Creative Digest #1: What's Been Inspiring Me This Week
As a social media marketing person, I like to view myself as a cultural curator, sociologist, and psychologist hybrid. If you want to be a good social media marketer, you HAVE to understand what’s going on in the culture so that you can be relevant and set trends. As a future creative director, I think gathering inspiration from a multitude of places, industries, and people is the key to being competitive and interesting in your work. While creators will try to convince you to niche down, I think we should stop acting like being well-rounded in your interests is a bad thing.
With these weekly digests, I want to showcase the ideas that are interacting with one another in the hopes of sparking inspiration (in me and in you). Some weeks, the categories will change, especially as the seasons progress and my tastes change. In the future, these will likely be paid posts, but I want to give you a glimpse into what these will look like, so this one is on me! With that being said, here are all the things I’ve been consuming lately.
Creative Digest #1
Reading
I do a lot of reading online, but haven’t been reading as many books as I typically like to. I was in the middle of Nightbitch, which I’ll return to soon, but the type of reading that’s been lighting my soul lately has been in the form of cookbooks. Which is crazy, because I had no interest in cookbooks prior to 2024. A recent purchase was the Malibu Farm Restaurant cookbook which I enjoyed because of its focus on regionality and ingredients. I’m especially excited to make the homemade goat cheese! And I have Coastal on my wishlist. It’s a cookbook that takes you on a road trip along the coast of California, the state that I’m currently exploring.
I’ve also recently been introduced to my new favorite food writer, Claudia Roden, who I found while googling Mediterranean cookbooks. A Jewish writer who grew up in Egypt and has written some of the most important cookbooks in the last few decades, ones that introduced Western cooks to Egyptian food. Her work is part travelogue, part cooking, my favorite. And there are two reasons why she is so iconic to me. First, she wrote about Egypt, which is the number one place on my travel bucket list, and two, she traveled all around the world by herself looking for recipes to include in books, a quest that I can get behind in my own life with my own desires to pursue journalism around the world. She really inspired me, and I can’t wait to learn more about her and her work.
I really enjoyed this article on the website, It’s Nice That, on how the Sims games were a creative playground for a lot of new and established artists. I wrote a similar article for Nerdist in 2020 about Neopets, so seeing the idea of games influencing artists continue was really inspiring. I think the latest iteration of this idea is definitely Animal Crossing, a game so customizable and rich in detail that I think it will inspire the next generation of digital artists, urban planners, and interior designers. I’d suggest giving the articles and the website a look.
After reading an article, I always go on to read about the writer, which how I’ve been able to curate a collection of interesting creatives and learn about their works, interests, and niches. Angelica Frey, who wrote the Sims article, was an immediate yes from me! She writes a lot about art and sub-cultures, like video games and music. She also co-authors Italian Disco, a newsletter where she writes about exactly what the tin says. I still struggle to describe a niche like hers, but it really feels like a meditation on how the world interacts with art and vice versa, which is my favorite niche.
Watching
I started re-watching Legend of Korra with my boyfriend this year and I can’t express how much I love this show. The second series in the Avatar: The Last Airbender series is controversial for going the opposite route of Aang with their avatar who uses aggression to get her way in a manner that didn’t really resonate with fans of Aang. But her journey is really profound. She overcomes some of the worst and comes out stronger every time, something that I really resonated with. It takes a lot for me to bond with fictional characters, but Korra is one of those characters, and I think anyone who hasn’t seen it or didn’t like it should give it a re-watch. It may even be better after some time has passed. The show is leaving Netflix on April 16th so if you’ve been curious about it, I would highly recommend watching it now.
A small shout out to the Last Breath and Mickey 17. Both are interesting, both really entertaining, and both worth a watch before they leave theaters. I highly recommend seeing as many movies in theater as possible. It’s an excuse to get out of the house, is much more immersive, and there’s nothing like seeing a film as originally intended on the big screen. My boyfriend and I got AMC A-Listers subscriptions and I couldn’t recommend it more.
Traveling
I’m so sad I won’t be doing any spring traveling except for local places like Santa Barbara or San Diego for a day trip, but a couple of years ago I was in Paris in March then Italy in April, and I would highly recommend visiting those countries outside of summer. Spring is the best season for traveling in Europe.
Listening
I haven’t been doing a lot of listening lately since my treadmill time is dedicated to playing Animal Crossing, but I typically like to make sure I’m listening to audiobooks, new albums, and podcasts. I’ve listened to Lady Gaga’s new album, but don’t really have an opinion yet. On my To-Listen List is 99% Invisible and Rough Translation.
Doing
I’ve recently started painting for the fun of it. I used to draw as a kid but gave it up when I found writing and haven’t found the spark again. Because I don’t draw well anymore, I’ve started doing abstract paintings and I find the process so fun and freeing. You just look at the canvas and start, solving it bit by bit with different painting methods and colors, like it’s a puzzle. It’s been a lot of fun and feels like pure artistic expression, something I haven’t done in years since I stopped writing fiction and doing photography in place of focusing entirely on writing content.
I’ve also been taking a lot of walks, something I miss every day since I’ve left Spain. The long walks in Madrid’s beautiful city center and parks were a highlight of living there.
Cooking
I haven’t been that inspired to cook lately because it’s the middle time between winter and spring. I’m over winter cooking, which means I’m over soup and curry season, but it’s also too cold to be inspired by spring dishes.
Instead, I’ve been inspired by food in how it fits lifestyle, which is why I love Hailee Catalano’s recipes so much because she does no-frills recipes and does a fun lifestyle series where she makes sandwiches for beach picnics. She routinely makes a fun sandwich and packs chips and a drink and takes it to the beach, which is something I loved doing last year in the summer with my boyfriend. This is the first year I’ve been excited for summer, so I think the romanticization of having a homemade sandwich while listening to the sound of waves is lighting something up in me.
It’s not summer yet, but it’ll be a particularly hot day on Sunday, so we’re planning to go kayaking and I’ll likely be making an interesting sandwich for that day.
I’ve also been feeling inspired to cook a big meal and use lemongrass thanks to this recipe by her boyfriend, content creator Chuck Cruz, so I think I’m going to pick some up and make something interesting soon. I’ll keep you posted.
Thinking
All in all, I’m still thinking a lot about my last piece. Bed rot has become a not-so-harmless trend that’s given people permission to never try anything challenging. I used to rot away in my apartment in Madrid, which was easy to do when I was depressed and felt alone. But talking myself into rotting that day for mental health instead of going on a walk was really detrimental, something I only realized in hindsight. I hope the counter-movement to bed rot and mental health days starts to pick up more speed, and I hope to talk more about how it manifests in U.S. culture versus others.
And that’s everything I’ve been enjoying this week. Like I said at the top, these will likely be paid in the future so subscribe if you want ot keep getting these in your inbox. Let me know down below what you’ve enjoyed this week. Until next time.