On My Mind...

I’m back in Mumbai and it seems like we are in store for a day, possibly days, of rain. As I am rain averse and am preparing to leave the city, I’m a bit annoyed and to top it all of I’m also in a bit of a book rut. The physical books I have with me seem unappealing and the books I do want to read are on Libby and I’m on hold and I don’t know when it will be my turn but once those books become mine I might have lost the sense of urgency to read them now so I’m just stuck. I guess I could read Solenoid.*

Since it’s a rain day, I’m working on closing the infinite number of tabs on my laptop and thought I’d share some of the things that are on my mind this week as I work on next week’s newsletter about style, trends, and authors in fashion!

New York Fashion Week has kicked off and Vogue’s Archive Editor Laird Borrelli-Persson shared the highlights from the Spring Summer 2004 collection here. In 2004, Martha was convicted of a felony, Mark released Facebook which would then spawn Meta and same-sex marriages were legally recognized in Massachusetts. Other things happened but they didn’t relate to the letter M so I didn’t include them.

It will be curious to keep these 2004 runway images in my mind as the month progresses.

Regardless of what you might think about the Kardashian-Jenner family, Kylie killed this Acne campaign. So much so, I considered changing my iPhone lock screen.** She really is the supermodel in the family.

I saw a TikTok last month about Japan’s sukeban. The word roughly translates to “delinquent girl” and references the violent girl gangs of the late 60s and early 70s. This subculture consisted of school age girls who would subvert their uniforms by baring their waist and lengthening their skirts to ankle-grazing lengths. They would carry weapons: razor blades, swords, chains, etc. All of which would be concealed beneath their uniforms. The few details I’ve learned have all been pretty bad ass. But, I want to know more and am having a hard time finding a good book. If you have any recs, let a girl know.

This Forbes article about Bhutan’s secret Bitcoin stash and mining operations has been on my radar since April 2023 because Bhutan fascinates me and I only just read it now. Lol.

Bhutan’s proximity to the glaciers of the Himalayas, gives them immense stores of hydroelectricity and accounts for 30% of their GDP. Somehow they are using that to mine Bitcoin. I find the whole conversation around mining Bitcoin confusing and don’t understand the logistics of it because why would you have to mine imaginary money like this? Why isn’t the money of the future easier to use and understand? Why can’t the crytpo-men make it easier for the people (i.e. me)?

Anyways, a bunch of people are mad and worried because the country is getting involved with a risky investment and did so without telling their citizens. Obviously, the lack of transparency with their citizens is bad but it’s pretty cool that they are willing to try something new. I love when people, and in this case nations, are open-minded and down to try new things. As it stands, Bhutan is already ahead of the trend with their Gross National Happiness index.***

(As of this summer, Bhutan is looking to raise $500 million for a big mining project.)

One of the tabs I had open was a New Yorker article reflecting on Denis Johnson’s work following the news of his death. The author of the piece had bought Angels in hardcover and read the book in one go. After reading the book, he called information and got Johnson’s number. The call was short and when asked how long it took him to write the novel, Johnson responded, “Twelve years.”

The author of the article later goes on to describe the compelling quality of Johnson’s voice like so: “He was an uneven writer, but even his most forgettable work throbbed with his irreducibly American voice, idiomatically vivid, veering between hardboiled banter and hyperacute physical and emotional immediacy—the banter often darkly comic, the description darkly ecstatic, observation so keen and compressed and so idiosyncratic that in bursts of just a few short sentences it could achieve a visionary quality.”

I’m not sure how this article about American Privilege by Nick McDonnell got on my radar but I read it today and liked this sentence: “There is a violence to good manner.”

McDonnell attended all of the best schools and was indoctrinated in the codes of wealth from birth. He wrote his first novel at 17 and this article is a bit of a marketing for his newest work: a non-fiction book called Quiet Street: On American Privilege.****

I wasn’t planning on reading McDonnell’s book but I just started The Kingdom of Prep because of RHONY***** and I think the Quiet Street would dovetail nicely with my current read.

More literary news: Andrea Long Chu said Zadie Smith lost her teeth and Merve Emre deleted her Twitter because of this conversation she had with journalist and I’m kind of sad and wishing I was a student at Wesleyan so I could take her two classes on criticism. If someone can pass along the syllabi to those courses I would be v happy.

Finally, in conclusion, as I know you are all eager to hear how my tab closing efforts are going… I closed like 5-10? But I still have about 72 or so left.

*I will beat you Owen.
**This week, I also considered changing my lock screen from the image of Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II Khan Hunting with a Hawk to Equestrian portrait of Guru Gobind Singh attended upon by a Nihang. Looking at the similarities in both images it is clear I must adopt a hawk-like companion and a horse that kind of looks like a cow as a pet.
***Note to self: find (and read) a history book on Bhutan
****Still not monetized
*****Real Housewives of New York City