#301 Season Three
this is when we really start getting into the groove of it
(Remember season 3 of Parks & Rec? When Ben and Chris joined the team and totally solidified the incredible cast of characters, leading to new storylines, blossoming romances, and cramp-inducing hilarity?)
HELLO!!! I hope everyone has had a good start to their year - just wanted to stop in and say hiya and keep you abreast to some changes going on around here.
Have you noticed the new name yet…
I’ve changed the name for two reasons: 1. Feast hadn’t really stuck yet so why not keep the name-change ball rolling, and 2. joy, levity!
So mangia is some variation of the verb mangiare, which means “to eat” in Italian.
Skip to minute 4:21 in this video, where they say “mangiata / mangnata = hearty meal”. It’s really fun to say.
Other words that remind me of Italians eating:
Pasta
Focaccia
Skiing
Shiny metallic one-piece snow suits
Apreski
Aperol Spritzes!
Okay I think you get it…Italians have such a vibrant culture around food and that’s how I’m trying to live. Remember how this started? “You’ve got to eat well to grow strong, you know.” Now that we have grown strong, we’re taking it to the next level by being specific about what good eating means. So put some anchovies in that tomato sauce and let’s goooooooo!
This season, I plan to cover more fashion, internet theory, social observations, and of course our favorite unending gender explorations!
I’m in no way Italian but I’m appropriating their language on this one because I have a personal story about an Italian mother: In elementary school, one of my best friends’ mom was Italian and she would always serve us intense amounts of food and lovingly yell, “Mangia, mangia” at us. It would always make me giggle, but I tried very hard to keep it under wraps in order to show respect to her language!! Though I don’t think she minded because she kept having me over and placing more apples and peanut butter in front of us yelling, “mangia mangia Carolyn!”
Anyway sick, welcome to season 3 of Mangia Mangia! We have a new segment (what used to be called the news, but now is less timely, more theoretical, and full of brags) called
INTERNET THEORY:
I’ve stopped watching instagram stories regularly. Not because I hate everyone I follow (or do I??), but because it has cleared my brain fog by 1 MILLION percent. More so than reducing my THC intake, I swear to god.
Since the dawn of time (the day I began my mostly_misc art IG in 2017), I had the attitude that it is a responsibility to keep up to date with your followers. Which I still believe to a certain extent, but now that I live in Los Angeles, the city of ~being perceived~, it’s become clear to me that that is a full-time job. The 24-hr news cycle is not a joke! And not a job that I really want, tbh. Sounds hard and constant and like a job for people who are heavily involved in gossip. I see you, I hear you, and I respect you from the other side of the room.
Watching stories is fan behavior. You are watching someone express themselves with no guarantee of their reciprocation. I’ll be a bleeding heart fan of my friends, family, certain celebrities, and particular cities until I bleed out (cowers in embarrassment of all the past blood oaths gone by). But not watching instagram stories cuts the immediacy of being a fan. It’s a timely attention you are giving to someone. And then when they passive aggressively give it back? The adrenaline rush of a subtweet* has lain me on my back more than I care to admit.
*(used as a catch-all term for a post on any social media platform that refers to a particular user without directly mentioning them, typically as a form of furtive mockery or criticism.)*
You know how for the last six years I lived in this world and didn’t look at who viewed my story, but watched everyone else’s? I suppose it helped me focus on being part of a greater conversation. I doubt I will start swiping up because I love the freedom of not knowing, but maybe this next chapter of observing at further range will allow me to focus on my work and the audience it organically garners.
I’m a little sad to be leaving a space I’ve had so much fun participating in. It’s sad to turn something that was once my passionate reaction to Tyler the Creator’s new content into a platform to promote my own new content. It’s disappointing to feel the need to take the intimacy out of instagram. Are we breaking-up?? But part of me is grateful to take a step back from the adrenaline addiction and for the extra brain space. I’m excited to be a doer who does and lets the knowers be the people who know. I’m okay with being the third/fourth/fifth person to know what’s going on between Casey and Phoebe (the whitest gayest names I could think of). I will be over in this here kitchen corner, sipping on that iced tea with some pound cake and my mouth shut, working on my merch samples.
We’ll see how it goes, I suppose. We’re figuring it out! What else is new!
SOCIAL OBSERVATIONS
Since it’s tax season and nothing grinds my gears more than having to navigate the US health care system, especially in relation to my tax bracket, here’s a hypothesis and some food for thought:
Late-stage capitalism is the same kind of as extreme as a communism, requiring the same perspective and loyalty from its citizens.
Let me explain.
Under communism (as it were in East Germany for example) there was also an expectation that citizens commit themselves to the greater good of the nation. This happens through higher taxes and stricter rules that inhibit individual freedoms, but in turn provide a more standardized lifestyle for the masses.
In my experience with any full-time employer in the USA, there is an unspoken assumption you will work to provide for the greater good of the company, not just do as it states in your job description. To keep a full-time job within a corporation, it’s not just about labor, it’s about loyalty. I have never been very good at doing this for a paycheck, therefore the gig work.
But if the only way to get reasonably straightforward healthcare right now is to work 35+ hours for a large enough company (probably something incorporated through the state and federal governments), it also means you have to be a dedicated employee of that company. To work overtime, outwardly adopt and promote their values, and sell your soul, as some might say, not just your labor.
So from an individual perspective, what’s the difference? Under either regime, I (a tiny little person with a name and more importantly an associated number in the system) must prove my loyalty to be adequately cared for as a human with a physical body. The only difference is to whom I am committing myself - the government or the ceo.
What am I trying to say? Maybe nothing, but just providing a perspective that shows committing yourself to one viewpoint is the same as committing yourself to another. As humans in this particular society, it’s the internal motivation and intensity with which you show your loyalty that prove your worth, not the ideals to which you are committing.
FASHION, UNZ UNZ BABY
I’m going to try and talk more about ~fashion~ because I can’t escape it, I love it, and I have to believe there is world where producing new ideas in the industry isn’t turbo-speeding planet earth into self-destruction. *Obama voice* Yes We Can!
To begin, I want to talk about dresses.
I presented feminine for most of my life. It wasn’t until I moved to LA a few years ago that I really felt comfortable to explore masculine fashion, and truly last April when I shaved my head that I explicitly became a pretty boy (you were there for that, remember?).
In recent memory, I haven’t experienced the desire to wear a skirt, mini or maxi. Nor a dress, no matter how pretty it is. Not to say I didn’t feel authentically me in my mint green peplum mini dress I rocked in college. I just wouldn’t feel comfortable or like it expresses the experience that I have now. That’s me, this is just the way I enjoy moving through the world I inhabit now.
But when shopping, I still love to touch everything, looking through all sections to see what’s available these days. The other day, a friend and I were aimlessly wandering and looking through the dress section of a physical store when I saw an adorable flower print rayon mini dress. An old classic! Something like this:
I miss floating in dresses. In relation to the body, there is nothing softer than wearing a floral dress. Moving in the breeze, they have such youth to them. So much levity. My style now is a lot of t-shirts, button-downs, work wear, and athleisure. Fabrics that cover and I can do easy cartwheels in. Something so light and spry about a rayon dress made of four panels and a zipper. To feel like you have nothing holding you down, to feel so light the wind could take you. Which honestly my t-shirt and shorts give me the same feeling now, but look very different. I guess I’m feeling a little bit of grief for the inviting look of a dress. And a tinge of jealousy for those that can control that in a way that makes them feel good.
I used to spend time thinking about what I would wear to an awards show, what fabulous gown would I walk up and received my much deserved accolades in. I could never decide. Which at the time I thought I just had too many ideas ! Now I see it’s definitely not a dress, let it be anything. I’ll be naked.
Can you imagine? John Sena could tell you. But I’m just less sure that I’ll be working in that sphere. But I still love to dress up, so maybe I’ll change my fantasy setting to a fashion show, maybe a fancy birthday party, maybe a gala. But for sure this time around it’ll be some kind of suit. What about this one from Tom Ford at Gucci in 1995? Obviously, I’d keep the smirk.
My ass is definitely not fat enough for me to do this, but I’m going to give you my venmo (@carsonmyntti) anyway in case someone out there wants to help me get my first pair of AF1s, and finally be respected by Nelly.
Speaking of joyful clothes! These are men’s shoes and they are ice cream themed! Neapolitan! Italy!
And on that note, we’ve reached the end today. Talk soon! I’m trying to slip into your inbox once a month, but a hustle is a hustle is a hustle so, no promises.
Thank you for reading, thank you for being here with me. I love hearing your thoughts and responses!
Besos
Carson
You write well. Always have.