The Sunday Digest 114
"So you want to be a cowboy, riding to the distance."
Welcome to The Sunday Digest — a free Sunday newsletter featuring long (and some short) reads, original columns, things I’ve saved over the last week, relaxing playlists, episodes releases, exclusive product drops, and more. Yes, you can reply to this email. I’d love to hear from you. Or, if podcasts are more your speed on Sundays, we’ve got that too.
Helping Los Angeles
After seeing the week of devastation in Los Angeles, Scenes of Note co-creator (and native Californian) James approached and asked if we could donate future proceeds from Scenes of Note to organizations helping those affected. I immediately said yes. Help if you can!
Sunday Read › Did my quest to become beautiful just make me uglier?
by Rebecca Jennings for Vox
When it turns to the new year, we all make promises to ourselves whether they’re public or not. If I learned anything from going through last week’s submissions for everyone’s “secret” New Year’s Resolutions, it’s that most people want something extremely simple in their lives: to be hotter.
Whether it’s through eating healthier, using nicer beauty products, or injecting yourself with a once-weekly GLP-1, this week’s read may help you realize that our “Hotness Journeys” aren’t always what they’re cracked up to be.
Here’s an excerpt:
It was only the beginning of my own “journey,” which would lead me down ever more dire algorithmic straits and a forest of complicated feelings about one’s purpose as a woman at this precise moment. The demands, it seems, are increasingly untethered from reality: The “after” of a 2020s glow-up requires you to have skin that appears to be made of wet glass, while any makeup on top of it should be barely noticeable because that is the look of tasteful rich women. Your body should be so small it looks starving, but also strong and capable and “healed” from whatever traumas lie in your past.
Read in full here.
The Sunday Haiku: “I feel like my hangover is getting worse.”
A shortness of breath,
a rush of blood to the head,
due to last night’s drinks.
New Episode › Retail Therapy 100: The 2025 In/Out Episode
Our In and Out lists for 2025 have officially arrived. From style to food & drink to general trends, we go through everything we think we might be seeing just a litttttle more of 2025. Remember: Do not criticize until you listen.
Listen to Retail Therapy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube (see above), and anywhere else podcasts are found. And a reminder to follow Retail Therapy on Substack!
Things I Saved This Week
A Little Thought
Normally when someone says, “Hey, I’ve got a band I think you’d like,” I don’t really take them seriously. But after Bloc Party put out there 2005 album Silent Alarm, a friend introduced me to them and I never really looked back. Their second release — A Weekend in the City — was released during a very formative period of my life for several reasons. While I loved Silent Alarm, A Weekend in the City became part of my DNA unlike any other piece of art I’d taken in.
While the band’s sound changed over the years, the effect that it had on me remained somewhat the same. And last month, they released several tracks from that time period that had never been officially released. Hearing that sound from that time took me back to a place I never really thought I wanted to revisit.
On a recent drive to work, one song in particular — “Rhododendrons” — made me feel 20 again. And I’m not sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
Here are the lyrics in particular.
Boy, what you gonna do with your life?
So you want to be an artist, want to be a singer
Want to be remembered for what you could create
So you want to be a cowboy, riding to the distance
Never have to listen or answer to anyoneSo you want to be a boxer, surviving on your instincts
Relying on your fists and the quickness of your wit
Are you bigger than these buildings and the grey around you?
Is your pain more worthy than everybody else?
Have a great Sunday, everyone.
Will
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