the weekly | 05.06.26
met gala fatigue, it's summer blockbuster season, and what's a municipal grocery store?
This week started out rough: Met Gala (boring), official Odyssey trailer (chop), filmed a tutorial video (blurry). Hopefully, this newsletter begins to turn things around. I’m thinking the only thing that would actually help is speeding down I95 listening to the Middle Of Nowhere in the next 5 business days1.
Welcome back to the weekly: a collection of musings, reviews, and recommendations in beauty, fashion, and pop culture curated by me (@gabbywhiten), for you. This post contains affiliate links. Thank you for supporting oh eight; a like and comment is always appreciated, as well. Let’s get to the good stuff →
💾 saved on social
Body Horror [Prompt No. 67: Race Fetishization and Fashionable Beauty] from A Sunday Journal by Jesica Elise
patiently awaiting Skyler Allen’s snack plate ‘stack… 🔜
New York Magazine’s “How A Nepo Baby Is Born” sparked something on social in 2022. Although, I’m not sure how many people actually read the article. We could probably draw a straight line from that piece to the current iteration of “group cover/publication feature and produced interview listicle series”.
Vulture’s Reality Masterminds features a list of 30 of the most captivating, tactical, and entertaining Reality TV personalities and The New York Times documents the 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters. Smokey Robinson, Missy Elliot, Taylor Swift2, Carole King, Outkast, and Kendrick Lamar are among the panels’ favorite writers.
Speaking of Pulitzer Prize winners, the 2026 list of winners and finalists was released. Audition and Stag Dance made the finalists’ cut for Fiction. Tony nominations were also announced this week.
🛒 add to cart
Yesteryear (UK cover) from Blackwell’s | $23 (tip from @bookswithtay)
On The Hunt for a Large-ish Salad Bowl (Maybe this one: $9 | Crate & Barrel)
📖 world news
Cherie DeVaux makes history as the first woman who can take credit for training a Kentucky Derby winning horse (via Today).
According to Twitter, the only thing worse than NYPD allegedly collaborating with ICE in Bushwick is a new Whole Foods location.
The Department of Homeland Security is now fully funded. The Supreme Court guts a key component of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 with their 6-3 decision to strike down a redistricting map of Louisiana’s congressional districts that would have implemented two, new Black-led districts. It’s a mess either way you slice it. The nature of politicking in the South almost guarantees an accusation of racial gerrymandering. It’s just that maps diluting the Black vote and benefitting the white vote has now been established as the fair default.
Spirit shuts down and then news breaks that Delta will end complimentary food and beverage service on short haul flights (<350 miles or flight times under an hour). I was annoyed. An in-flight Delta gingerale is bible. Then, I realized that was a nothing burger. They always try to tear down baddies.
The real story is that an “ultra-low cost” airline just completely went off grid on a random Monday. The company was expecting hoping praying for a $500 million bail out from the Trump Administration.
🎧 tuned in
For fans of Golden Hour, Kacey Musgraves returns with a seventh studio album, Middle of Nowhere.
Ariana Grande announced a new album on Instagram. Petal is everywhere you get music on July 31st.
🧖🏾♀️ beauty buzz
Saie releases four new shades of the Lip Liner 101: Bite, Coy, Fling, and Fox.
EADEM enters the spf game with Sunsuede SPF50+, a sunscreen and blurring primer stick.
Silo returns for their third season on July 3. The talk of TikTok, The Other Bennet Sister, premiered with three episodes on BritBox (Amazon Prime) today. I have many questions about the premise of One Night Only (Universal Pictures)… guess I’ll have to be in the theater opening weekend! Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro star. Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) is back in Tony (A24), an Anthony Bourdain biopic. The Bear released a special episode with Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal… so that’s happening. The final season airs June 25 on Hulu.
“They would not be saying ‘daddy’ in Ancient Greece.” Well, first of all, these alabaster white people speaking English wouldn’t be in Ancient Greece so we’ve already gone left. And then, you have to consider: what else would be clipped by TikTok editors to promote Christopher Nolan’s new film, The Odyssey? However, something feels off about this trailer and I don’t know what it is !!
In 250 or less… I had a blast in The Devil Wears Prada 2 (20th Century Studios)! It interrogates the changing media landscape and how it morphs to capture attention spans of an elusive (and easily agitated) audience while also achieving a good ROI for its billionaire overlord. Art imitates life or life imitates art or something. My one major note is that I would have loved to swap all of the Australian man’s lines for a more nuanced version of Simone Ashley’s character, Amari. Hello??
Middle of Nowhere is stellar. Congratulations to Kacey Musgraves, Golden Hour finally has a sister. It’s hard to pick a favorite but the electric guitar solo on I Believe in Ghosts, the Mexico Honey chorus, the harmonies on Everybody Wants To Be A Cowboy, the structure of Abilene, and all four minutes of Loneliest Girl are my top moments. I also was vibing with Holly Humberstone’s album, Cruel World. Red Chevy will be on the summer playlist.
📝 pop quiz
The Devil Wears Prada 2 gets props for commissioning an artist to draw an “AI-generated meme” of Miranda Priestly. However, it appears the marketing team did not get the anti-AI memo.
Prime Video programming is very #BookTok forward [see Obsessed Fest and their upcoming 2026 line up].
🗽hyperlocal beat
Battle of the Fashion Exhibits: Costume Art opens at The Met on May 10 with Iris Van Herpen: Sculpting the Senses opening at the Brooklyn Museum on May 16.
Take Me Out To The Subway Series: Yankees at Mets next week!
RIP Virginie Gatreau, you would’ve loved weaponizing the SKIMS nipple bra to scandalize polite society. The Met Gala stream was a bit of a snooze fest this year. No, literally, I was falling asleep until a video of Chase Infiniti’s primary color powered custom Thom Browne gown came across my desk.
The Best Dressed: Emma Chamberlain in Mugler, Venus Williams in Swarovski, Louisa Jacobson in Dilaria Findikoglu, Paloma Elsesser in Bureau of Imagination, and Yseult in Harris Reed.
The Best Glam: Anok Yai, Hunter Schafer, Emma Chamberlain, Jennie, Sabrina Carpenter, Ayo Edebiri, Laura Harrier, and Laufey.
Realistically, I could see The Met Gala returning to a theme-less carpet soon or completing its arc altogether. Is anyone even having fun anymore? People are saving their best looks for Cannes. Even, Blue Ivy was consciously aware she was absolutely too cool for whatever was happening on those steps.
The bar for politicians is so low that I’m genuinely pleased to see Mayor Mamdani slowly introduce plans to address each of his campaign promises [even if they are in infancy stages and face years of push back]. A plan is, at minimum, somewhere to start. The city seeks to open a municipal grocery store in East Harlem.
I found it funny that the NYT article quotes John Catsimatidis’ distaste for the plan, but neglects to specifically mention that he’s the owner of Gristedes. Well, yes, your grocery stores are overpriced and ugly! They should have more competition; otherwise, there is no incentive to provide a better service for the community.
That’s all I have for you this week! stay hot ❤️🔥
xx, Gabby
p.s. did you forget to hit the like button or say hi in the comments :)
for legal reasons, I would not actually speed down I95.
Feeling extremely vindicated because I have said on record I think her best songwriting can be found on Debut, Speak Now, Fearless, and Folklore. However, she 100% loved when her fans would play detective. Is that not the foundation for the easter egg thing? That section is 100% revisionist on her part. It’s also why I never considered myself a Swiftie. I did not care what mediocre white man she was talking about any given year! LMAO
omg thank you so much for the mention! snack plate post coming next week 💛
I just saw Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Jon Bernthal in Dog Day Afternoon, and now I get to watch Gary right after?? Feeling blessed.