No friday letter this week! I have a birthday to celebrate
But as always, I'll leave you with a shenanigan or two...
Okay, yes, my birthday was Tuesday, but I’m celebrating it this weekend so there will be no Friday letter this week. Is there a chance that writer’s block was also kicking my fucking ass today and I was taking more time than usual to compose today’s post? Maybe! Did I spend part of my day waiting around to sign for my neighbor’s IKEA delivery, making it slightly more difficult for me to focus? Yes! Is Adobe hunting me down after I’ve finagled 100 free student trials out of them, blocking me from designing graphics for this week? Unfortunately! (But I’ll swindle them yet). These things can all be true and they can all play a part in the delay of the Friday letter. I know I make it look easy (go with me here), but writing two long-form pieces a week and mining through my scattered brain, rotted by stupid memes and pop culture references that don’t extend beyond a single paragraph or two, is occasionally difficult.
That said, I’ve got the next few Friday letters all lined up, so there shouldn’t be any more cancellations or delays for the rest of the month, as long as circumstances don’t change! I’ve also been working on a couple of ideas for a few weeks that are starting to come together, which I’m excited about but can’t say more on yet. You know I hate to leave you with nothing for a weekend, which is why I always aim to delay for a day rather than cancel the Friday edition outright, but sometimes I just have to give my brain a vacation for a few days, and my birthday is the perfect excuse to do that.
That said, how can I leave you with nothing? I could never. It physically pains me. It gives me anxiety! Your support and love mean the world to me, and it’s part of why Top Shelf, Low Brow had its biggest number of impressions on Google yet last month.
Building this newsletter while trying to break into an already crowded, competitive industry during a pandemic hasn’t been easy, so forgive me if that feels a little braggadocious to you. You have to take pride in your work! It’s Pride Month, and personally, I get more satisfaction out of turning out things I’m proud of than taking my ass to midtown Manhattan on a sweltering summer day to watch corporate Pride floats for Capital One and Old Spice pass by me while I frantically search for somewhere to pee. I’m just saying, there’s a reason Kelly Osbourne had to piss herself in that Starbucks.
But I digress! Here are a few things I’ll leave you with for the weekend.
Simply, you must be listening to Jessie Ware’s latest offering from What’s Your Pleasure (Platinum Pleasure Edition). Amazing how this is the album of the summer two years in a row now! The full expanded edition of the album arrives next Friday.
And, of course, you know if there’s new Tinashe music I’m going to be talking about it. “Pasadena” is a perfectly smooth earworm and further proof that Tinashe is so Much More Than Your Meme. (Do you see an outlet nearby, because I’ve got plugs! Sorry.)
With the anniversary of Miley Cyrus’ “We Can’t Stop” occurring yesterday, I was thinking a lot about the chaos of the pop industry in 2013. Total anarchy in terms of what everyone was doing with release structure and promos. But as much as I could say, that’ll have to wait for another day, and in the meantime, we can remember this comment left on Beyoncé’s Instagram when she posted a photo of vegan cupcakes after dropping self-titled that December.
Lastly, some tweets!
One of the top five videos ever in my house.
(Literally me when I moved to Philly, btw)
And finally, one of the greatest songs of all time turned 19!
I love you all so, so much! I’m off to celebrate my birthday, see Cruella, and listen to a lot of Ciara. Have a wonderful weekend and I’ll see you again on Monday for a letter that promises to be one for the ages, judging from all of the varying topics on this week’s list in my Notes app. 💖