Friday Flames | 11.17.23
A weekly synopsis of what we figured out about Dolly, André, Emily, Madeline, Silvio, Jessica, Ian, and Caligula.
From Magda: When Dolly shreds
As I sat down to work today, Dolly Parton's new album “Rockstar”—which she recorded to justify (to herself, and no one else) her Rock & Roll Hall of Fame nomination—arrived in my feed. The title song is about how she always wanted to be a rocker and never thought she could pull it off. But if you can dream it, you can be it.
And when it started playing, I just burst into tears.
I've written before that I’m in the middle of my own dislocating transformation, from one life in one place to a very different life in another. Dolly Parton, on the other hand, is the queen of the world. She's been doing exactly what she wants for decades. She's the kindest wealthy person on Earth, and helping other people gives her joy. She's 77 years old and still doing new things that thrill her. I don't know if she still wonders "How did I get here? This is a miracle!" like I do every freaking day, but hearing her make art from her self-doubt really caught me where I needed to be caught.
The next album was André 3000's "New Blue Sun," which is all flute. Flute! I didn't even know he played flute, but he does. Extremely well. It’s also hilarious (his song titles, his purring during the songs, all of that), and it's clear that he wrote it simply because he felt like it. I saw an interview where he acknowledged that his fans probably expected his first album in 17 years to feature more rap. But at 48, he said, “What am I going to rap about, getting a colonoscopy?”
Considering where my head is right now, just knowing these albums exist makes me happy. It’s such a flex to set aside your expertise and venture into a new genre with such vulnerability, without caring what any critics or disappointed fans might think. It gives me hope for all of us who feel challenged or stuck that we can jump outside of what we know into new places that build new skills for new learning curves.
This week on the podcast
Emily Benson PhD knows firsthand that shifting your professional identity into a new career in midlife can kick your butt. But the potential payoff is so worth it.
Episode 24: "Getting a new business card is not a career change."
Listen now (62 mins) | Breaking up with academia felt a lot like a messy divorce for Emily Benson, PhD, who needed a career change after 11 years as a management professor. Throughout that time, she helped hundreds of students assess their skill sets and build the narratives that would secure the jobs that best matched their abilities and ambitions.
If you’ve got your own career questions, join us for Emily’s Q&A session in our WTFGU Facebook group on Monday, Nov. 20 from noon to 1pm ET!
Currently reading
Magda absolutely loved Today Tonight Forever by Madeline Kay Sneed. Two sibling pairs who've been friends since childhood come together when one of them is getting married, and all four have to reckon with how they've loved and hurt each other and lived through life changes together. Content warning: Before the events of the book, one of the characters has escaped the abuses of an Evangelical church.
Inspired by the movie, Doug is flying through Nomadland, the result of three years and 15,000 miles of interviews by immersion journalist Jessica Bruder. Late-stage humans squeezed into hard choices by late-stage capitalism seems like a bleak premise, but Bruder finds the best of humanity and hope among the “wheel estate.”
Currently watching
Doug has been exploring as much of Hulu as possible before Disney buys the one-third it doesn’t already own next year and ruins it. Will shows like Antique Impossible survive? Hard to say, but it’s at least interesting to learn that Caligula’s engineers built lavish bunga bunga boats long before Silvio Berlusconi made them a thing.
Magda's Reels on FB and IG have been taken over by videos of improv competitions in West Coast Swing dancing. Magda is clumsy and could never do West Coast Swing, but the videos are so much fun to watch. She hopes to train the algorithm to show her nothing but dancing-, animal-, and potato-related videos, Forever and Ever Amen.
Currently cooking
Magda made a satisfying-but-unfortunately-dull mushroom barley soup last night and is prepping herself for a crispy fried tofu comeback tonight. Incidentally, “Crispy Fried Tofu Comeback” is her Wilco cover band.
Have you ever wanted to make cassoulet but don’t have 53 hours to soak your Tarbais beans and marinate your duck confit and track down some traditional saucisses de Toulouse? This much more accessible recipe comes together in about an hour, and you should double all the quantities because it’s even better on the second day.
Next on the podcast
We’re off next week for Thanksgiving, but our Episode 25 talk with Ian Shea-Cahir went deep about family, depression, divorce and remarriage, forgiveness, activism, optimism, and the enduring inspiration of A Bug’s Life. Look for it on November 29.
Thanks for reading, and what's cooler than being cool?
Magda and Doug