Friday Five: June 5, 2026
Thank heavens its Friday
Consumers, I write to you with ice cream-induced heartburn on a cheetah print settee while EastEnders plays on in the background. This is British Summer Time. It’s by no means slow for me, because I’m incapable of hitting pause. It’s frenzied, sweaty, overly heated, and messy. As I learn the laws of thermodynamics, specifically as they apply to old homes, maybe I’ll learn something about chilling out in a deeper sense. In the meantime, chill with this Friday Five: your weekly dose of bits and bobs to spark joy and catharsis.
Visual Diaries to Sink Your Heart Into: I adore J Wortham’s (hi, friend!) dazzling newsletter, • channeling •, and I think you might, too. Their recent travels through Japan are documented in the form of visual diaries, and they’re a delightful use of Substack. Scrolling through them feels like getting your scalp massaged with something really scratchy and nice. Sharing two of the diaries below for you to peruse at your own leisure!
There’s an image of what appears to be rose petal jam in ‘part 2’ that I’d like to live inside. Also, I know this sounds like a very clichéd tourist trope (it is both that and true), but the time I spent in Japan (this was my brain dump after my first 23 hours in Japan) made me feel alive, present, grateful, and curious in many ways. There is no perfect place, but sometimes there are places that really bring something out in you, and I felt that viscerally there.
Marjane Satrapi passed away this week, one year after losing the love of her life. According to those close to her, she died of sadness. Much of her work was sad; it carried the weight of the tragic baggage that Iranians everywhere hold quietly and tightly. There are three quotes of hers on my mind this week:
I couldn't find a single non-pixelated graphic of this quote, so I made one.
The scenes of her character and her grandmother felt so close to my own memories of my Maman Bozorg, and I’ve never seen something that so closely reflected that dynamic on screen before.
Movie: I saw My Favorite Cake last week, on the recommendation of an Auntie in my choir, and it reminded me of why I love Iranian cinema so much. It’s a romantic tragicomedy, so be prepared for some sadness, but also prepare to envelop yourself in the love of an Iranian grandmother. One important piece of backstory: the authorities found out about scenes in the film where women weren't wearing hijab modestly enough and were showing their hair, and destroyed the footage in Iran. The filmmakers already planned for this. They'd saved the footage on an external hard drive outside the country, which is what allowed the film to make it to the festival circuit.
Song: This song came out on an underground Irish label in 2004, then blew up ten years later after a re-release. No one knew anything about the artist, Fatima Yamaha, whose bio was just “a young lady born to a Japanese father and a Turkish mother.” Turns out it was just a Dutch music producer called Bas Bron. If you’re keen for more lore, there’s a quick clip with more context below the song, but you can just enjoy the slow burn of the song and that’ll be more than enough.
Joyful Internet Content:
Nothing’s worse than saying goodbye,
Roya
Persepolis was one of the most unforgettable, expansive parts of my high school education. Rest in Peace Marjane <3
One and only Marjane, a giant loss for modern Iranian literature. 🖤