Largely unchill
Online returns, AI friends and the final week of Shakespeare szn
Hi friends, and welcome to week two of Shakespeare szn, my temporary/chaotic foray into community theater.
The work has settled into an easy routine now, disrupted only by rain, the occasional, awkward appearance of third-ring acquaintances, and minor mishaps that — in the legitimately fascinating imaginations of devoted theater people — take on the weight of real calamity. For instance, a patron parked her car on the grass. A minor cast member regrew his goatee. A woman collecting her free membership mug resented its reference to caffeine.
“Do you know the Serenity Prayer?” I (an atheist) recently asked a colleague apoplectic over the malfunctioning of a garage door. I have never been the chillest person in a room, ever. It feels *amazing.* And bizarre.
Alas, the show closes Sunday — at which point we’ll return to the regularly scheduled and largely unchill newsletter. Until then, thanks for reading and happy Saturday! Parting is such sweet sorrow. 🙃
If you read anything this weekend
“What Happens to All the Stuff We Return?” By David Owen for The New Yorker. Consumers return roughly one of every five items they buy online — two in five (!), when it comes to clothes. That has spawned a vast and deeply weird industry devoted to refurbishing and reselling stuff, by the mixed pallet and the truckload.
“The Instagram Account That Shattered a California High School,” by Dashka Slater for The New York Times Magazine. A racist Instagram account with only 13 followers begot a scandal, an assault, a half a dozen lawsuits … and a 10,000-word magazine article excerpted from an even longer book. You’re skeptical! I see you! But trust me when I say Slater is *superb* at untangling all the tiny, tragic threads of teenage prejudice, ignorance and insecurity that created and sustained @yungcavage.
“Next Slide, Please: A Brief History of the Corporate Presentation,” by Claire L. Evans for MIT Technology Review. All the wipes, zooms, fades and fly-outs in the world will never compensate for the regrettable fact that “Powerpoints” were once gigantic, synchronized performance art pieces and are now a thing you learn to make in grade-school computer class.
“How Athletic Beer Won Over America,” by Gabriella Paiella for GQ. This unfortunately failed to answer my one lingering question about Athletic — namely, what IS the “secret” “proprietary” process that makes their N/A beer taste real? — but I’ll still gladly guzzle any #longread on the company that’s done so much for my liver.
👉 ICYMI: The most-clicked link from the last newsletter was an autopsy of the Daily Harvest fiasco.
Thanks for being one of my 17,000 hypothetical Gchat friends. 🙏🙏
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Postscripts
Happy birthday to The OC (20), the iMac (25) and me (… absolutely timeless). In: Apple Maps, “house hacking” and MovieTok. Out: Amazon brands. The women who warned us about AI. In search of the new Black Twitter. Behold “the most prominent casualty in Reddit’s power struggle with its moderators.”
Cynicism as personality. The IDGAF wars. You will have to peel my skinny jeans off my cold millennial corpse. Very charmed by the sweet, sad conversations people have with their AI friends. “Sponsor cuts ties with YouTube star who said she wanted international wine expert ‘dead.’” A delightful comic on iPhone “tapbacks,” which you might call likes or reactions. Last but not least, the Tiny Award for small, playful website went to … Rotating Sandwiches!
That’s it for this week! Until the next one. Warmest virtual regards.
— Caitlin