Like Most of Us, Some of These Links Are a Little Old...

An overdue roundup of Oldster-adjacent content...

Cartoon by Carolita Johnson, originally published in The New Yorker. Reprinted with permission.

I tend to read, watch, and listen to an awful lot of Oldster-adjacent content. Now and then I’ll pass some of it along to you in a link roundup like this one.

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• “The reason many people don’t know very much about their grandparents or even their parents is surprisingly simple: They’ve never thought to ask and didn’t have the right questions.” - at The Atlantic, an excerpt of Elizabeth Keating’s new book, The Essential Questions: Interview Your Family to Uncover Stories and Bridge Generations.

• “I thought, ‘Oh my God. That girl can sing.’” - Barbara Streisand upon hearing Live At The Bon Soir, the record recently released, featuring two dozen songs she performed live in 1962 (at 20!) during her residency at a club in Greenwich Village. Via Wesley Morris The New York Times.

• “‘The fascinating thing about me,’ Penny Arcade begins, ‘is that I’m someone from the 60s and I’m still making new work.’” - Photojournalist Bob Krasner profiles legendary downtown performer Penny Arcade. (I am kicking myself for not posting this before her three-day engagement at Joe’s Pub, where she performed her one-woman show, “Penny Arcade: The Art of Becoming – Memories from a Long Exile at the Edge of Society. Episode 3 – 1967-1973: Superstar Interrupted.” I hope she’ll have another run somewhere soon!)

• I’m looking forward to watching The Automat, a documentary “on the vending machine popularized in the 20th century that offered fresh cooked meals in a commissary-style eatery,” featuring Mel Brooks, Carl Reiner, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, among others. It’s directed by Lisa Hurwitz and written by my dear, old friend Michael Levine, now streaming on HBO Max.

• “…according to a recent trend report from the Global Wellness Summit, the business of menopause is projected to be a $600 billion market by 2025.” Celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Serena Williams and Judy Greer are all getting getting in on it. Hmmm, maybe the medical establishment will finally start researching and treating all the conditions women deal with later in life… Vivian Manning-Schaffel reports for The Cut/NY Mag.

A meme I’ve seen a few times, the provenance of which I cannot determine.

• Tickets are still available for the January 23-February 11 run of Jill Sobule’s F*ck 7th Grade. (I loved it so much, I’m going a second time and bringing friends!)

  

  Get tickets to Jill Sobule’s F*ck 7th Grade at The Wild Project in the East Village.

• “Just so you guys know, aging, is fully in…like, fully…” So says 32-year-old actress/model Julia Fox, on TikTok.

  

  @juliafoxOoooo I know this is gonna make the broke boys mad #OLDISIN

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• RIP Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie. At The Ringer, Michael Tedder eulogizes her, writing about how “Christine McVie was a reasonable person in an unreasonable band.”

• RIP Irene Cara. At Ladyparts,

  Deborah Copaken
  pays tribute to Cara, who passed away last week, and spotlights the sexism, racism, and misogyny Cara described dealing with in her memoir—and which so many other women artists have faced.

• “…in recent years I’ve noticed a slight shift in the other direction, wherein a handful of middle-aged and older actresses portray self-possessed, vibrant characters—powerful, complicated, multifaceted humans who happen to also be sexual beings, both desirous of and desirable to others. And they’re being paired with younger partners, counter to the common trope of older men in relationships with much younger women.” - That would be me writing in Yes! Magazine about a hopeful shift I’m starting to see with regard to representation of older women in media.

• Check out the “At Any Age” issue of Multiplicity Magazine, published via Bay Path University’s MFA program (where I teach).

• I just love The Small Bow, A.J. Daulerio’s newsletter about addiction and recovery with illustrations by

  Edith Zimmerman
  . This installment about the dangers of “compare and despair,” which can be easily triggered by things like lists spotlighting “30 Under 30” in your field, was especially relatable.

• In more upbeat news about lists…Next Thursday, December 8th at 7pm Eastern, Zoom into this free, virtual event celebrating Poets & Writers magazine’s “5 Over 50” debut authors: Madhushree Ghosh, Shareen K. Murayama, David Santos Donaldson, Jane Campbell, and yours truly, Sari Botton.