4.22.26 Welcome to Running Late™

Playing catch up: The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Redistricting, & Versailles

As many of you know, I have been trying to find a way to combine my love for writing, culture, and politics for quite some time. Turns out, getting laid off can spur, alongside doubt + such, some motivation. As a result, here I am attempting to find my place in the barrage of media we confront on the daily. I hope this newsletter makes you think outside of the scroll. Running Late will be released weekly.
If you like it, feel free to share. If you don't, I'm open to feedback.

Bear with me on while I figure this one out..xx

Let's Have a Nuanced conversation about: Redistricting

On Tuesday, Virginia voted to approve a constitutional amendment that will allow their General Assembly to redraw voting districts until 2030 census. Virginia's General Assembly has already approved a new district map that would make 10 of the 11 districts majority democrat for the upcoming mid-terms. Virginia's congressional seats are currently split in the house between 6D - 5R.

Most states have the legislature or an independent commission redistrict every decade after the census to adjust for population changes. This most recent bout of mid-decade gerrymandering began last summer when Trump directed Texas republicans to redraw the map so the GOP could gain 5 seats. In response, California passed Prop 50 to allow for a new district map drawn by the legislature. Since, republicans and democrats are playing a game of tit for tat across states. Florida is next to watch.

On principal, gerrymandering directly undermines the democratic process. When it's your party, it feels great. When it's not, it feels like cheating. If you want to understand more about gerrymandering, here's a simple breakdown.

At Dinner This Week We're Talking About:

The lost art of "The Scene"

The Red Hot Chili Peppers were born out of absolute spontaneity. Four best friends who met in high school and weaved their way in and out of bands with and without each other, until one day, the miracle that is the Red Hot Chili Peppers as we know them came to fruition. Anthony Kierdas wasn't a singer until he was inspired by 80s hip-hop to write poetry. Flea was an aspiring jazz musician and then picked up a bass. All of this was concocted in Los Angeles' music scene during the 1980s. Back then, so I hear, people piled into cars, showing up to places they heard about through games of telephone and discovered a new sound, vision, way of being upon arrival. Most artists across genres and decades tell a similar story, their "Scene." It sounds alluring and utterly unattainable today.

I sit across the dining table from my step-father who never fails to remind me that Southern California's punk scene emerged as he did into adolescence. Punk was doing something that no one had ever seen before, he recalls. It was a reactionary form. There were norms to fight against, and he remembers they would fight, physically. Punk was a way of dressing, carrying yourself, and defined how you spent your time. He reminds me "The Scene" is to be differentiated from "scene-y." "The Scene" was born out of necessity, rebellion, a lack of oversight, and instinct. The purpose wasn't to see and be seen, it was a survival mechanism for those within, before whatever "The Scene" produced got commercialized and died. "The Scene" in regards to music is generally shaped around the newness of a genre and the few, usually young, people that are in on it.

Most changes in art can be historically traced to either 1) a technological change or 2) resistance to said change. Optimists premised that the internet would increase accessibility to information and, thus, creative output. We should be the most well informed, therefore inspired, generation of creatives to ever exist. In some ways, the internet and social media have democratized art. In others, they have sucked dry one of the most important aspects of human creativity: time to be idle. Sit with uncomfortable feelings rather than scroll them away. Let it all fester. I used to get in trouble for watching TV - there were better ways to spend time with myself. Now, I'm satisfied when I make it through a movie or show without simultaneously scrolling.

We sat there and tried to parse through the potential for a similar scene to emerge today. A genre that could spark the same revolution that the advent of rock and roll did, or jazz, or rap. It's like we've run out of primary colors, and all that's left is sub-genres of sub-genres. That's not to say there is not music or communities out there. Or that there aren't powers and norms to resist against - there surely are (now we just post infographics about them). But, to discover a new sound that has never been done before in a basement with twenty other people watching their world flip upside down? Unlikely. A music review of a new band that doesn't reference 10 other artists from the last century? Unlikely. Have the limits of genre been reached? Are we doomed to genre-slop? I refuse to say yes.

We sit on the precipice of AI - rather, it's arrived. Claude tells me all foundational genres have been found, and scenes now exist on the internet rather than in person. Perhaps, Claude suggests, new genres might originate with generative AI audio. Claude suggests I check out Discord and Reddit.

I'd love to hear your thoughts. Send them to me in the feedback form at the bottom of this newsletter.

• Suggested viewing: The Rise of the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Our Brother, Hillel out now on Netflix.

Rage Bait I Fell for this week:

Olivia Rodrigo Filming in Versailles

Olivia Rodrigo released her lead single "Drop Dead" off her third album last Friday. Along with it came a Petra Collins directed music video shot in Versailles, the site where crowds of women once marched from the market to its golden gates and demanded reforms on an October day in 1789. Versailles is the kind of place that reminds us why moments like the French Revolution happened and why the modern world aspires to democracy in the first place. Olivia Rodrigo dancing through the palace singing about a first date feels kind of like Kylie Jenner posting bikini photos from her mansion to Bob Dylan's soliloquy about death, Knockin' on Heaven's Door - something feels off.

I understand why the beauty of Versailles could feel like a good backdrop to a love song. I've been a tourist in Paris. I've walked the hall of mirrors, sat in the gardens of Versailles with a personal bottle of rosé, marveled at the Louvre, and smoked cigarettes at Place Des Vosges while soaking in sun rays. Paris, after all, is a city where lovers are more common than friends. Emotion triumphs over sensibility. Paris is a city of love, which I always saw as an accomplishment. I am not sure how a city can be so capable of love. Cities are selfish. They are about the I, not the we, until the we serves the I. They bustle and demand you to move and think fast. There is no harsher place to face life's honesty than on an underground train while a baby is crying, it's hot, and the man slumped in the corner isn't moving. Love is a song that would make a city go quiet. Paris, though, is a city of love.

But more so than a city of love it is a city of its history. I think we forget that. Watching visitors conduct photoshoots outside the Louvre dressed in Chanel-esque skirt suits from Zara reminded me that some things about humanity don't change. We all want to feel like we belong in royal Parisian gardens, heirs of wealth and dynasty. The lesson in the grandeur, though, is what a falsehood it all is. Most of France was starving while the wealthy lived in luxury. The beauty isn't aspirational, it's chilling.

Alex vs. Alix

There's nothing more taboo than two woman feuding in the public eye. Especially when they have the same name, likeness, and once worked together. Here is my rundown:

• Alex Cooper, host of Call Her Daddy & founder of Unwell, launched Tik Tok star Alix Earle's show Hot Mess under her podcast network in Aug. 2023. By Feb. 2025, Unwell announces Hot Mess was "dropped." Since, rumors that the two were in a feud chalked up to mere speculation until Earle started reposting + liking Alex Cooper hate (see here). Cooper subsequently posted a video asking Earle to "get specific" about the hate. Earle commented "Okay on it!!" but has not responded.
• Is it a PR stunt? Unsure. My speculation - Cooper's post is conveniently timed. If the outrage around her hosting The Hannah Montana 20th Anniversary Special is any indicator, her reputation as Gen-Z's most celebrated female podcaster is in decline. Addressing Earle feels less so about their dispute, and more so a way for Cooper to interject into the growing narrative that she is unlikable without making a vague post directed at her "haters." Most women in the public eye experience a moment of reputation crisis (*cough cough* a bot-driven smear campaign? - again, speculation). Perhaps this was a way for Cooper to intervene in the discourse surrounding her at large before it snowballed, and Earle was a convenient proxy. Also, the Bloomberg article about Unwell's workplace feels like a pile-on, though not a surprise for those in the industry.

​This girl vlogging her solo journey through the Pacific Crest Trail + wearing lots of pink while doing it. Madonna releasing a sequel to her 2005 dance album Confessions on a Dance Floor. The lead single “I Feel So Free” came out this past Saturday - see weekly playlist. In honor of the Devil Wears Prada 2 Premiere last night, Vogue's April cover article with Meryl Streep & Anna Wintour. Not substantive, but the photos alone answer all my questions about Miranda Priestly + Anna Wintour. In theaters May 1. Live reporting on the culture war: Desert 5 Spot played "Picture to Burn (Homophobic Version)" at 2 a.m. Saturday night. Lastly: Still on this picture of Kristi Noem's husband.

PLAYLIST OF THE WEEK 4.22.26 • RunningL8 I Feel So Free • Madonna PREVIEW   ​ Click here to send me your anon feedback, tips, request, etc.!

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