The Dig List, May 2023
My Taylor Swift Eras concert, The National's new album, Succession season finale, and a barn-burner book by Elise Loehnen.
Well, May has been wild year, hasn’t it? (And we still have one more day left.) So much life packed into this innocent-sounding month: Taylor Swift! New music! Succession finale! I’ve read five books! Mother’s Day! The Luckiest Club turned 3! My 3-year anniversary of meeting T is tomorrow! I’m capturing the best of it here in this edition of Dig List.
What’s The Dig List?
I love sharing stuff I love (and occasionally yelling about things I don’t), so instead of trying to fit these things into other newsletters, I’ve started a monthly series here called The Dig List. I’ll include anything from books and podcasts to cultural moments to art, restaurants, or places I travel. Sometimes, I’ll include products (never sponsored). Also, I don’t do paid subscriber audio narration for these because lists and links don’t translate very well in that format.
Later this week, I’ll be answering subscriber questions in my monthly AMA. I’m answering the often-asked question, “Why did you return to social media?” as well as one about relapsing and one about how I handle being jealous of / feeling competitive with other writers. This will be for paid subscribers only.
Dig List, May 2023
1. ‘Things are definitely opening up: the rise of older female writers’ (The Guardian)
If you’re one of the many women I hear from who’s sure it’s too late to write that novel or publish that memoir, this article in The Guardian is proof you’re wrong. Things are definitely opening up: the rise of older female writers tells us “unpublished authors in their 60s, 70s, and 80s are now at a premium in the book world – with radical, edgy women in high demand.” Recent bangers like The Paper Palace, Lessons in Chemistry, and Tresspasses (all excellent) are debut novels from ~women of a certain age~ published in the last couple of years.
Rejoice!
2. The National’s new album
The National have been a steady favorite over the past fifteen years and their new album, ‘The First Two Pages of Frankenstein’, has been in constant rotation since it was released. Matt Berninger’s voice is like the bass note of my heartbeat and Aaron Dessner, a member of the band, is also the genius collaborator behind Taylor Swift’s ‘evermore’ and ‘folklore’ albums.
This song, The Alcott, features Taylor herself. In my dreamiest dreams, The National was going to make a surprise appearance at the show I attended earlier this month. It didn’t happen, and perhaps it’s for the best; I might have perished.
/ Give me some tips to forget you /
3. Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour
If you’ve been around here for a minute, you know I’m a pretty die-hard fan. I started to really pay attention to her when ‘1989’ was released in 2014, ‘Reputation’ was an entire mood, ‘Lover’ wooed me, and ‘evermore’ and ‘folklore’ literally got me through the pandemic. It’s the storytelling for me; she’s a genius in this regard. Still, I’m not a big concert-goer in general these days (too picky, too in love with my bed and my bedtime) and a stadium concert is pretty close to my idea of hell, so despite my deep love for TS, when it proved impossible to get tickets for the Eras tour, I resigned to missing it without much heartbreak. Alma was dying to go, though, and I was willing to make some effort for her—especially to see it with her.
When the tour started, and clips of it started showing up in my Instagram feed, I quickly flicked past them and even muted some accounts. I didn’t want to see! It hurt! But then, it became impossible to avoid: everyone was going, and everyone was raving about it. Still, no plan to get tickets.
Then, in late April, one of T’s colleagues came through. Did we want four tickets? I didn’t believe they were real until I saw them with my own eyeballs.
They were real.
So, on Sunday, May 21, me and Alma and two of our closest friends went to the show at Gillette Stadium.
It was truly the best show I’ve ever seen in my life. It was one of the best nights of my life, period. She played for three and a half hours non-stop and seemed to be enjoying the absolute hell out of every moment. The night before, it rained—deluged—for the entire show, and she showed no wear (but her piano did, as you’ll see).
I’ve replayed the night so many times in my head since, and the word that comes up for me most is goodness. There was so much fucking good happening in that stadium—so much joy and light and happiness and levity and feeling—in a world that feels otherwise crushing and dark these days. I didn’t see one intoxicated person. None of the usual weird shit that happens at concerts was happening. So many kids with their parents at ages when kids don’t usually want to be with their parents! Thousands of people smashed up against each other, singing and dancing and sweating when just two years ago, we were unable to imagine such a thing ever happening again.
Here are some of my favorite outtakes.
The outfits were insane:
Alma dancing:
Phoebe Bridgers was an opener (!) and came out to sing Nothing New.
This guy. The entire show.
For each show, Taylor plays two acoustic “surprise songs" —one on guitar, one on piano. The guitar one for our show was I Think He Knows from ‘Lover’ which THRILLED Alma and me because, for the longest time, when she sings “Bless my soul,” we thought she was saying, “That’s my toe.” You can hear us laughing about it in the clip.
And thennnnn, she went to play the surprise piano song, and this happened…
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Last song, last clip. #karma
The day after the show I was so tired and overwhelmed that I canceled everything on my calendar, rewatched clips, and wept. I’ll never forget it.
4. The season finale of Succession (the penultimate episode, actually, though)
If you haven’t watched this show yet, SKIP AHEAD SPOILERS.
The season finale of Succession aired on Sunday, and I’ve never been so relieved for a show to end in my fucking life. I’ve also never hated watching a show while simultaneously thinking This is so goddamn good the entire time. Stomach aches. Every. Time.
I had to put it on the Dig List, though, because I need to mark this moment in our cultural history. It’s hard to recommend this show to people because everyone in it is just so terrible, but it’s also impossible not to recommend it. What an epic piece of work.
For me, the penultimate episode was some of the best television I’ve ever seen. And it was Shiv’s eulogy that hit me hardest. “He couldn’t fit a whole woman into his head.” I relate.
5. On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen
This book is rocking me. Elise breaks down the ways women have internalized the seven deadly sins (even if you aren’t religious) and the price we pay for it. I’m still reading it, going slow on purpose, but it’s edifying, needed, wise, and bold, and please just go get this book.
She also has a quiz on her website to see which of the sins lives in you.
That’s it for this round! As always, tell me what you think. Back in your inbox later this week.
Love,
Laura
Offerings & Events
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Just finished Succession. The scene with Shiv and Tom at the end. Her posture and expression in the car says so much... ugh.
Oh man. I went to TS Sunday as well. Got tix that morning for myself and my 12 year old daughter. Blew all my rent $ and it was worth every penny. One of the best days ever. I could barely function on Monday due to emotional hangover and adrenaline. It was pure joy.