The Week In Recommendations 1.15.25

Catching up on movies, making cocktails, and bundling up. Plus, some ways to help victims of the L.A. wildfires.

This is the free edition of Rich Text, a newsletter about cultural obsessions from your Internet BFFs Emma and Claire. If you like what you see and hear, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Our latest subscriber post was about the beginning of “The Traitors” S3. An episode about S2 of “XOKitty” is coming soon. Rich Text is a reader-supported project.

We’ve been thinking so much about our loved ones and our wider community who have been impacted by the Los Angeles wildfires. We wanted to share some ways you can help from afar, if you have the means:

• Altadena Teen Girls Fire Recovery (Donate funds or mail new products to 3530 E 15th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90023.)

• This is a mutual aid spreadsheet which lists the GoFundMe pages of displaced Black families from Altadena and Pasadena

• GoFundMe also put together a Wildfire Relief Fund which will be used to send emergency relief grants of $1,000 “to individuals who have lost homes, loved ones and property due to the Palisades, Eaton and Hurst fires.”

• Support the incarcerated firefighters who risk their lives while receiving unconscionably low pay.

Claire has been reading… 📖

Vulture’s Neil Gaiman exposé by Lila Shapiro, “There Is No Safe Word.” Like many, I wasn’t surprised that such an investigation would exist; a podcast from Tortoise Media revealed that Gaiman had been accused of sexual assault by several women. After this, several of his TV and film projects were put on hold, but the podcast had come under heavy fire for sloppiness and bias, and this seemed to limit the impact of the revelations. Shapiro’s article, which is (often graphically) detailed and scrupulous, has opened the floodgates. Not having listened to the podcast, and not having been a reader of Gaiman (though I read and liked his collaboration with Terry Pratchett, “Good Omens”), the article was full of surprises for me: Gaiman’s troubled childhood as the son of prominent Scientologists, the details of his unconventional romance and mostly open marriage with musician Amanda Palmer. The crimes he’s accused of are truly disturbing – not to mention that he allegedly committed some of them in the presence of his young son – and Palmer’s apparently knowing involvement in sending him vulnerable young women to prey upon was also a horrific surprise. If you haven’t read the piece, read with care; it’s very upsetting.

I enjoyed Sophie Haigney on conservative Cameo stars, a sharp piece on how fandom – and, even more than fandom, ironic fandom or anti-fandom – have turned buffoonish rightwing political figures into successful influencers. The amusement we find in the ludicrous possibility that someone like George Santos or Matt Gaetz could ever hold meaningful power in our country can be easily, through an app like Cameo, transformed into money we hand over to them for jokey birthday greetings or for a needling message from a politically opposed relative. Dark stuff!

Emma has been reading… 📖

Derek Thompson’s feature for The Atlantic, “The Anti-Social Century,” which examines the fact that Americans are spending more time alone — defined as being the only person in a room, even if the person is on FaceTime or a computer than ever before in history. Teens are less social, diners are eating solo, people are talking to AI friends at their laptops. Thompson concludes that “the consequences are far-reaching— for our happiness, our communities, our politics, and even our understanding of reality.” As someone who craves real connection with other humans, but still often finds myself compulsively tied to my devices, this gave me a lot of food for thought. It’s long, but worth the read.

I also adored this Vows column in the NYTimes about two of the child actors from 2003’s “School of Rock” who grew up and fell in love!!! Obsessed.

Claire has been watching… 📺

Greg and I are trying to break out of our rut – so many evenings lost to scrolling and work we should have just gotten done during the day – by making Friday a dedicated movie night. This was our second week in a row of honoring our commitment to cinema, so it’s time to share our achievement with the world.

It was Greg’s turn to pick, and he chose “American Fiction,” a 2023 film based on Percival Everett’s 2001 publishing satire “Erasure.” Jeffrey Wright stars as Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, an acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful novelist and college professor who finds himself strapped for cash when a forced leave of absence from his school coincides with his mother’s rapid decline due to Alzheimer’s. Then money arrives, from an unexpected source. In a rage, after reading a massive bestseller read as a sort of minstrel show for white readers (Everett was inspired by the novel “Push” by Sapphire), he had written a manuscript packed with racial stereotypes and poverty porn and sent it out to publishers as a critique of their thirst for books about a specific “Black” experience. Instead of being stung by the pointed joke, publishers pounced. He’s offered a huge advance for “My Pafology”; he just has to pretend to be an uneducated felon on the lam, rather than an erudite and cultivated professor who was raised in a family of doctors and knows his Chenin Blanc from his Pinot Grigio. The performances are worth the price of admission – Tracee Ellis Ross is luminous and funny in an all-too-brief turn as his sister, and Sterling K. Brown is a scene-stealer as his brother. Issa Rae is also fantastic as Sintara Golden, Monk’s nemesis and author of “We’s Lives in da Ghetto.”

Photo Credit: Orion Pictures / Amazon MGM Studios / Canva

But the satire, while sharp and pointed when addressing the gleeful white publishing executives tripping over themselves to make money from Black pain, seems to stumble when Monk winds up confronting Golden while the two are judging a literary award together. She defends herself, saying that while he may not struggle like the characters in her books, some people do. He points out that she went to Oberlin and then worked for a publisher – hardly a life of struggle. There’s a layer of socioeconomic class and extraction that they’re about to address, but the movie ends up backing away from it, smoothing it over. Maybe, as the final scenes of the movie suggest, a Hollywood movie will always end up with a Hollywood ending.

Emma has been watching… 📺

As Writers Guild East members, we are lucky enough to get sent screener links for movies that are in consideration for the Writers Guild Awards. I’ve been trying to (rather late) go through the movies I missed over the last few months. I *finally* watched “My Old Ass,” which follows a teen girl, Elliot (played by Maisy Stella), who gets high on mushrooms and ends up meeting her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza). This ends up opening up ongoing communication between them via iPhone (the science of this connection is never explained nor is it lingered on, this isn’t a sci-fi movie!). Things get complicated after older Elliot tells younger Elliot to stay away from a boy named Chad, who soon after shows up on Elliot’s family farm. It’s sweet and sad, and just a beautiful meditation on time and youth and the way that joy and pain are intertwined in human lives.

Photo Credit: Amazon MGM Studios / Briarcliff Entertainment / Canva

Adam and I also watched “The Apprentice,” which I found really well done. It went easier on Trump than I would have liked (or rather, it made him seem more competent during his younger years than he was?), but both Sebastian Stan and Jeremy Strong’s performances were stellar, and there was so much I didn’t know about Roy Cohn, Trump’s former mentor who died from AIDS in the mid-’80s.

Claire has been listening to… 🎧

The new “Bachelor in Retrospect” season (Alex Michel! The original flavor!), which is as informative and hilarious as always. There’s something so hapless and unprepared about Alex, who is not equipped to be the first “Bachelor” lead. He tactlessly asks women about their rules around sex and the backstories behind their boob jobs; he complains about being so tired from the travel of hometowns week that he doesn’t feel like talking to his future winner’s family. His contestants play out a tale as old as time around him: the uptight wifey brunette, the sexy fun blonde, the unattainable perfect cheerleader. Their recaps have also reminded me of how much fun Emma and I had recapping that first, brief season for our original live tour in 2019. Highly recommend watching the season if you can find it and listening to “Bachelor in Retrospect” put it all in context. And maybe, if you’re still yearning for more, check out our old live shows, which we put out as bonus episodes back in the day.

Emma has been listening to… 🎧

Last week’s Under The Influence episode about the memoir of Shari Franke — daughter of convicted child abuser / former family vlogger Ruby Franke. The wonderful

Jo Piazza

digs into the eldest Franke daughter’s new book, including its revelations about the nature of Ruby’s relationship with cult-like therapist and co-abuser Jodi Hildebrandt, and Shari’s strong feelings about the fundamental immorality of family vlogging as a whole. (Very worth reading the Rolling Stone feature discussed in the episode as well.)

Claire has been buying… 🛍️

Long-sleeve tees! My life has slowly become all about long-sleeve tees. I wear them to bed, because my 17-month-old hasn’t been sleeping well and often ends up next to me for half the night, which means I can’t snuggle all the way under the blankets. I wear them during the day, because I have become a wool sweater girlie and I need full-coverage layers underneath to protect my delicate, itchy skin. Why is it so hard for me to find a good long-sleeve tee? I have a few sleek ribbed ones from Everlane, but I need some that are loose and casual enough to work for sleepwear as well. I’ve struck out at Madewell; the options at Quince, Everlane and GAP are uninspired. I’ve read good things about Kotn, COS and Colorful Standard, but almost every color is sold out in my size of their long-sleeve tees. I finally gave in and ordered a couple from Everlane and GAP, but my quest continues. Who knows where I can find the perfect comfy, cute, not-too-tight, not-too-loose cotton long-sleeve tee??

In happier news, I had a Hill House gift card and spent it on the Olivia PJs in pastel trellis, which do help address my overnight arm warmth needs. The cotton jersey is thick, soft, and comfy.

Emma has been buying… 🛍️

I lose my gloves at least once a year. It’s just a thing I know to be true about myself. The weather has been so frigid lately that I was in DESPERATE need of a new pair, so I ordered cashmere-lined leather gloves in chocolate brown from Quince. Unfortunately, they’ve since sold out, but I recommend putting yourself on the waitlist for their restock if you’re in need of a pair. (Their Mongolian Cashmere Gloves also look super nice. Personally would go for the black, charcoal or brown.)

Also, both of us have waxed poetic about Merit’s Flush Balm before on this newsletter, but I recently fell in love with their new shade, Archival. It’s like Charlotte Tilbury’s Pillow Talk for your cheeks. Divine!

Claire has been making… 🧶

Sarah DiGregorio’s sheet-pan garlicky shrimp and white beans, a quick Sunday night dinner I planned in response to my son’s request to try shrimp. (He’s tried them before, and barely touched them, but I embrace any willingness to move beyond safe foods like chicken and pizza.) My brother and sister-in-law made this for a family vacation dinner once, and it was delicious, so I happily chopped up bacon, smashed garlic, and rinsed beans. My son ate half of one shrimp and told us that he “loved shrimp!!!” No further shrimp were eaten. My younger son ate an entire take-out side dish of black beans instead of giving the shrimp a proper chance. But Greg and I had huge bowls, and while I would have given it the full dose of red pepper flakes if I knew the boys wouldn’t partake, it was still very tasty. The quick-and-dirty garlic bread is particularly irresistible.

Plus, as part of movie night, I’ve been making cocktails! Mostly for me — Greg has been getting into THC beverages, which I’m holding off from until I’m done nursing because of how long weed stays in your system — but sometimes for both of us. I wanted to push myself past margaritas, but I love sour drinks and hate the idea of buying a million liqueurs and syrups, so I started with sidecars. A great winter cocktail for the margarita fan, in my personal opinion! Tart, not overly sweet, with a nice weight to it. I can have two over the course of an evening and feel pleasantly warm and soft by bedtime. I loved the round I made with brandy, preferring it over the whiskey-based version, so I’m sticking with brandy in the future.

Emma has been making… 🧶

Yes, I *did* make another bean dish. And it was fucking delicious. This time I tried the Creamy Mushroom Butter Beans Bowl from @ gigi_goes_vegan. (I’m not vegan, but I love beans and have a sensitive-to-dairy Ashkenazi Jewish stomach.) I love the creaminess of coconut milk, and find that the non-light version really approximates the effect of heavy cream without you having to assault your fragile stomach with heavy cream. Plus, the mushroom-forward nature of this recipe really differentiated it from the other, super tomato-y bean recipes I’ve been rotating. It was a hit with Adam too, and plenty filling, which is always a win for me when I cook something vegetarian.

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