Ayyyyooooooooooo,
Guys. Hello! It is so good to be writing you all today. As I start writing this on Wednesday at approximately 3:30 pm in San Francisco, it is a simply gorgeous day, I’m listening to my go-to work music (shout-out Tycho), and the WiFi in this Starbucks is surprisingly doing the trick. Let’s get down to business.
You may notice the gif above and think to yourself, “Silly Joey, this isn’t Sparta - this is an email newsletter, you silly goose.” And you’d be correct to think that! However, the gif happens to be from the movie 300. I mainly included this gif because one of these days, I WILL have abs like the dudes in that film. It WILL happen. But I also included it because, well shit, I now have well over 300 people signed up for this bad boy after I “went public” with it last week. I started this humble project a couple months ago by mass emailing about 160 friends with my takes and musings. And to now be using a real service to send it out and have people actually signing up to receive and hopefully read it - well, that’s just a pretty neat thing! So thanks to everyone who is on board so far. Let’s ride.
To the new people who signed up in the last week, welcome! I aim to deliver fun little treats to your inbox once a week in the form of spicy takes, funny-ish musings, and song recommendations. I hope it’ll be a quick read for you, I hope it’ll deliver some value each week, but most of all I hope you’ll find it enjoyable. There are too many newbies to shout everyone out individually (god, that was such a sick brag to type out), but I do like to single folks out from time to time. So - Dylan, Camille, Jake, Michelle, Melissa, and everyone else who hopped aboard this humble hype train - hello, how goes it, let’s be friends.
Two other quick housekeeping things: 1) If you enjoy reading along, please forward this email or my Substack page to a friend! The whole word of mouth thing really is still a great way to grow. 2) I’ve been loving updating my Digesta playlist every week and getting people’s thoughts on it. Feel free to follow along and send me your thoughts with this Spotify playlist:
And without further ado, let’s roll.
Three Things Joe Likes This Week
1) Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and the genius of Fleabag
I have an important announcement to make, everyone. Phoebe Waller-Bridge has risen the ranks from unknown to stud status extreeeeemely quickly in my mind.
This chick slays. She wrote and starred in a popular series called Crashing, which I personally haven’t watched but have heard is fantastic. She wrote and produced Killing Eve, starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, which has become a quick hit and critical darling.
But I’m here to talk about Fleabag, baby. Fleabag rocks. The show’s second season just got nominated for 11 Emmy awards. It’s incisively funny and uniquely British in the way its comedy is kind of dark and biting yet hilarious. It also does an outstanding job of staying current and capturing things about society that are just so “now.” For instance, there’s one scene in an episode where a dude walks into the main character’s cafe, sits down, takes out a ton of devices and plugs all of them into the wall outlets, puts in his headphones, and literally does not order one thing at the cafe. That’s the last 6 months of my life in a nutshell.
If you haven’t already checked this show out (on Amazon, people!), do it! As if you needed another reason, here’s a minor spoiler. The first punchline in the series’ first episode has Phoebe’s character wondering, “Do I have a *massive* asshole?”
2) LinkedIn, useful to your pal Joe for once
My day 1’s will get a good laugh out of this one. Look, I have to come clean with something. I’m not the biggest fan of LinkedIn dot com. Yes, I worked for the company for a brief period of time. And it was great! I met a bunch of people who I remain in touch with and really like, I got fantastic breakfast and lunch every day, and I truly believe the company is doing cool and good things. But my relationship with the website itself is a bit more complicated. No need for me to go on an extensive rant this time (maybe I’ll save it for a future “Dislike”), but my frustration can be boiled down into a few simple questions: 1) Why does everyone who posts on LinkedIn have to brag about waking up at 4:30 am and working really hard? 2) Why does everyone who posts on LinkedIn start a new double-spaced paragraph after every sentence? 3) Why do LinkedIn’s algorithms consistently urge me to “connect” with people whom I’ve been actively trying to avoid for many years?
Essentially, since I got a LinkedIn profile ages ago, my typical visit to the website can be summed up well with this classic Simpsons gif:
But friends, perhaps my days of hating on the site are over! You guys, LinkedIn was SO GREAT over the past week. I posted something on the site about this very newsletter, and it got a little traction. Enough traction that I had upwards of 20 new signups simply from that post. It was great to see some old coworkers I’d fallen out of touch with, two of my cousins, and even an old high school teacher (hi, Mr. Held!) show some interest in what I was up to. And, I’ve also been reaching out individually to some people on LinkedIn, letting em know about this whole ordeal. And not only did it work, but I caught up with some old pals after sliding in their DMs (shout out to Andy, Izzy, Claire, and others!). Good stuff. LinkedIn - working its way into my heart.
3) Giving out a strong thumbs down
I’m such a proponent of this classic, yet seldom-used expression of displeasure. A strong thumbs down is such a power move. I highly recommend everyone incorporating thumbs down’s into their repertoire, in place of other more commonly used expressions.
When driving, I’ve recently started firing off a solid thumbs down when I’m disappointed in others on the road. It’s insanely satisfying. I also hope it’s a bit shocking to the recipients. Can’t recommend it more strongly!
Two Things Joe Dislikes This Week
1) FaceTime angles
This is not a new thing or a newsworthy thing, so I’m not breaking any news here. I may be beating the proverbial dead horse with this one. But let me get this take off my chest: FaceTime really makes you look like ass. It’s just a fact, and it’s truly unfortunate.
There’s something about FaceTime where no matter how you hold your phone or what position you try to get in for the video chat, you look fat or ugly as hell. I can speak from experience - I’ve had a minimum of three chins in every single FaceTime I’ve ever been on. And also, why does my face always look so BIG? I don’t know, I can’t figure it out, but it’s pretty fucked up. Why you gotta do us like that, Apple?
2) Missing out on a meme entirely
Disclaimer: I love memes. I’m a big fan of all memes. I follow many Instagram meme accounts. I spend tons of time on Twitter, where memes are even more pervasive than on the Gram. I get involved in memes, sending them around to friends when appropriate. I really am into the whole meme thing.
But damn, does it suck to just miss out entirely on a meme. This past Friday afternoon, I was behind the wheel of a car for 3.5 hours en route to a wedding. Upon arriving, I had to hastily get ready and jet out to the rehearsal dinner. Amidst the event, the catching up with old chums, and the booze, your guy Joe here had very little time to simply glance down at his mobile and scan for the latest hot memes. It just so happens that during this period of time, the “Area 51” meme took off. Later that night and the next morning, I opened my phone to scores of Area 51 memes. Frankly, I was very confused. What is Area 51? Why are people storming it? What is going on?!? I fully missed out on this meme, and by the time I attempted to catch up felt like I was the one loser who didn’t get the joke.
It’s sad to miss out on a good meme.
One Random Musing from Yours Truly
This week’s musing is actually not my own, but is brought to you courtesy of a friend and subscriber to this newsletter (hello, Kevin!)
Couldn’t have come up with a better musing myself. Great musing, Kevin.
I also wanted to follow up on last week’s musing about the eggs! You guys, so much engagement around that musing! It turns out that not only were many people also confused about the right kind of eggs, but also many people had a lot to say about the topic! So many pals wrote thoughtful and cogent explanations about the right kind of eggs to buy.
It turns out that pasture-raised eggs are the way to go. And yes, they’re more expensive, but fucking deal with it people. It’s for the chickens! Special shout out to Caro here, who must have spent upwards of 30 minutes typing out her response about eggs and even included a graphic while doing so! Impressively done.
Three Song Recommendations from Your Dear Pal
1) Kygo & Whitney Houston - Higher Love
Love is in the air people! Two weeks ago, I attended a wedding where this was actually played as the celebratory we-just-got-married song (hi, Nick and Ashley!). This past weekend, I was at a gorgeous wedding (hi, Lindee and Omar!). And next weekend, I’ll be living it up at another freaking wedding (wuttup, Nate and Caro!). So, to celebrate all this love, here’s both a summer banger and a good excuse to blast Whitney Houston on repeat. Get to it.
2) Caleborate - Away From feat. Mir Fontane
After Kamaiyah last week, I want to shout out another Bay Area rapper in Caleborate. I first learned about this guy when he opened for Vince Staples at a small show in SF in 2016. Fast forward a couple years, and he’s been featured on my favorite music podcast and started to have a little come-up. More importantly, one of my good buddies (hi, Lawrence) is now his manager! Which is super dope! I want to support this dude and his career, and I love this new track he just released last week. Check it.
3) Tame Impala - Borderline
I’m honestly a bit surprised I haven’t featured Tame Impala in this space yet. They’re one of my favorite bands, all of their music rules, and their new songs have just started to trickle out. In any case, this is their newest track, and it certified slaps. The first time you hear it, you might be skeptical. Maybe it moves a little slow for you, or doesn’t pack enough of a punch. By the fourth or fifth listen, you’ll be hooked. By the tenth, you’ll be drumming along to all of the snare hits and the little fake snap sound effects. Here’s something to groove to this weekend.
Another Thursday, another Digesta in the books. This was a fun one - I hope if you’re reading this far it means good things! Please forward this to a friend if you’re so inclined - I’d really appreciate it.
Salud mi familia,
Joey