Notes on February
Written from atop a telephone pole
This feels like the most wintery winter I’ve experienced in years: more snow than we’ve had in Philly in recent memory, multiple arctic blasts, and many bone-chilling days. Honestly, I’m not mad about it. I feel like really experiencing all four seasons calibrates my body in a way that I crave when it doesn’t fully happen. I’m sooo excited for spring, but I’m enjoying that feeling if that makes sense. Anyone else on this wavelength? The weather is finally starting to turn and the other day as I was walking through my neighborhood I got a whiff of Cambodian grilled meat skewers - the smell of warm weather in my neighborhood. I was immediately overwhelmed with excitement for sunny days ahead.
Relatedly: Clover and I are taking a trip to Mexico City next month! Neither of us have ever been. Please send me your CDMX recommendations if you have them! Food (note: vegetarianism will be on pause, haha), coffee, art, parks, bars, neighborhoods to walk around in, cool architecture to see, anything else!! I’m so excited. To share recs, paid subscribers can post in the comments, and unpaid readers can respond by email - I will round up all recommendations I receive and share them with everybody next month, probably along with some dispatches from our trip.
Alright, let’s get into some notes. For paid subscribers, below are notes about an L I took on the night of the Eagles’ Super Bowl victory parade, some books and movie recs from this month, a party report, a formula for a very good (and cheap) pasta dinner, and more. <3
-I recently read and appreciated “how it is” by
. Her novel, All This Could Be Different, is one of the best books I’ve read in the last few years, and she’s published multiple wonderful essays on Substack that, as she puts it, engage in “sensemaking of the present in American politics,” my favorite of which is “building the cathedral.” This latest piece is not an essay but a list of thoughts/observations on the current political moment, fascism, authoritarianism, and resistance. As always with her writing, it gave me a sense of clarity and a glimmer of hope.-The vibes in Philadelphia this month were extremely Go Birds. As you may be aware, the Eagles won the Super Bowl, and my fair city did NOT play it cool (we never do). We had a Super Bowl party at my house at which many green jello shots and nachos were consumed. Clover led us in several rowdy renditions of the Eagles touchdown song, and everyone got genuinely drawn into watching the game despite it being a party of mostly non-sports-watchers (shocking). After they won, we took to the streets alongside thousands of other Philadelphians to stumble up Broad street (a main street that runs north to south through the center of the city, for non-Philadelphians) toward City Hall, joining our fellow man in songs, chants, and high fives. It was so funny to step out of the house and see all these other groups of revelers being magnetized toward Broad street — everyone knew just what to do, like salmon swimming upstream to spawn. Without totally realizing what was happening, we walked two miles north into Center City and then had to walk all the way home (and I was opening at my barista job the next morning, smh). No regrets!! The vibes were phenomenal. My friend Emily (I think it was her - I was drunk, as you can see in the below picture) said something to the effect of, “this is so amazing because it makes you think, what if it was always like this?” As in, what would be possible if we always moved in rough unison like this, with such goodwill toward one another? I really felt that.
On the one hand, yes of course the NFL is definitely an evil institution and you won’t catch me getting super into football anytime soon (in no small part because I don’t understand the rules and I refuse to learn). But I love to see my city winning, and there was an extra edge to the feeling because of the greater context; namely, one of these teams was way more MAGA than the other, and, amidst soooo much fucking fear and horror right now, it felt really good to experience the feeling of victory. Obviously the birds winning the Super Bowl is not any sort of material victory against fascism. But it did give those of us lucky enough to be in Philly for it a chance to feel that sensation. I think that’s worth something. Also it was just really fun.