Thursday Murmurings
Amy Winehouse, restorative justice and historical bad bitches
Happy Thursday, Lovers.
Kicking it off this week paying homage to the legend that is Ms Amy Winehouse. It was recently the 10th anniversary of her death, which brought up all the feels for me. As a young music journalist back in the day, I interviewed Amy at The Jazz Cafe in London one afternoon. This was when she was doing the press rounds before her first album dropped. No one knew who she was and she clearly hadn’t had any media training. She was open, honest, hilarious, charming and such a great talker. After meeting her that day, I followed her career closely and like much of the world, fell in love with that voice.
Her passing was the first celebrity death that really hit me like a punch in the gut. I remember exactly where I was when I heard the news and walked around much of that day in utter disbelief. I’d found the grip drugs took on her life so terribly sad to see, I rooted so hard for her, willing that voice and the music to pull her out of it. But my oh my did she ever shine bright while she was here. What a gift she gave us.
One of my riders recently gave me this print of Amy which I absolutely love - can’t wait to find a prime bit of wall space to hang it on.
Listen to a bit of Amy today and let her talent soothe your soul.
Some things that caught my eye this week:
This piece about surrogate restorative justice in domestic violence cases is super powerful and worth a read.
Admittedly, I’m not familiar with the work of Billy Eilish but I read this piece and particularly this quote “If you’re always standing a certain way, walking in a certain way, and always have your hair just so, it’s such a loss of joy and freedom in your body.” And I thought… ‘that kid’s gonna be alright.’
I love learning about historical bad bitches, so it was pretty cool to learn that a lady by the name of Eunice Foote was the first scientist to chart the physics of climate change in 1856.
My jaw is still kinda on the floor after reading this, but the father of one of the Parkland shooting survivors became convinced by QAnon that it was all a hoax. I’ve read the piece a couple of times because the whole premise is so nuts, I almost thought it was a parody of some sort. But Jesus. QAnon and all the nut jobs that frequent it have little to no hope (or interest, it would seem) in reaquainting themselves with reality any time soon.
On Monday’s paid edition of The Murmuration, I’m giving you a pep talk.
“A common theme among many of my life coaching clients right now seems to be their internal narrative constantly telling them ‘I’m not good enough.’ I am coaching a variety of thoughtful, gifted, passionate, talented, driven, hardworking, intelligent, game-changing women and this belief, understandably, is throwing quite a spanner in their flyness. We all have our moments of being down on ourselves, but when it overpowers us to the point of hindering our personal progression, it’s a problem. Listen, wimminz, we have shit to do. And for you to be walking around feeling anything other than fabulous, I can’t have it - NOT ON MY WATCH! It’s time for me to pep talk the bejesus out of you.”
If you’re in need of an epic pep talk, you’re gonna wanna sign up. $5 a month or $50 for the year - get in on the action.
(And side note: if you’d be interested in some life coaching sessions with me, drop me a line at hello@mybigboldjuicylife.com and let’s get stuck in)
Your weekly Biggie update (or ‘pupdate’, if you will…)
Last week, Biggie fell asleep like this and frankly, my heart may never recover. So, if I have to live with this, so do you. You’re welcome.
Until next week, smile at strangers, spread good vibes, be nice to people.