It's All Happening!
What's coming on March 8th, and the *very* cool women who read this newsletter
The day is almost here! Starting March 8th, All in Her Head will be moving to subscriber-only content. Subscribers will have it all: access to columns, interviews, weekly-roundups, comments, chats with me, and—as we go along—lots of other ways to be part of the AiHH community. Weekly columns will continue to be free, but I hope you’ll consider signing up for a paid subscription. In the meantime, enjoy :)
DON’T @ ME
I know there’s plenty to worry about at the moment, but we should all be paying attention to the spate of state-level anti-trans legislation. I’ll write a longer column about this soon, but it’s concerning to see that the notion of “protecting girls” by punishing trans people has become much more mainstream. (It’s not just conservatives supporting this effort—but folks who claim to be progressive, as well.)
WHAT I’M COOKING
Not much. :(
Our oven broke down in a very dramatic fashion, requiring a visit from the fire department, engines blaring and all. (All is fine, thank goodness.) And so we’ve been doing quite a lot of ordering in. But, before all went to hell I made this chicken dish from The New York Times, put it over rice, added some greek yogurt with lemon and garlic and topped it off with Frank’s hot sauce. It was...amazing.
WHAT I’M EATING (or in this case, drinking)
I don’t drink alcohol, and I gave up what became a pretty horrific Diet Coke addiction as my New Year’s resolution. (I hadn’t had soda in over a decade but the pandemic did me in.) So these shrubs from Elsa in Brooklyn—a bar owned by an All in Her Head subscriber!—have been keeping me sane. I just add them to a little club soda and feel like the fancy bitch I want to be.
WHO I’M READING
Two super smart women wrote about Britney Spears recently: Tavi Gevinson on sexualization and questioning how much agency a teenager can really have, and Mara Wilson on being a child actor and how “when you’re young and famous, there is no such thing as control.”
Tressie McMillan Cottom with a perfect long read on Dolly Parton, blondness, white southern womanhood and how Parton “is one of very few living texts that could survive projections of America’s soul without buckling beneath its contradictions.” Whew.
ALL IN HER HEAD READERS FTW
So far, one of the coolest things about launching All in Her Head is that I’m starting to get to know some of you through the comment section. And you’re great. In the past few weeks I’ve learned about some pretty amazing projects that AiHH readers have going on, so I thought I’d share a couple! (Next week I’ll host an open thread for other folks who want to let us all know what they’re up to.)
The very talented Carolita Johnson, a cartoonist and illustrator, has been creating some amazing street art that you can check out here.
Reader and friend Marianna Martinelli has started a Substack based on her incredible Momzine (pictured above) that I am super excited about.
And the lovely Nancy Barile has published a book about her time in the 80s punk scene which I’ve already ordered (and you should, too)
CURRENT OBSESSION
I’ve always been sort of an obnoxious tomato purist—if I was making red sauce, or pizza, or anything that required canned tomatoes, I only wanted San Marzano. I know, such a cliché. And I’m not talking these guys that you see everywhere because they aren’t real San Marzano tomatoes—you have to look for cans that say DOP on them (Italy has a very stringent certification process for their tomatoes).
In any case, after being a total snob for no great reason, I tried Bianco DiNapoli tomatoes—made in California—and was completely blown away. They’re perfect and I’ll never go back.
Have a great weekend & make some bad decisions!
-Jessica
I did not know that about the “San Marzano” tomatoes that aren’t! Dammit, I always bought that brand and they were never that great but, you know, it felt like I had to because you always hear they’re the best kind.
But I was happy to find the Bianca tomatoes here in Portland after moving back after a few years living in Phoenix, where the Bianca pizza experience eluded me for years due to the popularity of his restaurant with impossible wait times. They have cute packaging and I especially like buying them now because they’ve had a really hard time during the pandemic, which is kind of obvious since nearly all restaurants are.
Chris Bianco opened a little sandwich shop that offered pizza nonchalantly and it was wonderful because no one seemed to go there, and I have few happy memories of living in Phoenix but sitting outside that shop and eating a pizza is on the list — it was a big deal for me, as I was working with a nutritionist at the time to get over some disordered eating patterns that made pizza verboten. It started changing my rigidity around what I could eat and what I thought what I ate meant about me. (Whew is Phoenix ever an image-obsessed, insular place to exist and eat food as a fat queer lady.)
Just subscribed for a year membership - yay!