Micaela and I were very excited to go see the Barbie movie. Well, I was excited and dragged Micaela along, but we were in good spirits and dressed in pink to go see the movie on opening day!
As luck would have it, there was a street fair happening near the theater with a live DJ. We were stoked to hear Toni Basil’s 1980 rock anthem “Hey Mickey”. and stopped to have an impromptu dance party.
We were riding high on our way to the movie, vibing out with all the folks dressed in pink. I grabbed an ICEE when we got to the theater, half cherry, half coke. This is the best ICEE combo and no one can change my mind.
However, on our way out we had different feelings. Here’s our review recorded just minutes after leaving the theater.
The feminist message was great to hear, but really we wanted more story.
We were stoked to participate in this year’s SubZero Street Fair in San Jose! This two-day festival brings together, artists, musicians and weirdos from the Bay Area and is always so fun! We’ve been vendors at this event twice before in 2015, and 2013, but this is the first time we’ve participated since moving back to the West Coast. This festival is still one of the highlights of our summer!
San Jose shuts down First Street, the unofficial headquarters of all things art and performance for this annual event. In addition to the streetfull of art vendors, the surrounding businesses also participate, making this an event that is jam packed with things to do and places to use the bathroom (an often overlooked necessity at street fairs). The event starts in the late afternoon and goes well into the night, adding live musical performances with Bay Area bands after dark.
Micaela and I showed out with two binfulls of personally upcycled clothing, handmade resin plaques and jewelry, paintings, minizines and books! We dream of opening a storefront one day, and seeing our inventory like this makes my heart jump a bit.
Connecting with like-minded people was a highlight. The Bay is home to so many nerdy professionals and smart people, so we got into some great conversations about science and weird happenings.
SubZero Fest may be one weekend per year but San Jose has an amazing art walk and vendor village every first Friday of the month! We signed up to table on First Street again in August, September, and October, so come see us if you’re local!!
The Blunt Letters joined forces with sister podcast Bleed With Me Horror to bring you a special 2 part episode with visual artist Skinner!
In Part 1, Bleed With Me hosts, Micaela Superstar and Sean Bottai, were joined by Elle Lectrick to catch up with Skinner about his evolving art projects, horror influences, and life in The Bay.
Part 2 hosted on The Blune Letters Podcast, continues the conversation and dives deep to discuss mental health, love, and growing up in the bay.
Our usual facts-first science podcast took a look back at Elle’s quinceanera, a party described in 2023 as “still the best party I’ve ever been to” by a long-time friend who was there!
This week in The Blunt Letters episode “Trains derailments, weird doubles, and what’s in the sky?” Micaela talks about the changing Wikipedia page for the “2023 Chinese Ballon Incident”. When she first looked up the incident at the beginning of February, she snapped the photos below which describe the object. Since then it’s been changed. Check out the images below and compare them to the current page.
What do you think about the change? Comment Below!
** Featured image: A U.S. Air Force pilot looked down at the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon as it hovered over the Central Continental United States February 3, 2023. Recovery efforts began shortly after the balloon was downed. (Photo courtesy of the Department of Defense)
During the third episode of Season 3, Micaela told the story about the weird balls scattered on the walking trail near her house. What she initially thought might be some kind of fruit turned out to be a wondrous and terrifying bit of nature: wasp galls.
Check out these photos Micaela took of some wasp galls she found!
You know someone made a euphemism for the all too obvious “wasp balls” name that these spheres so blatantly warrant.
These bulbous protrusions are most often found on Oak trees and happen when a wasp and a branch get together in a symbiotic kinda way. The wasp inserts her eggs into the flesh of the tree which causes the area to swell. The tree protects the wasp eggs and provides a safe place to grow.
Although the tree doesn’t get much out of this arrangement it doesn’t suffer any negative effects. Eventually, the gall plops off the tree. The matured wasp will exit the gall at some point, but be careful, they might still be in there even if it’s not attached to the tree.
Based on where these were found and the shape of the galls Micaela found, we think it was probably the Andricus californicus wasp.
February already and The Blunt Letters is getting around! Last weekend Micaela and Elle had a table at Unkle Morty’s Zombie Sweetheart Market in our favorite city Oakland, California!
We brought our spooky goods to table with around 30 other vendors! Our table had all issues of The Blunt Letters Zine and 51 minizines, plus painting, art plaques, handmade resin jewelry and stash boxes, plus clothes! We can’t wait for our next event!
You may remember from our Road Trip Episode that Micaela and Elle recently traveled across the U.S. for an awesome Blunt Letters friendship adventure! And what does every adventure have? Food!
Here’s a breakdown of the most memorable road meals from Connecticut to California, some good, some fucking disgusting, and some so delicious we’ll think about it for years to come.
I love to eat seasonal foods, and since our trip started in mid-October that meant spiced desserts and hot drinks. We had a strong start to our trip with apple cider donuts, I’d been looking for them for a while in California with no luck! The leaves were red, orange, and glowed along both sides of the black highway as we blew through Connecticut, New York, and finally stopped for the night in Pennsylvania feasting on road snacks and Impossible Whoppers along the route.
Believe it or not, it was not until we got to Nebraska on the 3rd day of our trip that we had a delicious meal again. Although, there were some roadside falafels outside of St. Louis that deserve an honorable mention. In Nebraska, our hotel concierge recommended a sushi place, we were so excited that good sushi was the first suggestion that we hurried into the cold night to find it. When we got there all the waiters were wearing shorts! It was kind of weird since the outside temperature was MAYBE over 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Micaela had an awesome cocktail with peach juice and cucumber vodka, and the Nebraska roll was very tasty. I would definitely eat there again if I found myself in Lincoln.
The next day we drove over to Denver, Colorado. Micaela splurged on a suite with a hot tub in the room, we swung by a dispensary for some pre-rolls, and ate incredible Thai food! Their Pad Thai was delightfully spicy, and the spring rolls were hot, crispy, and filled with silky cabbage. Surprisingly, they had a fermented tea and peanut salad that was perfectly seasoned and so crunchy. We were very grateful to have two back-to-back good food days.
Unfortunately, our food luck ran out in Utah. We drove into some random town with a Mexican restaurant that drew us in with a sign that said they roast their own peppers for a house chili. If they did you wouldn’t know it since everything seemed like some slop that was scooped out of a can or scooped out of a preservative jar. Straight up, look at this photo and tell me what you think that is?
This is what they called “fajitas.”
Thankfully, that wasn’t the last road meal we would ride into California with. The next day, we drove to Winnemucca, NV visited two restaurants, and had the best two meals of the trip. This gem of a town has an incredible Mexican restaurant that is also a sushi restaurant. These folks know what they’re doing. Micaela ordered a fried fish and they brought out a whole fish, tail and all! I ordered agauachiles (shrimp cooked in lime juice with extra spicy salsa) and both were bomb. Micaela also had a lime cherry cocktail that she recreated when we made it to California. It was a great evening, one that elevated our mood after the trash meal from the day before and put our last night on the road back on track.
Some of our meals were so good, they make me think about visiting places like Lincoln, Nebraska to enjoy them again. But California truly has some of the best cuisine and ingredients on Earth, so it may be a while.
Where ever we go, we are always on the lookout for new animal friends. This year new critters have emerged to be noticed, check out the new Animal Drop: Best New Animals of 2022!
The Principe scops-owl (Otus bikegila) of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe
This distinctive new owl species joins the scops owl genus and is known for its short “tuu” call. The call is rapidly repeated and has been compared to the call of insects. We love a chatty owl and The Principe’s beautiful big eyes are captivating, hopefully, the owls get Zoom so they can join us on The Blunt Letters Podcast.
It could happen.
Sponge crab (Lamarckdromia beagle), Western Australia
Now you may be thinking, this is a very stylish crab, and you’d be half right because that is a stylish crab and sea sponge acting as a beret. That’s right, this arthropod’s accessory is a living sea sponge, usually one that gives off toxins creating a barrier of protection for this fuzzy crab! Sponges and sometimes sea squirts are held in place by tiny pincers on the back legs of the crab. Enchanté monsieur crab!
This scaly friend, the Phalotris shawnella, loves long slithers near the beaches of Rancho Laguna Blanca in Paraguay. This snake was discovered by chance by the conservation organization Para La Tiera and is one of only 3 known individuals. This makes them super rare and critically endangered! This snake’s bright yellow neck coloring is sending a message: if you love it then you gotta put a ring on it, don’t let this snake disappear!
Tapir frog (Synapturanus danta), the Putumayo Basin, Peru
Does this frog look familiar? While they may look like the enchanted chocolate frogs from Harry Potter, they’re actually the Tapir frog from Peru. These frogs are known locally as the Rana Danta (the word for Tapir) and are very difficult to find because they are a burrowing species. They dig for the dirt!
This is the most famous creature of 2022, it was discovered by YouTuber JoCho Sippawat (also known as Zongtum Sippawat), who has over 2.5 million subscribers. Sippawat then went on to collaborate with arachnologists Dr. Narin Chomphuphuang and Chaowalit Songsangchote to describe and name the species. This particular spider only lives within the hollow part of the bamboo shoot known as the “culm” in areas of Thailand with an elevation of 1000 meters, so arachnophobes, consider yourselves warned.
Leafhopper (Phlogis kibalensis), in Kibale National Park, Uganda
This little leafhopper is shrouded in mystery as almost nothing is known about its life. As a member of the order of the “true-bugs” or Hemiptera comprising over 80,000 species. This leafhoppers’ red eyes make us think they’re more interested in true blood, a show that Elle did not watch.
Finally, we bring you USA’s very own Millipede (Nannaria swiftae), so named after the pop singer Taylor Swift. They live in the Appalachian mountains and are one of 17 new species discovered in this area since 2015! The millipede males have specialized legs for sex, although we’re not sure how many or what positions it uses.
This week join the Blunt Letters look into local happenings, from the history of Mt. Diablo to the total lunar eclipse. Learn about how this famous Bay Area mountain got its name and the lore that surrounds it. Then, Micaela and Elle look to the heavens to predict what this eclipse could mean for the season. Finally, stick around for a Let Me Tell You About This Movie for the new Martin McDonagh movie: The Banshees of Inisherin. Spoilers as always!
Original Song “Quartz Portalz” by Micaela Superstar
Halloween may be over but there’s plenty of Spooky Season left! The Blunt Letters digs into the influences of Day of the Dead, reviews the modern classic Over The Garden Wall, and bring you a new Space Update all about so-called “planet killer asteroids!” Plus, Micaela and Elle recount their recent earthquake experience!
The Blunt Letters Podcast 