The Fluff Stuff #95: Summer Solstice
☀️ Weighing in on the Materialists, ice cream sandwiches, and the DCC
Welcome to the Seasonalist, a happy place to land, where you’ll find all things seasonal and seasonal-adjacent (books, movies, food, and fun) from Austin, Texas. If you’d like to subscribe, click below.
“Happiness, I have grasped, is a destination, like strawberry fields. Once you find the way in, there you are, and you’ll never feel low again.”—Rachel Simon
Happy Saturday, y’all.
Welcome to The Fluff Stuff.
Here, you’ll find a quick seasonal living recap and a weekly reminder to live your best seasonal life. Just follow the formula!
How I lived seasonally last week (pictured above)
Strawberry Sheet Cake from Trader Joe’s1
Franklin Barbecue (first-timer)
Seasonal (of course, or I’m not the Seasonalist!) wine tasting at a local winery
Look at that tomato (served best on sourdough toast with a little Duke’s mayo)
As always I try to shorten this, but then I just have so much to share! It’s too long for email, sorry.
Now for…
🍴 Seasonal PSA Stuff
For Father’s Day (combined with a birthday), we hosted our extended family for a Cold Party. No heated foods! A sandwich platter, veggie tray, fruits galore, AND Salt & Pepper kettle chips with French onion dip (the real hero)
Behold: Cold Dinner Party At trivia on Monday, we missed this question (something like “What is the country’s most popular ice cream sandwich”). I had never heard of it. Remedied. I purchased and ate (for research). Can confirm. Best ice cream sandwich ever. Behold…the Fat Boy.
📚 Book Stuff
I am ALMOST done with Slow Burn Summer by Josie Silver. Internet Bestie Katie O. also read this it last week (she is one of my best reading sources). I am loving it—as Katie O. pointed out—it’s not a summer book (deceptive title alert). Still great! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Nancy Drew update—my library doesn’t have book 3. Crisis.
📱 Low Scroll Summer & Crafting Stuff
Week 3 of the friendship bracelet. I just stare at the Work in Progress with loathing. I may need a new Summer Craft. Stay tuned.
While out and about at the HOTTEST new coffee shop in Austin, no joke, one person in the Franklin’s line mentioned it and said it’s all over TikTok, so we had to go. I noticed parents out with their daughter and they played CARDS while waiting for their drink. As I write this at a coffee shop by my house, the man next to me is GLUED to his phone while his 2 year-old daughter plays quietly and is completely ignored. I feel the ick.
Back to the cards: the family was playing Speed. Which I’ve never played. On tap for the weekend. Things are so bad now that we marvel when families are interacting out in the wild instead of glued to their phones.
🎥 TV & Movie Stuff
Season 2 of…America’s Sweethearts on Netflix—I am heavily, emotionally, invested in the DCC (Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders) tryouts. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Alright. Here we go. I saw “The Materialists.” ⭐️ Two words: Stunningly dull. I am enjoying how polarizing this movie is—and am devouring reviews, both good and bad, because I’m fascinated by the different reactions and analyses. Mine: Cringy (embarrassing dialogue—hold up, there wasn’t any dialogue, just weird, basic soliloquies), long and boring pauses, zero character development, the most try-hard bookending I’ve ever encountered, and horrendous acting. But I enjoyed the fashion!
Some of my favorite snippets from reviews on imdb: “It lacked nuance, heart, and honestly any real insight. It was like watching mannequins give TED Talks on shallow philosophies.” and “Dialogue? It exists. Much like ambient noise in a dentist's office: technically audible, but best ignored for your sanity. Plot? Only if you count the slow erosion of your will to keep watching. Tension? As taut as a broken shoelace.”
From Instyle, analyzing the positive reviews:
Filmmaker Celine Song’s latest project, Materialists, was described as “a drama of ideas, about the push and pull between passion and practicality” by Richard Lawson at Vanity Fair. Manhola Dargis at The New York Times writes that “Song is caught between two forces, namely her obvious affection for old-school romantic comedy and her desire to speak honestly about what it means to be a real, thinking, desiring woman—a person!—in a world that undermines and undervalues women.” And at Variety, Owen Gleiberman noted that “while it’s all too easy to imagine the breezy ’90s version of this movie, Materialists is very much not that movie. It’s a sharp and serious social romantic drama full of telling observations about the way we live now."
I’d love to hear your thoughts! I’ve never seen a movie so all over the place between positive and negative reviews, so there are NO WRONG ANSWERS.
💙 Wrap-Up
May your weekend be fluffy.
From the Seasonalist’s Archives:
Best Reads of the Week!
On Franklin Barbecue: my eldest son is moving to California, and Franklin’s is so famous that he didn’t want to say he was from Austin and then say “No, I haven’t tried Franklin’s.” We waited in line 1.5 hours, and we met visitors from San Diego, Florida, and Kansas City. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely. I was so worn down by the experience I bought myself a t-shirt.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders received a 400 percent raise (finally).
From Elle, Everyone wants to dress like Dakota Johnson in The Materialists, Here’s How.
Served best as a tiny piece with a wee strawberry.
Materialists had so many things I usually enjoy in a movie but it just didn’t hit the mark for me! Learned into the concept of a rom-com without any comedy
Ok, I adore the idea of a Cold Party! thanks for sharing.