This is officially the third Barn Sour title with the word "moon" in it
From celestial shifts and environmental crises to personal journeys, end-of-life transitions, and herbal popsicles too.
Buongiorno. How has this week been treating you? Shortly after last Sunday’s post, I—almost satirically, given that I literally wrote of feeling better—became sicker than I had been the week prior. So, mine has been a bit listless, though bountiful in TLC. My husband, my devoted nurse, has been making us fresh-squeezed orange juice, and I have grown endeared to a cold glass of the pulpy confection in my hand in the mornings. One of my best friends, despite being encumbered by her own stresses, brought me flowers, a book, and cute little slices of cheesecake chocolates that look straight out of a Studio Ghibli film, along with a trio of rascally calico critters that remind me of ourselves and our other best friend. My mom sent the recipe for her insanely good and comforting chicken and rice soup, and many of my good friends have been checking in with me like I’m off at some sea ranch for convalescents. Despite the state I’m in, I feel very lucky and very grateful, and the Mars from not too many moons ago would be astounded to discover all the tenderness, love, and care I am surrounded by. Here’s a song I’ve really been enjoying.
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Too Many Tabs Open
The Trump Assassination Attempt Meets the Internet’s Brain-Rot Era
Archaeologists Find a Cache of Ancient Murano Glass Off Bulgarian Coast
‘Ticking Time Bomb’: International Alarm as Poliovirus Found in Gaza Sewage
Mushroom edibles are rising in popularity. It’s hard to say what’s in them.
Why a private company is charging SoCal hikers to park on public lands
Where Writers Went to Gossip and Everyone Was Having an Affair
Did You See This
I found this recounting of feral pigs decimating the Channel Islands National Park and what was done to curb their destruction incredibly interesting. With its recovery of native flora and fauna, and the cute little island foxes to boot, I never would have known there was an eradication of more than 5,000 invasive pigs that had caused extensive environmental damage and even attracted golden eagles that preyed upon the then-endangered foxes. From diseases brought to the islands by European colonization and resource depletion and the decline of the Chumash population, to the subsequent ecosystem disruption wrought by the introduction of livestock by ranchers, the rebounding occurring on the island feels like some sort of miracle, but is really due to the extraordinary efforts made to help restore natural ecosystems. This is one of those stories that’s complex in the sense that the loss of any animal’s life inspires a sense of sorrow, and yet the eradication of the pigs and their wreckage of the islands has allowed biodiversity to prevail and for native negation to recover; still, it tugs at my human heart. And for the same battle to now be ongoing with the nonnative mule deer on Catalina Island, that were initially brought to the island specifically to be hunted, being the next target for removal just underscores how so much of the struggle found in the sharing of this world for ourselves and our animal neighbors is because of us… like, now these deer have to lose their lives because however many years ago their predecessors were released on the island by humans whose actions were motivated by… taking their lives.
As someone who shares a love so compelling and enlivening and crystallizing in all its textures that it carried me across the country, there is so much I could say about this story of moving somewhere for love. I even wrote a very long, winding road of a summarization of my feelings about it, but I hit the backspace button and have chosen to instead just say that I was really, really moved by reading this. Maybe one day I will share something of my own love story, but for now, it is still too intimate, glittering, and exceptional an experience for the wide open window of this newsletter. I will offer one secret: the life that rearranged itself around me after falling in love and moving to be closer to that love feels like one that has always been waiting for me, but I’m not entirely convinced this would be the reality for most people. I do believe, though, just as Megan Nolan wrote at the end of her story, that “it is different to move with rather than for love.”
This one is for the Angelenos. The last time I visited the Record Collector, an obliging, if not jittery, older man attempted to offer his advice on what records to consider as we rifled through a wide selection of jazz offering, but was cut off midway through talking by a phone that then never failed to ring every time he subsequently hung up, like some sort of frenetic game of Marco Polo. Each time he answered with a thin “hello,” we could hear the voice of another man practically shouting down the line, and my husband and I exchanged concerned looks as the man stood stoically before us, listening. The whole experience was terse, strange, and uncomfortable, and left me with a sort of pitiable sensation spread throughout my being. Since moving to LA a few years ago, I’ve heard tons of stories about how the Record Collector has almost become a staple for how baffling the whole ordeal of visiting becomes the moment you enter the business, so reading this story wasn’t much of a surprise.
Did you know that polar ice melt is changing Earth’s rotation? A study performed by a team of researchers “found that, since 2000, days have been getting longer by about 1.33 milliseconds per 100 years, a faster pace than at any point in the prior century.” The cause has been attributed to the melting of glaciers and the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets due to manmade greenhouse emissions, but “there are natural modes in the climate system that have the main effect on polar motion oscillations” too. Although our next big timekeeping leap has been pushed from 2026 to 2029, you don’t have to worry; you can keep joking about the days being too long, and there will still be merit to it.
By now, you all know of my love for Florida, so I feel this is a safe space to say that the attempted rebranding of the state’s panhandle as “The Hamptons of the South” is pretty funny to me. 30A is mostly walkable, there are beaches you can swim in, a handful of restaurants that are almost all of the same flavor are available for you to pick from throughout the week that you’re there, and it is just about the last place I would want to spend my summers. Whether you want white sand between your toes, fine dining every evening, ice cream dripping down your humid hand while you go on a romantic boardwalk stroll as the night blooming jasmine awakens, overpriced lobster rolls delivered straight to your boat every afternoon, to be a car ride away from an airboat tour of the Everglades, or to set up camp in a tucked-away forest made of banyan trees, might I instead suggest Naples — the Naples of the South…
Maybe it’s because my humors are unbalanced, or maybe it’s because I grew up with academics for parents and am familiar with the labor of love and devotion for their field that is required of these people, but scrolling through this story on the acknowledgements section of PhD dissertations made me teary-eyed.
A succinct, introspective look into what draws people to become end-of-life doulas and the beliefs that help them guide you through the complex terrain of passing away. Death and all its realities have been rendered diagnostic and sterilized in Western society, with the devastation of the event neutered by the worry that your agony and dismay could spill out to touch those unaffected by the loss. Having someone there to witness your anguish, to help you carry it, and not just wait for it to come to a polite end is an intimacy any one of us can offer another person. That’s precisely what end-of-life doulas are here to do — though this essay referenced in the story worries that this may be less the case moving forward as end-of-life doula training programs grow in popularity.
The Antiquities Act, which allows U.S. presidents to designate numerous landscapes as national monuments to protect their significant cultural and natural resources, has been instrumental in preserving your ability to visit the wilderness, and the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 wants to take that away from you. National Parks are facing the threat of far-right conservative groups seeking to prioritize energy development over federal regulations and conservation, and there is a risk that the Act could be progressively weakened until it becomes open season on protected lands, the people who care and advocate for them, wildlife, and crucial ecosystems — all in the sole pursuit of energy extraction. If you care about nature, wish you could visit Yellowstone someday, hold fond memories of visiting Olympic National Park in your heart, or have even simply posted pictures of wild baby animals captioned with “this is who you’re being mean to btw,” I highly suggest reading the whole Outside article and then supplementing it with this.
Speaking of regulations being stripped back, residents of a small town are grappling with debilitating health issues since a large-scale Bitcoin mining operation moved in. From sudden heart failure to family dogs losing their hair, and an 8-year-old experiencing hearing loss after fluid began leaking from her ears, to centuries-old oak trees dying abruptly, and more, the people of Granbury, Texas know what’s happening to them sounds unbelievable, but are living with the realities of being left to fend for themselves against the billion-dollar behemoth of a mining facility operated by Marathon Digital Holdings. This reads like a 20th century horror novel pontificating on the downfall of the late 21st century’s technological hubris, but is the actual story of what’s happening across the country as corporations are given more and more power, and makes me think of how after ten arduous years, the fight against the Flint, Michigan water crisis is still ongoing.
The full moon is tonight! Although the full buck moon is likely the name for July’s moon that you’re most familiar with, according to the Old Farmers’ Almanac, many Indigenous American tribes in Alaska refer to it as the salmon moon due to its alignment with the sockeye salmon’s migration upriver to spawn from spring through fall. Tonight’s full moon will also be joined by Mercury making an appearance in the milky night sky. To see what time they’ll be waving hello in your neck of the woods, you can check here. How will you be spending time with our celestial friends? Also, the 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing was yesterday and the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum created a website to celebrate the historic day.
New on the Shelf
Five books released this week that caught my eye! Let me know if any of these snagged your attention too.
New from Astra House is Jesse Katz’s The Rent Collectors: Exploitation, Murder, and Redemption in Immigrant LA. I was admittedly hesitant about whether this was something I wanted to read, but this Times review assures that it’s not just a perfunctory rendering of a story that exists beyond the purview of its author. Instead, Katz, a Los Angeles journalist, seemingly guides readers through the story of Giovanni Macedo, a teenager who, in 2007, aimed to shoot street vendor Francisco Clemente at the behest of a local gang but instead killed 23-day-old infant Luis Angel Garcia, and the staggering effects this action left on all touched by the tragedy, including the city of LA itself.
Long-awaited from Halle Butler comes Banal Nightmare, published by Random House. Early days of midlife existentialism, fraught friendships, lackluster relationships, and all of it wrapped in the tense bow of a vacation? Sign me up.
Coffee House Press has published a new edition of Eugene Lim’s long-out-of-print Fog & Car, a “wry and haunting debut novel” following the life of a man in a small Midwest town drifting aimlessly through the days after the finalization of his divorce. And though his ex has moved to New York City, both find that they’re still connected through an old friend with whom they each decide to reacquaint themselves. From there, surreality apparently begins to unfold. I’m intrigued. I love when novels get weird.
Metropolitan Books brings us Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch by Andrea Freeman, a look at the American food policy tapestry and its caveats, from formula shortages to “government cheese,” immigrant food culture, and more. Sounds like it could be insightful and informative.
What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World’s Ocean by Helen Scales, published by Atlantic Monthly Press, is an exploration of the effects that climate change is increasingly having on the world’s oceans, the ecological history of the ocean and the lives within it, and what we can do to help secure the oceanic future. Let me say ocean one more time.
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The Graze
Listening to this with my eyes closed has become something of an evening meditation.
One of my dearest friends recently mentioned that hearing Ada Limón share how she thought to herself "what if my body was only my body?" as she was floating on the Chesapeake Bay while processing her infertility, and accepting where she was in life and time and matter, touched her deeply, so I listened to the Wild Card episode that features the U.S. Poet Laureate ruminating over this, and more, and was hung up on her every word. “What if just my body, what if these boundaries and these borders of my skin touching the water, was enough?”
My doctor prescribed sitting on the couch and watching every episode of the current season of Love Island USA, so that’s just what I did, and each hour that passed left me falling more and more in love with JaNa, Serena, and Leah’s friendship!! I’m not sure I’ve seen a sweeter love blossoming on my screen when watching reality television before. If you’re someone who’s brought to life by friendship then you’ll probably also enjoy watching their relationships with one another deepen day by day. There’s nothing better than women who choose to become sisters; I’m putting blessings out into the world that their sisterhood never decay. JaNa saying she’ll move to Los Angeles to be near her girls has now made it my dream to run into them while I’m out with mine and for us all to live happily ever after or something. Excited for tonight’s season finale, but sad to be without their friendship on my TV everyday but hump day. And for any Vanderpump Rules viewers (I’ve been an on-again, off-again watcher since day one myself, but didn’t bother with the latest season) who may read Barn Sour, this Paper magazine story on Ariana Madix’s rise from woman who was cheated on to host, and burgeoning star, of Love Island was cute.
I saw someone on Twitter (does anyone actually call it X?) say that The Gods of Times Square, a documentary filmed by Richard Sandler between 1993 and 1998, is “one of the most incredible documentaries [they’ve] ever seen.” So I watched it on the Criterion Channel and was what some may call… locked in. In all actuality, this was an exceptionally moving and remarkable film, and the ending felt like just what I needed. Thankful I saw that tweet and took the time to watch it.
Sour Reflections
Bogged down by the malaise making a home out of my sickly body, I decided to get playful in the kitchen and nurture my insides with a small batch of marshmallow root, lemon balm, elderberry, hibiscus, and rose hips popsicles.
If the herbal tea blend I made sounds like a crowded bouquet, I assure you the end result was delightfully fruity ruby red popsicles that taste like a bucolic summer on my tongue. I used marshmallow root to encourage more moisture in my body, lemon balm for a citrusy, digestive companion (I think this is what peeked through to provide an earthier note, almost like licking a popsicle while walking through a field of wheat — I like it), and elderberry because, honestly, I always make sure to consume tons of the stuff when I’m sick. Elderberry is good for immune support and, like many of these herbs, aids in lessening inflammation, which is where hibiscus comes in to help too, while also offering a tart flavor profile. Finally, I added rose hips to complement the hibiscus coloring; it doesn’t hurt that they’re tasty, rich in Vitamin C, and help calm excess heat in the body.
And if you want to make these herbal popsicles for yourself, or would simply like to have a colorful jar of tea you can reach for in your fridge, I intuited my way around bringing to life what I had envisioned but kept track of my motions so I could share the recipe with you:
Add oneish tablespoon and one teaspoon of each aforementioned herb to a cold infusion (pour cold water over your herbs, then allow them to infuse anywhere between 4 to 48 hours, depending on the strength of flavor you’re wishing for; I let mine sit overnight in the fridge)
Here, you can add whatever sweetener you prefer or leave unsweetened (I added a pinch of sugar since I drank what was leftover as a sweet tea)
Pour into popsicle molds and freeze for at least 5 hours (be sure to strain first if you’re not using a loose leaf infuser)
That’s it! Give one to your neighbor, share with your friends, impress your family, or keep them to yourself. Whatever you do, be sure to enjoy the fruits of your herbal labor
Did you know that when it rains, western diamondback rattlesnakes encircle themselves and drink the water they’ve harvested in their scales, which they use as cups made from their bodies? Just a neat factoid I recently learned while reading this, then discovered to be true when I did further research, and wanted to share with you. Hope you find small ways to nurture yourself this week, too. Ciao.
It is a particularly dreary Sunday on my end, and it was sincerely brightened by Barn Sour's arrival in my inbox, links to a dozen other worlds when you feel like getting out of your own! I've decided to get a criterion subscription finally to view Gods of Times Square and would love to know what else on there you'd recommend <3
Mars, I'm finally catching up to you! I've fallen behind on Barn Sour and I haven't finished reading but am writing to say the song you shared at the beginning has enlivened me. I'm really enjoying listening to this Drinks record. I hope you feel better so soon.