend we’re see ripple up, as both Japan Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi (?) and Addison Rae (??) are share earnest enough experiences. (Which something like The Moment was not.) Turning point or trend chasing? Likely both and neither.

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I’ve never met Mykki Blanco, but I think we came of age in the same context: I started writing around the time he started rapping, resulting in my getting hit up for coverage about his work in the early 2010s. His work was a questioning of music as much as it was questioning of gender and sexuality. This was in the MOCAtv days, when the artist was being championed as a key player in a vanguard of emerging queer rap, which went on to rise and fall in this era. Like most Millennials, our work and interests and lives have morphed and shifted in the near twenty years of our adulthood. It’s unsurprising that Mykki went from something like the raw 2013 pre-hyper-pop Betty Rubble to 2022’s mature, collab-heavy, touching indie pop-rock (Classic, imo.) Stay Close To Music. We can only hope our creations evolve and change in the ways Mykki’s has.

Mykki is days away from the release of his new album Cafe Paradiso, an album that is about enjoyment that feels very much about indulging the senses and giving into dionysian tendencies. It’s a work that dialogues with wine and food culture as much as it is about #EuroVibes mindset, things that very much are on-the-mind and of-the-life of mid-life queer folks of a certain experience, something I deeply relate to and have found myself dipping in and out of. Before embarking on a tour, I had a quick chat with him about what he’s into and his draw to the aforementioned cultures, to get a quick sense of his past, present, and future. Mykki explains how class ties into something like Coastal Grandma Aesthetics, preppiness and the annoyances of fit bros, ethical foie gras, and Two Fat Ladies.

Tell me about a trend you’re following that you’re really into.
So I’m going to speak about 2 trends because they tie into each other — or at least in my brain they do. The first is the interior design trend being labeled the “The Coastal Grandma Aesthetic” which is basically Diane Keaton in Something’s Gotta Give. It’s heaps of white linen, Yves Klein blue, Kimball & Ball greens and pinks. Plush huge cream sofas, Provincetown, Martha’s Vineyard, Charleston. It’s jasmine and olive oil, objects sourced from summering in the Mediterranean, cream tea’s straight from Cornwall UK. Kelly green shutters, white picket fences. So this trend is interior but it’s also lifestyle and I find it interesting because I grew up in that world albeit on the lower income spectrum. I was raised in a typical 90’s single parent home but my mom always had administrative, well paid jobs. So we lived in small 3 bedroom house but it was a “cottage”. Everything and I mean everything in our house was nice because my Mom was really into antiques and interior design and beautiful objects so she worked really hard to create a beautiful home. I mean as a teenager when I had friends whose families were traveling to Europe for the summer I famously yelled at her “We never have money to travel anywhere because your always buying antique furniture”! Not having much money we did however go to the beach a lot, at least 2 big trips in the summer. I grew up between a suburb of San Francisco and Raleigh North Carolina. In North Carolina we would go to Wrightsville beach that historically was once a wealthy black beach town or Myrtle Beach, both are super fun. In San Mateo the little town I grew up in outside SF it’s on a peninsula so It’s surrounded by water. There are even canals in some neighborhoods, it’s beachy but it’s also cold, foggy, clam chowder weather, roll neck sweaters. The whole vibe for me brings out this aspirational feeling of wanting the summer homes, the big boat vacations, sailing, rowing, things only elite black people I didn’t know or wealthy white people in my world I did know took part in. But it also feels like home because I was a part of this world, I grew up in this aesthetic just in a more “kid from the other side of the tracks” way but that was my world and I know its codes and was socialized in that world. The second trend I think is really interesting, I’ll keep this short, is the fact that sardines are so popular now. I mean I love stinky food, sardines, garlic, radishes, pickled red onion, soft boiled eggs….I mean if someone saw THAT plate even 2 years ago you were gross, you were broke? It somehow meant you default kinda stunk?….all of that seems to be thrown out of the window now! Now if someone sees you with a plate of sardines and 2 soft boiled eggs your ARTISANAL. YOUR OMEGA3-MAXXING, YOU EAT YOUR SKINCARE! It’s fucking idiotic but it works for me!
What’s a trend you hope never dies?
So it’s a recent one, but not tagging your location when you’re out in nature or on a trip or you’re visiting somewhere amazing and life changing and want to share it. The way tagging these places has negatively impacted the environment or the community is really fucked up. The rich or entitled come from all over the world to experience it but maybe also just to get that selfie. After traveling to where the Dalai Lama moved the Tibetan government in the Indian Himalayas or certain places in the mountains of Vietnam I totally get it. People are always going to want to share the amazing experiences they are having online and I think it’s really self righteous, selfish, dumb and just removed from reality to think they won’t. YOU may feel like YOU can go without sharing a snap but we are living in an entirely different world and paradigm and no amount of shaming people is going to bring back this “look at my hot dad in the 70’s in Ibiza before the tourists backpacking” mentality
What’s a trend you are so over?
So I have always worn loafers without socks and I also wear loafers with basketball shorts. It’s a shoe I like a lot but also it’s a wealth code. You buy the loafer and then you live in them. Your loafers are supposed to be expensive but not kept up, they are supposed to be trashed after 3 years. Real Preps understand this, and believe it or not though my style may not always reflect this in the stereotypical sense, I am a prep. Anyway…now you have a lot of guys who are obsessed with fashion and “fits” in this really brain dead way and they have no sense of style and they walk around with these cheap loafers and white socks and they aren’t living in any of there clothing, they are just “wearing outfits” and it’s really fucking sad and they are losers and they make infographics about why you shouldn’t? Wear loafers without socks and it’s like….Whoo…the fuck are you people? Everything is a put on, nothing is genuine because its not genuine, you’re not actually the kinda guy who REALLY understands what wearing loafers means so take them off!
How does food culture and music culture overlap?
Cafe Paradiso is such a fun world I am creating because okay we have the album. The album itself was recorded primarily in NYC. I liked right around the corner from Lucien the East Village institution and I’ve known Zak the owner since he was 16 so I ate there a lot and I hang there a lot. Then there were the afternoons sitting in various east village dive bars just having one or 2 drinks in the afternoon and writing songs in my notebook. When I want a diner feel I go uptown above Columbus Circle. Near 72nd there are some good diners. Stylistically I wanted the songs to feel fresh and new and very contemporary but also future classics as if they could have come out of the variety of a Jukebox. Songs that made the album that were pulled from my journal were also written in Paris, London and Morocco. I have always based how I live my life on what I consider to the formulas that very successful artists who I admire lived what worked for them. I believe to be your very best as an artist you must live somewhere where you can have the best quality of life, the very best for what you can afford. This is why once I became an adult I never fell into the trap of feeling like I had to be beaten down and beaten up to live in NYC or London. I know many people who don’t have my lifestyle don’t have that option but…yeah u gotta figure out what works for you. I do love this visual language I am creating around Cafe Paradiso that’s very sensual. It’s rich food! It’s butter, it’s ETHICAL FOIE GRAS. Ethical Foie Gras is rare but it’s gaining popularity. Instead of force feeding the geese they let their lives fatten naturally, free range before of course killing them to create the foie gras…Ethical Foie Gras is a zine I am creating right now to go along with the albums release
How would you describe the state of queer music?
This is a funny one. I guess the most honest answer I can give is that because pop music and pop culture is so inherently queer now (maybe it always was and that was the elephant in the room) but pop is queer. I think major labels knowing it’s actually very good for a male pop musician to seem a little gay is funny…cue someone like Benson Boone who is clearly straight but from the outset has been marketed to both women and men and his music is also super gay. So it’s all mainstream now and that’s fine. I don’t know if I think its cool, I actually don’t think it’s cool I kinda just think it …. Is….lol. very zen on that one. I am a fan of….Benet — awesome new artist who is on my album….I am a fan of Thoom, a lovely friend of mine….I love MackKeeper….I love UK rapper Young E Man….I love 1LDK, a new band out of Japan
Anything else?
This wasn’t a question but I MUST share this with YOU! My absolute favorite thing right now is re-watching this British cooking show I group up on, via Internet Archive called TWO FAT LADIES! It’s an amazing amazing amazing early reality show where these 2 hilarious British women go across England on a motorcycle and cook these insanely rich delicious dishes for people and they are nuts, I mean it’s pure comedy, it’s sooo good and wholesome and cozy. All the seasons are on Internet Archive to watch or download…you guys MUST get into Two Fat Ladies!

Follow Mykki on Instagram and catch Cafe Paradiso out this Friday.

“flags are being lowered”
“he deleted”
“Vin Diesel’s Dolly tribute”
“her slow ass did not”
“I am heartbroken”
“My president”
“She was allowed”
“Heartbreaking”
“Moderna shot”
“Miss Piggy has to post”
“We will always love you”
“had to investigate”
“really is that serious”

Way too many good Dolly posts to count, but here are some faves, which do not include our mass longing for someone specific to die. RIP to the queen! (Also, sadly, the Ginger Minj lie about Dolly was itself a lie.)