Good morning,

I hope you, unlike me, are not too sad about recent events in the Men’s World Cup*. Or maybe you are Scottish, French or Croatian and very satisfied with how things are panning out! Either way, you’re great, I love your beautiful country, here are some links that have cheered me up recently and if you need cheering up I hope they work for you as well.

Let’s start with a lovely poem by Izumi Shikibu:

I cannot say

plum blossom is

the spring night's moon.

http://www.poetry-chaikhana.com/Poets/S/ShikibuIzumi/Icannotsay/index.html

Do you want to know something else I like, it’s the Magic Mike movies and particularly the less self serious one, i.e. Magic Mike XXXL. If I hadn’t read the below article in public I would have gurgled with delight at several points during it:

Do Mike and his crew win the stripper contest? It’s never discussed. Is the convention they travel to actually a contest? Mike’s crew’s envy of the success of the other group of strippers who perform the Twilight routine might imply that it is, but besides that very dim implication, nothing else would lead us to believe that their goal is to win rather than simply to enjoy performing, to be the best male entertainers they can be. Magic Mike is a decidedly anti-capitalist story. It doesn’t want to gain anything but joy, and has no interest in the upward progression of a narrative any more than it is interested in the approval of dads.

https://electricliterature.com/magic-mike-xxl-is-basically-the-odyssey-but-with-butts-da23de1e4f59

OH AND ALSO the toast archives are back online which means that the our generation’s superior brutal work of art is also back online – How To Wait Out Your Best Friend’s Boyfriend:

10. Avoid criticizing him at all costs, but if you must, put the words “It’s endearing how” before your criticism so he takes it as a compliment and the seeds of doubt are planted carefully in her mind. “Something I really like about Greg is [subtly horrifying trait.]”

http://the-toast.net/2014/05/27/wait-out-your-friends-boyfriend/

Have a nice weekend,

Alex.

*Many thanks to Sarah for this one, it’s been absolutely useless re: helping me to maintain emotional distance but has consistently amused me since mid June