the desire is being created.

Dec 16, 2021

Hello!

I went to my first in-person movie this week since 2019 and it was everything.

Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch was a beautiful, episodic tale about the 50th anniversary of an English language magazine in France founded by a man from Kansas. (“It started as a holiday.”)

One of the featured stories about life in Ennui-sur-Blasé (oui!) centered on an imprisoned murderer turned artist named Moses Rosenthaler, played by Benicio del Toro. Rosenthaler’s strange, singular artistic talent is first identified by a fellow inmate played by Adrian Brody, a financier in jail for tax evasion. After personally buying his first Rosenthaler work from inside his jail cell, when Brody is released from prison he has an even bigger vision to accommodate his renewed financial ambitions in the shape of Rosenthaler’s next big thing: a massive fresco inconveniently painted into the very walls of the prison itself. Despite knowing nothing about art, Brody succeeds in turning Rosenthaler into the star he so imagines. Why? Because Brody knows what is most important. As he explains: “The desire must be created.”

A truer statement there is not.

Dumpster Fires

May they all be January problems.

Dr. Nneka D. Dennie 💁🏾‍♀️🇻🇨✊🏾 @BlkGrlBrilliant

before you send that email, ask yourself: is this a december problem or a january problem?

Yes please.

Stu Royall @stu_bot3000

I want a sitcom about these shop owners

Reading, etc.

This article is a party, and don’t miss it for your life. A James Beard Award-Winning food writer earns her keep.

Remember how a while back I said that I went to a Michelin starred restaurant and it was one of the most singularly awful meals of my life? I finally sat down and wrote about the whole fiasco.
There is something to be said about a truly disastrous meal, a meal forever indelible in your memory because it’s so uniquely bad, it can only be deemed an achievement. The sort of meal where everyone involved was definitely trying to do something; it’s just not entirely clear what.

I’m not very visual, which I guess is why I literally don’t understand 10% of these images? Good luck, you.

Your used Covid facemasks are now Jesus and Mary, etc. A low-budget Christmas miracle, on offer.

A great podcast on taking time off. (And, surprise, I’m gonna take an unexpected “sabbatical” over the next couple weeks. Thanks again, Tim and Jerry.)

“What benefit do I get from the conditions I say I don’t want?”
— Jerry Colonna

Startups, etc.

The market is crazy! Fly high! Raise a ton of money for your startup! Or don’t. On why your startup shouldn’t raise too much money, or else.

Joe Fernandez @JoeFernandez

I took Klout from being one of the hottest startups in the world to lucky to be acquired in less than two years. Here is everything I learned almost killing my company -

How to go from being a super hot company to lucky to get acquired in less than 24 monthsHitting product market fit in a startup is an amazing feeling. In 2011 and 2012 it felt like Klout was on top of the world. Almost every day was our biggest day and every thing we launched seemed to hit the mark. By the end of 2013 we were barely holding on. The board was conducting a search to repl…joefernandez.substack.com

How I broke into VC with a disability. Great piece, Berenice!

I’ve been engaged in a lot of crypto-related event crashing this month, mostly with women, all who are on fire, and all who are connected to the crazy crypto hotspot that is Argentina. I am lucky to have almost no part to play as an investor who has not yet (!) invested in any crypto projects, and so I just stand there, watch them, imbibing the ambience, dreaming up the women + crypto dreams, and suggest another selfie.