UNDER YOUR SKIN #1

Emmalea talks about some men, living and dead, that get under her skin: David Lynch, Freud, and Chris Black’s fashion advice. Plus: New Jersey, The Sopranos, and the drone discourse.

This is the first installment of UNDER YOUR SKIN.

Submit your UNDER YOUR SKIN answers here. Tell us everything.

OK, people. Guess I’m going first. I’m a writer and an astrologer. Together with Michelle, I do Cosmic Valley Girls.

My answers to the UNDER YOUR SKIN questionnaire were written under the influence of a slight fever, David Lynch’s recent passing, and a general feeling of surreality—not to mention Mars retrograde. I liked finding answers to these questions. It bent my mind a bit and I may have learned a thing or two about my…self…. I wrote from bed and from the kitchen table, in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Send us yours. Surprise us.

How do you know if something’s gotten under your skin?

Repetition and return. If I dream about you or it, google you or it incessantly, try not to dream or google you or it——. If there’s an alluring, annoying, or not quite legible aura around you or it—then, yes, under my skin.

What are you loving right now?

I’m loving and reloving all of David Lynch’s stuff as I rewatch his movies and Twin Peaks. The creepy dream logic of the scene below gets under my skin. Lost Highway may be my favorite DL movie. I love Bill Pullman’s face. And the party scene. Lynch is obviously a genius of the uncanny—the moment when the mystery man comes up to Bill Pullman and says we’ve met before, haven’t we? Eep.

The long hard drag on the cig. The whole thing.

Two places at once.

RIP, king.

“That’s fucking crazy, man.”

What are you hating right now?

That the drone discourse seems to be slowing down. I want more theories and pieces of surprising writing on the drones that appear then disappear above the fucking state of New Jersey! I’ve been living at the Jersey shore, full time or half, for the better part of a decade. For those sleeping on the drones: here.

While I’m hating: the outright disdain that other parts of the country seem to have for the state of New Jersey gets under my skin! The Jersey shore, in particular, gets hit quite a bit—-dubbed the land of hypodermic needles on the sand, a kingdom of grime. I kind of love this, though, too, as it keeps Jersey wrapped in a certain trash-allure. The secret truth is, much of the Garden State is beautiful, and the Jersey shore is the beach of my soul. The Sopranos brilliantly shows how Jersey is basically America’s 12th house.

What are you loving to hate?

When people QUOTE THEMSELVES. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. It might be logistically appropriate to quote yourself, but it is almost always a tone killer. Please think twice before you type “As I alluded to in a 2021 substack post that you may recall…” Is there another way to do that? Drop a link and keep moving!! You’re not Freud for Christ’s sake.

What are you hating to love?

I’m a woman. And I love, and hate to love, listening to men give each other advice, especially about fashion and lifestyle matters. It feels like I’m being let in on an incredible secret. This is where Chris Black’s (of the How Long Gone podcast) NYMag column comes in. He answers the most pressing questions dudes have about anything from acceptable wallets for men to what to get your gf’s parents.

CB is self-assured and has definite opinions, which I appreciate. He’s judgmental and harsh, but like most Virgos, never wrong. If you’re a woman, it’s fun to eavesdrop. If you’re a dude, the last thing you need is your girlfriend telling you what to wear or nodding her head with approval like, “look how far you’ve come since you met me!” Instead, scroll through the Chris Black advice archive. (Should I start a bitchy column called Ask a Virgo ?! Comment below.)

Also loving and hating to love: READING ABOUT PSYCHOANALYSIS. Freud won’t let go of me. Help. I’m teaching this weird class called Psycho-Cosmos (YES YOU CAN STILL SIGN UP!) on astrology, the creative process, and psychoanalysis, so I’m up to my eyeballs in strange reading about hysteria, the unconscious, and dreams. Freud is just as freaky as astrology. He wrote a wild book interpreting his own dreams, experimented with and prescribed cocaine, and wrote over 20k letters.

Freud, David Lynch, and Chris Black’s fashion advice are a great (un)holy trinity. Just add a few giant drones, The Sopranos, and stir.

Any last words?

We’ve met before, haven’t we?

Submit your UNDER YOUR SKIN answers here. Tell us everything.

Or at least some things….