Una Roven

Annika Inampudi

Kyra Siegel

It’s winter break. Our treasured time for rotting, reunion, and fervor. And, more importantly, hedonistic consumption. These are the books essays films albums and snacks that filled 

 with flames in 2023. May they warm us well into the new year.


If you are an annoying Carhartt-Pinterest-balaclava-in-the-winter MFer like me, then you’ll love Blackbird Spyplane. It’s the jawniest newsletter on Substack and brilliantly lowbrow in a way that Laura Reilly’s Magasin (bless her Khaite heart) could never approach. It’s such crunchy writing and the clothing recs are unbeatable and acce$$ible. Any one of their articles will send you down an Internet rabbit hole of underrated brands, cool designers, and aspirational moodboards. Enjoy and, as always, consume ethically! —Caroline Choi

I know all of you literati have probably already read 

 by Elif Batuman, but I just got to it, and let me tell you, it will make you cry. Not because it’s touching or phenomenally good or something like that. If you have ever had a situationship in the walls of this university, you must read it. Ivan is the ultimate Harvard man, and he made me so angry - I am now allergic to him. Every page where he speaks has tear stains on it – he’s so annoying, I fucking hate him, read the book. —Varya Lyapneva

Other than holding the obvious sentimental value of reliving your memories, a journal acts as a sort of insurance policy for the dissociating type. I for one find the holiday season— and every other season— to be a particularly forgetfulness inducing moment for such a type. So, when your father asks you about that one random friend from middle school that he remembers only by nickname, or your neighbor asks if you’re “still planning on that whole acting thing” and you find yourself in another realm just nodding… write about it immediately. All of the moments you try to forget… write about them immediately. Maybe they can actually help in the future. —Kyra Siegel

“Merchandising the Void” (Kelly Pendergrast, 2023)

why are influencers turning their pantries into miniature supermarkets? it could be regular tiktok brain rot, but pendergrast argues that it reveals something deeper in our current moment: the "fetishization of logistics itself," where our culture's "fascination with capital's abstraction" is reaching a critical point. she also explains the history of gendered domestic technology, the work of critical theorist alberto toscano, and the color "kardashian greige" along the way. —Conan Lu

Look. I should not have liked this book. I am not a fantasy person by any stretch of the imagination. But this semi-fantasy semi-mystery semi-literary novel had me regularly gasping in my common room to the extent that my suitemates were laughing at me. A page-turning treat that I can truly not tell you anything more about without spoiling the fun. —Eve Jones

“Story of Your Life,” “Exhalation,” “Tower of Babylon” (Ted Chiang)

Take any classic science fiction trope - time travel, alternate universes, first contact - and you'll find that Ted Chiang has already written about it. What makes Chiang's short stories stand out is his ability to write about digital pets, infinite towers and alien linguistics in a way that is surprisingly close to the soul, with stories lingering in your head for weeks, months, or even years after you put them down. He is, for me, the ultimate "what if" writer. You can't go wrong with Ted Chiang, so just pick any short story of his and get busy reading. I think your only complaint, after a day or two of binging his stories, will be that there aren't any more for you to read.—Andreas Lordos

Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era

The book that brought autotheory to the world, 

is about getting high, it’s about birth control, it’s about grief, it’s about drag. 

is praxis. Changed the way I think about every aspect of my life. —Una Roven

Women at Work: Interviews from the Paris Review 

“I hate almost all rich people, but I think I’d be darling at it.” The 2022 

is an insightful collection of interviews with women who are–well, at work. The collection features twelve interviews with prolific female writers, including one with the electric Dorothy Parker, quoted above, and a preface by Ottessa Moshfegh. The interviews themselves are refreshing; one is structured like a four-scene play, another asks Parker what the evil in Hollywood is. Definitely recommend. —Roxy Hreb

There’s something dizzying about this movie. It’s like being led through a maze when you know you’re making the wrong turns but can’t turn around because everything is disappearing behind you. But the maze is also incredibly sexy.  This is not a feminist movie. It’s a womanizing movie. But it’s hot. I kept wanting Snàporaz (the beautiful Marcello Mastroianni) to go back to safety, to even acknowledge that he was doing something insane. But this is Fellini’s world… you have to follow the gorgeous terrifying girls no matter what. —Una Roven

 but without the gossip columns. It takes place (you guessed it) during the Gilded Age in New York City and follows the lives of both the elite and working class. I think it is so interesting because it offers real historical insight into the period while being facetiously dramatic about the social problems of the time. 10/10 —Sadie Kargman

 is a display of one's wildest, most fantastical, yet deeply perverse dreams. It follows the gorgeous Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan in what I deem as 

 The whole theater was gagging, screaming, and crying in unison the entire time, but alas, it is the best thing I have ever seen and perhaps my new favorite movie. 10/10 —Sadie Kargman

“his name is bryce, which like, um hello! good name. he works in product development which is like perfect for me because i love products” —Conan Lu

Why don’t we write romantic emails anymore? — Annika Inampudi

“Alphabet City,” “Moose Crossing” (Margot Fox)

If you like Indigo Girls but wish the lyrics were about things like a moose crossing or recycling, try listening to my actual kindergarten teacher who tested these songs out in my class back in 2008. Genuinely, I still listen to these today. My favorites are “Alphabet City” and “Moose Crossing,” but they’re all excellent. “Recycle in Boston, recycle in France, recycle in New York, do the recycle dance.” God, I wish she’d perform live again. —Eve Jones

I recently took inspiration from my friend Jacob and listened to the entire Nicki discography in one go. This is her best song. Not taking questions. Dick in your face. —Una Roven

Written after vocalist Elizabeth Fraser gave birth to Lucy Belle, Heaven or Las Vegas is the dream. Listen to it while walking in wide open spaces, thinking about Nietzsche, or eating a savory soup. – Annika Inampudi


This is simply a wonderful album. The vocals hold emotion in every breath, the tone is exquisite, the production is five stars. I am both heartbroken and thrilled to share that I heard “The Hardest Part” playing at a Lush while buying a dreidel bath bomb for my roommate. But Dean deserves to be heard by the mainstream bath product chain store demographic, she‘s just that good. My favorites are Dive, Ladies Room, and The Hardest Part… but all of the songs are special. —Kyra Siegel

sega bodega’s production revives homogenic-era björk from permafrost. strings and reggaeton beats create an incredibly lush and eclectic soundscape, much like a tundra in the wake of climate change. 1 stream = 1 icelandic fish saved from the pen farming industry. —Conan Lu

The awesome cocktail you drank at fall dinner? A generous spoon of blueberry jam (but any will be delicious), shot of gin, dash of lemon juice, stirred with ice, topped with seltzer. Outside of 21SS I would add muddled fruit and mint. —Una Roven

No longer are the best chocolates on the market relegated to Easter. You can now have them during the Christmas season, too. My method is to pop one in my mouth, bite off the coating, and then let the chocolate melt. Chewing is for the weak. —Eve Jones

in preschool i built an unsuccessful bird feeder with a mango juice carton. “built” in the sense that i stuffed it full of seeds and put it outside. “unsuccessful” in the sense that i fed no birds. now i’ve been looking for this mango juice at school, but they’re all minute maid mango punches, dole orange peach mangos. just imagine a dole orange peach mango bird feeder. it’s demented. way too many nouns in a row. but so i'm at the grocery store in my 3.79-square-mile non-city of a hometown, buying cabbage, finding kern's mango nectar, drinking kern’s mango nectar, eating cabbage, buying more cabbage. this was not supposed to be about cabbage. —Jessica Zhang


Fall / Winter 2023

Notes

ADVO RECOMMENDS: WINTER 2024

iLe, a Puerto Rican singer and composer, joined us by phone to discuss new ways of self-expression in the pandemic, the necessity of rage, and her upcoming tour through the Northeast. This interview has been lightly condensed.

 straddles so many different genres, from ethereal folk to reggaeton. What was it like working on it?

I’m actually transcending from that album now. I started working on it in 2020, and it was released in October 2022. It was a pandemic-made album, made in the middle of those chaotic moments, and transitioning from them. Working on this album was new in every way, because the style was different from what I was used to, and I had to work on myself, trying to make songs, and trying to feel okay in the process in the middle of so many things that were not okay at the moment. It was uncomfortable, but it was nice to learn a new process in the middle of that discomfort. I like to say that 

is the album that has taught me more than the others, because I had to deal with something new at the time, worldwide, and trying to make new songs was kind of weird, but at the end it made sense when I started to embrace it. That’s when the work flowed better.

as a pandemic album. What was your quarantine like?

Before the pandemic, even if I didn’t have everything clear in my mind, I was used to having a structure in my writing process, and with 

 I felt that there was never a structure. My mind was off all the time. But I kept writing. My creative love happens all the time, but it was a different creative love, it felt different, it was heavier. It’s normally heavy, because life can be heavy, but in those moments it felt like you had no escape, and it was tough. Quarantine was a time when I just tried to keep writing and keep proposing and just let it all out, and afterwards see if something made sense. I tried that and it was good. I was anxious because I was afraid that it was not gonna make sense at the end and I’d have to start all over, but at the end I felt that it did make sense. I felt like I had

connected to the moment, and at the end I said to myself, “Yeah, this is how I was feeling, and it’s okay.”

seems very focused on this palpable sense of isolation, especially in songs like “A la deriva,” and “Ningún Lugar.” Your earlier work has been more interested in collaboration, as your career started in Calle 13 with your brothers, and activism, with “Afilando Los Cuchillos,” the protest song that helped catalyze the resignation of Rosselló. I’m curious about how you weave between the individual and the communal in your music.

I don’t see who I am every day and who I am as an artist as two separate things. I feel that they connect with each other. I just write and compose and think of things that I feel like expressing, you know, things that worry me about society and the world we live in. Sometimes it can be more realistic and sometimes it can be more like a fantasy. I like to play with all that, play around with reality and fantasy, how I would like things to be. I think that in society and in community, we often need to remind ourselves what we can do and the power we have as human citizens. The system that we live in can feel so oppressive, like an invincible monster, and I feel like, at the end, we have a lot more power than we think. We need to acknowledge that power and use it, as a community, and fight for the world we expect to live in, which I hope will be a happy, understanding world. I play with that with my work, but as a human citizen, I’m also worried about where we’re at. It’s a way for me to channel my emotions and my thoughts through my songs. I do what I feel.

In one word, rage. It’s something we try to control, and obviously it’s something that needs to be managed, but it’s also something that we need to release. If we try to control rage too much, it will explode. But if we manage it, it’s okay to feel rage and to use it. It’s necessary to feel rage. Especially as women, we feel that we need to have too much control over ourselves. It’s important for us to feel angry towards the things that happen to women in this world. Use rage wisely and carefully, but use it. It isn’t wrong to feel. I feel empowered when I feel rage.

Rage from looking at the world around you.

From many things. But I feel better when I release it. It makes me think better as well. You can release the rage writing, or singing, or doing exercise, or having a conversation. There are so many ways of releasing rage that don’t have to be violent. We haven’t learned enough how to manage it.


I’d love to know more about your writing process.

, I learned to play around more with my process. I learned it doesn’t have to be one specific way just because I feel comfortable with it. I’m trying to explore new ways of writing. I like to keep learning new exercises as well. But it depends. Sometimes when I feel blocked with words, I compose, and I explore with music and textures and sounds. When I’m writing with words, I can never have too much of a plan. I always have to understand what I’m thinking at first, and maybe it can be confusing, but then it starts getting clearer, and it’s nice to let it all out without judging myself. That’s something I’ve learned throughout the years. I used to judge myself way too much, and I wasn’t enjoying the process because I was judging myself. Now I judge myself less, and I’m trying to enjoy myself more. I know what I need to do to let the process flow better and let myself feel better. It’s nice. You discover new things about yourself when you just let your mind fly.

Are you working on new music now? What’s it like?

I am, and I’m enjoying it. After the pandemic, I think we learned to enjoy everything more. I had one start, but I’m starting again now in another place. The first start was kind of a vomit of everything, and now I’m trying to understand everything more, little by little, and trying to organize everything. I’m in the middle of it now.

, my third album, now, suddenly there are more songs in the show, and I’m enjoying it. I feel grateful. It’s been very nice to work with these three albums, and I’m enjoying the live shows a lot now, and I’m also ready to be working on new music.

What’s the atmosphere you try to create when you’re performing?

I love the flow of a whole show. Now the show flows a lot better because there are three albums. I like that it’s a mix of all the songs together, and I’m just vibing with the whole show. I really enjoy each of the songs with their whole particularity, and their own whole worlds.

 has this dreamy vibe, but at the same time, each album has its own feeling. The first one [

] was more intimate, more orchestral, more elegant. The second album [

is kind of a mix of both, but it’s a little more airy, it floats more. I like the shows so much because I feel like I can play with all of that at the same time, and I love the contrast of all the albums. Maybe it’s more that it’s a contrast of different energies and feelings, just how we are as human beings. We flow and we’re hormonal and we have different energies.

Listening to your music almost feels like you’re playing with different natural environments, like in a desert or underwater. You do a lot with your accoustic landscapes.

I get bored easily. That’s what I like about being a woman, actually. It’s weird in the moment, but it’s nice to feel that we change so much. I try to connect even more with those times when we’re feeling very energetic and very passionate about something, and making music helps me to explore that and understand it more. That’s why I go with different flows in my music. It depends on the way I feel. Why should I need to go somewhere else if I’m not feeling that way? I try to accept the way I’m feeling at the moment, and not let myself be pressured by things that are not part of who I am and how I feel.

My inspirations are mostly Puerto Rican writers. I love boleros and salsa. I like poetry that’s direct and raw, and when boleros and salsas feel that way, I connect with them more. Some of my favorites are Tite Curet Alonso, who was a Puerto Rican composer who wrote many salsa and bolero songs, Sylvia Rexach, who was a poet from Puerto Rico as well, and has written very beautiful boleros, and Julia de Burgos, who is one of our most famous woman poets in Puerto Rico. Our writers are not afraid to speak out and say how they feel and be vulnerable. I like that energy, when you’re just saying very beautifully something that can be so visceral.

Are you looking forward to your upcoming tour?

I’m always excited to play live. I’m working on new music, and normally I’m just in my cave, but I like doing shows because it gives me a boost of energy and it’s necessary and it’s nice. Every time I feel that connection with Latin American people and Puerto Rican people I feel so happy. It boosts my energy to keep working, because sometimes when you’re too deep in your cave it’s not that healthy. I’m excited to do these shows. I love to feel the energy from the Puerto Ricans in Boston, because I know there are a lot of people that miss their country, and suddenly feeling that connection is nice. When I know they feel it, I feel it too, and it’s a very special moment.

iLe performs February 17th at Somerville Theater. Tickets and more information can be found at 

Una Roven

Una Roven

Notes

Notes

ADVO RECOMMENDS: WINTER 2024

Notes

An Interview with iLe