It's just too little, too late

Cosmopolitan's Intimate Evening CD, Jojo mashups you need to hear 🌹

Mar 13, 2025

Keeping today’s letter short! As it turns out, writing 4 newsletters, working 3 jobs, writing 2 articles, and writing, editing, designing, and publishing 1 book is a lot to get done in one month hehe!! But I’m doing it! 😊 I will be announcing more about the book – an eclectic compilation of essays from this newsletter, topics I’ve discussed on the podcast, niche childhood anecdotes, hyper-detailed pop culture rabbit holes, etc. – very soon, so please stay tuned.

Onto my recent finds! Went to the local record store and they had so much in stock: The Corrs Live in Dublin, Dear Catastrophe Waitress by Belle & Sebastian, and Finally Woken by Gem on CD and Spiceworld, …Baby One More Time, and Britney on vinyl. I might have to go back and get COSMOPOLITAN’s Intimate Evening CD. “Indulge Your Mood With Music.” From the back cover:

“The candles are lit, the wine is chilling and dinner’s in the oven. As you glance around the room, you check that the couch pillows are fluffed, all magazines and papers are stashed in drawers, cat toys are out of sight. Everything is exactly right for an intimate evening with that special man in your life.

Now’s the perfect time to slip a CD into the disc player – some background music to enhance the intimacy of the moment without interfering in your conversation. The music on this collection was chosen with exactly such moments in mind.”

I’ve never known a woman to be seduced by symphonies from Mozart or Chopin, but I mean, if it works, it works??

I might actually go back to the store because I can’t stop thinking about it.

I also went antiquing and almost physically could not leave the store without this lucite grape bundle and chandeliers. Fun fact, I’ve always had an obsession with grapes as decor. I recently learned creating lucite grapes was a popular craft in the 70s, particularly among Mormon women. Go figure. I did get this sick tray in which to put my keys, though. Haven’t had Jewel’s “Hands” out of my head ever since.

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This week, I’d like to share two of my newfound obsessions:

Jojo’s “Too Little, Too Late” mashups
I have always deeply loved this song, the music video, and its over-the-top dramatics. Having a crush on an avoidant soccer player in 2006 was soooo real, you simply had to be there. Of course it had to be raining. The one with Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together” – although I wish they’d finessed the bridge instead of repeating a verse – gives me wings! That day this week, where it seemed like winter was over for a sec, was the day that I blasted this song through my open sunroof and sang my heart out. What a life! 1990 babies for the win. (I met Jojo at her book signing a couple months ago, and she was lovely!!)

One Republic’s “Apologize (Remix)” featuring Lil Wayne and Bun B
This video was uploaded in August 2007 and has since reached almost 23 million views. I’m not so interested in this remix itself as I am about how this song gained such virality in a pre-algorithmic era. I can only assume that this song is to someone what “Mean Planes & Taylor Gangs” was to me – a song inextricably associated with college, always playing in the background at a Thirsty Thursday pregame in some lax bro’s dorm.

gmstrx