January is OVERRRRR
Hey friends,
Great to be in your inbox this morning!
This is Hard Copy, the free comfort newsy for cozy weekends. Unwind with the latest book recommendations, original columns, playlists and music worth listening to, and the best in film and television. If podcasts are more your jam, you can listen to our podcast, Your Weekly Breakdown. It's silly and smart, and you're invited!
Okay, real talk: It's really hard to find moments of calm when we're served up non-stop, panic-inducing headlines. Filtering messages from our emails and DMs and LinkedIn, keeping up with the memes our buds send us, working our tails off and trying to be everything to everyone. So, this email is for you. Just you! Grab your coffee, put your headphones in, and let's relax.
No newsy next week, so this note extra jam-packed with great recommendations for your leisure time (books! TV! music!) and a few headline highlights on work, women, and culture. I like keeping you in the know, and I love your feedback! Email me anytime.
For now, let's get to the good stuff!
Be well,
Oh! One more thing: we're lining up some special projects to share on YouTube. It's pretty quiet over there, so show please some love and subscribe to our brand-new channel!
Your Recommendations
📺 Watch
For those in need of something silly and mindless, enjoy You’re Cordially Invited starring Will Ferrell and Reese Witherspoon, who battle over a double-booked wedding venue over the wedding weekend. (Prime)
How do I even explain Extremely Unique Dynamic?! It’s a fresh and triple-meta take on making a film, testing the hilarious friendship of two best friends during their final weekend together. Quirky, niche, excellent. (Apple TV+)
Lioness escaped my notice, but with season 2 out now and the algorithm finally serving it up, I thought I’d better check it out. Have you watched it? You should. Lady spies! Yes!! Zoe Saldana! Nicole Kidman?! Hello! I’m only dipping into season 1 but let me know your thoughts! (Paramount+)
🎧 Listen
The genres are not your usual picks this week! Keeping you guessing.
Karley Scott Collins has been building a pretty little country audience by way of TikTok, and now has a solid EP out featuring none other than Keith Urban and Charles Kelley. Whew. Go Girl. Personally, I enjoy her acoustic work, and I know she is going to be MASSIVE. Check back with me in a year about this rising star.
I’ve been dipping my toe and very messed up neck/back back into running. The only thing that convinces me to keep going is this hearty EDM playlist from a friend of mine who is an epic runner. This isn’t music I’d just pop on around the house–no, this is music to run to, to have in your ears while you lift heavy shit, or to get you absolutely amped up for whatever you’re facing.
A lot of the new era of hip-hop and rap albums don’t do it for me, but MIKE’s latest album Showbiz! is ART. This is for those students of hip-hop who used to only listen to bands like Jurassic 5, De La Soul, or People Under the Stairs. You’re going to love this.
Btw the Grammy Awards are this Sunday!
📚 Read
Rejection by Tony Tuluthimutte is one 2024 novel in my TBR pile that I didn’t manage to get to until this year. It’s a brilliant work of seven connected stories that weave together the personal crises of a complex ensemble and the comic tragedies of sex, relationships, identity, and the internet. Ideal topics, tbh.
When I find a book that I just know I’ll want to devour in one sitting, I wait until the right moment. The last week of January was that moment! Very Important People: Status and Beauty in the Global Party Circuit is a 2021 novel but it’s as fresh as ever: author Ashley Mears is a socialite and former model brings us into her world of elite partying…from the comfort of my couch.
Yes, yes, another historical fiction: Margaret the First is a brilliantly dramatized recounting of the infamous Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Not new, but contemporary and layered.
📚 Indulge
It has taken me a solid few years to find a comfortable, easy, reasonably chic uniform to wear during busy weekends. Often I'm going from a dog walk to the gym to the grocery store to the hockey rink, and I like looking pulled together. So, lucky me (us!), the perfect weekend outfit *does* exist. Leggings, a sweater, baseball cap, and sneakers? Check. Now throw a great trench coat on over top and toss your keys, phone, and book into your sturdy tote bag. Perfect!
Below are all items I have in my closet and that serve me *very* well. Happy indulging!
Trench (in Brindle!), Oak & Fort. Tote, Cuyana. Perfume, Maison Margiela. Issue #28, The Gentlewoman. Sneakers, Salomon. Socks, Aritzia. Wool cap, Gap. Sunglasses, Tom Ford. Bra and pants, Lululemon. Sweater, Nike. Necklaces, Melanie Auld. Tumbler, Yeti.
Key Takeaways from our friends on the interwebs
Tech + Work
A headline for the ages: OpenAI Furious DeepSeek Might Have Stolen All the Data OpenAI Stole From Us. So, OpenAI is apparently aghast that new AI company DeepSeek would train on someone else’s data without permission or compensation. This is *rich* given OpenAI’s models were trained on copyrighted materials. (404 Media)
As DEI programs are being tossed out the window by many notable companies, Apple urged shareholders to vote against a proposal to abandon its diversity, equity and inclusion commitments. This makes the company one of few to take a public stance in favor of its diversity standards as a wave of anti-DEI sentiment has prompted companies to ditch these policies in recent months. (Forbes)
Meta is trying to crack down on staff leaking internal company updates to the press. The memo warning consequences include “termination” was then promptly leaked. I love us. (Fortune)
Women
A French court had ruled that a woman had violated her marital duties by not having sex with her husband, meaning she was faulted in her divorce for refusing sex. Now, the European Court of Human Rights condemned that decision, saying that the French court’s decision had violated the woman’s right to private life and autonomy, which included her sexual life. The decision was seen as a milestone by women’s rights activists who have long raised concerns about France’s marital laws. (NYT)
Cosmopolitan’s youngest-ever editor (and covert nepo baby!) Willah Bennett has her first issue out and there’s lots of fun press about it. She’s focused on revitalising the brand for Gen Z, focusing on getting access to the people Cosmo readers actually care about. Curiously, the first cover features Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Song. Hmm. She reported to BoF that engagement is up across social channels by 121% and reach has increased >50% since she took over in September. This is a significant boost in the limp game of media. (Business of Fashion)
Once a paramour of Colin Farrell, writer Emma Forrest has come a very long way. Her writing always captures cultural considerations of women everywhere, and this time she’s hit the target as she shares her thoughts on dating younger men. With the (not unpleasant) barrage of age-gap romance films like The Idea of You, A Family Affair, Babygirl, and upcoming Marty Supreme and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, it’s refreshing to hear a real-life take on the subject. (Vogue Australia)
Culture
Guess who's joining Kendrick Lamar on the Super Bowl halftime stage on Feb 9? None other than multi-Grammy winner singer SZA. (CBC)
Is everyone horny again? While lusty beach reads have been on the rise, there’s an even greater vibe shift happening. From FKA twigs and Ethel Cain to Babygirl to Nosferatu, it seems like the stifled sexual expression of the last decade has finally breached containment. (Dazed)
Thailand’s long-awaited equal marriage law has finally come into effect. The law, which passed in both houses of parliament in June last year before being endorsed by the Thai king in September, is a big step for LGBTQ+ rights. Thailand remains an outlier in Asia in recognizing marriage equality - only Nepal and Taiwan have legalised same-sex unions. (BBC)