on some personal news?
Before I get into talking about myself, I’d be remiss to not acknowledge the women killed in Atlanta two days ago. It’s horrifying the way racist, misogynistic murderers get to be portrayed as people having a bad day and given bios that are designed to make the white people sympathetic no matter what. Take time to learn about AAPI hate, the depth of history of racism against AAPI communities, and how those things intertwine with misogyny and fetishization of Asian women.
Reports on AAPI hate via Stop AAPI Hate
New York Magazine put together a list of organizations to donate to.
Statement from Red Canary Song regarding the lives lost in Atlanta.
But, as always, seek out ways to support individuals in need and organizations local to you.
Happy mid-march friends. Believe it or not I do aim to put these things up on a rough schedule. It’s not once a week, but I aim to put up at least like 5 a month. Not so much because I’m disciplined but more because I write when things come to me. If you’re new to this thing I do there’s kind of three types of posts. There’s actual Music Writing where I talk about an album or songs I like or whatever it is music writers do. There’s the music tech-y garbage. Then there’s essays where I just talk for a while. This post is none of them because it’s updates.
I’m working on a few posts, but I’ve been struggling with a few other things and they’ve taken precedence.
If you follow me on twitter (which you should @mirandareinert thank you), you may have seen me post a few things about dropping out of law school. I think people thought I was joking about, but I’m not. I think I’ve simply come to a realization that I don’t want to be a lawyer.
My mom asked me why I wanted to go to law school in the first place and I think it boils down to panic. For some background on who I am as a person, I finished my undergrad degree in 2017 at the age of 20 and promptly lost all semblance of direction. I had no idea what I was doing. I worked at a school district while I lived at my parents’ house. I started making zines in that sort of latter half of the year time period then moved in with my best friend in Chicago and got a job as a barista. But I was panicking about not like “working toward a goal” so I decided I wanted to go to law school.
So I studied for six months and took the LSAT. Did fine on that. Got into law schools. Moved to Philadelphia on this pure force of panic that I have to have some great life plan with goals and some promise of working toward something. I’ve come to think that whole idea is kind of bullshit.
The last year has been weird. The 17th was the last day I went to work last year so for me that’s the start of covid distancing. In the last year I think I’ve changed a lot. The attitude I always had toward doing things in service of creating some big career just feels silly. Not that I don’t want some kind of success, of course I do, but I guess I just feel like I’ve expanded my perception of what’s important to me in a way that made my panic decision to go to law school feel wrong.
I don’t feel like I’m doing this because I want to be a writer or whatever. That’s reductive and I’m aware you can do many things. I feel like that’s important to acknowledge just because I don’t want to hear that it’s a stupid decision. However, I don’t wanna get too deep into my decision to not continue school because I’m trying to practice not exposing my mental health crises as much. Instead I’m gonna talk about writing and the future of this newsletter? My future?!
I’m really grateful to have started this newsletter. It’s given me such an important outlet and I’m so grateful for everyone who reads it! If you’ve sent me an email response or tweeted at me something thoughtful about a post or anything like that, know that it’s the best part of my day to have those conversations! Unless you’re mean to me. If you’re mean to me I am holding a grudge.
Anyway, that kind of reads like I’m quitting the newsletter. I am not. But I do want to see what people like or might want to see me write about? I was thinking about starting to do more interview type posts. I interviewed Tim Crisp last year and had a good time doing it but without much extra time it was kind of hard to imagine taking the time to really pursue more of them. Now that I’ll have more time I could do that more. Thoughts on that? Who might you want to see interviewed? Let me know.
If there’s specific stuff you’re interested in seeing me talk about feel free to respond to this email and let me know! Can be new albums, old albums, general topics regarding music or tech.. I’m open to any and all ideas.
Unfortunately, I am also considering attempting freelance writing even though that whole thing scares me. Any advice you have regarding that is welcome as long as you’re not mean about it.
That said, if you live in the great city of Philadelphia and you know of cool jobs that are hiring… feel free to shoot me a message. I guess that goes for cool jobs hiring remote too. I will be needing money so I can stay here. I’d like to stay in Philly please help me do that.
If you don’t know of any jobs but like this newsletter, maybe consider becoming a paying subscriber! I have a new zine coming out soon and some other cool projects I’m working on that I promise will make it worth it. $40 for the year or $5 a month! It’s a deal! I will also accept one time venmo (@miranda-reinert) or paypal payments (reinertmiranda@gmail.com).
✓
For the last part of this newsletter I’m just gonna talk about some things I’ve done lately.
- I learned how to make tortillas from tiktok and they turned out well. I’m very proud.
- I’ve learned how to use tiktok so I see good videos. Considering learning to make them next.
- I dyed my hair darker and have been experimenting with new hairstyles.
- I bought a guitar. It’s blue. I can’t play anything except Remembering Sunday by All Time Low because I learned it at 15 and never forgot.
- I made my own cold brew and am devastated to learn it just is better than store bought concentrate.
- I bought a new pair of overalls. I’m on cloud nine.
Alright I guess that’s it for me. Thus concludes my updates. Goodbye!
Brief promo: I put out a new zine recently and if you’re a paid subscriber you could be getting it in the mail! Or maybe you already have! If I don’t have your address and if you want it please fill out this form as soon as you can!
Anybody else interested can purchase it here! It’s a sort of photo zine with some words about traveling, how I take the same photos everywhere I go, missing leaving my house, missing meeting new people, etc. More photo than word. It’s 24 pages, $6 (free shipping US, $2 everywhere else), full color, it’s called No Parking. Very nice very fun!
Miranda Reinert is a music adjacent writer, zine maker, and law student based in Philadelphia. Follow me on Twitter for more on music and other things like when I get to be on the Endless Scroll Podcast: @mirandareinert. I also just opened up a paid tier of this newsletter which for $5 a month (or $40 a year! what a deal!) you’ll get free zines as I make them and one upon sign up! Wow! Click the button below to get in on that! But as always, thanks for reading!
Comments ()