💖✌️🌮 Love List #5: Comfort Media and the Healing Power of Bad Bunny
The worse the news gets, the louder I play NUEVAYol
I’m so glad you’re here! Welcome to another edition of Love, Peace, and Tacos, my newsletter where I share what I’m feeling, loving, and eating.
Friends,
The horrors persist, but so must this newsletter.
My friend Trevor sent me the image below a couple of weeks ago and it feels particularly apt right now (not to mention, very Simone coded!) Everything feels unhinged lately, so I figured this was a good opportunity to share some small things that are bringing me joy amidst chaotic times.
If you’re curious, these pieces are by French illustrator Cosmo Danchin-Homard. I love her use of colour and the tongue-in-cheek messaging. This piece in particular feels perfect for this era.
The healing power of Bad Bunny
If you haven’t listened to Bad Bunny’s new album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOTos (I should have taken more photos) do yourself a favour and fix that. Up until this album, I was neutral on Bad Bunny — I liked a few of his songs but had never taken the time to do a deep dive into his catalogue. Even though I only understand a fraction of the lyrics, the album is so joy-filled and layered with cultural references (including themes of gentrification and colonialism) that it’s hard not to fall in love. Although the album is full of bangers (much bedroom dancing has been had) there’s this undercurrent of homesickness for a bygone time and place that also feels perfect for the timeline we’re in. The worse the news gets, the louder I play NUEVAYol.
Appointment TV
In recent months, I’ve become wholly obsessed with the HBO show, The Pitt. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been this into a show (I even read the subreddit after every new episode). If you’re not familiar, each episode of the season covers one hour of a single 15-hour emergency room shift at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. The acting is excellent and the pacing makes the show incredibly addictive. It’s realistic (complete with patients waiting 6+ hours to see a doctor) and its truly heart wrenching in parts. However, I find the chaos of the emergency room strangely calming. Even if I’m having a bad day, the staff in The Pitt are having a worse one.
Speaking of longing for days of yore, waiting for a new episode to drop every Thursday feels like delicious torture and brings me back to the pre-streaming days when I used to mark my favourite shows on my calendar.
Note: there’s a couple if you’ve recently experienced medical trauma or loss of a loved one, you might want to wait to watch this.
Feel-good palette cleanser books.
I read a lot of edgy literary fiction and dark & twisty mysteries/thrillers but lately I’ve been craving more fun, feel-good stories. I Hope This Finds You Well by Natalie Sue and The Wedding People by Alison Espach are two of the most enjoyable books I’ve read in a while. Both are laugh-out-loud funny while still having a strong emotional core that sneaks up on you (cue: warm & fuzzy endings). Perfect for fans of Eleanor Oliphant is Perfectly Fine (but with more humour and snark).
This video of Doechii singing Anxiety
When I started writing this newsletter (many moons ago) this song had yet to go viral on social media. Still, I love this video of Doechii performing in her bedroom with her pink Rubbermaid bins. It’s the perfect reminder that stars aren’t born overnight. We all start somewhere.
Well, that’s all folks.
What’s one thing you are currently loving? Let me know in the comments!
Love, Peace and Tacos,
