Time, Once Again, for the Distract-o-Matic
Time, Once Again, for the Distract-o-Matic
A link roundup to help take you through an impossible moment in the world...
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 This monster roundup will probably be too long to show up in full in your email. Click on the title to read the whole thing on the web.
PPS By the by, I never raised to annual subscription price to 60 like I said I would after Oldster’s 2nd birthday. It’s still a very affordable $55, which helps me to pay contributors. Just saying…
RIP actor and health and fitness entrepreneur Suzanne Somers, who last week lost her battle with cancer a day before her 77th birthday. - via Alex Traub at The New York Times.
Also, RIP Rocky star Burt Young, who passed away this week at 83. - via The Associated Press/NPR
“All of the ‘we’re aging, oh my god’ sentiment is natural. It’s only surprising to us millennials who, in this moment, like every generation before, imagined our identity would be fixed at age 28. People are always getting older; there are always, inexplicably, more young people.” - at
, writes “How Millennials Grew Up and Got Old.”“Take a newfound awareness of mortality, stir in a heaping appreciation of good fortune, a dollop of mortification and a sprinkle of levity. Serve hot.” - in The New York Times, Elisabeth Egan reflects on turning 50.
“Few people have single handedly done as much to shape the Hudson Valley’s culinary scene as chef Zak Pelaccio.” - This has nothing to do with aging, but if you’re in the mid-Hudson Valley and looking for a great dining experience, chef Zak Pelaccio has returned to The Kinsley in uptown Kingston with a new fall menu that’s excellent. (Brian and I tried and loved it last week.) In Chronogram, Marie Doyon reports.
“At the end of this year, the TueNight chapter will be coming to a close.” - The bad news: at the end of the year, after a decade of writing about her own experience of midlife, and publishing the voices other women on their’s,
will cease publishing .The good news: On Tuesday, November 21,
will celebrate its “10 Years of Gen X Storytelling” with a big birthday bash at Caveat on the Lower East Side, hosted by , and featuring storytellers Abbe Aronson, Girls They Write Songs About author , Julia Khvasechko, Ebele Onyema, Penny Wrenn, and Carla Zanoni.AARP’s The Arrow vertical for Gen X men is also calling it quits, after its 50th issue, just out.
“I realized I, a woman who had been in a heterosexual marriage for 25 years, had fallen in love with another woman.” - at The Ethel, another AARP vertical that’s still going strong, author Carren Strock writes about finding a surprising love, later in life.
Oldster Magazine Questionnaire taker Jonathan Baylis has just launched a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign for a new issue of his comic book series, So Buttons. Here’s one of the comics from the forthcoming edition, written by Baylis and illustrated by 68-year-old artist Brian Bram, about which Baylis says, “Brian Bram was an artist on the first two issues of Harvey Pekar's American Splendor in the 1970s and he makes his triumphant return to auto-bio comix adaptation with this year's So Buttons #13 and I could not be more pleased to have collaborated with him!”
Have you watched Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi’s Reservations Dogs on HULU yet? I can’t say enough good things about this show, including the ways in which it’s an ongoing intergenerational conversation between Indigenous young kids and their elders living on a reservation in Oklahoma. (You know how much I appreciate an intergenerational conversation! My aspiration for Oldster…) The show gets better and better with each episode. The Ethan Hawk episode toward the end of Season 3 might be my favorite half-hour of television ever.
I’m woefully clueless about money, and might take a step toward fixing that by signing up for this free Dow Janes investing class for women.
If you’re looking for places to contribute to help civilians on both sides of the Israeli/Hamas war, in The Cut/NYMag Andrea González-Ramírez has a good list.
The episode of Rachel Josar’s They Had Fun podcast, in which I tell about about a favorite day in NYC (specifically the one where I went to see Jill Sobule’s wonderful autobiographical musical, F*ck 7th Grade), is now live! Give it a listen.
After you listen to my episode of They Had Fun, do yourself a favor and get tickets to Jill Sobule’s F*ck 7th Grade, which will have yet another run at The Wild Project on E. 3rd Street in the East Village November 8th through 26th. (I might go a third time! I can’t recommend it highly enough!)
🚨Here’s another Oldster Top 10 by Modern Sounds radio host Cliff Chenfeld:
“There is so much great new music out there but it can be hard to find the new artists that you will love.” Modern Sounds radio host Cliff Chenfeld is here to make that discovery much easier for you. Here, Cliff features new music from mostly new artists who he thinks will have great appeal to Oldster subscribers. You can find all of these songs on the Modern Sounds playlist on Spotify.
First Aid Kit – Angel – Catchy candor from sweet singing Swedish sisters. And if you want to dance to it, check out the remix by Goose.
Mitski – My Love All Mine – One of today’s most compelling artists is back with a quiet, wonderful new record.
Woods – Sip Of Happiness – A song that lives up to its delightful title by a revered group that you should know if you don’t.
Daniel Caesar – Always – This new R&B song is a big hit and already sounds like a standard.
Anohni/Antony and The Johnsons – It Must Change – Yes it must, on both the personal and political tip, says this transgender trailblazer.
The Last Dinner Party – Nothing Matters – British band that was getting plenty of buzz without releasing any music and now they have, hearing a little Abba but with a much more explicit message.
Katy J Pearson – Talk Over Town – Pop rock perfection and an irresistible hook from new British artist
Manchester Orchestra – The Way – Indie stalwarts are back with this hauntingly beautiful, gentle song.
Thee Sacred Souls – Running Away – Warm, smooth retro-soul that never goes out of style.
Allison Russell – The Returner – Triumphant song of hope and restoration from rising Americana star with vocal help from Brandi Carlile
BONUS TRACK: Darlingside – Darkening Hour – Pristine, transcendent harmonies on this plaintive beauty.
Are you all caught up on the latest from Oldster?
- ’s essay, “Re(re)Thinking ‘In Sickness and In Health’”?
- ’ essay, “Catching the Cat”?
Questionnaires from Minda Honey and Brenda C. Wilson?
Ray Cocks’ responses to the “Ask a Sober Oldster” Q&A, the fifth in the series, a collaboration with one of my favorite newsletters,
’s ?
Thanks as always for reading, everyone. Have a great weekend.
-Sari
Reservation Dogs sounds awesome. Will look for that.
Besides being a talented comedienne, Suzanne Somers worked tirelessly for breast cancer awareness, treatments, etc. until finally succumbing to her own battle. She was a true role model. RIP.
Just wondering if this Oldster publication is open to everyone or just sober folks? It’s great to interview folks who are sober and loved reading about Ray and Meredith’s recovery. I am sober too for 32 years - but it might be a good reminder to both the journalist and the interviewees representing an anonymous program is a violation of Tradition 11 “we always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, films, television and other public media of communications.”