In the Year of our Lord of COVID: Issue #6 The Universal Want
Days in lockdown: 220
Mental status: 90% stable because you cannot medicate all emotions
I’m writing this on Sunday to be sent on Monday since I sent the Blotter late last week and I don’t want to get you over Lisa-fied.
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I’ve checked the fuck out and left no forwarding address.
It was a startling yet calm understanding this past Thursday that myself, like too many, no longer live in the present nor the past; our brains are gathering dust from lack of engagement within itself. While I knew this to always be my truth, saying it out loud meant everything to me and honestly? I felt relieved at the acceptance of my long suspected and verified reality.
In the past, I built a career as a memoirist for over 20 years talking about crisis, depression, mania, and everything in between. The pandemic should be perfect fodder to write about the world happening around us but I’m so overwhelmed. SO OVERWHELMED. I’m fucking shocked I’m not churning out books. All my little anxiety tics show up in waves even though I don’t feel particularly anxious. My mania kicked in high is now being controlled as I wade through the med change while TEH said I was rotten and unbearable for weeks. I have not lost interest in things or any particular symptom of depression; I just do not want to think.
Just do not want to think.
Wanting to not think but aching to write makes for very interesting bedfellows. I’ve started this newsletter numerous times and time is so fluid, I thought it had been only a few weeks, not over a month, since I sent the last one. I’m still in denial we’ve been in lockdown for over seven months. I got a finger wag on my FB page that sending out Blotter missives was not the same as sitting down and writing new content and a “C’mon Lisa!”
Yeah, sure, whatever. Fuck off.
For this week, I decided to generate links of things that do interest me so I can try to think of what to write next week without killing my brain.
Mailing lists you should subscribe to:
David Farrier is a kiwi journalist known as the presenter for Dark Tourist on Netflix. He’s very passionate about New Zealand and queer representation
Second, but not least, Kate has a twice weekly newsletter where she talks about comics, knitting, the world ending, and other fun topics
Here For It W/ R. Eric Thomas who is a hilarious pop culture columnist for Elle
Winning the Internet is a weekly “…data-driven newsletter of links in other newsletters.”
A friend’s “alter ego,” Kelly Maher, has a monthly newsletter on updates with her current writing projects and things she loves and recommends
Links I would Gchat You If We Were Friends is a weekly roundup of the best reads on the interwebs about culture and technology written a bit tongue in cheek
JSTOR is an academic storehouse, heavily used in higher education, of journals, books, and primary sources. They have a daily newsletter where they write on current events and pop culture referencing historical sources in the database. (I would recommend the weekly digest.)
Things I’m enjoying
Pikmin 3 comes out on October 30 and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity comes out November 20. Both are on the Switch. I’m, of course, still playing Animal Crossing
Cillian Murphy now has a sleep story on Calm. Calm also came highly recommended by numerous friends so I’m tag teaming it with Headspace to get the stress levels down
Milk Makeup’s KUSH lip balm is worth every cent and the Pride edition is perfect (The brand is vegan and cruelty free)
I’m back on the SodaStream kick and is way more environmentally friendly and with the syrups, I can duplicate my favorite flavors
Our fridge died and we've been using a cooler for the last month or so. The new one arrived Friday and it is glorious.
Media
I found my collection of over 500 CDs, most of it in binders, and I’m currently in the process of ripping it all to flac. Lots and lots of mix CDs. I’m tracking the more interesting music choices, with a story, on instagram. (For a job like this, I highly, HIGHLY, recommend dBpoweramp.)
House Hunters International just dropped eight new season on Hulu. So much “coffee on balconies,” “this is not as big as it is in America,” “I want to live in the city center but oh em gee, the noise.” Perfect show to snark too as well as use as market research
Jesus. They started a new season of The Bachelorette with everyone at a resort after 15 covid tests
Always fucking 90 Day Fiancé
New season of Shakespeare and Hathaway (Britbox) has dropped. Lou’s style is #goals
I style myself as a very ametaure Sherlockian so I couldn’t resist Enola Holmes (Netflix). I hope this becomes a series
As always, don't be an ass. Wear a damned mask.
lisa x
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Image depicting the black death in a book by French chronicler
and poet, Gilles Li Muisis (1272 - 1352). Artist unknown.