Friday Five: September 3, 2021
Freakum Friday
Hello angels.
Remember when I quoted Beyoncé in the first Friday Five: “I can’t believe we made it / this is what we thankful for”? I don’t have that energy this week. Regardless, here we are on our fifth (!) Friday Five — I’m sharing your weekly digest of things that should bring you some joy or give you some relief.
Song: Jazmine Sullivan’s “Let It Burn” is a song with main character energy. It makes you feel powerful and like you’re at the center of the universe. I could probably write an entire Consumed on this song. There’s something magical about the combination of the sample from After 7 (“Ready Or Not”), Jazmine’s dreamy vocals, the simmering beat that makes you feel like you’re floating, the repetitive backing line “call me crazy but I think I found the love of my life,” the fact that she did all the vocals in one take… just listen to it.
Poem: Tomorrow is Beyoncé’s 40th Birthday. Here’s Morgan Parker’s “Poem on Beyonce’s Birthday” from her book There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé:
Cocktail: Picante De La Casa. The picante is a simple spicy tequila drink where you can sub out half the ingredients or add in a few more and you still can’t go wrong. It’s refreshing with some bite. I like to put the end of a jalapeño in the drink as the garnish and put Tajín on the rim. If you hate cilantro, this one is not for you.
Social Media Follow: Yasmine Sahid is a phenomenal actress and TikTok star (IG here if you’re not on the Tok). Her parodies of Disney Channel movies and the cast of Twilight are better than the originals.
Joyful Internet Content: I wasn’t expecting to share E***n Show content with you all, and this has nothing to do with her (please enjoy him trolling her at 1:10 or skip to the performance at 1:30), but I just remembered this video of Lenny Kravitz surprising Justin Wilson II, aka Baby Boy Drummer, a drumming prodigy and one of Lenny’s biggest fans. The way Justin says “LENNY! LENNY! IT’S SO GOOD TO SEE YOU” (3:13) like they’re old friends makes me cry. The first time I saw this I made multiple coworkers watch it with me during work meetings. I hope you can share this with someone else who needs to see Lenny Kravitz embracing an adorable child prodigy.
Call me crazy but I think I found the love of my life,
Roya