Your Favorite Artist's Favorite Artist
Plus: faerie smut, Elena Ferrante, Love Island USA, and my favorite new podcast.
An overdue roundup of culture I’ve been so consumed by the last few months that I’ve been neglecting this newsletter. But first:
A love letter to Chappell Roan
It is pop girly summer and my favorite among them is Chappell!
All I can think about lately is Chappell Roan. She’s everywhere! And it is a joy to see her meteoric rise. While it may feel like she has come out of nowhere and blown up on the festival circuit this summer, the Midwest Princess’s backstory makes her rise even more special. There are enough think-pieces, tiktoks, and interviews about her story that I won’t rewrite it here, but Chappell is an artist who never believed she couldn’t make it, even when she almost didn’t, and it has paid off.
You’ve likely seen the iconic moment at her Coachella performance where she stated, “My name is Chappell Roan. I’m your favorite artist’s favorite artist.” And it’s true! I first saw Chappell perform in Boston at the House of Blues in October 2023, and the juxtaposition of that crowd to the huge crowd at her performance at Boston Calling this summer was mind-blowing. On her Midwest Princess tour, Chappell opened all of her shows with local drag queens. A lover of drag, who considers herself a drag queen, what struck me about her was the way she primarily promoted these queens to her fans, insisting that her audiences tip their local drag queens. In the era where Rupaul’s Drag Race has become mainstream, this felt important, because drag queens have been incorporated into mainstream pop performance before, but they were relegated to the sidelines. They felt like accessories to the main event. Contrary to this, Chappell promotes local artists, and pays reverence to oft-forgotten icons, in everything from her styling, to her language, to the way she carries herself on stage. And this is a performer with powerhouse vocals to carry a crowd. She’s already popular among young and old, and I really believe she is a once in a generation type talent who I’m excited to see continue to flourish.
What else I’ve been listening to
Listen, I’m just like all the other girls. I’ve been obsessing over Sabrina Carpenter and Chappell Roan all summer, enjoying Billie Eilish’s new album HIT ME HARD AND SOFT, constantly looping Tinashe’s Nasty through my head, and attempting to understand Brat Summer.
I’ve also been on a podcast kick lately. My old standbys are Las Culturistas and Keep It! But a new favorite has emerged in the new podcast Lemme Say This by Hunter Harris and Peyton Dix. Peyton and Hunter have created a safe place to be a hater and a lover, and their long friendship and natural rapport lends itself to making the podcast feel like a group chat for the very online that we’ve all been kindly allowed into.
Shows
It is Love Island USA summer! Which frankly is very disorienting, because I usually never watch the USA franchise, but am a diehard fan of UK and AUS. I don’t know if it’s new host Ariana Madix’s magic, but something’s in the water at the Love Island USA villa this year, and it’s making for a truly addicting and messy season. Leah is my triple Leo messy queen.
The Bear is back! I’m trying to pace myself with season 3 instead of binging it all at once, and so far it is off to spectacular start. The first episode is meditative, and revisits the prior seasons in a way that is much less “here’s where we left off” and much more “here are the threads we’ve been weaving all along and where they’ve led to in this moment in our story.” I’m excited to see how the rest of the season plays out, and especially excited to see the episode directed by Ayo Edebiri.
Movies
I revisited Mad Max: Fury Road to prepare for the premiere of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. Furiosa bombed at the box office, despite excellent critical reviews and a good audience reception. I would like to believe it may end up being a sleeper hit in time. I found the prequel to Fury Road to add compelling extra layers to a world that unexpectedly celebrates female power and rage packaged in a seemingly male-centric action franchise.
Years late to the party, I finally crossed Ingrid Goes West (2017) off my to-watch list. A cringe, uncomfortable, and at once thoroughly enjoyable watch, this has been a movie that has grown on me even more the longer I have sat with it. Aubrey Plaza plays Ingrid, a lonely woman obsessed with a Goop-coded influencer played by Elizabeth Olsen. It’s a darkly comical stalker story that I can’t wait to watch again.
Reads
I read the faerie smut. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like I said, I’m exactly like the other girls. The first book is the worst, but the series is worth sticking with especially for the second and fourth books of the series, A Court of Mist and Fury and A Court of Silver Flames.
As for capital-N Novels, I’ve been reading Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan Quartet. Starting with My Brilliant Friend, the series follows Elena and Lila, from their childhoods in poverty in Naples into old age. Ferrante, the pseudonymous author, considers the four books to be a serial novel. I’m on the third, and there is something about it that feels much more classic than the time it was published (2012-2015.) It harkens to Russian literature and provincial novels, with fresher themes, compelling characters, and a grounded sense of place. I read My Brilliant Friend around the same time that Billie Eilish’s new album came out, and I found in them a fitting pairing. If I were to choose a song to pair the first novel with, it would be BIRDS OF A FEATHER. I’m waiting until I finish the books, but there’s also an HBO series, and lots of online speculation and lore about the author’s identity that I’m looking forward to diving into.
If you’re still here…
Thanks for reading! As always, subscriptions are appreciated, and comments are welcome. I’m going to try to write again sooner next time, and in the meantime will be continuing to practice my HOT TO GO! dance. Happy summer y’all.
“I read the faerie smut” 😂😂😂