Penguins 🐧 & election coping & sparkly things✨

Hi friends!

How are you?? I’ll be honest, I’m fine, but I have been stressed the fuck out. There’s the background hum of the U.S. presidential election (more on that later). And then, the project I’ve been working on for the past two months launched this week, which please, by all means, go check out the launch video! I’m very proud to have had a very small part in this project coming to fruition. In short: a group of artists all over the world are going to be playing a massive global game of telephone (or teléfono descompuesto)... but with art. It’s all sponsored by Lenovo and Intel to promote the new Lenovo Aura Edition laptop, but truly, the content coming out of this collab is so impressive to me on an artistic level. I feel like I’m completely spoiled by the fact that it’s my first project at this company. Yes, it’s huge and complicated and has a million moving parts to track (ask me about calculating launch times across seven different time zones before and after Daylight Savings Time), but it has also been such a joy to work on. Art! We love it!!

Needless to say, this project has also been keeping me very busy! I’ve been dreaming in deck form lately. Literally, I have dreams of unfinished slides going out to talent or client and me going, “No, wait, I didn’t finish that yet!” I guess you could call those nightmares. Hmm.

I voted today, which felt like something. I live in the reliably blue state of California, but my goodness, there were so many different local L.A. County measures on the ballot this time! School board redistricting and housing and rent control, oh my! I utilized the Knock LA Progressive Voter Guide for most of the ballot, but then I had to use my own judgment on the section voting for the board of trustees for the L.A. Community College District. The L.A. Times guide to the candidates was very helpful there. In case you want to feel better about some of the people up for election in your area, here’s a wild one:

One candidate for Seat 5, Jason R. Aula, responded to The Times with a list of false statements, conspiracy theories and exaggerations on issues unrelated to the district, including that targeting cannibalism in Los Angeles would be one of his priorities. When asked to provide sources for his statements, he said he would need time to use a “certain device” as there is “censorship of the internet and errors in displayed information.” Aula did not write back. A small portion of his statements are included.

You’re probably picturing a wild-haired old geezer here, but this man is 39 years old. The small portion of his statements included in the piece were mostly him ranting against undocumented immigrants. Definitely didn’t get my vote for that seat!!!

As the election gets closer (and gets closer… oh my God, why is it so close?? What is WRONG with everyone?!), I’ve tried not to think about it, but my background anxiety level has definitely been rising. I know some progressive/liberal people who say they cannot vote for genocide, and I feel like I can’t really argue with that. We all get to make our own personal moral decisions. But I do hope that most people see the bigger picture of strategy and harm reduction overall, which is kind of what the presidential election always comes down to. Politicians aren’t your friends or your parents or your spiritual leaders. People in the Trump cult definitely don’t get that, but sometimes, liberals don’t get that either. They’re always waiting for a perfect candidate, some kind of idealistically pure blue Messiah, and I’ll be honest: it’s probably not going to happen, at least not on a presidential level. The Democratic Party loves centrists too much. Maybe we’ll have a shot once the older generation “retires” (lol because they never really do retire, do they? They’d rather die in office).

Still, I hope Harris wins. I hope we get to have that one small, shiny moment of relief and historic victory for our country, before we start trying to push her further left. I feel like in all the noise of the election we’ve lost sight of how fucking huge it would be to elect our first woman of color as president.

I swore off political donations a couple years ago after one too many longshot-Democrats-trying-to-flip-a-red-zone heartbreaks, but Kamala HQ got me to cough up $25 this week by swearing up and down it’s the last chance for me to get Tim Walz’s award-winning hot dish recipe. Now, as a born-and-bred Coastal Elite, have I ever had hot dish in my life? No, I have not. In fact, growing up, the only casserole I recall us eating was green bean casserole at Thanksgiving. Naturally, that has led to a total fascination with casseroles as an adult (see here for my personal favorite chicken broccoli and wild rice casserole recipe), and I’m excited to try Tim Walz’s.

Of course, now that the Dems have gotten me to donate, I’m getting three times the number of ads as I’ve gotten before. It’s funny how that works, isn’t it? I JUST GAVE YOU MONEY. Now they’re trying to lure me in with Gwen Walz’s gingersnap recipe and Kamala’s cornbread dressing, which, well, the latter might just work on me. I’m a total slut for a good Thanksgiving recipe.

My company has off for Election Day, which is good, but also: what the fuck am I going to do with myself that day? I already voted, and I’m sure I’m going to be sick with anxiety. As a lucky coincidence, I have therapy that morning, so that will be helpful. Right now my plan is to take a lot of klonopin and make a big, complicated, multi-hour meal to distract myself. Any suggestions? (Tim Walz’s hot dish is unfortunately not labor-intensive enough.) I figure at least, whatever happens, I can nourish myself. Then again, in 2016, I threw up when I heard the results, so maybe a huge meal isn’t a great idea.

Let’s get into some things:

- The Penguin (Max, HBO). I would say that Batman is probably my favorite superhero, not because he’s particularly interesting, but because of the villains. The villains are SO good!! And so, I inevitably end up watching whatever Batman-related media airs, and recently, that’s included HBO’s The Penguin. Look, I don’t get why they put Colin Farrell in a fat suit, either, I guess because James Gandolfini isn’t around? He is pretty much doing a James Gandolfini impression the whole time. Can we all just admit that? I think he’s a good actor, but, like, c’mon.

The true stars of the show are Cristin Milioti as Sofia Falcone, the black sheep of the Falcone crime family, and Rhenzy Feliz as Victor Aguilar, a teenager who’s at the wrong place at the wrong time and ends up working for The Penguin. I have respected Milioti as an actor for a while now, but omg, she truly steals every scene she’s in. And the costume designers should get a raise for her outfits alone. She slays so hard at every turn. And Feliz breaks my fucking heart open with every single episode he’s in. I am just such a sucker for a good kid forced to break bad under tragic circumstances. Feliz has this incredibly expressive face that shows every flicker of fear and doubt so beautifully. I can’t believe I’m going on and on about the performances in a fucking Batman TV show, but here we are!

Also: Batman… isn’t in it? I’m not quite sure how that works, but so far, the Dark Knight is yet to make an appearance. Kinda weird, but it’s working for me so far.

- I was so sorry to hear of the passing of character actor Teri Garr (of Tootsie, Young Frankenstein, Ghost World, and more), who I have had a great fondness for ever since her A.V. Club interview in 2008, in which she not only dished on a level rarely seen in the press, she called out sexism in Hollywood in no minced words. What an all-timer. Please read it if you can, it’s incredible. Here’s an excerpt:

AVC: Mr. Mom is yet another role where your character is described as “long-suffering.” Why do you think you’ve always been called upon to play that type?

TG: Oh God. Because I’m a long-suffering doormat in my own life, I guess. That’s why I was always cast as that. And because they only write those parts for women. If there’s ever a woman who’s smart, funny, or witty, people are afraid of that, so they don’t write that. They only write parts for women where they let everything be steamrolled over them, where they let people wipe their feet all over them. Those are the kind of parts I play, and the kind of parts that there are for me in this world. In this life.

May she rest in peace, in a better world than this one.

- I was so excited to try out the new e.l.f. Fine as Fleck Glitter Eyeshadows ($6), which are rumored to be a dupe for the viral but far more expensive Urban Decay Moondust shadows ($24). These are single eyeshadows, by the way, not palettes. And I like the e.l.f. shadows a lot! I have two shades, “Champagne Showers,” which is supposed to be a dupe for Urban Decay’s “Space Cowboy,” and “Straight Fire,” which is supposed to be a dupe for “Solstice.” I also have both of those Urban Decay shades, so I did a little side-by-side swatching to put them to the test!

I am sorry to say that the e.l.f. shadows simply don’t have anywhere near the same level of intensity as the Urban Decay ones. Believe me, I was a big doubter of the viral hype around “Space Cowboy” for a while. It is just hard to get me excited about a neutral eyeshadow in general, sparkly or not. That is, until I swatched it in store at Sephora. I know it looks pretty underwhelming in that picture, but it is so sparkly, it’s unreal. It catches the light at like a million different pin points. There just really is nothing else like it that I’ve seen.

As you can tell from the image above, the Moondust shadows also have deeper base colors than the e.l.f. ones. The e.l.f. ones are still beautiful and I’ll definitely wear them, but they’re slightly more ethereal, almost like an Asian style eyeshadow, which are usually very light touch. Which, maybe you’re looking for! (And by the way, if you want to splurge on the Urban Decay shadows, make sure you’re doing so during the Sephora sale next week, so you can at least get 10-15% off. I believe it starts today for VIB Rouge level people, who get 20% off, but I’m guessing most of us don’t drop over $1000 a year at Sephora to qualify).

- I want to end here with one last note about the election. I know most politically engaged Americans are feeling the stress right now. I know it’s really close, and a lot of us are scared that it’s not going to go the way we want it to. And honestly? It might not. We have to be prepared for either outcome. Here are some ideas on how we can all get through this together:

• Have a plan for managing stress on Election Day. Maybe this means limiting how many times you check the numbers as they come in. Maybe it means being gathered with like-minded people so you can all be there for each other. Maybe it means throwing darts at a picture of Nate Silver’s face. Personally, I’m aiming to go for a loooong walk outside that day, followed by the aforementioned complicated dinner prep. I don’t know what I’m making yet, but it will definitely be comfort food.
  
  

• Have a plan for pulling yourself out of a depressive spiral in the worst-case scenario. Maybe think back to what worked for you in 2016. For me, that was: joining a protest, and experiencing art and music. This year, I’m also planning on throwing myself into the distraction of work. You can feel your feelings, just don’t let them drown you.
  
  

• Definitely don’t do what one of the members of my sketch comedy team did in 2016, and go out to the desert and take mushrooms “until it’s all over.” You don’t want to be coming down from drugs and getting devastating news at the same time. We should probably all just be careful with substances in general this week. They’re not always helpful when emotions are heightened.
  
  

• Remember that, as my therapist put it, even if Trump wins, all the progressive/liberal people you know are not going to suddenly turn into MAGA zombies. We will still be here, and we will outlast them. 🩵

That’s it for now, my loves! Big hugs to you! Hang in there!

If you have a second, I’d love it if you’d like or comment on this post–just click this link to go to the post page. This post is public, so feel free to share it on social media, or forward it to a friend.

Until next time—deep breaths, and take care of yourselves.

Love,

Liz

XOXO