Context Is Everywhere #18

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I Turned Back the Clock on My Aging Skin

A promise was made. A promise to turn back the clock on my aging skin with a groundbreaking new skincare routine. That’s what the email said, anyhow. I don’t even remember signing up for that particular one. All I wanted was smoother, more radiant skin,  and I was hoping this one would work. I just wasn't hoping it would work this quickly. Or this well. Now I have babyskin. And I need help.

To see a fully grown woman with babyskin is alarming. Not so much so that you would instinctively avoid me; you would more likely just avert your gaze, like you would for a harmless unhoused person shouting obscenities at a deceased President. You will, however, inevitably take a  closer look at my babyskin. You will tell me that you never quite appreciated how soft it is. Or how malleable. You won't be able to help yourself. You'll glide the back of your hand over my cheek with your mouth open just a bit, making audible expressions of delight. And then you'll pinch it. You'll pinch it to see if it hurts, because the only way you know how to show a living thing that you love it is to dismantle it.

It does hurt, by the way. But I won't say anything. I, the new attraction you handle like you've paid for it. I, the woman with the babyskin.

I consider myself lucky. There are women who have turned back the clock on their aging skin even further. So now, I wait. I wait for another email to come to my inbox with a solution. An email that may never come. And while I wait I dream of skin that shows my age. I dream of a life where every bit of me shows.

What'd you think of this one? ⭐⭐⭐ -⭐⭐ -🧐

▶️ More money? Or more eyeballs? In this short interview, comedian Andrew Schulz explains why he decided to use his life savings to buy his special back from Netflix, who were demanding he remove an abortion joke. Whether or not the joke is funny, it's a fascinating moment in media. Schulz has a massive following on social media and Patreon, and if he makes even more money releasing his special through his own channels it could represent a real shift in the economics of how creators who build their own audiences demand to be compensated by streamers. 

▶️ Trey Anastasio sits in with a rising-star jamband at Radio City. This is old news, but I'm still thinking about it. I think about what this felt like for the members of Goose, and how Trey cultivates the humility and generosity it takes to do this well. I also think about the prophecy that foretold these events and am actively preparing for the end. 

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