Favorite Roads Spotlight: Beach Drive
Upcoming shows: Santa Monica! New Orleans! West Hollywood!
Est. Read Time: 5 minutes. Read Time brought to you once again by the Ashburton Energy + Hair Logistics Group, in association with the Bradley Hills Bureau of Corrections + Housing.
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SHOWS
Comedy Confessional at The Crow (Santa Monica) - Nov. 8, 7:45PM
Hell Yes Fest (New Orleans) — Nov. 11-18
Historical Roast of Queen Elizabeth II at the Hollywood Improv - Nov. 29, 7:30PM
Hellooo Sternal Journalists and happy Halloweek!
I caught myself being an absolute loser adult this weekend when, upon seeing people out and about in costumes, I said, “This isn’t Halloweekend! Next weekend is clearly Halloweekend! You only get to do both weekends if it lands on a Wednesday!”
But of course, I’m actually just jealous of the youngsters getting after it (and also that nobody invited me to a Halloween party, wth, I guess I am 36). Regardless, I’m feeling nostalgic and, today in a writing group, I banged out a little piece about why I love Maryland’s own Beach drive so much. Spoiler: it is because, when I was growing up, it connected most of my friends’ houses and gave a false sense that your whole world could be connected like that. Not covered in the post is the time a friend and I drove on Beach Drive in the middle of the night with our headlights off trying to scare the shit out of each other. Do not try that at home. It was scary and dangerous.
Also, it feels like a follow-up to my (relatively) popular top 5 favorite roads read from May, so if you liked that, you might like this. If you didn’t just scroll down to the recs!
Beach Drive
a nice road and why it is nice
Damn, I love Beach Drive. I think I like most that for a long time, it connected all the places I know. I think there's a fantasy where Beach Drive just continues and at some point, Rock Creek fades away and the Chattahoochee River picks up.
And along it, I can find Emory and Clairmont Circle and the Clermont Lounge and the Highlands and Maggies and all that.
And then the Hooch fades away and becomes starker. Sharper angles, man-made. The LA River emerges. Nothing is quite as convenient from the LA River portion of Beach Drive. But you can get to Brentwood and Fairfax Village and Eagle Rock in 40 minutes, 15 in the middle of the night.
And then the concrete slowly turns to older stone. Wobbly cobbles, centuries old. And you're just a blustery uphill walk to all of Edinburgh.
That's why I love Beach Drive. The feeling that everything is connected, everyone within reach.
The Reach of the Beach! Connecting the three places I’ve lived and the one place I’ve been a bunch! Anyone else wish we had a little road-portal to make everything closer together? Pop off in the comments if so. But for now…
Recommendations!
Notting Hill. Film. I watched this because they talked about it on a recent episode of the Lonely Island Seth Meyers Podcast, and it was available on Delta. Specifically, they talked about how cozy the friend group felt. As a sucker for a friend group, I was suspicious but they really delivered. It’s a fun movie. It heavily features bookstores. It has unseated How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days as my favorite rom-com. Momentous.
Mugshot Freestyle. Song. I cannot get enough of septuagenarian UK Drill rappers Pete and Bas, and I have no idea how much of it is them and how much of it is someone else. I look forward to finding out, but until then, I hope to enjoy it a tenth as much as they are.
The Priest Who Helps Women in the Mob Escape. Article. I just started this New Yorker article which is exactly what the title says, but I’m excited to keep reading. I hope that he is great at his job and that a not-terrible storyteller snatches up the film rights.
Penguin. Television Show. Just watched the pilot. Gross-sexy, I am excited for more.
That’s all for this week!
Much love!
Julian
P.S. here is a dispatch from the beautiful world of internet comments
Normally, I use this area to say that you can upgrade to paid if you’re rich. I hugely appreciate those of you who have, but nobody should ever feel pressured to! (Although huge thanks to my recent new paid subscribers! You have made it slightly easier to do this!) AAAAALSO though, if you’re the type to hit a like or leave a comment and you just haven’t thought of doing it on the SternJourn yet, come on in! Lemme know if you love or hate the recs! All engagement unfortunately is good engagement. But if you do not have time, get outta here and don’t worry about it! I’ll see ya next week!