A Few Things | Mar 25
Back in France after Alt Summit
Ben Blair, Flora June, and I, arrived back in France on Friday. And then I slept the entire weekend. That is not an exaggeration. I was only awake for a few hours on both Saturday and Sunday. It was a very good, very full, very tiring trip. I think the last time I felt that exhausted was life with a newborn. Here are a few highlights, notes, and observations from our adventure:
-With the help the talented and amazing Alt Summit team, I put on my 20th Alt Summit! That’s 20 conferences in 16 years. It felt like a big milestone. While we were together as a team in Palm Springs, we also had some big discussions on what’s next for Alt Summit and did a little bit of venue exploration for future events.
-I felt super lucky to have so much family with me at Alt Summit. Ben Blair attended for the first time in years, and all the kids but Betty came to Alt Summit too — Ralph & Paola, Maude, Olive, Oscar, and Flora June. I usually get one or two of the kids who come to help out, but having more than that was very unusual and a lot of fun. And there was more family! My Mom and her husband Roger, my brother Salem, my sister Rachel and her husband Paul, and my Aunt Robin were all there too. It was wonderful to be with everyone at such a milestone event.
Justin Hackworth snapped this image of the family after the event (alas, Salem, Ralph, and Paola had already headed home):
-I was so happy about getting to interview Katie Porter! I loved our conversation and posted a video of the interview if you’d like to watch it. But it wasn’t just the interview that was great. Katie arrived the day before the interview and jumped in and attended classes and took part in the conference. She chatted with everyone, attended the Saturday night party, and let people ask her tough questions.
When she arrived at the conference and we were chatting, the first thing she said was, “I just realized you are the person who wrote Ejaculate Responsibly! My team displays that book!”
I could not have grinned harder.
-I also got to interview Lisa Congdon. I adore Lisa and really love how she models learning new skills in public, and doesn’t shy away from trying things, taking risks, and being a beginner in front of an audience. She’s really incredible and has had such an influence on how art happens online. You can click here to watch the interview of Lisa.
Just like Katie, Lisa also jumped in and took part in the conference beyond her keynote. She chatted with attendees, offered advice, and was an enthusiastic participant.
That’s something I love about Alt Summit — we try hard not to separate presenters and attendees so that everyone attends as peers.
-Alt Summit ended on Monday, and Ben Blair and I had a book event in Los Angeles on Tuesday. We filled up the darling Zibby’s Bookshop and had a terrific evening. It was our first in-person event for The Kids Are All Right. But, as we chatted with people before starting time, we realized not everyone was there for the parenting book. So we polled the attendees and learned that some people wanted to talk parenting, some people wanted to talk Ejaculate Responsibly, and some people wanted to talk about moving to France. So we did a long Q&A and covered all 3 topics.
Something fun at the L.A. event: I got to meet Nancy Lenehan in person! Nancy is an actress — you’ll remember her in VEEP, and Catch Me If You Can, and a bunch of other movies and TV series. I’ve had some fun chats with Nancy over social media and it was so fun to meet her in person. She not only came out to our book event, but also brought us a gift: handmade gloves she knitted from the most beautiful yarn.
-The book event in L.A. was on Tuesday, and on Wednesday we had a book event in Salt Lake City. There had been a snow storm in Utah right before we arrived and it was such a funny feeling to go from 73 degrees in L.A. to 22 degrees in Salt Lake City! (Thank goodness Nancy had given us cozy gloves the day before.)
The Salt Lake City book event was organized by The King’s English Bookshop and we had a great time. Once again, we polled the audience to find out what they wanted to discuss, and based on their responses we ended up talking about Ejaculate Responsibly most.
What a treat to get to see even more family at the book event — Ben Blair’s siblings Margaret and Dell, my brother Josh and his wife Erin, and our niece Petrea. Plus I got to see long-time friends from Oakland, and new friends who I know from online spaces.
-Something I realized after the two book events: I’m out of practice! When Ejaculate Responsibly came out I did a lot of book events and got into a good rhythm. But at these two stops, I felt a bit scattered — I forgot to take photos at both events, I didn’t bring back-up Sharpies — things like that. And I had also forgotten that in cities where I know lots of people in real life, I really need to ask a friend to host a gathering or reception before or after the book event, because otherwise, I don’t get to actually visit with the friends who come out to the book discussion. That can be a bit of a bummer — it’s so great to see familiar faces in the audience, but then we don’t get to say hello, because they need to leave before the signing line is finished.
Being at these two book events made me want to organize a proper tour where it doesn’t feel last-minute, and it’s not built-on to a conference I’m attending.
It was quite late when the Salt Lake City book event wrapped up, but afterwards I went to my friend Susan’s house and we got to catch up for a few hours. Susan has been a friend since middle school — we don’t get to see each other often, but I always love when we do spend time together. Eli McCann — a friend from Twitter (but now a friend from Threads) — lives near Susan and came by to hang out too.
It was a lovely end to a long trip.
-The next day, we did our last errands for American goodies (Apple Jacks, Reeses Puffs, Swedish Fish, etc.), and boarded our flight back to Paris.
What’s Next
Two things:
1) Our Moving to France Workshop is happening tomorrow! That’s Wednesday, March 26th at 7pm ET. Register here. If you can’t make it at that time, go ahead and register and I’ll send you the video link after the workshop.
2) I am headed back to the U.S. again next week for Mom 2.0. I’m on a keynote panel and Ben Blair and I will be presenting a session on The Kids Are All Right. It will be a very short trip, just two nights — I fly in on Thursday and fly back on Saturday.
Even though I just did so, I’m feeling nervous about traveling to the U.S. again. The reports about American citizens getting stopped at the border have increased even just in the last week. I hope I’m paranoid, but I fear that if anyone looks up my name, my many anti-Trump posts could get me detained.
In The News
Here are a few things I’ve been wanting to share with you:
-In an article at CNN.com — Two reporters compiled a list of every time Pete Hegseth, Stephen Miller, Mike Waltz, and Marco Rubio made public comments in the past, calling for criminal charges against Hillary Clinton because she communicated outside of an official email server. If they believe Hillary Clinton deserved criminal charges for her emails, then using Signal to discuss war plans in a group chat is 100% Leavenworth-worthy.
Related, Tulsi Gabbard tweeted this 10 days ago:
-From The New Yorker — In 2021, Ronan Farrow got an encrypted email from a federal prosecutor in Appalachia who said she was chasing a predator and feared police were protecting him. For 4 years, he looked at whether corruption allowed one of the most prolific rapists in US history to get away.
-From Mother Jones — "The most jarring aesthetic in this burgeoning MAGA stagecraft is the unbridled embrace of face-altering procedures: plastic surgery, veneers, and injectables like Botox and fillers. The overall look has since been disparagingly referred to as 'Mar-a-Lago face.'"
-In USA Today — A growing number of legal U.S. residents and visa holders are being detained or deported after border agents inspect their phones and social media.
-Related, in The Guardian — I’m the Canadian who was detained by Ice for two weeks. It felt like I had been kidnapped. "To put things into perspective: I had a Canadian passport, lawyers, resources, media attention, friends, family and even politicians advocating for me...Imagine what this system is like for every other person in there."
-At Netflix — I just watched “Adolescence”. It’s a limited series about a 13 year old accused of killing a classmate. It’s a must watch.
-By Sarah Wynn-Williams — I just read Careless People, written by a woman who spent many years as a higher up at Facebook. It’s disturbing. Meta could have been a massive force for good if only they’d been willing to earn slightly less money. Instead, their only legacy will be fascism and genocide.
That’s it for now. Please feel free to comment on anything I shared above or whatever is on your mind.
kisses,
Gabrielle
Hoping your travels are smooth and uneventful! Glad you got some good rest.
Thank you for another great read. Best of luck getting back and forth from France to the US next week.