field notes 🤩💡🔮
Ramy Youssef and Mustafa the Poet; the great meme reset and tiktok oracles (and more).
my lovely friends have told me that I should start charging for this. but the thing is I have big imposter syndrome, and also think that the money element will make me feel even more of an imposter, and question my performance. So i now have both performance anxiety and imposter syndrome, big deal. Anyways, I am fielding thoughts on whether anyone would be interested in paying a monthly fee of €5 for my long form essays? (Text me or comment below if yes or now) For those not paying, I will probably keep these shorter field notes open (if this happens at all).
WATCH
Last week a friend took me to see Ramy Youssef and Mustafa the Poet’s show. It was the most incredible experience being in an a concert hall with so many muslim and brown people, laughing, and crying simultaneously about our shared experiences and trauma. It was so touching how Mustafa introduced Ramy before his comedic act, making me love how important friendship is, as they sought to give each other companionship and inspiration. It felt empowering to sit in this concert hall, with musicians names like Wagner on the wall, and hearing nasheed prayers during intermission. It was a reminder how important representation is in the media, not just because of how muslims and minority bodies are seen around the world. But because sometimes I personally forget how good it feels to be seen. We remembered the people in Palestine, the people of Sudan, we remembered our parents and grandparents, and we remembered that at the end of the day we are all complicated people, contending with what it means to have faith in the world.
BOOKS
I am slowly getting through the books I got gifted for my birthday. The twists and turns of Shadow of the wind were soooo enthralling. The book within a book really created a world were I was able to emphasize with all the characters, reminding me that we never know the inner lives of the people around us, and how and why our history makes us do the things we do. Heart Lamp will probably be one of the most beautiful books I read this year. The stories explore the different lives of Muslim women and I’m transported into each and every story with a sweet but very painful melancholy. I have finally finished Monsters. WHAT a drag, the author could have done mooooore research about the work? With such an important subject matter, I felt that it deserved richer references, and richer research that helps to ground a lot of the feelings we feel about why and how we should separate art from ‘bad’ artists. It often felt like reading one of those substack essays people write just because they can, leaving me feeling deeply unsatisfied about why you’ve ended on a half thought. But then again what do i know? (see also the scathing review above)
ARTICLES
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The great meme reset of 2026 is coming (maybe). Last week, Charli xcx and Dolly Parton joined substack. It brings a question about what it means for this platform. Here is an article about predictions for where Substack is going to go next year. OOooh a semiotic article on the Christmas John Lewis ad (quite brutal but i love learning about this so for me yay). Subculture has not really died. The politics of feeling. Why creativity needs criticism. Susan Sontag and Plato’s cave: “photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood”. Also read, If you read anything at alll from this recommended list read Nikita Walia’s the rise of the internet oracles. maybe it hits home more because of people talking about the rise of knowledge influencers (yiikes), and the idea of the loudest person isn’t always the right person. maybe it hits home as I seek to question my existence in an internet writing space?? What does it mean, who am i, and what am i even saying…
“Ironically, in dissecting this phenomenon, I too engage in a form of digital critique that can be consumed, shared, and debated in a performative cycle. The difference? I’m not pretending to have all the answers—just pointing out that the internet rewards those who act like they do.”
RANDOM
My guilty pleasure is watching videos of people sing along passionately to 2010 disney songs with all their heart. and these guys acting like disney bullies. This lady is hopecore giving people the right information about sex education. I (like a lot of people in the Netherlands), am obsessed with Julia who stole the show at Zara Larsson’s concert last last week. (here’s a reactive post by 9292, that I only half understand) Perfectly Imperfect’s guide to the outdoors in the city. I like when doja cat is a troll:
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okii byee see you later!