The Audacious Roundup
For the week of May 26th
At the very end, there’s a paywall today, and behind the jump, you will find a tiny story about how I FINALLY MET INA GARTEN and a book giveaway.
AUDACIOUS BOOKCLUB HAPPENINGS
Our June selection is Marsha by Tourmaline. We will have a live book club discussion with the author on June 24th at 8pm EST/5 am PST. Registration is open! I hope to see many of you there. I’ve put together an Audacious Book Club storefront if you want to buy current or forthcoming book club titles. There is a bookclub FAQ if you have questions about how it all works.
THE NEWSLETTER WEEK IN REVIEW
PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL NEWS
For Atmos, I wrote an essay about reproductive freedom as part of environmental justice and vice-versa.
Forthcoming RGB title The Answer Is in the Wound by Kelly Sundberg has a rave review in Kirkus. Pre-order now! The book releases on 8/26.
Thanks to you guys and other readers, The Portable Feminist Reader is a NYT bestseller! So thank you! And if you haven’t gotten a copy yet, there’s still time! (And there will always be time, it’s a book.) And check out Love Letter to a Garden, by Debbie Millman.
Book and project buying links: Books I’ve Written, RGB Imprint Titles, Rebind: The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton.
READING MATERIAL
RIP Jonathan Joss, who was murdered by a hateful, homophobic neighbor, after months of harassment in his community. He was an indigenous actor, survived by his husband Tristan Kern de Gonzales. And this is what happens, when the regime in power leads with hate and bigotry and encourages it.
If you’re in NYC, vote for Zohran Mamdani for mayor!
Politicians have flung their masks aside. In a town hall, Jodi Ernst, an Iowa Republican, told a constituent that we all die when they asked her about the cuts to Medicaid. The next day, she doubled down with this aggressive aggressive “apology,” that is breathakingly callous. Like, she is deeply unwell.
One of Rep. Jerry Nadler’s staff members was briefly handcuffed when federal agents entered his office doing grimy shit. Things are just going to keep escalating.
Part of that escalation? Trump is bringing Palantir into people’s personal business.
There are consequences to gutting USAID and the most vulnerable people across the globe are suffering because of that.
The regime, and it’s fixation on deal making in contexts where there is no deal making, continues. Now, elite universities!
Oh, who needs a pesky bird flu vaccine anyway?
Anyway, the president doesn’t like to read so his staff is trying to figure out how to put the information from daily briefings into his empty ass head.
More Pete Hegseth problems, aka a day ending in Y.
Noor Abdalla has been parenting alone for a month as the regime continues to detain her husband Mahmoud Kahlil.
Miss Rachel is not messing around with regard to the ongoing travesty in Gaza.
This is a really odd story about CA state senator accused of a DUI who… had no alcohol in her blood! And had just been T-boned in a car accident. She wasn’t even at fault!
The media is weirdly fixated on the idea that we are in a “MAGA era.” I’ve seen multiple pieces in recent weeks trying to make it seem like there’s this huge culture change happening and now, like, everyone wants to watch Hee-Haw or something. Are they trying to manifest this? People without culture will never significantly change the culture and I stand by that.
Musty says his son X? punched him in the face and gave him a black eye, and honestly, that makes perfect sense. Speaking of Musty… he is horrible and a drug addict (though one is not necessarily synonymous with the other) and just horrible. Yes, I said horrible twice. Also, another Space X rocket didn’t rocket after all. But sure, let’s privatize space.
A vital mobile shower service in LA might be defunded because of the budget shortfall. If only there was something else that could be defunded…
This country’s history with El Salvador is nothing new.
It probably won’t surprise you to know that lawyers love using Chat GPT even though it is unreliable and bad at… everything.
Meat, apparently, is making a comeback but lol, this comeback has not found its way into the queer potluck life, I can assure you. Also, maybe fro-yo is coming back and I for one, welcome that because fro-yo is delic-ious.
It’s always interesting to see how different writers make a living.
Do you want to follow a “food influencer” to an interesting part of the world? It’s a thing that is happening! Not news really but also, news.
EA Games is cancelling a forthcoming Black Panther video game which is a real bummer. I think this game would have done great.
In discussions about NYC, Queens is often overlooked. As someone who spent a fair amount of time in Queens as a child, I really appreciated this piece about that borough. My grandmother and some of my aunts and uncles lived in Flushing growing up and I remember so much about that neighborhood back then. I especially remember Busy Bee, this flea market my Tante Tamara would take me too. It felt like a whole other world. Also, best Szechuan food outside of China, totally found in Queens.
Oh no. House rentals in the Hamptons are down 30% this summer. The wealthy adjacent are suffering. Alas.
The media continues its obsession with profiling white supremacists and other assorted evildoers. This week: Curtis Yarvin, the conservative non-intellectual who is ragingly stupid. It’s astonishing, really.
The Tate Brothers are facing a lot of charges in the UK because they are criminals.
If you keep up with the Chrisleys, they’re being pardoned.
Michelle Orange writes about the past/present/future of greyhound racing.
An essay from John Jeremiah Sullivan about Percival Everett’s James and Mark Twain and much more.
Many years ago, I watched this reality show called Billion Dollar Buyer hosted by a guy named Tillman Fertitta which I always remembered as Frittata. Anyway, The Baffler has an interesting profile of Fertitta/Frittata who continues to acquire restaurants, and is now invading NY, opening a ton of restaurants without much soul.
This is a lovely idea—memory cafés for people with dementia and the like.
Streamer University? Sigh. Some days, I feel so old.
AI is really doing a number on teachers. I include myself in this though I will say my students are not trying to use AI as much in my classes as I hear about it in others’ classes. Thank goodness.
A conversation with Tourmaline, author of this month’s Audacious Book Club pick, Marsha. A profile of Molly Jong-Fast. A review of new movie Mountainhead. A conversation with Miley Cyrus. A profile of Melissa Febos.
Patti Lupone is… a Broadway legend and she is profiled in The New Yorker buuuuut she has also gotten herself into a spot of trouble by being, if not racist, racist-adjacent. And…. miracle of miracles, she apologized (got that Notes app right out) after hundreds of colleagues wrote an open letter asking her to be disinvited from the Tonys. DRAMA! Also, Audra McDonald is an absolute goddess. I’ve seen almost every show she’s ever done. THE RANGE!
Apparently, when we’re traveling alone, we’re being charged extra.
Good news if you’re Mormon (I guess). New magical undergarments are dropping!
Someone took it upon themselves to destroy…. a field of peonies? People are NOT OKAY!
RIP Valerie Mahaffey. RIP Étienne Émile Baulieu. RIP Tom Robbins. RIP Loretta Swit. RIP George Wendt.
In Tulsa, though, the mayor has established a $105 million trust to support people affected by the 1921 massacre.
If you care about this sort of thing, no shade, Taylor Swift now owns all the rights to her own music.
Another day, another publisher scamming its authors out of money that is rightfully theirs.
There is a new documentary about Selena! RIP!
The Survivor 50 cast has been announced even though Survivor 49 has not yet aired.
Maybe, just maybe, there isn’t a crisis in art (or any other creative) criticism.
LOL!