The TueDo List: Hella Feminist + Modern Jazzercize + Emoji Fun
And Margit returns from her Covid "vacation"
THIS WEEK
📖 READ: Jane Fonda is grateful for her strong thighs (and we are grateful for Jane Fonda). Anti-aging creams are a scam, but you knew that already. How Jazzercise, “the Kleenex of dance fitness,” has evolved. Pop culture’s problem with middle-aged women. On the road with America’s female truckers. If you’re taking care of aging parents, you might appreciate this essay. The time is ripe for another Lilith Fair.
👀 LOOK: Bay Area TueNighters, please go see the Hella Feminist exhibit at the Oakland Museum and report back, thanks. Re-upping the “Drunk History” episode about Nichelle Nichols (RIP). Photos from the new book The Only Woman (in the room). Make your own emoji combos.
🎧 LISTEN: Sun’s Signature, from Cocteau Twins singer Elizabeth Fraser and Massive Attack drummer Damon Reece. The R Spot, a new podcast from Shondaland, in which Iyanla Vanzant helps callers and listeners with “relationship hang-ups and hardships.”
🤣 LOL: Thank you for calling the perimenopause hotline, where our hold times are completely unpredictable. No way in hell are we eating cat food for humans. A collection of work meeting achievement badges.
📺 WATCH
Now: Neil Patrick Harris and Tisha Campbell in Uncoupled (Netflix), the second season of Industry (HBO Max), and Fanny: The Right to Rock, a documentary about the 1970s all-female band (theaters and on-demand).
Wednesday: Trainwreck: Woodstock ’99 (Netflix) and the second season of Reservation Dogs (FX).
Friday: Brad Pitt in Bullet Train (theaters) and Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman (Netflix).
IT’S ME, MARGIT: Covid Island
Welp, it finally got me. After two and a half years of avoiding it, my husband and I finally succumbed to COVID. We’re very late to the hell party; it feels almost silly to write about it, but here we are.
We figure we were exposed before we left Brooklyn to head to a wedding in Atlanta; it needed time to incubate and we got it five days after arriving. Maybe we got it on the plane. Maybe the wedding. Who knows. One thing’s for sure: The maskless are plentiful these days…
TUENIGHT 10: Amina Akhtar, Novelist
Age: 44.
Basic bio: Amina Akhtar is a former fashion writer and editor who’s worked for Vogue, Elle, and NYMag, where she was the founding editor of The Cut, before she became a novelist. She lives in the mountains of Arizona and her second book, Kismet, comes out this week.
Beyond the bio: I love being over 40! The small things, and what people think, don't matter at all! It's amazing to see what I can do now.
What makes you a grown-ass lady? I think I hit a point where I'm willing to try new things without worrying what the outcome is. If something doesn't work, who cares, try something else!
Here’s her TueNight 10:
On the nightstand: In the Dark We Forget by Sandra Wong, Like a Sister by Kellye Garrett, and Secret Identity by Alex Segura.
Can't stop/won't stop: Writing! I'm about to turn in my third book and have ideas for two more I want to work on.
Jam of the minute: I'm having a 90s moment and listening to Oasis, a lot. You're my Wonderwallllllll.
Thing I miss: Good sushi. NYC sushi is so great. I live in the desert now, so no raw fish. None.
'80s crush: Christian Slater hands down. Still crushing on him!
Current crush: OK, this is terrible for what it means about me, but Karl Urban as Butcher on The Boys just rings my bell.
Latest fav find: I'm so obsessed with Korean beauty products; the SPF is leagues above that of American ones! Also, the NuFace is incredible. Lifts and sculpts your face!
Last thing you lost: Does my old career count? Hahaha yeah.
Best thing that happened recently: So many! I've gotten an amazing response to my next book, Kismet. It's so exciting to see this idea you work on in your room, alone, become something people respond to!
Looking forward to: My book launch and yes, turning 45. Because it only gets better from here!
Live long and prosper, TueNighters!
