Hi everyone! I have a little bit of news for you today. Top Shelf, Low Brow’s weekly essay/list/deep-dive/investigative piece/dose of insanity is moving to biweekly, meaning that it will be published every other week. This is a decision that gives me some anxiety because I’m a writer who feels that if I pull back on work, especially this newsletter which is the most intensely creative project I’ve ever embarked on, that it’ll be seen as laziness or inability to really be a creator, or that I’m a hack who never could never really do this in the first place, but I know that’s just my own thing to combat. After all, how many Substacks have been started and abandoned in that time when I’ve been steadily turning out two long-form, totally unique letters a week (except for the occasional delay) since December? To spin a Bimini Bon Boulash line: not a dig, just a fact.
Truth is, I just don’t have time to do two newsletters every week over the next month or so. I have a full-time “day job,” friends I haven’t seen in months, a relationship, and other freelance projects and opportunities I’ve already accepted that require my attention. I try to start each newsletter before it’s due, but each edition still takes hours to write/format/edit/create graphics for. And I do all of that myself. But between all of that, sometimes I just want to be off on a day off. When I started this newsletter seven months ago, the world was still closed up, and I barely scraped by with money. This was a way for me to channel all of my obsessions, ideas, and ability into a cohesive piece of art, one that might bring me some income and maybe even a little bit of recognition. I’ve been so lucky and am even more grateful for all of the support that I’ve received, I’m still shocked that this newsletter got any attention at all, let alone that its audience continues to grow steadily? Insane! But if I’m using all of my spare time to rack my brain for subjects to write about, the content is going to suffer. I need time to decompress, to think, to get inspired, and to actually keep up with the world that this newsletter is about. And I know all of you understand that.
So, Friday letters are going to move to biweekly for a little while. I have no timeline for when/if that’ll end, but if it does, I’ll put out the alert. Monday’s Top Shelf, Low Brow rating will continue to be weekly (but if it comes on the occasional Tuesday, please forgive! You know I’m trying). Since last Friday had a newsletter as planned (“‘The Devil Wears Prada’ Has No Villain”) that means this is technically my week off and next week I’ll be back with a real edition! In the meantime, I’ll always be posting and present on the Top Shelf, Low Brow instagram account and spouting insanity on my own twitter.
I’ll see you on Monday for the weekly rating. I really, really love you. Without every single person reading this right now, I probably would’ve lost my mind months ago. And that’s not a joke, your support of this newsletter (especially from people who don’t even know me in real life) is fucking mind-blowing. You’re all superstars and I hope you have a great weekend. 💖
In the meantime here’s Normani dancing with herself: