The Crush Letter No 114: DEVOUR
I'm Dish and I write a weekly newsletter about life, love, and culture for those 40+. Because midlife and beyond is so much cooler than they said it would be. Hell yes, sign me up for the Dish.
Hello Crush,
Welcome home, Summer! We missed your sultry ways, your shimmery haze, your seductive gaze. Cheeks out, loves. And butter them up with sunscreen.
Lisa Ellex and I are back with things for you to DEVOUR to get your week end – and summer – started.
XOX.
If you're new here (welcome!), I'm Dish, the Master of Ceremonies. For more about me and why we're here go here.
In This Letter. +DEVOUR. What to do, read, watch, listen to & know about this week. +Social Media I Loved This Week +Our Song of the Week
DEVOUR {things to watch, read & listen to}
In our monthly DEVOUR column we share all the things we think you should eat up.
Keep on Dancin'. There would be no better way to remember the wild, mighty, electrifying life of Tina Turner than to dance. Tina Turner's life was legendary at every stage, including the release of What's Love Got to Do with It at 42 that made her a global solo sensation. After reading about her death yesterday I loaded up the HBO documentary Tina for a re-watch. It's big.
What I admire most is how she just kept going. I loved witnessing the very real friendship that she and Oprah developed in midlife, which culminated in a favorite Tina moment for me: Tina flew in from her life in Switzerland to surprise Oprah with a performance for Oprah's 50th birthday. Tina is in her mid-60's at this point, a dazzling star with her high-watt energy, her red lips and sexy moves. She outdances her back-up dancers and absolutely owns the room.
Here's the link.
I am not sure how you will be honoring her toughness, her joy, her artistry and her life, but I can't think of a better way myself than to just keep dancing.
And here are some other ways to partake in Tina this week end.
What's Love Got To Do With It? (Prime Video)
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Prime Video)
Tommy (Prime Video)
Read. Emma Cline’s latest novel will be the summer read you’ll be hearing about. The Guest is a novel about a twenty-something NYC escort with a drug problem who spends a summer in the Hamptons, haphazardly veering between potential danger and scenes of excess. Alex, Cline's protagonist, had a steady live-in gig giving Simon, a wealthy plain vanilla banker 30 years her senior, the "girlfriend experience" until a faux pas she commits at a cocktail party gets her kicked out of her gilded pen. Her dependence on the pain killers she steals from Simon on her way out makes her judgment questionable, and she decides to hang out in the Hamptons for a while until making her re-entry into Simon's life at his splashy annual end-of-season Labor Day party. The fact that she stole copious amounts from her drug dealer Dom in the city makes a return there inconvenient. While Alex is the ultimate unreliable narrator, what she has going for her – which accrues to our benefit, as readers – is that like any gifted grifter, Alex's survival depends on her quick wits, improvisation and, above all, keen ability to observe and understand the most minute nuances and signals from others. This is smarter by a lot than your typical summer read, but worth the extra effort.
Listen. Paul simon’s latest album, Seven Psalms. Who else but one of the greatest lyricists of the 20th century could powerfully convey the notion of life, God, and the great unknown in a mere 33 minutes? Paul Simon’s latest work, Seven Psalms, is a mystical, musical masterpiece, chock with reflection, atonement, and faith. Simon’s timbre is appropriately unadorned and weary, but when he is joined by his wife, Edie Brickell, we can hear the angels sing. Each of these seven psalms is stunning, creating a biblical canon that has critics and fans fearing that Simon has delivered his swan song. Whatever the case, Seven Psalms will endure as the composer/lyricist’s eternal light as he asks, “Two billion heartbeats and out or does it all begin again?”
Follow/Read. In case you missed the Met Gala… Author and photographer Ari Seth Cohen shares fashion inspiration or, sometimes, just a quick pick-me-up and a smile. Featuring (mostly) New Yorkers of a certain age strutting their own fashion sense, Cohen’s subjects are stylish and sassy and sure to brighten your day. You might even learn a thing or two about style. Pick up his book, Advanced Style, a photographic “collection of street fashion…focused on the over-60 set in the world's most stylish locales.” A great gift for the fashionista in your life – no matter what their age.
And follow him on Instagram here
Watch. Send in the Clowns. Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits (Prime Video) is a musical comedy by actress/comedian Alex Borstein, who kicks ass. Borstein riffs – well, rants – on topics such as the expectations society foists upon women, the pain and the aftermath of divorce, dating, abortion, childbirth, women and aging, the idea of a non-binary world, assault weapons, being the Jewish child and grandchild of Holocaust survivors, celibacy, and she even sings!
What makes the show so brilliant is that through all of Borstein’s anger, outrage, and bitterness, she genuinely exudes a vulnerability that can bring you to tears. Edgy, smart, and brave, some of her bits – such as a musical rendition of Hitler’s maid, Liesel, cleaning up after Adolf Hitler’s and Eva Braun’s suicide – may make you uncomfortable.
Borstein shares the stage with a musical duo (ukulele/guitar and bass) and an ASL interpreter with whom she sporadically interacts (when Borstein asks the interpreter how to sign, “hot, wet, pussy,” she can hardly keep a straight face). Even with her 80-something-year-old parents in the audience, Borstein holds back nothing, executing her ideas with a raw nerve delivery that cuts to the bone.
Watch. They tried to make me go to rehab… John Mulaney: Baby J (Netflix) is the honest recounting of stand-up master and SNL writer Mulaney’s star-studded intervention and subsequent two-month rehab stint. It includes recollections that will make you simultaneously cringe and laugh out loud. Never has the horror of drug addiction been so hilarious. Through his comedic account of his dark demise and unlikely recovery, Mulaney’s set conveys an overall poignancy seldom seen in standup comedy. Do not miss this.
Watch. Not your grandmother’s spring cleaning. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning (Peacock) is a new series on an activity that aims to “declutter your space and soul.” Based on Margareta Magnusson’s best-seller, The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning, the show follows Americans struggling to declutter their homes with the help of death-cleaning experts. As narrator Amy Poehler says, it’s all about “cleaning your crap so other people don’t have to when you die.” And show psychologist Katarina Blom maintains the activity has a positive impact on your mental health: “A lot of the show’s purpose is actually reminding Americans of all the ways they are alive.” Did someone say, “garage sale??
Read. The Book that inspired the series. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter
Watch. And all this thinking about Swedish death cleaning brings to mind the late, great George Carlin’s classic bit on “stuff” (George was always ahead of his time).
Listen. Table for Two? Cooking by Heart with Chris Sarandon. Chris Sarandon moderates Cooking by Heart, his podcast in which he talks with guests from all walks of life about their “memories of the meals they grew up with, and the stories and people that accompany those memories.” I’ve loved him madly since seeing him play Leon, the husband of Al Pacino’s character, Sonny, in 1975’s Dog Day Afternoon. In episode 20, Sarandon talks with actor/comedian Mario Cantone about his love of baking, his early career path, and his affinity for classic Hollywood movies. Icing on the cake (pun intended): Cantone delivers what may be the best impersonation of Julia Child that ever existed.
Get. Mover over, blue bird, there’s a new kid in town. Bluesky, a Twitter alternative, has taken off with a user roster of well-knowns including Chrissy Teigen, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and prominent journalists from outlets like the New York Times and CNN.
Funded by Twitter co-founder, Jack Dorsey, it is independent of Twitter (pre-Musk-Twitter deal) and intent on operating in a socially responsible manner, diverging from the giants who have dominated the game. With users able to control the algorithms that determine what content is served to them, the platform is highly sought after. If you missed getting in on the public beta version that launched in February, waiting to join is like waiting on line at Studio 54 circa 1977. Unless you have an invite code by a current user, you’ll have to put your name on a waiting list.
Social Media I Loved This Week.
Song Of The Week
Proud Mary By Tina Turner & Ike
This is an early performance, when Tina was still with Ike. So good.
Some Past Stories You Won't Want To Miss:
Happy Summer, loves!
Dish