No. 15: MD's Newsletter
The sound of pretenses is falling
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a creator. Depending on your age and profession, you might’ve immediately thought of YouTube, TikTok or “content creators.” But it’s a term that has a much broader meaning encompassing all of us who create — artists, musicians, dancers, writers, woodcrafters. Fiber artists are creators. Good bakers are creators. Mothers, some would say, are the ultimate creators.
I’ve been making my living as a creator in some way, shape or form for 15 years. Mostly as a staff reporter, but also as a social media consultant, designer, editor, producer, and general “do-er.” Reporting, writing, breaking news, filing stories for mass consumption — it is all a creative process even if the resulting 300 words are as boring as unbuttered toast (I try to not do that anymore, but sometimes that is what is called for). Somehow this is still not enough creation for me, though. I get antsy doing the same thing over and over again. So I play music, I learn songs, I make up yoga combinations at the gym when no one else is in the studio.
Recently, I decided to try my hand at what it would feel like being a “content creator” of the TikTok variety. I spent a week challenging myself to post one TikTok a day. I didn’t have a specific niche. I spanned beauty, music, wellness and just general wry, ennui-laced observations of a Millennial. My biggest takeaway? That shit is hard.
Editing on a phone is hard. Speaking slow enough but not sounding rehearsed is hard. Spending your life looking around and thinking, “Oh I should post that,” or “Hey I should shoot that again,” is hard. Keeping space available on your phone is hard.
This verifies what I’ve learned through the course of my recent reporting on the influencer economy. One business owner who is a prolific content creator recently told me it can take her 10 hours to put a 60 minute video together! I suppose I could start small, maybe breaking down the song craft of my favorite songs like my old blog used to do. Maybe it would be a study in how to resist overconsumption, like showing the swaps I’m making to our home to reduce plastic use. And I have long wanted to document an experiment where I spend a month using Buy Nothing/borrowing (eg, no Target runs, no late-night mobile shopping, no BNPL’ing).
I feel like there could be a future for me on this platform, given the time and energy. But a lot of us this we can do this. Apparently more than half of Gen Zers think they could make it as an influencer. So, am I creator? Am I an opportunist? What is the difference? Truth be told, I have no idea how long I have left in this messy, magical news industry, so I am game to experiment with whatever new tools out there. I want to keep creating. I want to keep pointing out room for collective improvement. I want to hold powerful actors accountable. I intend to go down swinging.
Onto the links.
Resale & repair
The more I report on the secondhand economy, the more it baffles me that anyone would consider a brand-new purchase. Many items sold secondhand are barely used. I recently wrote about a new thrift shop on Melrose that sells out of influencers closets. And I dove into why and how brands are increasingly setting up their own resale operations — despite concerns they won’t make any money doing it. Here’s a few highlights, and read other new pieces here:
Have an ideas on another resale or e-commerce related story that I should dive into next? Any companies that you’ve ordered from lately that have done a particularly good or bad job? Send in your tips below!
Desert ish
Closer to home, I’m back in the swing of writing for CV Independent. This month I profiled All Roads, the gorgeous new market on Highway 62 through Old Town Yucca Valley. Read about their work here! I also shouted out the groundbreaking for a new park coming to Cathedral City’s Dream Home neighborhood. My story pointed out how this neighborhood had long gone without community space or recreation opportunities. It is a bittersweet thing to see institutions doing right by people in places that they once stereotyped or ignored.
On a winning streak
One thing about having a kid to look after: you become A LOT more conscious of how you spend your precious free hours on entertainment. I do not finish books if they are not engaging me. I do not watch bad TV just to "relax.” So it’s fortunate that we are in a cultural moment of some really excellent music, television and writing to consume. I am finally treating myself to “Killing Eve” and am beyond hooked. So many twists! Everyone is so sexy! Europe is pretty!
I absolutely devoured “One Day” on Netflix as well, it was really beautiful and human and it made me think a lot about how important it is to speak your truth to people in your life.
On the music front….well, do we even need to get into it? Obviously I love “The Tortured Poets Department.” Was there any doubt? It’s Taylor Swift, it’s dark academia, it’s piano-backed at all the best moments.
But it’s hardly all I am listening too - variety is not only the spice of life but key to a well-soundtracked existence. There is a new Guster album that is certainly going to accompany me on many drives across the desert, it's an awesome addition to their catalog. “The Bar Song(Tispy)” feels almost inevitably the song of the summer, I’m back on a 90s country kick, and Jon Batiste is soundtracking many of our family kitchen hangs. Also, I’ve found that Queen is one of the only things that will get my kid to sit still when you’re trying to brush his hair.
We rarely get a good celebrity profile to dive into these days, but I enjoyed the Chris Heath piece in The Atlantic about Daniel Radcliffe. His reflections on the types of roles he chooses — and why he still works — really resonated with me. This quote in particular:
“I’ve realized over the years,” Radcliffe says, “that if there’s a sweet spot to be found between deeply fucking weird and strange and almost unsettling, and kind of wholesome and earnest and very sincere, then that’s the stuff I really love doing.” Anything, he tells me, “that says something kind of lovely about human beings in spite of ourselves, in spite of how bad the world is.”
On that note, I’m off to finish an outline and head to a clothes swap. Onward,