Travel Substack needs help

Mean fashion podcast

I’ve been struggling to navigate travel Substack. Unlike fashion, it’s hard to parse the use value and pay-to-play transactions on first look. (When people recommend Banana Republic, I know what’s going on.) I don’t have favorite creators, and so much of it is paywalled, I never really get the chance to find them. Here’s a good example: This woman is #4 on the Travel rankings, but her post about New York is completely paywalled. I’d be able to tell with a single recommendation whether she’s worth following or not. Oh, well.

The photographers are doing great work, but they don’t often do hotel pairings or even drop pins. (Okay, I actually just don’t care about travel photography?! Anything can look beautiful, even London.)

Part of it is I feel strongly that there should be extreme budget options, because I don’t really respect the planning of expensive European vacations (it’s such an American idea). There’s truly nothing more cucked than staying at a design-forward hotel, when you could just be in a simple, cash-only whitewashed spot off the beach.

Sometimes I’ll come across something truly niche and interesting, like this letter about reading your way across Japan. (Even if there aren’t many useful “travel recommendations.”) Or this modest post on Greece that is simple and straightforward (3 recommendations for hotels). I love a hotel that can only be booked by e-mail! I guess I’m just trying to say: If there’s a creator you like, please recommend them in the comments! Summer is upon us.

• Miyako Bellizzi—nominated for her triumphant costume design on Marty Supreme—had the best recommendation for a Valentine’s Day meal that I saw: “New York City’s oldest Italian restaurant,” Barbetta. Atmosphere, atmosphere, atmosphere. The restaurant is closing on February 27th. The obit for the daughter-owner is here: “New York Times critics were often mixed in their reviews of Barbetta but praised the atmosphere; one article noted that it offered, thanks to its floral-covered garden patio, ‘one of the city’s most sought-after summer dining locations’.”

• I’ve been watching these soundbite-centric videos starring the crotchety Brenda Cullteron on instagram for a while now. I’m not sure from where they or she originated. Vimeo—a platform I often forget—is highlighting a short film she stars in this week, as an aging flower delivery woman on Valentine’s Day, desperately in need of tips, but thwarted by doormen and the modern world. (“I have no cash, I’m sorry.”) The plot is depressingly topical: It begins with the price of her deductible for a live-saving heart medication shooting up with no warning. (“Have you got an expired one back there.”) She plays a bit of a Safdie’s Fran Lebowitz—desperate—though it turns out in real life she’s an author. I love the pure charisma negativity can inspire. I wish it was a feature film. It ends too soon.

• I’m happy to see Lachlan Cartwright is making the newsletter format work. Worth a subscription if you care about media news. “I’m probably one of the only people who has worked for Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller, David Pecker and Jay Penske.” Correct?!