I've been thinking about it a lot * week 29

A string of random thoughts with firm opinions

I have read how Substack has become the place to be. It’s true, I love my morning ritual of ‘stack reads with coffee in silence.

But why?

Narrative! Narrative is Anthropocene’s Brat summer, you read it here first!

Roy Scranton wrote

Narrative is the escape room of the soul.

I have always tried to distance myself from the influencer’s hellscape by using my best asset, writing. On Tumblr first, the blog after, the book lastly, and refusing to link-affiliate the heck of my life and contribute to over-consumption. It’s no surprise I never went viral, especially on social media where pictures are king and fastness their court.

Substack is different, we write, we tell stories, read, comment, discuss, become pen pal friends, bask in the camaraderie, and buy if we feel inclined to and who cares if your new BFF gets a commission? Meditating on the trivial meaning of a certain hue of blue “has its salubrious qualities: cultivating patience, nurturing compassion, detaching from egoistic clinging to self-destructive fantasies, helping to manage my attention so that I focus on what is in front of me instead of on the notions and emotions swirling through my brain.”

Could we call it the place for introverts? You can say that, but everyone is invited.

Love

• Cooking early dinner with paired wine, dimmed lights, preferably al fresco in the summer when you have to throw the cashmirino off the shoulders

• The Row leather flip-flops in choc brown, I bet you can find them at the market in Forte dei Marmi for a fraction of the price, made of leather and possibly to order. This wouldn’t be knocking off anything, the Olsen girls haven’t invented the leather flip-flops.

• Do you have your CANNOT DO WITHOUTS?

• Thelonious Monk on Sunday morn

• Nothing compares to a pair of vintage Levi’s

• “If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.”

• Gli zoccoli of Dr. Scholl’s

Hate

• Garlic

• Deodorant used as fragrance

• This is going to be controversial, but I never liked the jellies. Aesthetically they looked ugly on the feet, no kidding they were only bought for the kids, no adult would dare wear them. Practically, the shells would go through the holes and would hurt badly, and the feet would sweat and slip sidewise when climbing the rocks. I still dislike them and all their very plasticky versions of this summer.

How do you say it in Italian?

Affogato al caffè, different from il caffè shakerato, both are allowed after 11 am in the summer.