It’s been a year of intense feelings.
I often worry about the part the media plays in this. We know hideous things are happening the world over, I am not trying to downplay that. But there is something worth remembering.
When you wake up in the morning and skim over the news headlines, when you immerse yourself in a tirade published by your favourite political commentator, when you see the heated exchanges on social media between prominent journalists who accuse each other with so! many! exclamation marks! then you ought to remember… these people are paid to do it.
Journalists are chronically underpaid and desperate to prove their worth to employers who measure them by clicks, and not by craft. When you read words like ‘barbaric’, ‘senseless cruelty’, ‘conspiracy of silence’, ‘criminal misuse’, and ‘NO WAY OUT!’ they naturally have an effect on you. But that’s the point.
I understand journalists use words to express depth of feeling. But often, words like these are sprinkled in plenty all over stories that don’t need to reach that level. Journalists do this because they need people to notice their work, need people to share their article, need to make their topic more important than the next person’s. I should know, I am a journalist.
None of this will be a revelation. But it’s easy to forget that there’s actually an incentive for writers to overuse hyperbole. So, this week, I am also bringing you lots of emotional intensity. I just hope ours is funny enough to result in incurable chortling, and much pressing of that ‘share’ button.
Meanwhile, I also urge you to explore your own furious feelings and consider joining the LONDNR clan as we team up with London Writer’s Salon on Monday the 11th for an hour of writing.
Perfect for freelancers, hybrid workers or people just skiving off, this is a chance to knuckle down next to others like you and spend 50 quiet minutes pouring your thoughts out onto the page (you can obviously just work too… we’re not monitoring). The event is a nice way to kickstart the week with likeminded people and delicious coffee. Tickets are available HERE.
If you have no desire at all to put pen to paper, feel free to live vicariously through me. I’ve written an almost-Biblical rant about barely-there clothing. Come, soak up my seething sentiments, so turbulently on display in my latest Rebel Yell! article. I get genuinely whipped up in a ‘hellfire and brimstone’ kind of way.
Christopher Mills has written a piece for quite another mood. His is an answer to those who tremble in anxious jealousies, desperate to join the private club scene in London. If you want the real down low on why you should give up the dream of Soho House, read his article (scroll down).
Rebel Yell! What If We Put More Clothes On?
I see the female figure, almost unclothed and overly posed, everywhere I go. She is never out of shot. Up and down on public escalators my eyes flicker over endlessly supine forms, repeated with the shoving insistence of propaganda. I am imbibing a million Beyoncés in sequinned bodystockings, a hundred thousand Hailey Biebers in bikinis. I am no more than a fattening duck with a funnel down its neck, no more than a Suffragette with a feeding tube up her nose. Like an abandoned orchard where unpicked apples rain down in a frightening deluge, the stripped human shape is thrust upon me from every direction. Society wants me to see and see it until I choke… KEEP READING
Sempre Viva: The Vampires of Soho House
The Soho House aura is a concoction so strong it could be mistaken for something illegal.
Two. Little. Words. Not exciting words... on their own. But joined together, they are suddenly bathed in intrigue, wrapped in velvet, and dipped in a pool of pure liquid sexiness. See how they roll on the tongue, curvaceous and tantalising.… KEEP READING
This week for our London guide, Christopher recommends:
Royal Opera House, Behind The Scenes Tour
“Embarking on this tour is akin to sipping on a delicious cocktail mixed from just the right ingredients. It’s equal parts interactive escapades and enlightening facts about the Royal Opera House's dramatic history (did you know it's had more fire incidents than a pyromaniac's barbecue party? The 1856 incident involved an aristocrat, fireworks, and an auditorium— classic)…” KEEP READING
Native Bankside Christmas Tree: A Nostalgic Tapestry of The Thames
“ Behold, my magnum opus—the Christmas tree to end all Christmas trees! This installation isn't your run-of-the-mill holiday shrubbery. Oh no, it's a living testament to Native Places' commitment to sustainability, wrapped up in a local Christmas time-capsule. I figured, why settle for the usual ho-ho-ho when you can have the kind of meaningful extravaganza onlookers can’t take their eyes of?” KEEP READING
Read more reviews of exhibitions, restaurants, bars, theatre shows, and little-known city sights on THE WEEKLY MUSE.