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.
PS If you’re a free subscriber and enjoying Oldster Magazine, please consider upgrading to a paid subscription so that I can keep paying contributors. More paywalled content is coming soon…
RIP Tina Turner. At Vulture/NYMag,
pays tribute to one of pop music’s brightest stars, and links to videos of some of her most iconic performances. (A year ago, Caryn wrote about Patti Smith for Oldster.)Thank you to every friend, family member and subscriber who’s messaged me to suggest I feature Julia Louis Dreyfus and her wonderful new podcast, Wiser Than Me, in Oldster Magazine. I mentioned it in a February link roundup, and I’ve reached out to “her people.” They said she’s not doing more press right now, but I’m hoping that when she gets back out there, she’ll consider taking The Oldster Magazine Questionnaire, or talking with me on the burgeoning Oldster Podcast. (If you’re someone who can help with this, please let me know.) In the meantime, go listen to her talk with so many great women—Jane Fonda, Isabelle Allende, Fran Lebowitz, Amy Tan, and others!
Speaking of Julia Louis Dreyfus, I am dying to see You Hurt My Feelings, the new Nicole Holofcener movie she stars in, opposite Tobias Menzies, about a writer who’s devastated to learn her husband secretly doesn’t like her writing. I love all of Holofcener’s films, and I can’t wait to see this one now that it’s out.
I’m also eager to see Being Mary Tyler Moore, a documentary about the iconic late actress, now streaming on MAX (or HBO or whatever they’re calling it).
I loooooved season two of Bridget Everett’s Somebody Somewhere so of course I’m thrilled to learn it’s been renewed for a third season on MAX/HBO. via Deadline.
What you need to know about turning 90. - Helen Dennis at the Los Angeles Daily News.
“Quite suddenly, I lost most of the hearing in my left ear and nobody has an explanation for it.” - 81-year-old Paul Simon, who just released a new record called Seven Psalms, is experiencing significant hearing loss, and it might keep him from performing live. via Vulture/NYMag.
“Childfree was chosen for me.” I was interviewed on an excellent podcast called We Are Childfree.
“I have been in AA for a quarter of a century. (Had I stayed clean after first arriving, it would now be 48 years, but that’s another story.)” Oldster contributor
was interviewed by our friend at The Small Bow, an incredible newsletter about recovery and mental health.I’ve been excited to see
—’s midlifestyle/beauty/lifestyle blog—move to Substack! Kim has the best taste. I always want every garment and shoe and product and life hack she posts about. Check it out.
In one of her first Substack posts, Kim France is photographed wearing an Oldster tee. Many of you have asked where you can get these, and the answer is: the Oldster Etsy Shop.
That’s all I’ve got. Have a great weekend! - Sari
So Many Links, So Little Time...
As your publication makes clear, every decade presents new opportunities and new challenges. But, what people like to minimize, or don’t want to hear that much about at all, is that reaching 80, and certainly 90, presents more challenges than opportunities. Despite all the Silicone Valley hype and research, our bodies have been designed by evolution to fall apart. As creatures, we are on Earth to reproduce, raise out young and get out of the way.
I never realized that 36% of women reach 90 vs. 16% of men. I’m sure there are many factors, physical, mental, and social that contribute to that. I think this site is one example of how women are much more open and supportive about the changes they go through.
Anyway, hang -in-there, as best you can. It’s always better with others.
I appreciate your comments on "being childfree" both by inclination and because medically it wasn't possible to have children (biologically). I'm one of the youngest baby boomers (born a few days before 1962; both my sisters are Gen X) and I always knew, from very early childhood, that I didn't want to have or raise kids, though I liked some of my friends' kids and appreciated their relationships with each other. My middle sister also always knew, from todderlhood, that she /did/ absolutely want kids (she had three). I'm glad no one tried to tell me otherwise or place expectations on me about child-bearing/-rearing, certainly not my parents, though some acquaintances airily opined that I'd change my mind when I got older, but it wouldn't have mattered what anyone else said or expected of me, and I guess I was blind or or immune to societal expectations in this regard. I'm 61 now, married, happy, no kids or grandkids, and being childless or childfree is not something I think about (unless prompted to) and it's not something I regret. I've really loved my life and felt its fullness.