Helloooo0o0oo!
I hope you’re having a lovely week.
Here are three things you should consume this week:
#116: Emma Chamberlain’s “deeply personal” Los Angeles home by Hayley Nahman for Maybe Baby
Emma Chamberlain, a lifestyle influencer, bought and renovated a house, which was covered by Architecture Digest (AD) last week. I watched the house tour – her narration made me laugh. At one point, when describing her dining room table, she says, “I love it because it looks so soft, but yet, it’s hard.” Talking about homewares must be difficult to do in a way that sounds legitimate.
It’s also an insane display of wealth – there’s a $31,800 chandelier, an $11,950 mirror and several $2000+ side tables. She’s so flippant about it in a way that I found disarming. When talking about one of her bazillion bathrooms, she says that putting a gigantic sink in the middle of the room was “random” and “crazy” and that the feature has made it “one of my favourite bathrooms in the house.”
Plutography aside, I can’t imagine being 21 and owning a huge house, but having no one to enjoy it with. I certainly wasn’t left wanting after I watched the video.
Nahman argues that instead of Chamberlain’s home being ‘deeply personal’ we should see it for what it is – a branding exercise:
Sure, she bought some tchotchkes on Etsy and hung some of her dad’s paintings, but what she really did is express her latest consumer tastes with the help of paid professionals. Her taste is sophisticated for her age, absolutely, but her home is personal because a “narrative” was “developed” by her team for a fee.
Most published home tours are, like Emma’s, an “unveiling” of a public figure’s recently-purchased home, fully redesigned and decorated in secret until exclusive, splashy coverage is secured.
🏠 Read it all here.
The Dark Side of Frictionless Technology by Charlie Warzel for The Atlantic
I love Charlie Warzel’s work – he wrote one of my favourite pieces of 2021, ‘What If People Don’t Want ‘A Career’’, which explores changing attitudes about work.
In this newsletter, he talks about the problem with ‘frictionless technology’ and its impact on our attentiveness, awareness and expectations.
Frictionless technology has made me less attentive. I’ve lived in Sydney for over six months, but, with the exception of the beach or the office, I rely entirely on Google Maps (and Chris) to navigate. This dependence stops me from slowing down and learning my surroundings.
I’m also easily irritated by technology that doesn’t work – a frozen app or bad wifi connection drives me bananas.
Here are his thoughts on frictionless technology:
It’s a paradox. Modern tools give us independence; we don’t have to worry about some of the things we used to. But they also make us more dependent on those who are doing the building or repairing.
At their worst, our tools cultivate a relationship to the world around us where we are the main characters and what surrounds us—from people to things to our geography—are props or scenery.
The opposite of this more narcissistic, expectant mindset is an attentive one, which, Crawford argues, one can find in the art of maintenance.
🤳 Read the whole newsletter here.
The Truth About Bake Off
The winner of The Great British Bake Off’s first season, Edd Kimber, gives a behind-the-scenes look at the show.
Here’s his best juicy snippet:
[Once] my hand started bleeding but I wasn’t going to let that stop me so I continued kneading with one hand whilst they tried to patch me up, offering me sugary drinks to stave off the fainting spell that seemed likely considering who pale I was looking.
Whilst I was trying to knead the bread I’m convinced some blood ended up in the dough, disgusting I know, and we were told the dough would be taken by the home economist and baked off for us.
When it came to serving the afternoon tea, finger sandwiches were sent out for us to use and whilst they denied it I am 100% convinced that out bread that was supposedly used for these sandwiches actually ended up in the bin and the sandwiches were instead bought in from an outside caterer.
🧑🍳 Read the full story here.
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