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Wait? Are you kidding? JULY???????
Alright. If you say so.
Everywhere I go (in the virtual sense), I talk to people about race. I might bring it up, or they might. I’m thinking about skin color and why I haven’t thought more about skin color until now. We white people have not understood the exhaustion it must cause, the strain of every single day a Black person navigates in the world. I am trying to add that to the equation of how extra hard life is if you are Black. That’s all I can say now.
Teenage Lisa’s first cake from a mix - age 15 ish?
Meanwhile, at Headquarters, I am reading a lot (publishing didn’t stop during the pandemic) and botching up a significant amount of craft material. (I’m trying to knit while watching the news, and that is not going well.). We are cooking and now baking, and I do not recognize myself! I used to cook only under duress and baking never. The photo here is my last previous attempt at baking, a cake for my orthodontist, Dr. Brendan Boylan, to reward ourselves for a good (long) run with braces.
Host Lisa Birnbach and her guest, Susanna Styron, writer/director, OUT OF MY HEAD
My guest this week, Susanna Styron is a filmmaker and writer, who I have known casually for a number of years. When I discovered she’d made a film about migraine (not migraines), I had to see it and talk to her, as I have been a migraine sufferer for the last few years. For a longtime I only knew a few people who dealt with this crippling syndrome; now it seems that its numbers have increased like crazy, or that more symptoms are now understood to be part of this disease; or that people are more open about their individual medical challenges. In any case, in this stressful summer of COVID and police brutality hastening an understanding about Black persecution, I feel a migraine coming on. And perhaps you do too.
And now, the Five Things that made Lisa’s life better this week:
1. I got my hair done. You can say I’m vain or silly or have my priorities all screwed up. Go ahead! But my matriarch has been chomping on the bit about her hair for the last four months, and I was sporting the hair of Patti Smith (whom I admire for her authenticity as well as her art). My brilliant colorist has a salon in Connecticut which was open for business and is as airy and pleasant as can be. It was an adventure: My mother, my #ExhibitC and me – the last time the three of us had been alone together was last August for lunch in honor of my mom’s 89th birthday. We came masked and gloved. Angela Cosmai and her team were masked and gloved. We were classic, raggedy befores. Now we are sleek afters. Did it make all three of us feel better, more energized? Yes, and we had a few laughs in the process.
2. Rhubarb. I have been a fan of rhubarb’s even before I knew what the vegetable (according to Google) looked like in its raw form. For those of you who haven’t had it, it’s that pink celery looking stuff in the produce section. It’s really only around in the spring/summer. Rhubarb has a tartness that’s much more subtle than lemon or kiwifruit. And paired with other fruits it offers a kind of “umami” as a balance. YOU CANNOT EAT RAW RHUBARB, so this summer, of course I’m baking with it. My friend Marsha who is my food twin* sent me a recipe for an olive oil rhubarb and lemon bundt cake that uses absolutely every bowl and mixer, and spoon, and measuring cup, and tool in my kitchen, not to mention about an hour to make but it’s worth it. (I failed at it the first attempt.). And I found a recipe for rhubarb crumb cake that is yummy and much much easier. As I said, I don’t recognize myself.
3. The Lincoln Project. Founded last December by Republicans George Conway, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson, John Weaver, Jennifer Horn, and others, its purpose is to prevent Trump and Trumpism to prevail in the 2020 election. “We look to Lincoln as our guide and inspiration. He understood the necessity of not just saving the Union, but also of knitting the nation back together spiritually as well as politically. But those wounds can be bound up only once the threat has been defeated. So, too, will our country have to knit itself back together after the scourge of Trumpism has been overcome.” The Lincoln Project has been producing and airing very tough commercials about Trump’s many lies, hypocrisies, failures, and profiteering. Indeed, many of them are tougher than the ads produced by Joe Biden and his troupes. But now, partisanship doesn’t matter. (I realized that in 2017 when I saw how many Republican writers and politicians I had begun to follow.) The ads point to Biden as the only option reasonable Americans have. Go to their website at lincolnproject.us.
4. Shtisel will be coming back for Season 3. (Followers of this podcast and blog, I ask you: have I shown restraint by not putting this at #1, or not?). The brilliant, complex, and nuanced Israeli tv series that began with a modest run of two seasons in Israel in 2013 has become an international sensation over the last few years on Netflix. The fact that this family is Charedi – ultra Orthodox Jewish, living in Jerusalem, and speaking in Yiddish or Hebrew melts away as we see the family dynamics of any family writ large. Now, 7 years later, “Shtisel” is back in production for its third season, with I believe, all the original cast. The title is the surname of the family we have come to understand and care about. If you haven’t discovered this program yet, you have time to do it now.
5. Dr. Fauci. Having not seen him in a few weeks, maybe people thought we were winding down our concerns. Sadly, of course, that was not the case, nor would it be in a country that has no uniform and sensible policy. Now states are reclosing. The US is now poised to have triple the fatalities as first estimated. By God, what would we do without him?
Susanna Styron’s 5 Things:
My five (in no particular order):
1. Coffee
2. My daughter and her partner quarantining with me
4. Large bodies of water
5. Protest
More About Susanna Styron:
Out of My Head
Migraine. It’s Not Just a Headache.
A film by Jacki Ochs and Susanna Styron
www. outofmyheadfilm.com
A filmmaker, seeking treatment for her daughter's migraine attacks, discovers a confounding neurological disease and learns why a devastating condition, afflicting nearly a billion people worldwide, remains so deeply misunderstood.
Facebook
@TheMigraineProject
Twitter
@MigraineProject
Instagram
@outofmytheheadfilm
The 5 Things That Make Life Better podcast is recorded and produced at The Field in NYC.. My team is Shpresa Oruci, Michael Porte, Sam Haft and Boco Haft
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