HELLO and welcome to the 157th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about YouTube! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
Lines Like Loss, Love Like Leaving, by Jill Talbot and Justin Lawrence Daugherty, December 2014
I want to tell you something that terrifies me: It’s been twelve years. What if I keep moving, city to city, state to state, room to room, so that I won’t have to feel like I’m waiting for him to come back? As if with every key I leave on the kitchen counter I’m trying to obliterate any room where he might knock on the door. As if I keep going to the post office to erase every address that might be listed under my name. I pack up. I go. It feels like running. Joyce urged Jack: “running isn’t being free.” Maybe I’m Kerouac. That last line: “Rain makes me miss you.”
*The Trailer Park at the Center of the Universe, by Andrew Thompson, December 2014
The Buena Vista trailer park is the only place low-income families live in the Silicon Valley heartland of Palo Alto, but now developers are trying to displace them. This story is fantastic and really in-depth about the history of Palo Alto, the tech boom and so forth.
For Kids, By Kids—But Not For Long, by Nicholas Hune-Brown, December 2014
These YouTubers! These fresh-faced humans on YouTube who make videos teenagers watch. They’re such a thing! I don’t understand the world but the important takeaway here is that this is a part of it.
The Long and Ugly Tradition of Treating Africa as a dirty, diseased place, by Laura Seay and Kim Yi Dionne for The Washington Post, November 2014
Using the Ebola “crisis” as a jumping off point, this piece dives back into history and brings us into the present day with insight about how Africa and Africans have been portrayed as diseased and inferior and how that tradition continues in coverage of Ebola.
Digital Culture: Mikki Kendall on the Weird Fetishization of Black Twitter, by Kira Goldenberg for The Pacific Standard, December 2014
This weird fetishization of Black Twitter has become more and more offensive because every article is like, “Oh my god, black people on the Twitter! And they talk about things!” Well, your grandma’s on Facebook talking about that time your cousin slept with the mailman! And?
Unarmed People of Color Killed By Police, 1999-2014, by Rich Juzwiak and Aleksander Chan for Gawker, December 2014
This is intense, ready yourself, it’s necessary.
“On Wednesday, after the announcement that NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo would not be indicted for killing Eric Garner, the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund Twitter posted a series of tweets naming 76 men and women who were killed in police custody since the 1999 death of Amadou Diallo in New York. Starting with the most recent death, what follows are more detailed accounts of many of those included in the Legal Defense Fund’s tweets.”
Cheerleaders For Christ, by Jia Toletino for Adult Mag, November 2014
“I don’t know why I did anything I did in high school, whether I liked what I was doing or reveled in how much I hated it, or if generally life involves both, or if it’s not just girls but everyone whose lives are a string of punctuated moments when you just⎯⎯as it were⎯⎯shut up and go along. Ten years later most of my friends are back in the fold, wildness purged, a trajectory accepted. I admire them and feel more distant every day.”
The Secret Hollywood Procedure That Has Fooled Us For Years, by Josh Dickey for Mashable, December 2014
PREPARE YOURSELF
“It’s called “beauty work.” It’s a digital procedure of sorts, in which a handful of skilled artists use highly specialized software in the final stages of post-production to slim, de-age and enhance actors’ faces and bodies.
This is the version of on-screen stars that we, the audience, see. And if this comes as any surprise, it’s because the first rule of beauty work is: Don’t talk about beauty work.”
Gray Areas: Speaking the Unspeakable With Meghan Daum, by Haley Mlotek for The Hairpin, December 2014
The thing is that I love Meghan Daum and everything she has to say, and this interviewer does too, and this is about essays and truths and how things don’t turn out the way everybody says they’re supposed to. It’s about not feeling the feelings you’ve been told you’d feel when this or that happens. You should read it.
Riese, did you read Meghan Daum’s book? If so, how was it? I’m thinking about reading it and want someone’s opinion….
Hi Riese, I feel hesitant leaving a comment asking for a thing, because you — all of you — give us so much already.
But I was wondering whether you were doing the list of books to buy, based on all the ‘Things I Read That I Love’ for the year? I bought so many from the list from last year, and so was looking forward to the potential of another book list.
If it isn’t happening this year, that is okay too, and thank-you for another year of interesting reading. xx
Oh how I love, love, love this installment. Such good reads, always. Thank you.