Nathan Fielder, horoscopes, & 21 questions [Like You Know Whatever]

Hi friends!

How are you doing? I’m doing alright! I finished writing this early, so I decided to send it early—hope you enjoy!

Last weekend I had a lovely, low-key weekend during which I barely left my house, and it was exactly what I needed. Usually I feel the need to go out somewhere and be social so as not to “waste the weekend,” but sometimes I just want to be a lazy POS and enjoy my time off at home. Do you know what I mean?

I have been worrying a lot lately about things that are frankly, none of my business, like climate change and the fragile global geopolitical situation (what am I supposed to do about that? Make a TikTok that turns the Arctic into ice again? Write a Reductress headline that creates world peace?). Ironically, my coping strategy for dealing with the collapse of capitalism continues to be… shopping. Mostly, I have been buying a lot of makeup and some skin stuff. I will probably share some reviews with you in a future newsletter, but I want to make sure that I thoroughly test-drive everything first before I recommend you go out and buy something.

The hunt for a therapist continues, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about being able to find someone who is a good fit. I’m also feeling pretty proud of myself because this time around I did not wait until I was in full-blown crisis mode to begin my search. Being proactive about my mental health… feels… good? Who knew?

One positive thing that happened this week is that Biden just wiped out my remaining student loan debt, which was almost exactly at $10k. I’m going to be debt-free for the first time since I was 17 years old! Over half my life with these stupid loans! 😱 It feels great, although I do wish that Biden had gone further and canceled ALL debt, or at least interest. This is not really going to make a dent for the real victims of the student debt crisis, the people who have $50k or more in loans. Also, I guess this means I have to start donating to my college now. I always said “not until my loans are paid off” and now… well, shit.

Today’s newsletter is a long one, so let’s just get into Some Things, shall we?

- Cooking. How have you been celebrating tomato season? I made the Barefoot Contessa’s heirloom tomato and blue cheese salad, which looked very pretty but was just okay, I thought. I’m not sure if my red wine vinegar just wasn’t acidic enough, or if there was a flaw in the recipe itself. And then I made some BLTs with heirloom tomatoes, sourdough, romaine, thick cut bacon and lots of Best Foods mayo. Delish!! It’s hard for me to imagine a perfect sandwich that doesn’t include cheese, but BLTs are up there, man.

- Indian Matchmaking (Netflix). I was going to recommend this silly dating show headed up by incredibly inept matchmaker Sima (seriously, has she made even one successful match on the show?), but then I stumbled onto this MSNBC column by Natasha Noman who asserts that the show “reinforces Hindu supremacy, toxic masculinity, sexism, casteism, northern domination, white supremacy and the erasure of minorities (such as Muslims and dalits) from Indian identity.” Goodness! I certainly don’t want to be a part of, well, any of that. I just wanted to talk about how hard matchmaking is. I have tried many times to get various friends of mine together, but to no avail. And they’re all friends with me! They should have loads in common, like a constant low level of exhaustion from being my friend!

This show is interesting, because people come in with a list of things they’re looking for in a partner, which already feels to me like the wrong way to go about it. You don’t fall in love with someone because they tick a bunch of boxes, you know? I met my husband in college, but sometimes I wonder, if I had seen him on an app, if we would’ve vibed. I mean, he’s obviously really cute, but he’s athletic whereas I am not, he works a normal person job while I am a starving artist, he can’t stand grunge while Nirvana is my favorite band, etc. But none of that shit really matters because we share the same values and sense of humor and vision for our future, which is for me to become a fabulously successful writer so that he can be a house husband/animal philanthropist who has his name on the wing of a cat shelter. Anyway. Don’t watch Indian Matchmaking, I guess…?

- The Rehearsal (HBO). I’d seen clips of Nathan For You before and thought I got the jist of Nathan Fielder’s comedy, but I recently sat down and watched a few full episodes of the show and, wow. He is something of a mad comedic genius, isn’t he? Intrigued after that, and after hearing the buzz for his new HBO show, The Rehearsal, I decided to check it out. That’s when it was really confirmed for me: this man is a brilliant psychopath. The premise of The Rehearsal is: wouldn’t it be great if we could “rehearse” life’s most challenging moments beforehand, so that we could ensure they always go well? Without spoiling anything, I will just say that this show has layers upon layers to it, and “meta” doesn’t even feel like a fitting enough term for the self-analysis that is a huge part of the show. If you are interested in comedy or social experiments at all, this show is a must-watch.

The one thing that I don’t get is the thirst that has emerged from comedy women on Twitter for Nathan Fielder. What is it about this awkward, unassertive Canadian man that is driving them wild? I think it might go back to the axiom that women are attracted to men who are good at what they do. But is he good at what he’s doing with The Rehearsal? There are many ways in which one could argue that he actually completely fucked up this project. Regardless, the show was just picked up for a season 2, and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

- Minions: The Rise of Gru (for rent on demand). Shut up, childfree adults can totally enjoy kids movies, too! Let me start out by saying that I was anti-Minions for a long time. I thought all the memes were annoying, I didn’t think they were cute, I thought they were Simply Just Not For Me. Then, one day, some friends convinced me to watch the first Minions movie, and guess what? I was utterly fucking charmed. That movie has so many legit laugh-out-loud moments in it, it’s impossible not to be won over by it. So, my expectations were high for The Rise of Gru, which was marketed as both a sequel to Minions and a prequel to Despicable Me. (Are you following? I swear, this franchise is more complicated than Game of Thrones.)

I have to say, I was kind of disappointed! This is going to sound stupid and like, “duh,” but I felt like The Rise of Gru was actually more of a Gru movie than a Minions movie. Also, the idea of young Gru as a selling point is just meh for me. Gru is fine, but I’m not there for Gru, I’m there for the Minions absurdly fucking up their missions and freaking out over bananas, and I just didn’t get enough of that with this movie! If you saw it, what did you think? What did your kids think?

- Prey (Hulu). I’m not a big sci-fi person, to be honest, nor have I ever seen a Predator movie before that I can remember, but I thoroughly enjoyed the newest chapter in the franchise, Prey. Who isn’t excited by the idea of Indigenous hunters in 1719, with handmade weapons, going up against a completely futuristic alien creature? I think the premise was just so solid, the casting of Indigenous actors and inclusion of Comanche dialogue was legit, and it was beautifully shot. Amber Midthunder is just such a star, and I hope she has a long career ahead of her.

- Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (HBO Max). My husband started watching this show much to my frustration–every time I would walk into the living room while he was watching it, I would say, “You know, you really should watch the original Pretty Little Liars first, it’s so good.” But then one day I was cooking or something while it was on (our living room/kitchen area is open), and I got completely sucked in. Like the original PLL, it features a group of teenage girls with different secrets who are threatened by a mysterious person named “A;” unlike the original, it draws more heavily from horror and slasher films than from teen melodrama. I really enjoy that aspect of the show. I will note that if stories that involve suicide, self-harm, and/or sexual assault are no-gos for you, this would not be a good fit.

Things I like about the show: how dark, sinister, and shitty the high school they attend always looks; the clear reverence for the history of horror; the diversity of the cast; the high ratio of women to men amongst the writers and directors for the show. Things I don’t like: the complete abandonment of realism in favor of postmodernism when it comes to the movies and music the main characters favor; how stunningly beautiful the main characters are (it’s ridiculous that someone would look like that and be unpopular in high school); how obnoxious the character Tabby is as a film nerd (she’s completely unrealistic to me, and I was a film major at a liberal arts college, okay, I have known some film nerds in my life). Overall: if you are okay with a little darkness, it’s a great guilty pleasure watch.

- The Ultimate Real Housewives Trivia Quiz. Y’all, I am so ashamed. I have been watching The Real Housewives since about 2009, and I only scored a 13 out of 30 on this quiz! 😭 How am I supposed to look at myself in the makeup mirror after that?! Upsetting. But yeah, take this quiz if you are a Bravo addict like me, you can probably beat my score!

- Reading my horoscope. A friend of mine (a Virgo! Happy Virgo season, y’all!) told me that I should write more about astrology in here, so I figured that it would be a good time to share all the best places that I go to read my horoscope. One time I took a storytelling class at the UCB here in LA with Margot Leitman, and one of the exercises she had us do was to describe our morning routines from the moment we woke up. When I described cross-checking my horoscope across multiple apps before I got out of bed, everyone in class laughed. “You just don’t look like the type of person who is into astrology,” Margot explained. Well, what can I say, a bitch contains multitudes.

Here are my favorite places to read my horoscope:

• Astrostyle.com. I first got into the AstroTwins through their horoscopes in ELLE, but when I realized that I could get the same forecasts at their website with fewer ads, I started going directly to the source. Their forecasts are somewhat tailored toward the stylish, fabulous woman who is the imaginary reader of women’s media. So, like, if a planetary alignment is telling you to focus on your health, they’ll say something like, “Trade the espresso martinis for a green juice and hot yoga class!” You get it. But overall, I like them a lot because they are very thorough (they do daily, weekly, and monthly forecasts) and ALWAYS on time. They also have a new dating reality show on Amazon Prime called Cosmic Love where they try to match singles based on their birth charts that sounds intriguing.

• Astrology.com. Short and sweet and to the point, Astrology.com offers daily horoscopes for your sun sign, as well as daily work, love, and dating forecasts, too.

• Chani Nicholas. The best way to get Chani’s horoscopes is to subscribe to her newsletter (scroll to the bottom of her website, and it’s on the right side). She shares forecasts for each stage of the sun (i.e. Leo season, Virgo season, etc.) as well as other large cosmic events (Mercury in Virgo, Venus in Cancer, etc). She also has an app that I have not yet subscribed to, so I can’t say much about its value, but it’s probably pretty great. I like supporting her because if you take a look at her Careers page, it shares some of the benefits included if you work for her, and they are very, very good (“Unlimited menstrual leave for people with uteruses?” Do they need a comedy writer?).

• AstrologyZone. AstrologyZone is legendary astrologer Susan Miller’s website, and her monthly horoscopes are almost always posted several days late. Part of the Susan Miller experience is enjoying the excuses she comes up with on Twitter every month for why she’s posting late. I understand that she is in poor health, but she doesn’t start writing them until the 29th of the month before! That said, when she does post her monthly forecasts, they are very thorough, and her AstrologyZone app has short daily horoscopes that are always on time.

- Celebrity surveys. Samantha Irby recently wrote in her newsletter about how much she enjoys Air Mail’s The Perfect Ending survey and how she likes celebrity surveys in general, and I deeply agree. I have been reading a ton of them and, because I can’t just let a thing be a thing without inserting my opinions into it, I have been stealing the questions from some popular surveys and answering them myself. Yes. So, I plan on sharing at least one survey I have filled out in future episodes of this newsletter. Here are my answers to one of my all-time favorite surveys, Curbed New York’s 21 Questions:

Name: Liz Galvao

Age: 35

Neighborhood: Previously: Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. Now: Highland Park, Los Angeles.

Occupation: Comedy person

What’s hanging above your couch?

A gallery wall of different art prints and photos. We have some portraits of our cat, prints from Grace Miceli and Lisa Hanawalt, prints we found in an art gallery in this little surf town in Oahu on our honeymoon, prints from this artist market we stumbled on while we were vacationing in Mexico City, a few wedding photos. It’s a real mishmash.

What’s the first job you had in New York?

Technically it was a temp job. I transcribed raw footage for the first season of the reality show Swamp People. There were a lot of thick Cajun and bayou accents, so that was fun. It paid $120 a day for a 10-hour day, and I worked M-F in a windowless room in Midtown East. I stayed at my now-husband/then-boyfriend’s parents’ house in Long Island and commuted in every day. I was THRILLED to be a part of the TV and film industry!!!

What color are you always drawn to? 

Any shade of turquoise, teal, blue-green, aqua even. I like the in-betweenness of it.

Which artwork or artifact are you most surprised you own?

I have a commemorative plate honoring Tom Selleck getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that I actually bought at a Goodwill in Poughkeepsie, New York, to decorate my senior year college apartment. My roommates and I were very into kitschy and campy nonsense like that. Somehow, that stupid plate has stayed with me for over 13 years. It’s currently displayed on top of our bar cart.

Which New Yorker would you want to hang out with?

I bet Andy Cohen would be a good time. He could tell me all of the dirt on the Housewives, too.

What’s the last thing you made with your hands?

I made some roasted hatch chile and chicken enchiladas. My lazy hack was that I shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken for the filling. I also attempted to roast the chilis right on my stove’s burners, since they had just been cleaned, but even with the fan on, they set off the smoke alarm, unfortunately.

Is there one thing you own multiple versions of?

I own a set of books from the series that Go Ask Alice was from, these fake teenage diaries that were meant to scare kids away from certain behaviors (experimenting with drugs, sex work, steroids, etc). I had an idea a few years ago that I was going to parody them in some way. What a horribly unmarketable idea! But anyway, I have like four of those books.

Which New York City museum do you always go back to?

The Brooklyn Museum. I always feel challenged there, intellectually.

What do you always have next to your computer?

A pen and notepad. Even in the age of Zoom meetings, I have to take notes old school style. The act of physically writing something down plants it in my brain in a different way than typing it on my phone or a laptop. I also got these pink legal pads because I read that that’s how Jacquelin Susann wrote Valley of the Dolls and I like how unapologetically feminine they are.

Where is the best view of the city?

Going over the Brooklyn Bridge in a cab at 1 AM when you’re kind of buzzed and look back at the Manhattan skyline and think, wow, I’m really fucking here.

Which building or object do you want to redesign every time you see it?

Trump tower in Soho. I wouldn’t redesign it, I would tear that shit down. I hated it even before Trump was a politician, it just stuck out like a sore thumb in that neighborhood when it went up because it was so much taller than all the other buildings around it.

What’s one thing you would change about your field?

I wish there were more of a defined path to success. I was a very good student and I think part of the reason was that I enjoyed the linear trajectory of school–moving from one grade to another, one level of difficulty to another. These days it’s hard to even work your way up the ladder with writing because there are as many different ways to grab that first rung as there are writers, and they’re all unduplicatable.

If you could live anywhere in NYC, where would it be?

I think living in the West Village would be dreamy. I’ve gotten to crash there a few times and it’s so lovely to walk outside your door and have the best of the city right there.

What would you hoard if it stopped being produced?

Stila Stay All Day waterproof liquid eye liner in Intense Black. That’s the only liquid eye liner I’ve found that actually stays fucking put. I also like the marker tip. 

What do you do to get out of a creative rut?

Sometimes I go out to the desert, sometimes I go to a museum. When I’m struggling with writing, I like to immerse myself in other forms of art, so museums are good. 

Where was your first NYC apartment, and how much was the rent? 

I wrote about it in my last newsletter (#5 in the rankings)! It was a summer sublet in a 4BR/2BA in Windsor Terrace, and I paid $750 per month plus utilities for my room, which was good at the time (2010) and sounds very, very good now.

Where in the city do you go to be alone?

I’d go to Prospect Park and sit by myself under a tree and read a book.

What’s the worst piece of career advice you’ve ever gotten? 

Don’t date when you first start your career so you can just focus on writing. Idiotic! If you can’t have balance in your life when no one is calling you or booking you, how are you suddenly supposed to find that balance when you’re successful and busier than ever?

What have you given away to someone that you wish you could get back?

I had this beautiful, sturdy and heavy as hell wooden dresser that I gave to my friend Jason when I moved out of New York. It originally belonged to my grandparents and was in my parents’ house for a long time until I got my first real apartment in Brooklyn. It wasn’t really anything special, it was just so well-made. They really don’t make furniture like that anymore, it’s all particle board and allen keys now. Anyway, he moved out of the city, too, and gave it to someone else, so I’m not sure where it is now.

What’s your favorite NYC restaurant and your regular order? 

Maybe it’s a cop-out because I worked there for a year, but I always come back to Roberta’s. I’d get stracciatella, which is like this stretchy young mozzarella, a Bee Sting pizza with soppressata and hot honey, and if they have a burger on their menu, I will split that with my husband, too. To drink, I’ll get either a Michelada or their daily frozen drank if they have it.

Which descriptive phrase do you want on your obituary headline?

“Beloved.”

Okay pals, that’s it for me this week!

Don’t forget to like, comment, and share this newsletter if you’d like–you can use the buttons at the bottom or the top.

Until next time—well, just check your horoscope.

Love,

Liz

XOXO