Issue 18: "My love language is gifts"
How does the end of the year make you feel?
Like many people my age (i.e. entering their m*d-tw*nties), I still hold a temporal worldview influenced by the school calendar. The year starts in September as far as I’m concerned and ends in May; the summer is for relaxation, fall for getting down to business, and spring for making good on promises made (to yourself) in the fall.
So, what is winter for? As the end of a calendar year approaches, I always feel a bit like it’s the end of the first act, rather than the whole show. December is a time for gathering; for metaphorically (and sometimes literally) picking up all those piles of papers and notes from your desk and spreading them out on your bed and finally sorting through them; for organizing, categorizing, removing, so that they’re in order to be useful when spring comes.
As I planned the final few issues of High Noon for 2020, I reached out to some friends to lend their voices and insights to this newsletter. Shai Goodman’s essay in Issue 15 was our first outside contributor. This week, we have a holiday special version of The Roundup, with hot hot links courtesy of Spencer Whaley’s annual ideal Christmas wish list. In the upcoming three issues, you’ll find even more invigorating voices joining the High Noon roster. I look forward to sharing with you
But seriously, how does the end of the year make you feel? Please feel comfortable responding with whatever medium feels right to you. Did I use “feel” too much in those two sentences? Oh well.
As always, enjoy your High Noon. 🌞
xxSCREMES (Shawn)
The Roundup… Holiday Special! ☃️ 🎁
A Gift Guide for the End of the World | Spencer Whaley
One of my more indefensible habits is that at twenty-two years old, I still write a “Christmas list” resplendent with hyperlinks, categories, and an unhealthy dose of materialism. I come from a family with a strict “no cash gift” policy; thus, I cannot ask for anything I actually need — money, a job, a boyfriend, or a sedative prescription — so I’m forced to send an unhinged annual list instead. I’ve always preferred Christmas to Thanksgiving because I don’t care about food-based holidays; the best holidays are all about either parties or presents. It probably goes without saying that my love language is “gifts,” but I promise I love to give just as much as receive! So, without further ado, here is this year’s edition of the list that always leaves my extended family questioning my sanity and wondering what “natural wine” is or why I “need” an $18 pair of socks.
Big Ticket Items for a Post-Vaccine World
All I want is go to the gym without worrying I’m going to accidentally murder someone in my pursuit of a tight ass, and due to the accumulation of all my gym-desire, I want my “first time” to be special. And by special, I mean I want to go to Equinox where there are hot people and eucalyptus towels. Please, just let a girl dream; it’s literally all she has left.
Clothes to Keep Me Warm Because I Just Moved to New York from LA and I’m Freezing
Les Tien Mock Neck Heavyweight in Navy
Alex Mill Sherpa Fleece in Natural
Alex Mill Cashmere Nightcap in Red
Comme Si La Boxer Classica in Blue
Araks Isabella Panty Set in White
Le Bon Shoppe Snow Socks in Cedar
Noah Zip Up Hoodie in Dark Pine
COS Performance Sports Bra in Gray
I am so, so cold. After years of living in a place where my “winter apparel” consisted of a pair of sheer tights, I showed up to face New York Winter with a closet full of baptism dresses, clogs, and schoolgirl skirts. My requests this year reflect the lesson I’ve learned, and you can rest assured that unlike every gift guide on a “lifestyle publication,” I am (obviously) not being paid for my selections (however, if any brand wants to change that, please feel free to reach out).
I Was an English Major, and I Hate Jeff Bezos.
Meet Me in the Bathroom by Lizzy Goodman
Stranger Faces by Namwalli Serpell
There Are Things More Beautiful Than Beyonce by Morgan Parker
The amount of time I put into making this list would suggest otherwise, but I do actually love to read. Why else would I have majored in “literature,” famously the most fiscally sensible major? I also love bookstores more than anything in the whole world, and if fucking Amazon ruins my favorite place to kill time before therapy or take a boy to so that I seem like an intellectual, I will personally spit in Jeff Bezo’s face. So, please, I’m begging you, support your local bookstore, wherever you are.
Sundries for End Times
Primal Wine Natural Wine Subscription
Jansport Big Campus Backpack in Navy
I suffer from two afflictions plaguing many ‘coastal elites’ — disclaimer: I’m literally from Atlanta, GA — currently aging into their 20’s: my tote bag gives me neck pain, and natural wine is my entire personality. These two items ought to successfully solve both problems. A backpack will allow me to pretend I’m still seventeen years old, and if that fails, I’ll be drunk enough to forget that I found my first under eye wrinkle.
Follow Spencer on Twitter & Instagram.
The Long Read
The Week’s Keynote Story
Only going to read one thing? Read me.
Photo: Art Streiber
‘This is Our Life’s Work’ | Cynthia Littleton & Matt Donnelly | Variety
In April 2019, over 7,000 writers, members in the Writers Guild of America (WGA) fired their agents in an industry battle over divestiture terms and concerns about conflicts of interest for agents who both represented writers and had ties to production companies. In the intervening year and a half, most agencies have renegotiated deals with the WGA, but not the biggest fish, CAA.
The premier talent agency in Hollywood remains unable to reach a mutually beneficial agreement with the WGA, meaning a complete freeze on any opportunities CAA may be able to secure for writers, which in turn limits CAA’s scope of business, and ultimately, income.
The trio (Kevin Huvane, Richard Lovett, and Brian Lourd) has had to contend not only with the WGA drama but with internal pressure over compensation and control issues from hard-charging agents who have left the fold in recent years in numbers that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
This article offers a particularly delicious complex reading opportunity; Variety’s writers and editors have chosen to take a stance in penning and publishing this article that relies almost entirely on a “wide-ranging” interview with the three leaders of the agency. I found the comments from readers at the bottom of the article as compelling as the article itself; they help elucidate a deeper understanding of the situation.
Still, the story of CAA’s rise to dominance in the last quarter century is intriguing.
As they consolidated power, the core trio also worked hard to reinforce the agency’s famous culture that prizes internal communication, collaboration and teamwork on behalf of clients above all else. It started with leading by example — and to this day Huvane, Lourd and Lovett are very active agents to formidable client rosters.
It’s no secret that CAA agents are extremely well-compensated, but what that really looks like is a bit more opaque. The fact of the matter remains that the entertainment industry is an industry like any other and the agents and guilds/unions are two sides of the same coin. Both purport to fight for better opportunities for the artists they represent; when these two factions come into conflict with one another, though, where does that leave the creators, and the work itself?
Play
Demna Gvasalia’s Balenciaga shows their new collection in a video game. Says GQ’s Rachel Tashjian, “each outfit can be toggled around, pushed in circles and up and down, viewed in incredible detail — it looks like the character-selection portion of a video game, but provides the kind of clarity that pandemic-era shows have mostly been lacking.” Play the game and experience the world of Balenciaga for yourself.
Cheers
I couldn’t resist slipping in a bit of a gift guide/wish list item myself. This Amaro Nonino at our favorite Highland Park Wine looks oh so enticing, and the packaging is too dreamy. I’ve become a really big fan of Amari, normally drunk neat as a post-nosh digestif, but it can also add a lovely dark and bitter spin to a Manhattan when used in place of Vermouth…