Not bailing, Lucy Dacus, latest food fixation

Hi everyone! Welcome to the Friday issue of this newsletter. I don’t know if you noticed, but I didn’t send an essay out on Wednesday. I want to say I wasn’t feeling very well, which was kind of true, but the truth is that all the writing was starting to get to my head. It’s Week 3 of this project and the self-doubts is starting to get pretty loud. I’m fighting demons in my head, etc. That being said, I’ll still send out an essay over the weekend! And then we’ll move on to Week 4. OK? OK!

In this week’s pleasure list, I talk about going out when you don’t feel like it, Twitter drama, and my latest food fixation. Hope you find something here for you.

Thank you for being here. I MEAN IT. <3

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Going out and performing yourself

Yesterday Erin texted me to go out to a social event where there would be beers and a lot of people I didn’t know, and I told her I’d be there before I could fully make up my mind about actually going. It takes a lot for me to voluntarily place myself in the midst of dozens of new people, especially when there isn’t really an “event”, when you’re just expected to mingle and … *dun dun dunnnnn* … converse.

I showed up anyway, despite my mind telling me to not to go, and to no one’s surprise, I had a good time! While, sure, there ended up being more familiar faces than I had anticipated, which made navigating the unfamiliar easier, I’ll admit I enjoyed getting out of my element! Just a little bit. What I mean by going out of my element is I enjoyed not talking to myself in my head, in my room, and actually having to perform myself. Meeting people, introducing myself, telling them what I do, are all great exercise for actually being and I needed that.

For example, in my head I tell myself I’m a writer and that label is good enough for me. As long as I’m publishing this newsletter, it doesn’t really matter what writer I am. Just getting to write this is good enough for me. But this label alone isn’t enough when you’re meeting new people; people will want to know what I write, which forces me to practice describing my writing and describing myself, something I wouldn’t have to do in the comfort of my room or my favorite coffee shop with no one around.

The whole thing made me feel like someone. Like I wasn’t just an idea or an outline of a person. I still have trouble describing what writing it is that I do, but now I have something new to think about.

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Lucy Dacus x Matty Healy drama

I woke up this morning pretty shaken by photos of Kylie Jenner’s phone circulating on Twitter, where her lock screen appears to show a photo of her and Timothee Chalamet set as wallpaper. But what I’m here to say is don’t let it distract you from another gem of a PopCrave-tweeted news: Matty Healy deactivating his Twitter account after getting @ by Lucy Dacus.

Matty Healy, had apparently tweeted saying:

I told Lucy Dacus that ‘Boygenius’ had inspired me and George to start a new band called ‘Girlretard’. I don’t really hear from her that often.

To which Lucy replied:

I love this interaction and love even more that it prompted him to deactivate because… weren’t they all at the same Era’s Tour just a few months ago? (They were!) I’m pretty sure Phoebe Bridgers' Eras opening gigs coincided with the four or five or so Eras shows that Matty Healy had made headlines for attending, and Lucy and Julien Baker had been there too. Did they not all share a VIP tent at some point?

It just makes me giggle, thinking of how the Boygenius literally got front row seats to the Taylor Swift x Matty Healy era (an era that I loved, btw, I have a draft somewhere on my Substack about how I think everyone should’ve just let the two date lol), and how they must be thinking the whole time: “canon event, canon event, canon event” or something like that. This Twitter interaction has me imagining backstage interactions in which Lucy, Julien, and Phoebe just had to make nice with this good-for-nothing man out of respect for their absolute queen of a friend. Ah, celebrities. They’re just like us indeed!!!

Anyways, I love Lucy. For her music, her cutting lyrics, her stage swagger, and her tweets. This one from when Obama had Boygenius on his summer playlist is pretty much my Roman Empire.

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Food fixation

If you’re going to spend Rp95.000++ on a meal around Senopati, South Jakarta, consider Mister Sunday’s Pork Belly Sambal Matah. I’m not exactly pork crazy, but I occasionally make exceptions for the dish when it’s crispy, juicy, and comes paired with a good condiment. There aren’t that many options that tick those boxes in Jakarta outside of the North or West? I’m not sure. But Mister Sunday’s feels special in that no cut is too chunky to embody both crispiness and juiciness! Texture and taste! One may argue their sambal matah isn’t “authentic”, more of a marriage of matah and dabu-dabu if you ask me, given the amount of tiny diced tomatoes in it, but that’s exactly what makes it work. Just when things feel like they’re about to get too spicy, the tomatoes balance it out.

I’ve been so fixated on this dish for a month that I’m really starting to limit my visit to this place. It’s getting to a point where the staff know my order before I can even decide where to sit — which is cute if it’s a coffee order at a coffee shop, but somehow less cute when it’s a whole meal? Can someone tell me what brand of shame this is? Lol.

🌸 HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! 🌸