Caught In My Web 🕸️
Things I am currently reading/watching/contemplating #27
88 days of kakistocracy and fanfaronade.
Bloated gestures of genuflection from the dullards whilst the rest of us watch the ineluctable Manifest Destiny squared tumble across our screens in horror.
Do not turn away, or else you’ll miss the depredation laced in dysphemisms.
The ultimate train wreck.
Yes, you heard it right.
I know the abject cruelty and calumniations are so extreme you start to wonder if your hearing is in complete working order.
Your ears are not deceiving you, but your body may soon fall ill now that the FDA stopped food safety quality checks after staff cuts1.
Watch out for the parasite Cyclospora in spinach and the good ol’ trusty pesticide glyphosate in barley coming to a grocery store near you!
Wow, America parties.
FREEDOM! Amirite?
No fomenting violence here.
Peace, love, bald eagles and bunnies!!!
*
I’m placing my asperity on the shelf this weekend to lose my mind in a bag of Cadbury mini eggs whilst I watch Yul Brynner play one of his most babe babe babeski roles ever as Ramses in The Ten Commandments. Also, HELLO, Yvonne De Carlo, and Anne Baxter. 😮💨 I’ll return to the prelapsarian paradise of my personal Eden bastioned with love and devotion where nature will be adored, food will be devoured, and a beautiful time will be had.
Nothing will hinder this beatitude.
Although I was raised a devout Catholic, I identify more with pantheist thought than organized religion, but some habits remain. Eye candy aside, watching The Ten Commandments every Easter was a childhood joy. Whether you believe in it or not, it’s excellent storytelling.
And whether you’re in it for the bunnies and chocolate, to celebrate HE IS RISEN, or both…I wish you a very Happy Easter.
Here is this week’s Caught In My Web 🕸️
🕸️ Fashion Neurosis with Bella Freud. I’m not big on podcasts, but this one crossed my path, and I found it so intoxicating. Elegant. Refined.
Bella’s voice is dreamily calm and soothing. Her guests match her energy, and it is such a lovely listening experience with fascinating conversations about clothing, art, beauty, and love. My favorite episodes include Eric Cantona, Zadie Smith, Julianne Moore, Susie Cave, Haider Ackermann, and Nick Cave. Just go listen to all of them. I try to stay off of YouTube as much as I can (with the exception of AD home tours and movie trailers), but the psychoanalysis couch video style tickles me!
It can be found on all podcast channels like Spotify and Apple if watching them on the sofa isn’t your thing.
🕸️ Lenny Kravitz’s AD Paris Home Tour. I’ve seen photos here and there of his Parisian digs and always swooned over them, but this home tour was next level. (His Brazilian farm is also mind-blowing.) The taste and abs on this man are so exquisite it HURTS. 😩
🕸️ McNally Jackson’s employee book pick descriptions for the win:
🕸️ Speaking of McNally Jackson, they’re starting a Book Festival!
🕸️ After a lifetime of mostly classics, I’ve been making a staunch effort to read more contemporary novels and it has been a blast. My two favorite newsletters for contemporary reads are
and . (They read classics too if you’re looking for some direction in that area!) They dedicate copious amounts of time and care to their reading life and generously reward their readers with great book reviews and recommendations. I’d have been lost on my contemporary book journey without them.🕸️ I finished Val Kilmer’s I’m Your Huckleberry: A Memoir. It was wonderful. He is just as charming, witty, and hilarious on the page as he is onscreen. If you enjoy memoirs, especially of the juicy Hollywood variety, you’ll love this one.
🕸️ I also finished Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter. A 22-year-old. A popular NYC restaurant. Drugs. Drink. Lust. The aimless internal wandering that attacks your 20s like sepsis. After reading the synopsis some years ago, I skipped over this novel, thinking, nah…not my thing. It crossed my path through a recent news article on book advances, and I’m so glad I gave it a try. It was unputdownable. Stephanie has captured what it feels like to be young and full of aching uncertainty without the saccharine bullshit that usually accompanies twentysomething angst novels. I LOVED IT.
🕸️ My current read is In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. This mind-bending memoir has been on my TBR for months. A haunted house, her abusive partner, and the dusty road of understanding after experiencing something horrifying come together like a series of snapshots, leaving you unbearably anxious to find out what happens next. I saw it on display at the bookstore last weekend, so I read the first few chapters. I found myself mouthing, "WOW," with each page turn. The format is intriguing, and her ability to lure you into her dark whirlpool of the past made me feel like I'd just awakened from a faraway soul dream after I put the book down to rejoin the land of the living. I'm loving it so far.
🕸️ I loved this excerpt from Keith McNally’s (owner of Balthazar, Minetta Tavern, The Odeon, and more) upcoming memoir, I Regret Almost Everything and have added it to my TBR.
🕸️ Tom Ford to Direct ‘Cry to Heaven’ Next; Begins Filming in Italy Next Year Tom’s first movie in a decade! It is an adaptation of Anne Rice’s novel of the same name which takes place in 18th century Italy. A Single Man and Nocturnal Animals were visually stunning. Tom Ford and a period film?! *faints*
🕸️ HOT GIRLS HAVE COLD HANDS! I was thinking about this hilarious piece from
days after I read it, so I went back and read it again. This is one of those comedic genius bursts of writing that you print and frame to hang in your office.🕸️ The Shrouds directed by David Cronenberg (The Fly, Crash, Eastern Promises, A Dangerous Method) looks wonderfully creepy. Releases on April 18th.
🕸️ Last but certainly not least, THE FRICK COLLECTION is open again after a 5-year renovation! One of the best museums to visit in NYC, especially during spring. I bought tickets before it was even open, that’s how excited I am.
What Has Been Caught In Your Web 🕸️This Week?
🕷️ Thank you for reading JENOVIA’S WEB. Restack on Notes, leave a comment, or hit the heart button if you enjoyed this post. I love hearing from you! 🕸️
Love always,
Jenovia
Those opening paragraphs just transported me back to high school English. Dictionary.com just got heavy usage.
Calumniations is a very underrated word.
Your writing reminds me of how much i love WORDS and books.