TueDo List: Best Undies + Hip-Hop Histories + Midlife Swifties
Plus '90s Supermodels, 30 years later and how to help Maui.
THIS WEEK
📖 READ: Learning to swim in my 50s. Danyel Smith’s brutal, magnificent piece on the rappers we lost. Halle Berry on menopause. Inter-office memos at Hustler. Sunscreen needs an upgrade. The insidious plan to ban birth control.
👀 LOOK: A mother/ daughter’s childhood videos side-by-side and a mother/ daughter’s historic journey to space. 30+ years of doing that Cindy Crawford workout, those retro Reeboks are back and lessons from ‘90s supermodels.
🎧 LISTEN: Podcasts! “Hit Play, Not Pause" for sports-minded women in midlife. The “You’re Wrong About” podcast takes on Flowers in the Attic (it’s worth the two dollars on Patreon). Shoshanna Hecht’s interview with journalist Lyz Lenz (
) on divorce, men and making your own rules is a must-listen.🤣 LOL: Gerry, the “Golden Bachelor” has been dubbed (I’m sorry to even write this) “Grandzaddy.” Email greetings for modern times. Lies we were told as kids. 93-year-old grandmother feeds the animals (and screams).
🎟️ GO: “Hip-Hop At 50” photo exhibit in LA and NY, co-curated by Whoopi Goldberg and Queen Latifah.
🌳 DO GOOD: How to help Hawaii residents displaced by the fires. Also, stay out of Maui!
📺 WATCH:
This week: Reinventing Elvis: The ‘68 Comeback documentary for Elvis fans who want to (re)visit this iconic moment (Paramount+).
Wed: Depp v. Heard explores the trial that set Hollywood ablaze, as well as the online fallout that ensued (Netflix).
Thurs: The Office alum Craig Robinson in the comedy Killing It, Season 2 (Peacock); Kim Fields and Wanda Sykes in The Upshaws, Part 4 (Netflix).
Fri: Blue Beetle, DC’s first film to center on a Latino superhero (Theaters). Tiffany Haddish, Wesley Snipes, and Kevin Hart in the striptease comedy Back On The Strip (Theaters).
Hip-Hop Histories: Black Like Lauryn
TueNight is kicking off a series of personal essays throughout the year in honor of Hip-Hop’s 50th anniversary.
By Toya R. Smith
My last year in college, The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill was everywhere. All we listened to, all we sang. The strains of it wafted on the wind across campus. As a Black girl from the hoods of Baltimore, I played Miseducation as much as anyone else. So much, that now, more than 20 years later, I can still sing/rap every note, every word.
Lauryn’s epic 1998 LP was groundbreaking, but the woman herself wasn’t new to me. I’d watched her on As the World Turns and in Sister Act II. I’d head-nodded along with her flow when she was a member of the Fugees. But there was something about Lauryn singing and being on her own that spoke to my young heart. Slender, dark, loc’d, full-lipped, rocking her Northern accent and what felt to me like matching aggression. Something about her beautiful Blackness that looked nothing like mine…
#GENXAPPROVED: Question of the Week
This week, our social media editor Liz is revamping her underwear drawer. She’s on the hunt for your top-notch suggestions on undies that totally ace the comfort, cuteness, and breathability game.
🤔 ASK YOUR OWN QUESTION! If you’re a premium subscriber, you can submit your questions here or head straight to the new section to chime in with your recommendations.
STORY: An Eras Tour of Our Own
By Rachel Sklar
Remember when we were growing up, how all the guys used to rag on Eric Clapton for writing a love song about George Harrison’s wife? Ugh. Tough to enjoy those guitar licks in “Layla” when it was about Clapton’s dopey, messy love life. And yikes, Bob Dylan, write about Joan Baez much? Or Suze Rotolo much? Or Edie Sedgwick much? Or Sara Lownds much?
Oh, and who can forget how Bruce Springsteen was shunned for “Tunnel of Love” (divorce is so awk) and how Chris de Burgh’s “Lady In Red” tanked because no one cared about his wife’s dumb dress (cringe). “When Doves Cry” written about something other than doves? Unacceptable!
Okay, of course none of that ever happened. (Also, Prince wrote “If I Was Your Girlfriend” to an actual girlfriend). So why has Taylor Swift, the biggest act of our adult lives — possibly our entire lives — been devalued, dismissed and negged because she… dates?…
Get your freak on TueNighters! Enjoy the week.