What's Not the News: May 7
Welcome back to Not the News! It’s week whatever of quarantine, and I still refuse to listen to people who tell me to make a TikTok. It just feels like Vine blew a 3-1 lead.
Anyway…
Read
The Age of Instagram Face
Social media is all about projecting the best version of yourself, and a visual medium like Instagram can make you want to project the best physical version of yourself. Plastic surgeons and “injectables” are here to help.
Jia Tolentino (author of the millennial-hit book Trick Mirror) met with clinicians and beauticians, and writes in The New Yorker about how tempting and easy it is to edit your appearance:
If I had wanted to put the whole thing on my credit card, I could have.
I had thought that I was researching this subject at a logical distance: that I could inhabit the point of view of an ideal millennial client, someone who wanted to enhance rather than fix herself, who was ambitious and pragmatic. But I left with a very specific feeling, a kind of bottomless need that I associated with early adolescence, and which I had not experienced in a long time.
Importantly, the piece is also a reflection on social expectations of women—on whom 92% of cosmetic surgeries are performed.
The Rise and Fall (and Rise?) of Improv
Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Will Ferrell, and probably some other famous comedians you like—their careers began with improv. Their success made improv interesting, and famous improv theaters then brought improv classes to the paying masses. Plus, shows are like $10, which for even a chance at Saturday night entertainment is a pretty good deal in New York City.
But maybe not for much longer. A combination of internal cultural problems, the economy, and some good old-fashioned not wanting to pay people for labor threaten the art form one comedian calls “half-asses winging it.”
From New York Magazine:
“Of all the sentences in that email I’d be ashamed to have read out loud in a court of law, I think the top one is, ‘See you at improv practice,” [John Mulaney said].
At the core of this shame is the cynicism adults feel toward the naïveté of youth. Improv joins hobbies like a cappella, slam poetry, magic, and ultimate Frisbee as the indulgence of a person not in the real world. Or, to put it another way: Improv doesn’t make money, and this is America, where if it doesn’t make dollars it doesn’t make sense, or cents for that matter. It’s not just the theaters that don’t pay the performers; it’s that historically there have been no real ways to make a living from improv.
But fear not, maybe. Click the link and you’ll see the story is about an improvised Netflix show that could give improv some new life. We recommend it below…
Space Cops
These days, we have lots of time by ourselves. Time to think fanciful thoughts, like, “What if there were cops on Mars? Could they even walk? Oh god, is global warming going to make us move to Mars?”
Look, I’m not crazy—The Atlantic wrote an entire piece about this issue more than a year ago:
A self-confessed science-fiction nerd, Gold is convinced that the question of security in space is neither abstract nor hypothetical. We already face the prospect of space tourists causing one another harm, he explained to me, let alone astronauts on long-term missions committing acts of belligerence, sabotage, or sexual assault. Even in Mars simulations here on Earth, Gold reminded me, security risks have arisen amongst highly trained, carefully vetted crew members.
If you’re bored out of your mind and you live on a planet where you can’t even breathe the outside air, in a sense why not turn to a life of crime?
Wait, I didn’t mean for this to sound familiar 😬
Watch
Downton Abbey (Amazon Prime)
I’m sad it took me this long to jump on this bandwagon but I quickly got sucked in by this period drama that has a whole ensemble of entertaining characters. The series follows the lives of an aristocratic family and their servants living in Downton Abbey and spans 1912 through the 1920s. Snarky British humor and commentary on all sorts of societal things like class and women’s rights.
Middleditch & Schwartz (Netflix)
Remember that article about improv? This is the show it’s about. Just three hour-long episodes (if you’re afraid of commitment) and each one is completely improvised. As long as you don’t mind occasional fourth-wall-breaking, it’s a really fun show with performers who have great chemistry. Middleditch starred in Silicon Valley and Schwartz was Jean-Ralphio in Parks and Rec.
Listen
Something different this week: playlist recommendations!
Classical Focus
These classical songs really help me zone in when I’m working. Blissfully, no lyrics. If you reach the end after 12 hours, let me know.
Montréal Chill
Maybe the most undersubscribed playlist on Spotify; who knew Montréal has such a good music scene. Largely upbeat alt-pop bops from our friends in Canada, with some electronic thrown in.
Cook
The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies You’ll Ever Make
Incredibly rich and chewy chocolate chip cookies just begging to be featured on your Instagram Stories. The keys are getting chocolate chunks (not chips) and chilling the dough for hours. A Charlie recommendation for once. (I put it on my Instagram Stories.)
Sautéed Shishito Peppers
Back to our regularly scheduled Meital recommendations. Before COVID, this was my go-to hosting appetizer for friends to snack on before dinner. Now, I can eat a whole bowl of these shishito peppers as my dinner and pretend I have friends around me.
Until next week!
We’d love to hear from you—if you have any recommendations for future Not the Newses, let us know.
—Charlie, Meital & the North American Board