Mean Girls Magic, Bookish Bliss, and Murder on TV
Discover the Secrets to Learn, Love, and Laugh in This Week's Edition!
Your Friendly Obsession is a weekly newsletter filled with pop culture recommendations, ideas, essays, personal anecdotes, travel inspo, and so much more.
🎥 Mean Girls (2024) in theaters now: This movie is a cinematic masterpiece. I said it. It needed to be said. It’s magic. The music was supreme. The cast was filled with stars. This movie-musical is based off the Broadway musical, which was based on the original film, which is derived from a book…so…THAT. If you do not love musicals, or movies with great music in them, or the OG Mean Girls…you may not like this. Without spoiling too much, there are some deviations from the Broadway show and the OG movie, but give it a chance. I’ve been alternating between singing “My name is Regina George…” and “Sexy” all week long and I have no regrets. Trailer here.
📚 A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: In all honesty, one of the best written books I have had the displeasure of reading. Yup. I said…DISPLEASURE. This book was incredibly sad, triggering, and overall a downer but not necessarily trauma porn. You fall in love with the characters Jude and Willem, our main guys, but as the book progresses, you dive deeper into who they are, their past, and the unthinkable. It’s a lengthy book and it is not for the faint of heart. If you have the patience, the emotional stability, and the interest, give it a read.
📺 The Traitors US (Season 2) streaming on Peacock premium: If you have not watched, get on it! Buckle up! This is one of my favorite reality competition shows to watch. It’s essentially a game of deceit and betrayal where this star-studded former reality TV contestant cast/celebs duke it out in a murder-mystery adventure. The setting: a stunning Scottish countryside and castle. The prize: up to 250,000 USD. As night falls, “Traitors” eliminate “Faithful” players, while the “Faithful” try to uncover the “Traitors”. If the “Faithful” succeed in identifying and expelling all the “Traitors”, they share the prize. But if a “Traitor” makes it to the end, they win it all. It’s hilarious, endearing, entertaining, and nostalgic (especially if you have watched these players compete on another show). Trailer here.
🎤 Snow Angel (album) by Reneé Rapp: icon. the moment. perfect. her performances on SNL this past weekend were marvelous. I am waiting for my next paycheck to buy her album on Vinyl…the obsession is THAT real! She is my REGINA GEORGE, and she is a MASSIVE DEAL. “Snow Angel” and “Not My Fault” on SNL.
🐶 Watching the film “Strays” will make you sad: I was expecting absolutely nothing from the movie “Strays", a raunchy comedy where dogs speak…I mean come ON! What I received, however, was a greater appreciation for my dog, so much that I cuddled him immediately after watching and made sure to tell him he was, indeed, a “GOOD BOY!” Trailer here.
Free courses on Ed2Go:
One of the glorious perks of holding a Los Angeles county library card=free courses on the Ed2Go platform. Over the last six weeks I have been taking two courses, “Writing your life story” and “Writing YA Fiction.” In my pursuit of reaching Best selling author acclaim, I have been focused on learning as much as I can about the craft of writing and how I can improve my skillset. I cannot recommend free courses enough, they have helped me learn and grow without breaking the bank. Sign up here if you live in LA.
The invaluable teachings of Jay Shetty:
At this point, I am certain most people know OF Jay Shetty through his two best-selling books, “Think Like a Monk” and “8 Rules of Love”, or his many Youtube videos, or his podcast, “On Purpose.” He’s definitely a thought leader with a soothing and “listenable” voice, perfect for podcasting and speaking. Speaking of his podcast, I was listening to a recent episode, and there were quite a few things that stuck out to me.
There are many seasons in life, whether they happen on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly cycle
There are 4 types of “Years” or seasons
Learning: this is when we are learning all we can, we’re growing, we are building the foundation for our success and personal improvement and making progress toward our goals
Experimenting: this is when you apply what you have learned and start to apply it to your life, testing out what works and what doesn’t and going back to the drawing board on certain things
Performance: this is when we are actively using what we’ve tested out during the experimenting phase and applying what we learned from the lessons and knowledge gained in the learning phase
Thrive: this is the peak! this is when we are thriving in business, career, health, language learning, whatever you have been working on and learning about, experimenting on, performing and the goal is attained and you are at your apex, this is thriving!
I think I am in a learning “year” although, it feels more like a learning quarter of the year, I am really absorbing all things needed to be a successful and skillful writer in today’s online world, and hoping to improve over time.
Does anyone know who Dan Koe is?
Not a rhetorical question…I feel that within my circle of friends, no one has heard about him, but I am drinking the Kool-aid. He is very much a modern thought leader, in a creator industry who emphasizes The Art of Focus and anti-niche. My main takeaway from his teachings is pursue your passions and interests and turn that into a business, not a bad idea right!?
He’s giving a little bit of intense, alpha, bro, and possibly extremist cult leader energy…but slay. I try to keep an open mind when it comes to things you pick up or learn from the internet, but some of his teachings are quite helpful…and he has a new book called “The Art of Focus.” Might be adding it to my TBR (to be read) list.
The Mother of All Balls:
This week on Rupaul’s Drag Race (Season 16) Episode 3; it was THE BALL CHALLENGE. THE BALL CHALLENGE is an homage to the ballroom scene, where there are three categories (looks) that each of the contestants must model on the runway. However, the last look must be made in less than 24 hours, while they are onsite in the Werkroom, and this week’s materials were old pieces of menswear they had to fashion into couture. Long story and a history lesson later…there is one contestant who’s look has been living in my mind rent free. NYMPHIA WIND in her self-made look. I love the 3D elements and the windswept look, and I still can’t believe she made that so quickly…iconic.
Collecting vinyls is my new thing:
I got a record player for Christmas, thanks to my thoughtful partner, shoutout to L! Now I have a new hobby, collecting vinyls. It’s a dangerous game and it’s very expensive! But my collection started with 0 and is now at 10 over the span of a month. Whoops! I guess my book buying affliction has transitioned to this…Anyone else out here in these streets collecting Vinyls and enjoying the sweeter things in life?
Elton John is an EGOT:
This queer icon now has an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony!!! Congrats! Also, not to brag but I definitely had a part in his EGOT-achieving status…you know why? I was featured for approximately 3 seconds in his Emmy-winning special, “Elton John Live: Farewell from Dodgers Stadium”. I remember that night and concert vividly, sharing in some memory making moments with my friend Tatiana, while we sang along to the classics, giggled to Elton riding around the stage in his piano mobile, and wandered aimlessly around the parking lot afterward in search of my car. Good times.
C’est bon, c’est bon:
This week was a treat, having the opportunity to see the original Season 1 winner of Drag Race on this week’s episode of The Pit Stop. There are few things that float around, rent-free in my mind, and one of them is Bebe Zahara Benet singing her verse in “Drag Up Your Life!”
Book Buying ban blows:
I have over 60+ books on my TBR, sitting on my bookshelf, waiting to be read, like orphans waiting to be adopted. Bad analogy? Regardless, because there are so many books on my bookshelf, I have imposed a book buying ban for the first quarter of 2024…but…BUT….BUT….I can’t help but laugh at the fact that my book buying and thrifting affliction has now transitioned to a vinyl buying and thrifting affliction. One vice for another? Is that how that works? Do I need help, but also does anyone know of some great record stores to thrift (Asking for a friend)?
WoofWorks doesn’t work:
We bought our dog some WoofWorks doggy noise cancelling headphones.
Funny: the name of the brand
Funnier: the way they look on our dog
Funniest: the irony of the name, because they do not WORK
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