We made it! How did you survive this hellscape of a week?

Here's everything awesome that helped me get through the carnage...

Hi. Phew. Holy heck. Umm … how are you? That was intense, right? Are your coping mechanisms in place? Have you checked in with your mum and your friends, maybe patted your dog? Did you remember to eat lunch? Are you … OK? Congratulations, welcome, it’s Saturday, and you made it through a week of complete and utter carnage. Today should be a breather, a time for some self-care, a sleep-in, a decent coffee, and a chat.

(Hello also to all my new subscribers – there’s been a lot of you lately! On Saturdays, we take a break from the news cycle and swap notes on all of the awesome music or anything else that’s come our way. Thanks for being here – I’m glad we’ve found each other!)

The past seven days have been tough, but the week started out so well. I had the best of intentions. I finally made some New Year’s resolutions (I’ll share these next week) then began comparing them to others. On her excellent Substack Shit You Should Care About, millennial scribe Lucy Blakiston announced her word of the year: “Exploration”. “This year is for refilling myself with new things,” she wrote. “I’m in my exploration era.”

I used to work with Lucy – she’s as awesome as she sounds – and I felt that deeply. This year, I’ve said ‘yes’ to many things I would normally say ‘no’ to. I went to a huge fuck off dance party and loved every second of it. I reserved a table at Bianca, the restaurant everyone’s been raving about, and loved that too. Then I went to The Brutalist, a film that’s nearly four hours long, something I would normally reject in an instant, and loved almost all of it. (If you’ve seen it too, you know what I’m talking about; it’s wildly huge.)

Then Monday happened. By Tuesday, I’d ordered System of a Down’s Toxicity on vinyl and clicked the “same-day delivery” box. By Wednesday things were so bad I was considering jumping into Browny’s Pool, the mayor’s special waterfront project that opened just before Christmas then closed over unsafe levels of faecal matter.

By Thursday, I was ready to coin my own word of the year: “Avoidance.” Because, after the past week, as local journalism continues barreling toward extinction, as firefighters struggle to extinguish wildfires laying waste to Los Angeles, as tech tycoons fight over who can enact their dystopian visions first, and as America gives up and plunges head-first into The Handmaid’s Tale, I’ve needed some distractions.

I found some! Plenty, actually. So, today, I thought I’d list all of them here in the hope that it may help you recover from what’s been a brutal start to the year. And then, if you want to, you can share your own finds, to help cover off the things I’ve missed out on. After all, this long weekend may not be enough time to regroup.

So, let’s kick it off with the new FKA Twigs album Eusexua, which I had on repeat for most of Friday. It’s definitely odd, its angular rhythms and off-kilter patterns often knocked me sideways. It’s intense and personal – she coos and pouts and screams and raps – but it’s also incredibly classy, like if Grimes was still making delicate thump-bangers instead of answering for her increasingly deranged ex. I know I’m going to be playing this for a long time to come…

Next up is Jon Stewart’s 20-minute breakdown of the inauguration – no! stop! come back! this is a safe space, promise! – which is just what I needed to wrap my head around whatever the fuck America is up to at the moment. If Stewart can find so many reasons to laugh heartily at all of this, then maybe it might just be OK?

Earlier this week, I published my attempts to find Auckland FC a suitable anthem. I have updates! Apparently the band’s bassist is a fan and has been seen at several games. Plus, I have confirmation that someone in the entertainment division at the club has read my post. Will they play Midnight Youth’s ‘Cavalry’ at their next home game? Don’t know! Tune into RNZ on Monday at 1pm when I’ll be giving Jesse Mulligan more updates about this very important mission.

Honestly, this is not the right time to be watching the second season of Squid Game (trust me, I tried) but this is exactly the right time to be getting back into Severance. After three years off, season two of Ben Stiller’s workplace anxiety bomb is creepier and more stylish than ever. Honestly, if I could sever my brain right now, I might just consider it. Plus, those new opening credits just … sing.

I’ve found plenty of inspiration in this Rolling Stone story about a Bob Dylan nut who started a super-niche Substack newsletter called Flagging Down the Double E's that’s dedicated to superfans of the gnarly balladeer. It now has 1000 paying subscribers. That’s inspirational. Maybe my lil’ newsletter about Aotearoa’s music industry could last the distance after all and I just need to hang the hell in there? (If you’d like to help me realise that dream, here’s the best way to do that.)

Don’t watch the following video with the kids around. Hell, don’t even listen to Bruno Mars and Sexxy Red’s new song with the kids within earshot. ‘Fat, Juicy and Wet’ is about exactly what you think it is, a spiritual successor to Cardi B’s ‘WAP’, a song that knows what it is and what it wants to achieve. It’s also sooo much fun…

Don’t forget about the Big Day Out party being held at Whammy on Saturday night. Sunday night is a big night too with Nia Archives playing a sold out show at the Powerstation and Fat Freddy’s Drop heading a solid line-up out at Lilyworld. Rain is forecast but I don’t care. If you need me, I’ll be skanking up a storm in the carpark where the Supertop used to sit, enjoying myself, no matter the weather.

Finally, nothing helped me get through this week more than the new Marlon Williams song ‘Aua Atu Rā’. It’s gentle and genuine, humble and heartwarming, cute and cleansing, a song that genuinely washes away your woes. It’s from Marlon’s new album, Te Whare Tīwekaweka, due out on April 4. You can pre-order signed and coloured copies of the vinyl through his website right now for $50. Good luck, have a great weekend, and if you only click one link today, make it this one…

OK, now it’s over to you: please share all of your coping mechanisms that helped you survive this torrid week. What have you been up to? I’d love to hear from you. We’re just a few weeks in, 2025 already won’t quit, and we’re in this together, so please, let’s help each other get through this…

Bonus beat.

This is Astar, a good doggo who just wanted her dinner.