The Every-Other-Friday(ish) Link Roundup
Some Oldster-adjacent brain candy to occupy you this weekend. PLUS: "The Oldster Top 10," Cliff Chenfeld's monthly playlist of new songs.
I tend to read, watch, and listen to a lot of Oldster-adjacent content. Every other Friday I’ll pass some of it along to you in a Link Roundup like this one. If you like what you’re reading here, please hit the ❤️ button to give Oldster a boost in the algorithm.
A tremendous amount of work goes into publishing Oldster—mine, and that of my contributors. Paid subscriptions keep Oldster going, and allow me to keep paying essayists and interviewers. Thanks to all who support my work here! 🙏
“I've been searching for a publication that talks about aging with honesty and humor rather than panic or denial. Oldster does exactly that. I feel seen here.” - Jennifer Byrne, paid subscriber.
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Louise Lasser, Star of ‘Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman,’ Dies at 87 - Chris Koseluk in The Hollywood Reporter. Damnit—just a week after I wrote about my love for Louise Lasser and Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, we lost her.
Robert Thurman, Leading Interpreter of Tibetan Buddhism, Dies at 84 - Clay Risen in The New York Times. As some Kingston/Woodstock area locals pointed out to me, I missed this one back in June. He was also actress Uma Thurman’s father.
I haven’t seen it yet, but my mom highly recommends The Final Set, a Netflix documentary about how Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova went from fierce rivals to great friends who’ve supported each other through their cancers.
Madonna Has Become an Avatar for Our Fear of Aging - Glynnis MacNicol in The New York Times.
Season 1 of Rooster on HBO, starring Steve Carrell, Connie Britton, and others, is a lot of fun.
We Always Leave Things Unfinished: William T. Vollmann is dying. In his Sacramento studio, he talks America, unfinished work, and the 3,096-page opus he finished just in time. - Alexander Sorondo in big reader bad grades.
4 Funny Specials for a Long Hot Holiday Weekend - Nice to see friend of Oldster Ophira Eisenberg in this roundup of comedy specials. I saw hers live at the Comedy Cellar last fall, and now you can watch it for $9.99 on Veeps.
I’m hearing great things about Whistler, Ann Patchett’s new novel, published in June.
The Day the Dead Spoke to Me - Oldster contributor Robert Burke Warren on an uncanny reading from a psychic medium.
Joe Coleman and Me - “Me” being me. On the East Village tenement I inhabited for over a decade, just after a brilliant and colorful artist got kicked out of it.
Related: Joe Coleman is one of the featured artists in the American Folk Art Museum’s current exhibit, Self-Made: A Century of Inventing Artists, showing through September 13th.
Meghan Ross’s How We Grieve docuseries looks great. (h/t Brooke Berman)
The Sweet Life of Tom Carvel: How a Greek immigrant with big dreams grew a faulty ice-cream cart into an American franchise behemoth that would serve Flying Saucers and Fudgie the Whales to many generations to come - Nathan King in Airmail.
Alanis Morissette, 52, Says Menopause Has Become Her ‘Truth Serum’ - Donna Freydkin in AARP.
Tune in next Tuesday, July 14th at 3pm ET when I chat with anti-ageism O.G. Ashton Applewhite over Substack Live. She just launched her newsletter, Things I Used to Say.
Older, Not Old: Kathryn Grody Rewrites the Script on Aging. On the Crow's Feet: Life As We Age podcast.
I enjoyed talking money with Her Money’s Jean Chatzky on her podcast.
I also had a great conversation with Derek Dunham on the Varsity Branding podcast.
This is 60. - Welcome to the club, sam baker! Here’s her Oldster Questionnaire, from when she was 58:
“Something has shifted for me at 60. I’m not sure how I got here, but somehow I’m no longer open to hurting myself in any of the ways I once did. Maybe the body acceptance movement of a few years ago really made a positive impression on me, one that’s irreversible. I hope so.” It was a pleasure to write a piece for Mikala Jamison’s excellent Body Type newsletter about the challenge of posing half-naked in New York Magazine at a time when the body acceptance pendulum is swinging back in the other (wrong!) direction.
A reminder that I mentioned a few weeks ago: Right now Tricycle is offering Oldster subscribers 25% off tuition, when you use this link and the code OLDSTER25.
How about you? Got any recs? Books? Shows? Movies? Music? Plays? Podcasts? Art shows? Places to travel to? Restaurants? Remedies? What’s good?
“I always enjoy the newsletter—but the playlist put it over the top for me! I have loved every song—and I want to support your work and your time.” - Karma Metzler Fitzgerald, paid subscriber.
🚨And now it’s time to put some new music into old ears. 👂 Here’s the monthly Oldster Top 10 by Modern Sounds radio host Cliff Chenfeld: (PS Last August, at Oldster’s 3rd birthday party I played the Modern Sounds playlist and everyone loved it. Several guests asked me to share the Spotify link.)
Welcome to the Oldster Top 10, where we listen to hundreds of new songs each month to find some wonderful new tracks from noteworthy artists who may not have caught your attention. It’s hard to find the great new music amongst the tonnage, but we are here to make music discovery much easier for you. You can find all of these songs on the Modern Sounds playlist on Spotify. Enjoy!
Phoebe Bridgers – Lost Boys – boygenius member is back on her own, banning phones from her concerts and producing sublime songs like this one.
Katie Pruitt – Same Boat – Lots of protest/message songs come from the right place but aren’t great songs. Fortunately, this one is and powerfully critiques the uber rich gouging everyone else.
Johnny Blue Skies – Don’t Let Go – Jonny Blue Skies is the alter ego of the ambitious Sturgill Simpson and he makes some of the sweetest, most poignant country-leaning songs out there.
Kelly Boesch – It’s La Vida Loca – Kelly is a visual artist who has released a string of tasty bossa-nova flavored songs accompanied by striking videos.
Lana Del Rey – First Light – Lana channels James Bond-like musical melodrama on this larger-than-life song.
Kelsey Lu – Cutting Off The Head of A Ghost – Her new album, “So Help Me God,” is emotional and expansive and this song closes the album in a soulful, climactic conclusion.
Vince Staples – Cotton – Rapper/singer-songwriter who is not bound by format or genre gets funky and reverent on this new single.
Sienna Spiro – Die On This Hill – 20 year old Sienna is being touted as the next off the great soulful Uk female singers and this ballad is hitting on both sides of the Atlantic.
Kashus Culpepper – Man Of His Word – Deep southern gospel soul with a taste of country makes for a heartfelt and transcendent single.
This is Lorelei – Billy Came Back – My favorite 2026 song about a missing karaoke singer.
Hopefully there’s enough Oldster-adjacent content here to keep us all occupied through the weekend. If you like what you’re reading, please hit the ❤️ button to give Oldster a boost in the algorithm.
Thanks as always for reading and commenting thoughtfully, and for all your support! I sincerely couldn’t do this without you. 🙏 💝
-Sari
My aunt roomed with Louise Lasser (post-Mary Hartman, probably late 70s). They were best friends for about five minutes. She came to sit shiva with us when my grandmother died and had us in stitches with her stories (how I learned that laughing is the best medicine for dealing with death). I was sad to hear she died. And on another note, definitely read Whistler.
Thanks for including the 50 plays by women over 50- know and adore a bunch of these women!