My last note before the feral people of Yosemite get me
If they don't get me then I'll be back next week as usual
Welcome to FRONTSEAT! This newsletter is an ongoing commentary on pop music, pop culture, and, oftentimes, a real-time unraveling of my own psyche. If you find yourself enjoying this, I would love it if you sent it to someone you think would, too!
YOSEMITE PREAMBLE
I’m writing this from the past!!! AKA Tuesday night because that is when I wrote this and subsequently scheduled it, because by the time this is hitting your inboxes, I am going to be in Olivia and I’s rental car (which is a pickup truck, which is rly metal/rad) driving from San Francisco to Yosemite! Heart eye emoji, explosion emoji, slay yes mama emoji.
Olivia and I, while in high school, mused about “one day hiking Half Dome,” the giant cliff face in Yosemite Valley that requires a tough hike to summit. We were very new friends then — honestly we were not very close until after leaving for college, when she went to the west coast and I to the east coast, which means the stars aligned for us despite the distance, or whatever. But the idea planted in the back of our minds, germinating over time until pandemic fall 2020, when I realized I would probably end up dead if I didn’t plan something exciting for 2021. I proposed we enter the lottery for a hiking permit for Half Dome, she was like ‘yes definitely,’ and in April we found out we got permits! Which is metal/rad.
We’re going to be sleeping in Olivia’s tent, or the bed of our pickup truck, as we camp around the valley. We will be going on hikes, we will be going on swims, we will be going on looking-at-the-Ansel-Adams-gallerys! It’s going to be amazing.
Something that I’ve been doing about this trip is mythologizing it, which means I have been producing an entire movie in my head about our trip, how it’ll be this incredible moment of friendship and exploration and self-actualization for two people in their 20s who are both incredibly stupid yet endearing and charming. Also, we’re both really hot in the movie which aligns well with real life.
Anyways, as I do with everything, part of my brain is expecting this trip to literally change every facet of my entire life in the most grandiose, poetic, challenging-yet-positive way. What I mean to say is I am acting as if this is my Wild, and I am Reese Witherspoon, and when we get to the top of Half Dome I’m going to have a finding-myself-moment and then Olivia will, too, and we’ll both jump up and down hugging and crying and laughing because we will have discovered the meaning of life and conquered our demons.
What’s more, God will have climbed down from the sky, handing us an easy-to-read pamphlet (with pictures) detailing how we should live our lives going forward, down to every minute. Then we will simply follow the pamphlet and everything will be metal/rad for eternity!!!
In all seriousness, though, I am obsessed with the fact we’re going on this trip. I love going to cool places, being with friends who I can talk to for hours without it getting boring or awkward, doing things that are physically challenging, having hours (hopefully days) where I don’t have service and I can be ‘Can you reach me? No, you can’t’ vibes. I love my phone and I love the internet, but I also find that both of those things take over my life very often, and I start to lose grip of reality in a not fun way.
So, basically: fuck yeah!!!
If you have any recommendations for hikes, sights to see, etc., please please email me back through here or text me or message me on whatever platform you know me from! We have a long itinerary but are ofc looking for anything we might’ve missed/don’t know about/looked over! And if I don’t come back, it’s because I’ve become another statistic of people who have gone missing in National Parks. There have been TikTok conspiracy theories about feral people and missing people in National Parks, which part of me wants to believe is true because I like magical realism. Anyways, if I don’t come back that is the ONLY narrative I’m happy with about my demise. You heard it here first.
SOME ONE-OFF RAMBLINGS SINCE I’M OUT OF TOWN AND DIDN’T HAVE TIME TO MAKE THIS A FULLER, MEATIER, JUICIER, BBL NEWSLETTER
Christine & the Queens is so funny and so charming. She was on Charli XCX’s podcast (can I go one day without mentioning Charli XCX, no I cannot, and in fact, she’s going to be in one of these bullet points later on, so) called Best Song Ever, talking about her favorite songs for different scenarios (like when you are sad, or at a party, which are the only two scenarios I’ve ever experienced).
An iconic lesson from her on said pod episode: “I killed my relationship with ridicule.” That, to me, is in line with acting and living without being afraid of being cringy. I definitely have a lot of work to do with that, but I loooove the way she put it. Killed my relationship with ridicule. Damn. It sounds baller but sometimes I am just too afraid of how I am being perceived — this, of course, prohibits me from growing!! I am going to start channeling Christine though.
Here’s an old Rina Sawayama song you should listen to right now.
It’s so funny now but was so annoying then — remember when teachers would always go ‘AHT! Come back here and try that again!’ when you would accidentally fast-walk or jog/run somewhere in school? That was so annoying!!! I am excited to go to recess or play Number Crunchers in the computer lab, leave me alone! It’s so funny now, though, because they were SO mad whenever anyone would run, and also “come try that again” is so fucking rude and snarky and petty. Like, we are EIGHT years old! We don’t know anything!
The lead single from Charli XCX’s next albums comes out next week… I hope you’ve secured any loose items before it blow us to smithereens. Meanwhile new singles from Kim Petras and Kacy Hill, both of which are also lead singles for upcoming albums, dropped last night! OMG!
Japanese Breakfast’s book Crying in H Mart is absolutely devastating. I just finished it, and ouchie ouchie McFauci it hurts. But it’s amazing and I am developing a deeeeeep deep appreciation for Michelle Zauner as an artist and human being.
expecting this trip to forever change your life........ me with prom in high school (obviously half dome is incredibly cooler than prom could ever be but I wanted to express my empathy as a fellow idealist pisces). have so much fun and if you don't make it back I will gladly defend your case as having joined a feral community!!!!!! xoxo