The changes at Twitter have nudged me in a direction I probably should have gone a while ago. I was spending an uncomfortably large portion of time there— even as I found myself interacting less and less— and as much as I tried to rationalize that it was necessary for “work,” ehh, it isn’t *that* necessary.
I’ve worked in a lot of newsrooms that used social media to (try to) drive traffic to their articles, and Twitter was never a major driver, in fact, it usually represented only a small fraction of the readership that came from social media. A lot of the conversations on Twitter are among journalists, and often are topics that barely exist outside of social media. So it was starting to produce diminishing returns, and I suspect, stressing me out more often than not. I probably won’t leave Twitter altogether but I’m not planning to spend as much time there. That’s where this newsletter (hopefully) will come in.
I’m still not that great at Instagram and still extremely awkward on camera, so while I will be using my Insta more, don’t expect to see too many selfies. But pls follow me there, I promise it will be at least as entertaining as my Twitter is/was.
Hopefully this newsletter can be another way to connect with people, share some of the things I’m working on, and spark some conversations. Also! I used to do a weekly roundup of new TV and movie trailers when I worked at The Verge which I absolutely loved writing, so expect some discussion of what I’m watching/hate-watching/looking forward to watching.
Work:
On Saturday I went to a rally for Senate candidate John Fetterman, and the headliner was former President Obama. I wrote about it here and posted some of the photos to Instagram. Obama has been just on fire in his recent campaign appearances— just as compelling an orator as ever.1
It is very interesting to me how large a role Obama is playing in the push toward the 2022 midterms; later on Saturday he appeared in Philadelphia with President Biden, Fetterman, and gubernatorial candidate Josh Shapiro.
As Obama put it, he got “whupped” in midterm elections, and wondered aloud how much more of his agenda he would’ve been able to push through with a majority in Congress (It’s a little painful to consider, to be honest).
Also it was a beautiful day for an outdoor rally (although it is disconcerting to have 70- degree weather in November).
I also talked to dozens of voters in western Pennsylvania for this piece on today’s New York Times (always extremely cool to be in the paper of record no matter how old and jaded I get). The photos are just beautiful.
Tonight I’ll be at the Fetterman campaign’s election night event, and will refrain from making predictions. Let’s talk afterward, though.
Watching:
Right now, I’m watching The Handmaid’s Tale (idk, I have to see how it turns out and this season has been pretty decent, although I miss Alexis Bledel as Emily), Andor, which is the best Star Wars-related show/thing in some time, and on Friday I started the new season of Manifest (I know!) … and fell asleep halfway through the second episode. I’ll try again, but it was not the most auspicious re-introduction to this weird show that fans helped revive on Netflix. And *alllllso* I started the new season of The White Lotus during which I did not fall asleep but squirmed several times. Many times, during both episodes. We need to have a discussion board or something about this show (these are the times I dearly miss the late, great recap site/forum Television Without Pity. RIP). Lotus is so bizarre and yet it’s clearly got an enormous HBO budget which gives it that prestige TV feel, and Jennifer Coolidge is so good. And the new season of The Crown is coming this week and suddenly Wednesday night is must-stream TV.
I’m aiming for a twice-weekly cadence for this newsletter, and hope you’ll share it. I’ll keep it free for the time being and will always have a free edition available even if I decide to add a paid version down the road. Which leads me to the question: What would be worth paying for? I subscribe to several newsletters that I pay for, but with others I subscribe to, I read the free versions. Usually it’s the writing or the insights that get me to pay, because I appreciate original work and know it’s costly and time-consuming to produce, especially if you’re flying solo.
Would you pay for original reporting, i.e. things that I don’t publish elsewhere? What about recaps or discussions of new episodes of streaming shows (with the big caveat that I am merely a TV/movie enjoyer and have no training/am utterly unqualified as a critic)? If not, what would make it worth paying for? Add your thoughts in the comments, please and thank you.
And thanks for reading.
*OK so here’s a nerdy sidebar: My husband and I often try to evaluate public figures in terms of Dungeons and Dragons stats—charisma, intelligence, wisdom, strength, dexterity and constitution. It’s probably not possible to accurately calculate Obama’s charisma score but let me know if you have a guess and how you reached that number, (preferably using a 20-sided die).
More of this, plz!
I’m so glad you’re doing this, Kim!