Welcome to Notes from Erin, a newsletter about all things from music, reading to productivity. I’m glad you’re here - subscribe below if you got this email from social media or a friend.
I woke up yesterday like I was living in a music video, namely Jill Scott’s “Golden,” video because I knew in Ice Cube's words (in a way) … today was a good day.
I’m a musical person, so I had to include that there, but I did feel like I was that happy person singing/dancing in the center as people walked around me. Am I alone here? If so, it’s okay, but like many, I was over the moon watching Trump petty-ily (petty as a verb) leave and get out (hi, Jojo) and the welcoming of President Joseph Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. I’m honestly ecstatic and was filled with so many emotions yesterday.
I won’t go back into how important this is to me because I wrote about it here, but this administration restores a sense of hope that I feel like our country lost over the last four years. I know things won't change right away, however, as my friend Nikita said beautifully in her newsletter Above the Bottom Line,
I'm cautiously optimistic that we will start moving in the right direction together again.
Additionally, as a superficial side note, I’m almost tempted to make a First Lady stan Instagram Account. Can we talk about the looks yesterday?
Michelle Obama arrived and I could NOT get my life for a good ten minutes. I stan an Oxblood queen. Also, hair goals?
Then there was First Lady Jill Biden in that beautiful blue outfit looking great. Can we also just give Jill her praise for how she’s been looking fierce throughout the pandemic with her glove/mask coordination?
Let us not forget Hillary Clinton, who looked like a beautiful subtle grape in all that purple and her signature hair flip.
I was here for it all. The Second Husband, Doug, will also be sprinkled there from time to time. If you get a random Instagram follow from @firstladystanning, just know, it was me.
Here are a few other things I thought were worth sharing this week:
During the Inauguration, my tears started to flow was when Eugene Goodman escorted Kamala Harris and was announced. Joy Reid referred to him as the real-life version of Black Panther, and I just felt so proud of him and thankful for his actions.
As mentioned in my previous newsletter, I am still grieving the passing of my beautiful older cousin who was put to rest earlier this week. Michelle Williams from Destiny’s Child was on The Breakfast Club and discussed the ebbs and flows of grief that you go through. Listen to the 22-minute mark.
I learned a new productivity tool this week - thanks Jenn called Tweek. Check it out and let me know what you think. The cool thing about this tool is that you can sync it with your Google Calendar, but also print your to-do list as well.
If you know me you know I love my singing pop boys, this includes The Biebs, Shawn Mendes and ZAYN. I wasn’t big into One Direction BUT love Zayn. He can sing and he’s beautiful (I’m still on my superficial train apparently). I say all that to say, I am loving his new album Nobody is Listening. I can’t stop playing “Vibez” “Sweat” and “When Love’s Around” featuring Syd.
Last year I read Mariah Carey’s memoir The Meaning of Mariah Carey, and I loved it. I listened to it on audiobook, which I highly recommend, but one of the things that I loved most, aside from her singing throughout the chapters, was the stories she told throughout the book. Those same stories plus more are captured in her two-part interview with Questlove and team (Phonte from my favorite group ever, Little Brother is there as well) for the Questlove Supreme podcast.
Former Presidential hopeful Andrew Yang is an interesting figure to me. Being that he didn’t win a bid for president, he is now running for Mayor of New York City. Some of his policies are the standard addressing the income gap and such, but he also wants to bring influencer Hype Houses made famous by TikTok creators to New York.
We need to help create similar artist collectives that utilize new technologies.
Interesting concept that potentially speaks to the power of influencers and their potential impact on culture. Also, it would be dumb to think there would be no benefit to Yang if this were to be a thing. Would he give them messages about New York to share with their audiences? Interesting to think of but I guess he would have to win the mayor role first.
Keeping with the Andrew Yang train, I did find this article to be pretty interesting Andrew Yang, Fran Lebowitz, and Who Gets to Be a “Real” New Yorker.
When you’ve been married over 60 years I’m sure you’ve been through some stuff. I really enjoyed reading these gems from this couple. One piece in particular is my favorite:
In addition to my love for her, I deeply admire and respect her. We seem to each have a role in the relationship, and I think we each respect the other when a decision is made by one of us. I don’t recall that we ever had a serious disagreement in our nearly 60 years of being married. Neither one of us likes to argue and we tend to avoid it at all costs.
A few more articles:
Can a ‘Guaranteed Income’ for Black Entrepreneurs Narrow the Wealth Gap?
A Chinese Celebrity Scandal Puts Surrogate Births on Trial (I find the double standard here to be very disturbing. Also made me think of one of the story lines on the show Bling Empire on Netflix which I highly recommend)
I’ll end this week with my favorite TikTok from yesterday, of my boo Jon! Thanks to everyone who sent me this. It’s the wink for me!
Loving this issue!