Things I Meant to Tell You
This month in cool stamps and edgy opinions about trash pickup
Hey everyone,
There’s this bar in Oxford that feels like a time warp. At City Grocery, I run into every person I’ve ever met who is tangentially related to the state of Mississippi. To me, that’s its defining characteristic. It’s a scene that transcends age groups, so there’s some stability to the bar’s identity even though it’s in a college town.
I asked a few county residents to describe this bar. Here are select responses.
I go into every bar hopeful and leave every bar wishing it was City Grocery
Dark, buzzy, brimming with ideas
A professor’s clean but unassuming “dive” bar
Oxfords attempt at a rooftop Spanish taverna
Too damn busy
It’s been on my mind lately because the last time I was at City Grocery, in fact the last several times I was at City Grocery, I had not lived in Mississippi for five years. But I still saw a surprising number of people who I knew from just about everywhere. Strange. The bar isn’t that big and I genuinely don’t know that many people.
But then I realized… when I lived in Oxford, I was the local seeing everyone I had ever met. Now that I live out of state, I am the random person who is tangentially related to the state of Mississippi, running into the locals who are seeing everyone they have ever met. The City-Grocery-Ecosystem is actually the exact same as it’s always been. I’m just playing a different role in it. And wowie! That struck me as beautiful.
Here’s this month in cool stamps, edgy opinions about trash pickup, and other things I meant to tell you.
First and foremost, I watched Sinners and was absolutely fucking floored. The Mississippi of it all, the Ireland of it all, I’m still actively thinking about it a week later. I’m always so delighted when something out of my typical genres knocks me off my feet. At the end of the day, I just love good storytelling.
Been very into watching DJ sets on YouTube since Nico put on Humano Studios one night this winter. So thank you Nico for that!
The Spanish word for sourdough is masa madre. Mother bread <3
Rooney-heads: make yourself known. I finished Intermezzo last week and, sorry, LOVED IT. Please email me if you want to discuss (begging). Ivan’s internal dialogue dissing his mother and step-father… bars.
They have each other, their housing development with the big engraved rock outside, their synthetic fragrances, polished marble countertops, and he wishes them happiness and inner peace.
I know I already shared my angsty notes from Europe but here’s another: “I want my aesthetic to be ‘collecting things I like as I experience the world around me.’” I’ve been thinking a lot about how much of modern life involves moving from synthetic environment to synthetic environment… of course things will become confusing and disorienting if we only have the entire internet giving us direction with nothing in real life to ground us. Personal style should be a byproduct of living!
My grandma’s sunroom is very “collecting things I like as I experience the world around me.”
Growing beyond the computer - An interview with a former tech worker who quit her job to become a gardener. When asked if she ever misses her computer, she responds:
Not at all. I rarely use it anymore, and I’ve become really delayed at responding to messages. When I had a computer job, people had access to me every second of the day. Now that my attention is immersed in the real, tangible world for the majority of my day, I’m no longer digitally accessible 24/7. I do, however, talk to my friends on the phone way more—something I didn’t realize was missing from my previous life.
I thought I fully killed my snake plant a year ago, and it’s been sitting in my parents’ yard unattended ever since. When I went to compost it, I found a bunch of little sprouts hiding underneath the dead leaves :) Life goes on, or something!
I ended up down an eBay rabbit hole after thrifting a framed sheet of these Arctic Tundra stamps. These were a part of a series and then I just kept finding more cool stamp sheets.
My boss actually said this to me: “Have you listened to Ezra Klein’s interview with Marie Gluesenkamp Perez? Her politics reminds me of yours, she has some edgy opinions about trash pickup.”
Anyway, I have decided to have a sexyfuncoolandnormal summer. My hair is back to its natural color and god damn, I cannot tell you what a relief that is. I’m going to West Texas this weekend, then to my sister’s wedding the next one. Trying not to overdo it, though, and taking notes from my summer bucket list 2 years ago. ☀️🌱
Talk to you soon,
Kendall
