Things That Made Me Less Cranky: June 2025 Edition
You HAVE to see the pants I bought
Welcome to my monthly list of recommendations. It is made up of completely random things/events/moments that made me less of a raging, bitter, hag despite the dumpster fire that is our world. It also includes food-centric suggestions. Enjoy!
Idiosyncratic List of What Made Me Less Cranky
An entire year of buying almost all my clothes from Peruvian brands and designers (guide coming soon!)
The built-in friendship you get from little bros
Discovering more and more Peruvian regional dances. What the hell. We are useless when it comes to Latin American standards (salsas, merengue, etc.) but to go to any tiny town’s annual festival and you’ll be wowed by the sheer variety of how they like to boogey.
Continuing to write unhinged pitches and/or samples that get me yeses.
Literally any cultural event that could be made in Peru, like María Maricón, Kimba Fá or Novalima
How a toddler’s front teeth always make them look little bunnies
Ranked-choice voting and the sheer anti-Cuomo range that fueled my campaign to get my ballot to New York City
You know what gave me hope about Zohran Mamdani winning the primary? Not so much the man himself but the thousands and thousands of people who share my values and visions about the future of the city. I think this is what people how will shame you about “electoral politics” or whatever fail to understand—I don’t have much faith in a single politician. I have faith in the movement behind a win like this one.
Magan, my little fragile bird from The Queer Ultimatum
Clubbing from 11 pm to 1am
My gay guy friends telling me I’m gorgeous because no one else will in this whole damn city
Blinking and having a social life, all of a sudden
People watching at late night eateries in Lima
Peruvian potatoes
Sorry, still marveling at the fact that even the cheapest, drunkest food stand in Peru will still lovingly peel and fry potatoes made to order
What I’m Watching:
I’m consumed by Love Island, America’s Sweethearts and The Queer Ultimatum, not to mention the return of the most unfairly underrated Housewives franchise Real Housewives of Miami and my intimidating husband George Russel on The Gilded Age. Back when I lived in the US, I complained about how the best TV season coincided with summer, the time of the year when I was least likely to be at home ever. But I’m freezing my hiney off in Lima, where we are deep into the drizzling freeze of a Pacific Coast winter. This is working out for me!
I watched a lot of movies this month, though, but I’m only highlighting two:
Foragers shines a spotlight on how the ancient practice of foraging for wild, edible plants in Palestine has been criminalized. It’s pointed but with a dry sense of humor throughout that serves to emphasize even more the ridiculousness of trying to ban such an activity.
The documentary I’m Your Venus never fully arrives at its grand ambitions of solving the murder of Venus Xtravaganza, the ballroom legend featured in Paris Is Burning (one of my favorite movies ever) who was brutally killed way back in the 80s. But it is a loving homage to her and the culture that embraced her, as well as look into familial forgiveness and regret. In fact, I wish the documentary had dug deeper into how Venus’s three brothers came to accept her sisters, especially John who admits to being terrible to her and whose lingering anguish over that is fascinating to watch. I can’t find a trailer for the movie but this scene shows how the House of Xtravaganza is still the epitome of fierce. I don’t think I’ve seen a more regal example of Giving Face than Amara:
What I’m Reading:
Slow reading month but I did revisit Judy Blume’s Forever and let me tell you: it offers better and more comprehensive sex ed than a lot of red districts. I can’t imagine any publisher today willing to publish it unless it involved dragons and a galaxy far, far, away.
What I’m Listening:
Lima loves to recycle every single Latin American pop hit from the 80s and 90s, and ONLY from the 80s and 90s. It gets tedious and loopy, and often makes me says something like, “Tuesday! What a concept!” as I wonder if I’m stuck on some timeline glitch. But every once in a while, the needle stuck on Peru’s turntable will land on some tune I LOVED that I had completely forgotten about. Ergo. “Sin Documentos” by the Argentinian/Spanish band.
What I’m Downloading:
I dated a guy in 2016 who would text me at 3am about whatever pearl of wisdom Marc Maron had dropped on his podcast. I downloaded it cause CRUSH. Then our romance imploded in those kind of gasp-he-did-what!!!!! ways that only my love life can pull off and I stopped listening to WTF. I decided to go back to it after Maron announced it was his last season and you know what? Next time, I’m not throwing out the baby with the bath water.
Restaurant of the Month: Ezzem in Lima
Despite a healthy amount of Peruvians of Arab descent (estimated at about 200,000), there aren’t a lot of good Middle Eastern food options in Lima. A couple of street carts and a handful of fast casual eaterie selling falafel wraps are about it, unless you make the trek to the Club Unión Árabe Palestino. Ezzem, though, is aiming for a well-thought experience. It’s highly-focused menu—four dips, several small plates to share, and only four mains—makes Lebanese cuisine accessible to an audience that might be unfamiliar with dishes like fatoush or kibbeh while also refusing to play into the shwarma basics.
Bar of the Month: La Esquina Bar de Vinos in Lima
The guy who owns this small and cozy wine bar in Miraflores knows his stuff and has the patience of a saint—my friend and I had a billion questions about the menu that he answered with aplomb and was kind enough to acquiesce if we could split each of our wine orders into two different glasses for a makeshift tasting. The wine list on the menu is tightly controlled (probably to avoid nightmare scenarios like the ones we enacted), showcasing only 5% of the entire inventory. They’re more than happy to recommend other options though if none of those catch your eye.
Best Thing I Ate: Diablo Fish at Clon in Lima
Perennial favorite of the newsletter, Clon, serves up a crispy, fried fish that you eath with your hands and dip into a variety of spicy sauces. A joy to eat.
Best Thing I Drank: Coffee with cardamom at the Film Festival organized by Artistas por Palestina
Well, damn. If this isn’t how I imagined coffee tasting as a kid.
Elevator Lewks:
I like seeing what normal people wear and I, a normal person, like sharing outfits that I think look good on me. For some reason, I only notice them when I’m in the elevator or, increasingly, in the full-length mirror in my room.
The Month in Newsletters
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In the past month, readers/friends/friends-of-friends have reached out to ask if I offer general writing coaching services or newsletter crash courses. It’s not a service I actively promote because I really do try to stay away from anything that sounds like an MLM-scheme, which is the vibe I frequently get from influencers and Substack hacks who self-identify as coaches on the platform. However, I’ve received such excellent feedback from those I’ve guided that I’m mentioning it here in case there’s anyone out there who’s been wondering the same thing. Feel free to respond to this email or DM me if you’re interested.
Here are some books I’ve worked on:
LGSNQ: Gentrification & Preservation in a Chicago Neighborhood (co-author)
Desolación by Gabriela Mistral (co-translator)
My most recent writing:
In the press/media:
Featured in Memoir Land’s Memoir Monday
“15 Questions with Ines Bellina”. 11am Saturday, The Movie Theater Questionnaire
“How Do You Eat? No. 3”. From the Desk of Alicia Kennedy
I revived my Instagram food project, which focuses on Peruvian food through the restaurants in my neighborhood. My latest post is on vegetarianism in the country.
If you’re struggling with the artist statement, I can help! My On-Demand class, Navigating the Artist Statement, is available for purchase at StoryStudio. Watch at your own time, at your own pace, and send those babies out!
Every week, I look at Five Calls, pick the issue that is most making me scream into the void, and use their app to call my reps. I’m making saving PBS my entire personality but the app shows you a list of issues you can discuss with your reps.
If you ever want to peruse all the books I recommend in the newsletter, head over to my Bookshop bookstore!