Vibe Check: May 2025
Your Monthly Mood Board 🧚
Welcome to May! One of the vibiest months of the year, IMO. Some months don’t particularly resonate with me (like August… sorry, Leos), but May is a different story.
In LA, the purple jacarandas and pink trumpet trees are in bloom, and we’re on the tail end of poppy season. Wildflowers pop out of the cement medians, and the weather is that perfect California level of crisp but warm, it’s socks and sandals’ time to shine. Peonies arrive at Trader Joe’s, and the summer events start trickling in - I’ve already scooped up tickets to outdoor concerts (Japanese Breakfast) and lawn movie screenings (The Big Lebowski). It’s Taurus season, and I love a fellow earth sign, so it just feels like we’re in good hands.
May is bringing us the Met Gala, the Cowboy Carter tour, the return of Carrie Bradshaw. It’s a month for the girlies. When the new moon entered Taurus on Sunday, one of my favorite, witchiest friends (a Taurus, bless) told me it was an ideal day for manifesting. So what I’m manifesting for all of you is a beautiful, juicy, flirty, buzzy, sun-drenched entrance into this new phase of the year.
Here are some fun things to kick it off!
🔴 This Tedx Talk: The Case for Art when the World is on Fire with Amie McNee made me feel empowered about creating while everything seems awful.
🛍️ I’m a newcomer to Noihsaf Bazaar - a secondhand online store, that’s like an indie Poshmark. They describe it as a “community of buyers and sellers that love independent designers, makers, and small shops.” Sign me up!
👖 Another recent sartorial discovery was Jungmaven, a very cool hemp clothing company focused on sustainable basics.
🍸 And Just Like That is about to return, and I KNOW it’s a shell of the original, but I’ll watch these characters (and costumes) 'til the end of time. A few thoughts from others on our iconic Miss Bradshaw:
🩰 My brother-in-law got me the BEST house slippers for Christmas, and I’m still loving them. (They were even in Wirecutter’s top slipper list!)
🎶 Speaking of gifts, Ben just got me the vinyl for Weyes Blood’s 2019 ablum Titanic Rising, and I cannot stop listening to it.
💌 Ok Substackers, you’re going to love this - My internet friend Kristine Claghorn, or, Claggie, has started a monthly snail mail club called Proud of You. Each month you receive a letter in the mail (just got my first one!) that includes “encouragement and practices that support positive change, like: writing, research, exercises, reflection prompts, and/or tools for improving self-worth, stress, burnout, self-doubt, feelings of helplessness, connection to yourself and others, and more.” OBSESSED!
🎨 I’m going back to Tokyo in July and am seriously bummed that this Hilma af Klint exhibit, The Beyond, will be gone. 😭 If you’re unfamiliar with her work I highly recommend the documentary Beyond the Visible - Hilma af Klint.
😻 Stereolab has a new album out this month (yay!) and the music video for the first single Aerial Troubles is beautiful.
✂️ This piece in Pop Sugar The Death of the Souvenir — and the Rise of "Memory Collecting" makes me feel seen. I LOVE travel scrapbooking.
📸 I didn’t know who Paige DeSorbo was before reading this profile in Glamour, but I really appreciate her honed approach to caring less about other people’s opinions.
🧸 From The Cut: Dressing Like a Toddler Improved My Style. LOVE this - bringing back some playfulness into our wardrobe is so important. “As we get older, our style and taste can become diluted by outside influences, but as children, we often know what we like and dislike almost instantly.” TRUTH!
😵💫 This opinion piece from the NY Times, An Age of Extinction is Coming. Here’s How To Survive, seems a bit fearmongering - or at least pessimistic about the trajectory of human connection and creation - but is absolutely worth reading.
🌈 I can’t stop thinking about this Substack from The Culturist: Why is the World Losing Color? Please bring it back.
💔 Substacker Lesie Stephens recently shared a contemplative post on grief and the weight of the world, which led me to unearth the 5 Gates of Grief. We know about the stages of grief, but this is a compelling new (to me) lens.
💖 A few months ago, I subscribed to Polyester Zine, and I love it. It describes itself as a “self-published, intersectional feminist arts and culture publication aiming to bridge the gap of URL cyberfeminism with the irl world…” It feels like Rookie Mag in the 2010s, overflowing with creative young women with fantastic obsessions, observations, and opinions. They run great profiles on interesting creatives (Sofia Coppola to Ziwe to Amelia Dimoldenberg), run a podcast and Substack, and have various tiers of “Dollhouse” memberships, filling your inbox with great reads and even producing a zine in print or for digital download. Highly recommend supporting them!
🤴🏾 This Vogue profile of Coleman Domingo. He is such a dream! This quote really resonated with me: You need love. You need art. You need all these things in order to do the work you’re doing, whatever work that is. Who else can’t wait for this year’s Met Gala?!
🐣 This is a few years old, but I recently revisited this very relatable piece Why Can’t Our Friendship Survive Your Baby? As a childfree woman in her mid-30’s, I’ve dealt with… let’s call it… the evolution of what it looks like to maintain friendships post motherhood. Empathy and awareness is needed on BOTH sides.
📲 I also found a brand new TikTok account called The Sunday Scroll, which shares a weekly roundup of "mindfully curated reads.” What a great idea!
What do you all associate May with? Anything I missed?
Ok so many amazing things to dig in to in this newsletter but I have to quickly say that I am going to Tokyo in June and I am soooo excited about the Hilda af Klint exhibit!!! I accidently saw the incredible retrospective at the Guggenheim before the pandemic and I have been obsessed ever since. So excited!