Month: May 2020

Get Tickets to TueNight Live: High Anxiety!

By TueNight Crew

Hey TueNighters! Please join us 6/2 at 8pm for a fabulous night of interactive fun, stories and music for our first virtual TueNight Live! For those who haven’t been to one of our events in NYC now is your chance.  For this virtual edition our theme is High Anxiety and we’re turning things into an old-school, interactive variety show with storytellers, musicians and more on Crowdcast. Join host, Margit Detweiler and friends for an evening of fun, chat and true stories. Our guests include: Jill Sobule  —musician Bassey Ikpi  — author of I’m Telling the Truth But I’m Lying; poet, writer, and mental health advocate Kat Kinsman  — author, Hi Anxiety; Senior Editor Food and Wine. Robin Gelfenbien  — storyteller, founder Yum’s The Word storytelling  A portion of the proceeds will go to Crisis Text Line – an organization that provides free, 24/7 mental health support via text message. Text HELLO to 741741 for free, 24/7 crisis counseling. We hope to see you there! Margit

Roller Boogie: My Pandemic Security Blanket

By Michelle Arnold

One of my earliest pandemic projects was to clean out my desk alcove, which I often refer to as “the Dorian Gray of my apartment,” because it’s where I stash anything and everything I don’t want to see. The depth of that mess is no exaggeration or hyperbole, as evidenced by me finding – while cleaning and organizing – a DVD that I failed to return to the rental place at least 15 years ago (I’d been juggling a full-time day job and part-time graduate night school and apparently couldn’t be bothered).  It was the 1979 movie, Roller Boogie.  My first reaction to that discovery was a mildly upset and anxious, “Ooops.” Which was quickly followed by my second reaction: “Oh, HELL yes.” That night, I popped the DVD into my old laptop, and, like something out of an Olivia Newton-John song from a different roller-skating movie, it was pure magic. Because despite being here, now, in the ominous gloom of 2020, sheltering-in-place alone in my Brooklyn apartment while the global Coronavirus pandemic grimly ravaged …

Kathy Valentine

TueNight 10: Kathy Valentine

By TueNight Crew

Age: 61 Bio: Kathy Valentine has been writing songs and playing in bands non-stop for 45 years — lots of un-famous ones, and one that made music history: the Go-Go’s. And now she has released a book: All I Ever Wanted: A Rock n’ Roll Memoir from University of Texas Press with an accompanying soundtrack. Beyond the Bio: If I’m lucky enough to get a standard issue life span, then I’m acutely aware that I’m on the “other” side of the bell curve and feel a sense of urgency to keep productive—hyper motivated to create, and live each day in a very present and fully realized way. And besides getting shit done, and getting it done better than I ever have, I’m rocking and rolling and being the biggest not-giving-AF goofball I’ve ever been. What makes you a grown-ass lady? Becoming a mom right before turning 44 made me a grown-ass lady. Before that, I was still a baby-ass lady. Here’s her TueNight 10: 1. On the nightstand: It might be easier to say what’s NOT on my nightstand, but I’ll try: Books, …

Karen Finlay smiling at book store

TueNight 10: Karen Finlay

By TueNight Crew

(Karen Finlay at Alibi Bookshop. Photo by Lynn Landry.) Age: 51 Bio: Karen is the co-owner of Alibi Bookshop in Vallejo, CA. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, spent nearly 20 years in the publishing industry (Lonely Planet, Chronicle Books), and is the co-founder of The Mid-Century Supper Club Potluck, a yearly festival of questionable foodstuffs. She lives with her husband, Jon, and their two dogs. Beyond the Bio: I did try to bake bread. It would have been a perfect field hockey puck. I’m trying every day to be grateful, to take everything as it comes, to remain positive, and never take anything for granted. What makes you a grown-ass lady? I’m responsible, I have adult trappings, I’m glad I’m no longer young, I like the age I am, and I’m glad I’ve gotten this far. But I still get really excited about things and am not jaded, and it helps that I still have the same friends since first grade, so we keep one another young and mindful of all of our stages …

Elana Frankel

TueNight 10: Elana Frankel

By TueNight Crew

Age: “Old enough” Bio: Elana is a founder (indigonandhaze.com); author and writer (Women and Weed, the book); Editor in Chief (Women and Weed, the magazine). She’s worked for One Kings Lane (creative director), Architectural Digest,Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times, WSJ/Off Duty, New York Magazine and Oprah (to name a few). She also teaches yoga and meditation.  Beyond the Bio: “Aging up, I became a stronger performer, collaborator, influencer, strategist, maker, doer, communicator, team builder, and public speaker.” What makes you a grown-ass lady? “I speak my mind…and yours.” Here’s her TueNight 10: 1. On the nightstand: Indigo and Haze body lotion, New Highs CBD and CBG tinctures, a Tibetan singing bowl, animal spirit cards and a weaving my son made in art class. High thread-count hippie stuff.  2. Can’t stop/won’t stop: Focusing on safe access, education, and inspiration around the plant.  3. Jam(s) of the minute: Gangstagrass, Lucky Chops, and Yola  4. Thing I miss: Charivari  5. ’80s crush: Michael Hutchence   6. Current crush: My husband (Me: “You really are my crush.” Him: “I know.”) 7. Latest fave find: Linen bed sheets  8. Last thing you lost: My sense …

Wenderella: A Gen-X Fairytale of Viruses and Princesses

By Wendi Aarons

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful middle-aged woman named Wendi. Or Wenderella, as she called herself one night after she took a lot of cold medicine and watched RuPaul’s Drag Race. Wenderella lived in a far-off, foreign land called TEXAS in a big, big castle. More specifically, a single-story house in a cul-de-sac that was a little too tame for her liking, but whatever, the school district’s good. Not everybody needs to be Carrie Bradshaw. Wenderella ruled her queendom along with her dashing husband and two strong teenage sons. There were also a couple cats and a white dog you may have seen on Instagram. But they were a happy family because they didn’t see each other very often. They frequently did something called “going places.” All was well. All was good. Until one day when everything changed.  “Hear ye, hear ye! There’s an evil disease afoot!” Wenderella’s husband proclaimed to the family. “We must stay inside our castle, or we shall perish!” Why did she order so many rice cakes on Instacart? …