Odessa’s Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 7/1/2024

Dear friends,

Happy July! Danya and I are headed to Rhode Island for the 4th, and just know that I am crossing every available limb in the hopes of running into Ms. Taylor Swift at her annual Independence Day Party in Westerly.

I was listening to a tutorial/lecture last week from Dr. Monroy on her academic journey studying awe, and I was reminded of the awe journal I kept last summer — what I termed my “awesbervations”. It looks so terribly awkward when written out, but it’s pronounced like observations, emphasis on the awe. And scrolling back through my awe journal brought me so much joy. So I’m bringing it back starting today July 1. But to start it off, here are some moments of awe (loosely defined):

Miriam’s challah with fresh garlic scapes dipped in homemade hummus at a beautiful flower-laden shabbat table

how the little fishies in the quarry nibbled off all the dead skin on my feet

watching the voluminous clouds twist and turn as the summer storm descends from my view on the porch, curled up in the most comfortable chair

playing FIFA with Tetsu when my half-a-star ranked random Chinese soccer team scored on Arsenal (TAKE THAT, TETSU!)…though he did end up winning.

summer lightning storms!!!!! MAGIC

long train-ride conversations

central park picnics with Tara where it feels like no time has passed at all since last summer

Also last week, I happened to sit through 3.5 hours of panels on how to get into graduate school. Rest assured, I’m thoroughly stressed. I also learned I need to take the GRE. OY. And apparently, the trick is knowing the vocabulary. The vocabulary! Praying that all that time I spent on Thesaurus.com as a child will pay off, but in the meantime, if you see me throwing around words like turpitude, penurious and vicissitude, you’ve been forewarned. Little did I know that getting into grad school would be the one thing to drag me back on Twitter — ugh, do I have to call it X? The best way to find out if professors are accepting students is via Twitter/X. But also I forgot how much I love all the delicious pop-culture scrolling I get to do (are Gracie Abrams — Jewish! — and Paul Mescal dating!?!?). And the poetry. For poetry, I have “Let July Be July” by Morgan Harper Nichols — a much-needed balm to my grad school stress.

So much media to share with all of you!

First, reality television.

I watched my first-ever episode of Survivor! Wow! So much more complex than I realized — I didn’t realize each season has its own shtick. We started the Blood vs. Water (27th) season. I still haven’t succumbed to Love Island this summer (but I do want to watch!)

I’m obsessed with Owning Manhattan — like Selling Sunset but much better. Think high-powered real estate agents + drama = pretty homes + pretty people. Also much Jewier than Selling Sunset. Obviously. Also, Ryan Serhant (the head of the brokerage) is a spitting image of Ryan Reynolds — not really looks-wise, but the voice and personality.

For non-reality television, I also binged Maxton Hall (*hopeless romantic sigh), and My Lady Jane is delightful and silly and perfect candy for my brain (reviewed here).

I saw Inside Out 2 in theaters with Abe, Sophie & Victoria, and nothing really beats the theater experience. Abe and I devoured that buttery buttery popcorn. I cried (as I do in most movies), though I thought the movie dragged a bit in the middle. More so, I was caught up thinking about how Inside Out is going to teach an entire generation of kids how to conceptualize their emotions. However, in the field of affective science, this conceptualization is hotly debated. Read more here. Regardless, is that conceptualization helpful?

The most unrealistic part is that a SF kid plays hockey!?!? And that a San Francisco high school has a hockey team!?!?

In the genre of performance, Tetsu and I saw the wildest performance (?) from this Canadian arts collective called The 7 Fingers, courtesy of the International Festival of Arts & Ideas. Insane death-defying stunts, but also Romeo and Juliet? And it would have been one thing to use the trope of “forbidden love” but they went full force with the Shakespearian English. And while these performers were incredible athletes and stunt people, they were horrendous actors. I’ve never heard Shakespeare butchered like that. To top it off, they started singing. Singing! They also couldn’t sing. Anyway, quite a show.

Moving onto podcasts:

I’ve long been a Gretchen Whitmer fan (ever since she gave the rebuttal after Trump’s first SOTU). But what I learned from this episode of The Interview was that Whitmer partied hard in college. A very amusing (and important) interview about her new memoir. Currently in fervent conversations with the divine feminine in the hopes that she’ll save our democracy.

Among other unexpected fascinating topics, the history of hurricane forecasting! Do we add a Category 6?!

The Wikipedia of a beloved and extinct Yale tradition: Bladderball.

An auditory deep dive into the discourse around “tradwives” — may only make sense to the chronically online, but deeply interesting and nuanced.

For some hope (maybe), but inspiration (definitely), listen to this episode on The Army of Poets and Students. I still remember going to an interview with Aung San Suu Kyi in San Francisco.

And this Reel dives into a fascinating example of linguistic spread (is that the term?)

Lots of terrible decisions coming out of SCOTUS these days, but I loved getting this behind-the-scenes look into the court.

I was hooked on this new podcast called “Backfired: The Vaping Wars”. A super interesting cultural history of the vape — an exploration of the design, health consequences, and hopes that went into the process.

Hoping you find plentiful moments of awe in the upcoming week!

With love & curiosity,

Odessa