The perfect massage
When it comes to massages, I am a basic B. A friend of mine recently talked about the substantial difference between a $70 and $170 massage, and I had no idea what she was talking about. I don’t think I’ve ever paid more than $80/hour for a massage in my life (before tip), but I believe I’ve gotten the formula down for the perfect massage. The necessary elements are as follows:
-An edible, somewhere between half and full dosage (whatever that is for you). IYKYK.
-90 minutes. 60 minutes is a bit short for my tastes, 2 hours definitely too long. 90 is the Goldilocks length.
-Your own music. Spa music sucks. I keep my headphones on at a volume where I block out the spa music but can still communicate with the masseuse. My face-down playlist leans Baroque; very often I’ll just stream the Brandenburg Concertos.
-Hot stones. I think I read somewhere that hot stones are not very therapeutically effective. I do not care. There are few things as viscerally pleasurable in a massage setting as hot stones on your back and shoulders.
That’s it! Treat yourself!
-Inkoo
—In Telemarketers, the Chaos Is the Point. I reviewed the docuseries Telemarketers (good) and the documentary BS High (very good), a pair of HBO/Max projects about grotesque and fascinating scams.
—How Anna May Wong Became the First Chinese American Movie Star. Informative book review about Wong the star, as well as Wong the Asian American recuperative figure.
—East Asia’s new family portrait. A subject I can’t read enough about is the demographic decline in East Asia, which is taking place in Japan, South Korea, China, and Taiwan for closely related but not identical reasons. I thought this forward-looking analysis from The Economist was great, even if that magazine published another piece, also smart, on the same subject a week later that come to the opposite conclusion.
—Are we stuck with these guys forever. A very funny piece on the nauseating Vivek Ramaswamy, the utterly loathsome Andrew Yang, and “the Silicon Valley candidate trend.”
—Personally, I am down for fashion houses making the Grand High Witch their muse.