Friday Fourteen Issue 137
This week: Nora Ephron galore, a revealing look at why restaurants have no choice but to raise their prices, an intimate profile of musician Darren Hayes that’s 100% worth your time, a fascinating interview between Anne Helen Petersen and gender expert Kate Mangino that gives *actually* practical tips for dealing with unfair labour division in the home, and more
British-American author and screenwriter Emma Forrest, who famously wrote about dating Colin Farrell, writes intimately in the Guardian about her return from self-imposed celibacy
If you’ve ever asked a friend in crisis ‘How can I help?’ or been faced with that maddening question yourself, this is required reading
In the wake of the release of a new Nora Ephron biography that many have labelled “bland and boring”, journalist Rachel Syme has published a real and raw profile in the New Yorker that celebrates the writer and screenwriter for the deeply flawed human that she was
… and because just one Nora Ephron reference is never enough, here’s the fabulous Ella Risberger reflecting on Nora’s mantra of “everything is copy”
This interactive NYT piece does a brilliant job at breaking down why restaurants have no choice but to raise their prices
This fantastically colourful feature on Michelle Yeoh explores her experience of Hollywood as an Asian actress in the 80s and her incredible journey to stardom in her sixties – oh, and did we mention that the photoshoot is to die for?
In tech news: Instagram is FINALLY going to allow you to schedule content via the app (and yes, this will include Reels), Snapchat is sneaking its way into the streaming wars, TikTok has added an in-app text-to-image AI generator (like DALL-E), Bumble BFF has been testing a new offering called “Hive” (think group chat, polls and video calls), there are 3,633 official emojis and more on the way next month, and Amazon is internally testing a TikTok-like feed in its app
We can’t tear our eyes away from this collection of incredibly grim pictures showing the extent of the drought suffocating Europe right now
Everyone, everything, everywhere is toxic now
This interview with musician Darren Hayes is a beautifully written story about grief for lost time and 100% worth reading
Turns out the practice of playing out a fight or difficult conversation in your head before it even happens isn’t unusual at all
Infuriated by the division of labour in your home? This fascinating interview between Culture Study writer Anne Helen Petersen and gender expert Kate Mangino explains why the stubborn 65/35 split hasn't budged since the '80s, and gives *actually* practical advice for what to do about it
Crushing on this Roman apartment (the ceiling *faints*), the yellow kitchen in this Adelaide home of designers Daniel Emma, and Nancy Meyers’ renovated LA home
And in other news: Scott’s secret ministerial portfolios explained in 90 seconds (and the best reactions to the ex Australian PM’s latest scandal), the joys of swimming while fat, tiny love stories (“I want a divorce”), two word horror stories, modern Seinfeld, you can use avo pits to keep your guac fresh, a love letter to salt, a reminder to focus on your career and not your job, a hilariously scathing review of Jared Kushner’s new book, the jury’s still out on the ‘drink of the summer’, the best dance moves to Lizzo’s ‘About Damn Time’ we’ve seen yet, Kath and Kim in 2022, nothing like a parent to humble you, according to the New York Times it’s no longer cool to wear heavy foundation (we’ll bet you a squillion dollars that the person who wrote this has never had acne) and if you’re in Australia, make sure you bookmark this list of exhibitions happening around the country this month
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Lizzie, managing director
Watching: Trainwreck: Woodstock ‘99 🤯(I’m also now listening to Bush’s back catalogue, young Gavin Rossdale, swoon!)
Reading: Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt. A lovely story about a widow and an octopus. I’m not a fast reader, but I smashed this very easy read in a day
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Vanessa, content & strategy directorListening: Thelma Plum’s new EP Meanjin
Reading: Rebecca May Johnson’s Dinner Document (first published here, now on substack) is one of my favourite corners of the internet so I’m waiting impatiently to get my hands on her first book, a food memoir called Small Fires: An Epic in the Kitchen, when it’s released at the end of August
Planning: An upcoming trip to Puglia. Please, if you’ve eaten/done/seen something fabulous there, I’m extremely all ears! Reply to this email with your recs and I’ll be forever in your debt
---Ava, copywriter & content producer
Cooking: This weekend I’m recreating the Nobu classic black cod miso at home using Patagonian toothfish. Glacier51’s fishery battles treacherous conditions to catch the ‘wagyu of the sea’ two kilometres below sea level as they patrol volcanic crevices for prey
Watching: Neil Patrick Haris in Netflix’s ‘Uncoupled’. This Darren Star creation chronicles a real estate broker (reeling from a split from his longtime boyfriend) navigating Manhattan’s modern dating scene in his late 40s
---(Meet the whole Slice team here!)
