Watching the Detectives with Elvis Costello

And opening act Nick Lowe!

And we’re back!

Housekeeping notes: 

Next week, paid subscribers will get July’s ET Read Home, a monthly reading list by me for you. I think I’m going to do a short story theme. It’s summer. It’s hot out. Maybe you’d like to read some short stories while lying out by the pool or inside in a cool room. Doesn’t that sound nice?

As a reminder, Substack is now doing referrals. Basically, if you refer ET Write Home to a friend or five or 25 at the button below, you will get a certain number of months of paid subscriber content for free, which will hopefully make us both content (little “content” pun).

As always, if there is something you would like to see more or less of in this newsletter, please let me know. Only paid subscribers can comment on posts (talk around here is cheap, but not free), but all of you are welcome to email me with your thoughts. I just ask that you keep it polite and constructive. 

And now onto news, views, and Jews.

THE NEWS

• I was quoted in this Associated Press piece on the future of OSF.

• I wrote about Soros conspiracy theories and antisemitism in India for The UnPopulist.

• I was quoted in this piece about Barbie and Jewishness.

• Speaking of! I loved this profile of Greta Gerwig. 

• I also enjoyed this review of Asteroid City.

• This is a very useful package on extreme heat.

• Esquire has a piece on book publishing merch.

• From Human Rights Watch: “Hundreds of same-sex couples in Nepal will soon be able to legally register their marriages following a landmark Supreme Court ruling on June 28 which cleared the way for marriage equality in the country.”

• Polar is the best seltzer. 

• In grim media news, the New York Times is disbanding its sports desk. It will rely on The Athletic for sports coverage.

• Lawyers who had business before the Supreme Court reportedly paid Clarence Thomas’s aide via Venmo. 

• Last week I did not mention that my friend Brandon and I saw Past Lives together and was lightly chided for it over text so: Last week my friend Brandon and I saw Past Lives together. I really recommend it. It’s like a short story (and you should go in expecting a slight story) and really lovely and poignant.

• This sea otter is innocent!

• Andor, about which I wrote the first real edition of this newsletter, got an Emmy nomination for outstanding drama series. 

• I liked Parul Sehgal interrogating stories and storytelling. 

• Milan Kundera passed away at the age of 94.

MY VIEWS ON…

…Elvis Costello!

I was listening to an episode of noted podcast Las Culturistas recently. Hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers asked their special guest, Kelly Clarkson, what was the culture that made her say that culture was for her. I think the question basically means what is the piece of art or cultural moment that made you realize that culture—music, movies, television, theatre, books—was something that spoke to you deeply and personally. That you realized culture, broadly defined, enhances life and is worth engaging with.

The moment that I remember was in the year 2002. That was the year that Elvis Costello’s album When I Was Cruel came out. I can remember sitting in the back of my mom’s Volvo and listening to the song “Tart” and reading the lyrics in the little pamphlet that came along with the CD with amazement. There was so much meaning in those words.

I went to one Elvis Costello concert with my dad when I was in high school because my mom wasn’t feeling well and I still remember how he made the whole place silent when he sang “The Scarlet Tide” acapella. When I was in college, my whole family went to a show together and he brought Mary Louise Parker up on stage. Once, when I was living abroad, my sister and I Skyped and, when the video loaded, saw that we were both wearing the shirts we bought at that concert. 

I’ve been to three Elvis Costello concerts as an adult. The first was several years ago. Neil was meant to go with me but felt sick so I went by myself. The bar was cash only and the ATM was broken so I was there sober. The second time was last year and Neil was meant to go with me but was late coming back from a trip so I went by myself and the show was out at Wolf Trap so I didn’t drink anything there, either, because it is out in the woods. That was actually one of the best shows I’ve ever seen. Nick Lowe opened and they sang “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” together.

This weekend, Neil brought me to Baltimore. We made a weekend out of being there, but the real purpose was to see the show together. And we finally did. Nick Lowe opened again and was great again. And Elvis Costello played Alison, and Watching the Detectives, and Accidents Will Happen, and Everyday I Write the Book (a personal favorite). He played “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding” again, too. He did gentle stage banter. And I thought, sitting there, about how happy I was to be there and to be there with Neil, and how I’d remember this for years, and how, after my parents saw the show a few nights later up in New York, I’d be able to talk about it with them. I thought, as I often do, about what a gift my mother gave me when she handed me those liner notes. I’ve been opening it all my life. 

AND SOME STUFF ABOUT JEWS

• Israeli Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli has accused US President Joe Biden of colluding with the opposition. 

• Jonathan Kaplan (of Riding With Kaplan and also, in the interest of full disclosure, of Open Society Foundations) interviewed Richard Hurowitz on Gino Bartali, the Italian cyclist who saved Jewish lives during WWII.

• An expert witness for the prosecution at the Tree of Life trial said that the shooter was driven by antisemitism and white supremacy, not delusion. 

• Parts of Munich’s main synagogue, destroyed in 1938, were just found in the city’s river.

• A Jewish University of Virginia student was selected in the second round of the MLB draft.

• Israeli protesters staged a “day of disruption” in response to renewed plans to overhaul the country’s judiciary. 

That’s it for now! Hope to see you back here soon.

-ET