The TueDo List: RBG 👊 + Our Punk Pasts + Sejal Shah
THIS WEEK
Last week was rough – RIP to the Glorious RBG whose visionary decisions and dissents will be appreciated for generations to come. On making light from pain and mourning RBG. The new “historical” American Girl doll is from the 1980s?? We want to read everything long-listed for the National Book Award for Fiction, especially our story editor Deesha Philyaw’s book! This Friday, The Great British Baking Show returns. Related: Next-level brownie mix recipes and booze Advent calendars. How COVID is changing money conversations. I'm in the best shape of my life and it doesn't matter. Madonna is directing her own biopic while Martha Stewart gobbles CBD gummies. We’re not wearing pants either. It took divorce to make my marriage equal. Mother with sign is the content we need right now. Can you spot a social media troll? Lost Notes goes deep on the music of 1980. My mother is an urban peasant and I am my mother’s daughter.
TICKETS: Get Out the MotherF&#@ing Vote!
Searching for a way to make a difference in the upcoming election while hanging out with other TueNighters and laughing (yes, we said LAUGHING)?
On October 6 at 8pm, join us for Get Out the Motherf@#&ing Vote: A virtual night of fun, solidarity, and writing postcards to voters from TueNight and our friends at Persisticon. We’ll be streaming encouragement and laughs via the Crowdcast platform and comedians Murray Hill, Ophira Eisenberg, Marina Franklin, Jo Firestone and DJ LaFrae Sci (some of you may remember her killer tunes from our last event!).
Experts have determined that personal notes from real people at key moments really do make a huge difference, so LET’S DO THIS!
STORY: Grandma’s: A House Manual in the Age of COVID
By Margaret Crandall
“Welcome to Grandma’s house. We understand this was not your first choice for a week away from the toxic San Francisco air, especially when the air down here in Central California is even worse. We are aware that this week-long vacation puts both you and Grandma at risk, COVID-wise. We appreciate your business.”
(Psst: Want to write for us? Pitch us here!)
OBSESSED: Your Subcultural Pasts
Last week we asked TueNighters to show us photos of their goth, punk, metal, or other subcultural phases, and you did not disappoint! Check out the whole Facebook thread to go down memory lane (Margit in a beehive, y’all!) – or upload an old photo and tag us on Instagram with #TueNightersIRL.
TueNight 10: Sejal Shah
(In my backyard, late May in Rochester, NY, a week or two before my book launched)
Age: 47
Bio: Sejal Shah's debut essay collection, This Is One Way to Dance, was published by University of Georgia Press in June 2020. Publishers Weekly says, "Shah forcefully tackles the complicated intersection of 'identity, language, movement, family, place, and race'…[she] has created a striking self-portrait."
Beyond the Bio: I love caring much less about what other people think. Books matter more to me than clothes. Since the pandemic, I'm not coloring my hair and it's sometimes shocking to see the grey, but also freeing. This is me.
What makes you a grown-ass lady? Knowing I'd rather stay in than go out and being good with that. Joy of missing out (JOMO!). Understanding that when other people behave badly, it's about them. To not take it personally. Also: boundaries. Knowing them, enforcing them.
Here’s her TueNight 10:
1. On the nightstand: CBD Balm with arnica and ginger, pens, books, lilac-scented lotion.
2. Can’t stop/won’t stop: Alone time is a necessity.
3. Jam of the minute: This atmospheric cover of "Cruel Summer" by Kari Kimmel for this new Netflix show my spouse was watching called Cobra Kai.
4. Thing I miss: Living next door to my friends (college); walking to work (New York City).
5. ’80s crush: John Cusack (of course) and the actor who played Gil on the PBS adaptation Anne of Green Gables.
6. Current crush: My husband. Calvin, the baby next door.
7. Latest fave find: Fresh flowers (backyard) in the house make everything better.
8. Last thing you lost: Perfect black summer weight sweater (somewhere in the house).
9. Best thing that happened recently: Hike with our neighbors to Chimney Bluffs State Park on the shores of Lake Ontario, an hour away; I'd never been there.
10. Looking forward to: Sinking into fiction. Fall hikes. A regular routine after the crazy schedule of pandemic online book promotion & first-time virtual low-residency MFA teaching this summer.
Keep dissenting, TueNighters!
