PicoBlog

It’s early 2021. We’ve all been in lockdown. We’ve watched protests spark all over the country following George Floyd’s murder. Joe Biden took office a few months before, but Donald Trump’s base is just as radicalized and moved, even after watching a failed insurrection on TV. I’m scrolling through TikTok and see a video of some fratty looking 22 year old. “Thank God my mom didn’t raise a fucking liberal,” he screams as the wind whips his hair peaking out from under a white trucker hat as he speeds down a stretch of road.

“You know, if you want to be a Catholic priest, you might make a trip to Notre Dame or something like that. But if you dream of being a bohemian weirdo, then your mecca is the Chelsea Hotel.” --Ethan Hawke, 2002 In 1993 my girlfriend Lesley Pitts and I moved into a first floor flat in Chelsea. A full-figured woman with braids, mad style and a wicked sense of humor, Lesley had lived with me for two years.

In an introduction to a collection of writings by James Joyce on Henrik Ibsen, Dennis Phillips observes that "at the beginning and end of his career [Joyce] faced dismissal, disapproval, scorn, even ridicule. He must have taken a lesson and some comfort from Ibsen's having previously overcome similar difficulties while continuing to produce work which Joyce held in the highest regard." We live in an age when—as in any other—people assume that what is happening now has not happened before.

MR. MOM was released in 1983 — forty years ago this year — and was immediately struck by negative reviews that might have felled lesser films. But its story, about a suddenly unemployed father who takes up domestic duties so his wife can go back to work, struck a nerve with American audiences. A slow rollout, engineered by the studio to bury the film, actually played to its advantage — building positive word-of-mouth buzz that no longer exists in the streaming age — leading to a smash comedy hit that grossed $200 million at the box office (adjusted for inflation).

Be sure to join the Discord channel to talk hockey with our writers and the InfernalAccess community! Get 30% off for 1 year It would seem as though the New Jersey Devils have avoided the nightmare scenario that would be Jack Hughes missing an extended amount of time this year.  As per Eliotte Friedman, perhaps the best-connected insider in the NHL, Hughes and the Devils circumvented the “worst-case scenario.” While Jack is expected to miss time, it seems to be less than initially expected.

As a person who’s spent the past few months of her life bursting into tears on the subway without much warning, you can understand how the penultimate episode of Better Call Saul positively wrecked me. We witnessed the complete unraveling of Jimmy McGill and Kim Wexler, individually and as a couple, and it couldn’t have been more painful or better-told.  Bob Odenkirk, tactfully toeing the line between insecure, stunted Jimmy McGill and showboating stuntman Saul Goodman for six years, deserves every ounce of praise and accolade he’s received for the role.

After a few busy weeks, we’re back with some big project updates. We’ll do another newsletter this month, so this will be a shorter one. And we might as well rip the band-aid off and get to what is in the header: [Too early to show the Green Arrow covers for October as they ARE spoilers!] BUT both series will go on! I know who the creative teams are next, and they are very exciting.

Today I’m so excited to be running a Q&A with Minna Dubin, the author of the new book Mom Rage, which explores the rage many mothers feel, why we feel it, and what we can do with it. You may have read Minna’s viral article about mom rage for The New York Times back in 2020, which led to the book. I remember reading the article and feeling so seen, and I’ve been excited for her book ever since.

It’s not uncommon for seventeen-year-old girls to feel overly self-conscious. I have been compulsively blow-drying my bangs for years; rogue elements like the wind and rain would entirely discompose me. The idea that my bangs had to be straight was becoming a major problem in my life. Ridiculous, I know. But if you are a young woman I’m sure you have your own version of this living hell. Recently I decided to stop my manic behavior, and just let my bangs air dry.