And we’re back, welcome to your Sunday morning Coffee over Culture. The past week has been the dreamiest NYC week since before the pandemic. It felt like when Ubers were $10 per ride, happy hour drinks were $5 a pop, and the president wasn’t a felon. As such, I spent my time enjoying the real world, watching every soccer game possible, and being a resurged Knicks fan (I fell off the bandwagon back in ‘05).
If we zoom out from NYC vibes (truly the BEST, I wish you were here to feel it), this week was a doozy. Multiple things can be true: I feel like I’m overall thriving, living my best NYC summer and it’s only June, and also having stress dreams and anxiety thoughts about life, the state of the world, and the fact that the American government is bad. You can expect a political corner this issue, but let’s start with some fun:
me this past week, until July 19th
Top 5 Cultural Moments of the Week that you may have missed:
Dua Lipa wedding dress reveal!!!! Yesterday, Dua Lipa finally posted her actual wedding dress and of course it was custom Chanel haute couture (designed by Matthieu Blazy). I don’t really know what those words mean, but I just know she looks STUNNING and I need to dream bigger for my life. She’s truly thriving and you just love to see it. Also I recently saw her new hubby in a movie trailer for the first time and I was so excited to see Mr. Lipa in something!
all the deets in Vogue, it’s just too stunning for one pic
Happy Belated Juneteenth! One of my fave things that happened is the grand opening of the Obama Presidential Center Library. The ceremony featured Sasha and Malia (now 25 and 27, wtf), a brilliant speech by Michelle, featuring a line about Obama winning the Nobel Peace Price that made Hilary Clinton guffaw (video snippet here), and performances by Stevie Wonder and Marc Anthony among other artists (I highly recommend watching these two at least). As someone who recently re-watched the entirety of Scandal, it felt like 2014 episode where Olivia and Fitz are in love and their world isn’t on fire. 😍 Also there’s apparently a vegetable garden at the Center, remember when republicans hated Michelle for trying to feed the kids??? I love the way the continue to thrive unbothered.
check out more adorable photos on USA Today’s IG Post
The New York Knicks won the men’s NBA finals on Saturday June 13th, and were celebrated by the city with a ticker tape parade in downtown Manhattan on June 18th. Their win marks the first NBA championship won by New York in 53 years, and their first ever ticker tape parade, so you better believe over 4 million people turned out to see them in person. Side bar, I learned this week that ticker tape parades are unique to NYC because they started with the long skinny papers that the stock exchange would print out being tossed out of windows onto the parade route and I think that’s fun.
Mayor Mamdani is living his absolute best life ever (lifelong Knicks fan and the only person I know of who loves their job with every cell in their body), and delivered a speech for the ages in honor of the team’s historic win. If you love a great locker room pep talk, I highly recommend you watch the full speech here. There’s too many lines to pick my favorite, but I’ll tease you with this one: “So often when this city comes together it is because we are forced to, by a moment of tragedy or adversity. What a gift it is to be brought together by pure, unfiltered joy.” I love my mayor.
Other fun stories from the parade: my favorite (aka who I think is the hottest) Knick is Karl-Anthony Towns, engaged to Jordyn Woods, and NJ-raised 7’0’’ Dominican American man, continued to hype up his girl and her lucky bag (she brought this orange purse - pictured below - to every one of their last 13 wins, and she couldn’t bring the bag to the game that Trump went to, so then they lost, obvi). Also, NYPD almost apprehended Tyler Kolek, the one white-boy Knick, and kicked him out of the parade because they didn’t know he was on the team 😭.
Someone said Timotheé Chalomet looked like a Make-a-Wish kid celebrating with the Knicks and I haven’t stopped laughing since.
What you need to know about the Men’s World Cup (if you want more, check out this girl’s tiktok page she’s got all the tea):
General PSA from your resident HS soccer girl: If you want to sound like you know ball, stop calling it “FIFA” and start calling it “the World Cup.” For example, “I’m going to watch the World Cup match.”
A woman named Diamond went viral on TikTok last week after commenting on one video telling people to watch her little brother play in the World Cup for Team USA. Then he scored his first goal in their Friday match against Australia. On all the comments about his goal on TikTok people keep saying, “is that Diamond’s little brother??” which makes me giggle, and on threads, people made the point that a black boy with the last name “Freeman” scored a goal for the USA on Juneteenth, and I think that’s beautiful.
I should probably do a deeper dive on this, but if you’re wondering why we hate FOX soccer analyst Alexi Lalas, (former USMNT player who one time won an MLS Cup trophy back in 2002), aside from him being incredibly loud, annoying, and often wrong, just know he’s deeply MAGA and deeply untalented at soccer compared to his World Cup commentator colleagues - Thierry Henry (won a FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro, UEFA Champions League, and multiple league titles in England and Spain) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (won won 34 major domestic and international trophies, mainly for his club teams). The good news is they seem to hate him too. And yes, Carli Lloyd, USWNT legend is also MAGA and incredibly annoying (I see a correlation) so FYI we don’t like her either.
Political Corner, warning: buckle up or keep scrolling, stupid things ahead:
Reflecting Pool, Algae, & Money Laundering: I like actually can’t get into this because you all probably have seen at least something about the Reflecting Pool “upgrades” Trump did, but I wanted to show you a picture of the guy who he granted a no-bid (illegal) $1.7M contract that turned into a $14M contract to. He’s a convicted felon who hangs out at Mar-a-Lago and his company is named Greenwater Services. You literally can’t make this shit up.
someone else said he looks like he’s going to tie up a woman on the cartoon train tracks. i cant.
Trump seems barely alive. We joked about them doing a weekend at Bernie’s situation when he was dead, but I never imagined it’d look like this. According to all the medical professionals I keep seeing speak out online, it looks like he’s had multiple strokes, is completely unaware of where he is and/or lost much of the time, and the reason he keeps falling asleep in places he shouldn’t, like NBA finals, is because his dementia brain gets overwhelmed and shuts down. This week he was at the G7 Summit in France and was seen wandering off and declaring “I’m the boss” to the entire room of WORLD LEADERS. When he’s not embarrassing the USA with his words or actions, he’s seen staring off into space or slumping over in his chair, both of which he did when all the world leaders took a photo together at the round table on the first day and he had no idea it was even going on.
Bonus thing I wish I could forget, he can’t fasten snap buttons on a medal of honor so he basically choked out this soldier by tying his medal of honor in a knot. I’m learning a lot about old age and dementia these days, and I don’t really like what I’m seeing.
also he very clearly had a stroke look at his face!!!
Lastly, Puerto Rico’s water crisis has hit new levels - affecting over 100,000 people. From NPR, “Puerto Rico is dealing with a severe shortage of running water, so severe that the governor has activated the National Guard to distribute drinking water across the island. The problem's been building for months, caused by ruptures and leaks in Puerto Rico's aging aqueduct system. Workers this week have been scrambling to repair a massive crack in one major pipe that's left tens of thousands of people in and around the capital with no water at all.” Without consistent running water, locals have been struggling and dissent towards their government has reached new levels. CBS News has a great video summary here of what’s going on and what’s being done about it, but because Puerto Rico is a colony of the USA without actual voting representation in our government, plus Trump hates Puerto Rico, idk how fast this will actually be remedied. If you love Bad Bunny, loved the Puerto Rican Day Parade, or love Jose Alvarado on the Knicks, you should also love the people of Puerto Rico.
Honorable mentions from the week, only good news I promise:
Anne Hathaway is pregnant with baby #3 at age 42 and wow is she glowing. Lil Nas X confirms he’s happy, healthy, and recently came out of a rehab stint where he found out he is bipolar. Truly inspiring to see this kind of vulnerability these days. Olivia Rodrigo’s new album came out and I saw someone say it’s a millennial album even though she’s very much Gen Z, so I will report back once I’ve had a chance to listen. Formula 1’s only black driver, 7-time world champion and 41 year old Lewis Hamilton finally won is first race with Ferrari (after 1.5 years) and his first race since July 2024 (but he’s still dating Kim K, ugh). Serena Williams and Venus Williams are playing doubles at Wimbledon (what year is it???). And Summer House is finally done with last season after a three part reunion and one part “after math” episode, and we still don’t have confirmation on who will be in the house this year even though the start filming after 4th of July.
In lieu of best TikToks of the week, here’s a puppy I met while writing this newsletter yesterday:
he’s 4 months old and his name is kevin, “because dauchshunds should be named Minion names,” according to his mom.
Astrology/Energy for the week ahead…
Alert! I hear another Mercury Retrograde is upon us! It technically doesn’t start until June 29th, but we’re already in the pre-shadow period and I swear I already feel the affects of it. I like Vogue’s summary of what Mercury Retrograde is, in case you need a refresher: “Mercury retrograde is famously a period of miscommunication, delays, and technical difficulties. People could feel more forgetful or ditzy. Retrogrades can also bring reversals: if you lost your keys, you might find them; if you walked away from a relationship, you might find yourself walking back.” I would say, if you’re single, stay single because a Hot Girl Summer is the vibe this year, but hey, you know what’s right for you, so maybe that old flame is in the cards for you this year.
Anywho, thanks for sticking with me and continuing to support! I’ll leave you with this image from Obama’s Presidential Center grand opening that I hope becomes a meme:
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