5 Fun Friday Things!

a wonderful list of wonderful things

I don’t know where March went and I don’t know where April went, but it is now May and I’ve had strep throat t w i c e in O N E month. A “recurrence,” my doctor called it. “It’s probably because you didn’t throw your toothbrush away after the last round!!!!” offered a few moms in my DMs. Either way, many truly miserable days of chills and swollen throat and wincing every time I had to swallow because I am actually not trained in this:

…despite thorough training in this (enough to audition for, and not book, a vintage circus-themed alcohol commercial, anyway):

Also I just looked up how sword swallowing works and you might be as stunned and grossed out as me to discover that they SWALLOW SHEATHS before their performance so that they can “easily” fit the sword down towards their GI tracts. Augh!!!! I could feel the strep starting to grow back when I delved into further paragraphs of detail so had to stop reading there, but…eek.

Anyhow, lots of fun content coming this month, including a wonderful interview with one of my favorite clothing designers, but for now here is a new fun installment called FIVE FUN FRIDAY THINGS!!!!!!!! Things I’ve been enjoying and believe you will, too.

1. A friend in my Illuminati power LA mom group works on one of my favorite series, Hacks, and reported to our gossip section that on Fridays the cast and crew do a $5 pot so every week, somebody wins a great ball o’ cash, and last Friday, queen Jean Smart casually put $10,000 into the pot. Royalty!

2. I loved this writing tip from Lauren Groff from this mini-interview here:

   Before I begin a longer project, I want to know my characters as completely as I can. I give myself two hours on an egg timer and ten pages in a notebook and write down everything I know about one single character until the timer goes off or I've hit the tenth page. Even if nothing from those pages goes into the final book, the details sound the depths of your story.

3. This incredible TikTok slideshow of text messages that this NYC photographer has gathered over the years as he sneaks images while on crowded trains. What an absolute treasure cornucopia of non sequitur’d urban humanity!!!!!!!!!! Highly recommend pausing and then arrowing over so you can read each one. Tell me your fave in the comments - mine is the “Strawberry” reply. Great find via the wonderful

   Maybe Baby
   substack!

4. Steven Yuen’s absolutely gorgeous, hilarious, captivating, relatable rage on BEEF. Drop everything and watch immediately. So good I’m not even mad I auditioned for it exactly one year ago and did noooooorrrttttt book (jk, full of Beef-level rage over it).

   

   5. This thing has finally given me the easy waves I’ve always wanted. I hate “doing” hair or working with it in any form, really, because it’s extremely boring to me, but once I waved my hair and went in for an audition and the casting director came out and said “Never come back into my office with straight hair again, you look so much better with this hair” lol so I’ve had to make peace with fucking with my hair texture for auditions and this. is. IT!!!! It now takes me 5 minutes to achieve mermaid waves, even on my straight, fine, dumb hair!!!

BONUS: This extremely cogent explainer of the crucial WGA strike happening. Highly recommend watching!!

This weekend we’ve got friends visiting so it will be full of museum visits, my favorite restaurants in LA, dancing, and maybe a dip in the pool, if it EVER FUUUUUCKING STOPS RAINING HERE.

This post was brought to you by antibiotics!!!!!!! The “strong” kind!!

Love,

Kira