Story Spotlight
To believe that age is just a number is so tempting — but it’s not quite as simple as that
Age, in many ways, is an invisible matter. It’s how many winters and springs one has seen throughout her life, how many years of knowledge one has to share with others, how many struggles one has fought on her path to the present. But age is also physical — it’s the wrinkles, wounds, and scars one wears proudly in private but often tries to hide in public. The more years behind you, the more marks your body exhibits.
This is what Caitlin Vestal captures so perceptively in her heartfelt essay “When Dry Skin Is So Much More Than Dry Skin”.
…
It’s time we all stop taking the foul awards show seriously.
We have the first contender for the Controversy of the Year Award. Surprise, It’s GRAMMYs! Okay, no one is surprised. No one, probably, even cares.
Still, the awards season has officially begun, and GRAMMYs has just announced nominations for its 63rd trophies' distribution night.
The list this year looks like someone put it through a randomizer of some sort. Beyonce’s leading the pack without even releasing an actual album this year. Coldplay‘s getting an “Album of the Year” despite not being relevant anymore. Why? Maybe it’s a tradition. Like royal privilege, or something. They’re British, for all that.
No Lady…
The only problem — they all look like variations of the same one.
Positions are like fingerprints you leave at a crime scene — they can tell a lot about you. The political you. The social you. The physical you.
Positions can be…no, positions are the basis of your identity.
What’s your position right now?
Mine is me sitting on a couch, listening to Ariana Grande’s new album “positions”, and trying to figure her out. It’s challenging, but it seems that for Grande positions are mostly about sex.
Why?
It’s a guess. 10 out of 14 songs on the album are directly or indirectly related to love-making — so, yes, my guess is…
For her new video, the singer assembles the white house in which everything looks beautiful and nothing feels true.
Ariana Grande is an enviably talented singer, and, seemingly, hardworking one — in the last few years she released two highly-successful albums, and her new long-play is on the way. The pop star has also been quite outspoken about supporting women rights and fighting against social oppression, both in her music and social media posts. Her song “God is a woman” — alongside its music video — is probably the most striking feminist anthem of the decade.
Last week, Grande released the new single “Positions” together with a politically-charged music video in which she appears as the commander-in-chief residing in…
Have you heard all of them?
It’s almost five years since Adele released “25”. She has been away for so long, and so many things have changed for her along the road. I wonder if it had much of an impact on her storytelling.
Now she’s back, hosting “Saturday Night Live” this week. Does it mean a new album is on the way? Are we getting more powerhouse ballads? Or less? Maybe she made a disco album like her fellow brit Jessie Ware?
Rumour has it she might drop new music this Halloween.
Whatever it is, Adele can surprise us. She did before.
Yes, she might…
A story about The Tube, oysters and a vintage jacket.
Please mind the gap.
London is a true English gentleman, and as such, he politely warns you of danger every time you board one of his underground trains. I used to take his “mdinginthegap” game literally and would, well, mind the gap between a train and the platform. Now, I think he meant something more than that — something that many residents of London do not quite realise.
Londoners — alike moles — spend a good portion of their daytime below the ground. Not by a choice, really. Despite the great number of options London offers, most people can only…
Clubs are closed. Bars are closed. Coffee shops are closed. The pandemic left little reason for joy until disco showed up, and brought “Dancing Queen” back to the mainstream.
Home is, in many ways, a comforting place, but staying inside for too long can feel suffocating. It was never more palpable than in 2020. This was the year when home ceased to be just a place to unwind after a long working day, sleep, wake up and leave for the same routine. Now, it’s the centre of our existence, now everything is here: your gym, office, art studio, coffee shop, restaurant… dance hall? Yes, even a dance hall. Dancing in a 100 sq room isn’t quite fancy — but it’s a good alternative to going mad in reluctant isolation.
Elliot Page announced that he is transgender — and people just couldn’t stop but assume ownership over his decision.
Today I stumbled on a news story in one Russian media outlet saying that Elliot Page came out as transgender. As it often happens in such cases, the comment section was horrendously ignorant: along the lines of “I’m tired of those sick people making public statements about their sickness” to “the next time what? transitioning to a dog or a cat?. There was literally no single comment showing support or empathy towards him. It’s sad — I thought — but something one could anticipate from Russian-speaking segment of the internet.
Then, I clicked on the Twitter tab, opened Page’s profile…
Featuring pearls of wisdom from Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Ray BLK, Jamila Woods and India.Arie
Do you ever feel like half of your life is being spent on reliving past experiences?
I do.
To dwell in the past is, probably, a bad habit to have, but I can’t help it: a tiny curator in my head likes to play old movies for me. Today he’s playing “Teenage Memories” — my coming of age story. The soundtrack to the film features five women. Confident, unapologetic women with a strong sense of self-worth.
These women taught me some important life lessons.
Here are five of them.
1. Your apples are as good as anyone else’s — they’re just different.
“Appletree” by Erykah Badu was the first soul song I’ve ever…
Well, it’s mutual. I care about Kamala Harris too.
I’m not an American citizen and I’ve never been to the US — so why do I care about the presidential elections there? It’s hard to explain. Sometimes I get so emotionally involved in other countries’ elections that it feels like I’m there. Making the momentous decision that will change the way my future will look like in… in the future.
It’s like I care about people making good choices. If we all choose something better instead of something worse today, then tomorrow we will be living in a better world.
The fairytale no one asked me for. …
