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Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening
Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening is a collection of hybrid feminist narratives that perfectly captures the many paradoxes of the COVID-19 pandemic, contrasting the seemingly never-ended public catastrophes we experienced as a collective with the isolated, often-mundane lives we carried out in private.
Shifting effortless between social commentary and memoir, glimpses of history and threads of fiction, Stone, a lifelong feminist and longtime contributor to the Village Voice and NPR's Fresh Air, unapologetically observes against the backdrop of a Zoom call the evolution of feminism over the years, the gendered sexual politics underlying Jeffrey Toobin's public disgrace, rage and Rebecca Solnit-like hope on the heels of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's death, and the way we continue to pot and maintain our plants amidst the broken narrative of our world's future. As Stone says, It’s good this narrative has been broken. In the narrative that has been broken, people ignored the way so many things they wanted required the suffering of others.
In a time when most of us felt more alone than ever before, Laurie Stone's Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening is a retroactive but no less timely reminder that we were less alone in our thoughts than we thought.
Shifting effortless between social commentary and memoir, glimpses of history and threads of fiction, Stone, a lifelong feminist and longtime contributor to the Village Voice and NPR's Fresh Air, unapologetically observes against the backdrop of a Zoom call the evolution of feminism over the years, the gendered sexual politics underlying Jeffrey Toobin's public disgrace, rage and Rebecca Solnit-like hope on the heels of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg's death, and the way we continue to pot and maintain our plants amidst the broken narrative of our world's future. As Stone says, It’s good this narrative has been broken. In the narrative that has been broken, people ignored the way so many things they wanted required the suffering of others.
In a time when most of us felt more alone than ever before, Laurie Stone's Streaming Now: Postcards from the Thing That Is Happening is a retroactive but no less timely reminder that we were less alone in our thoughts than we thought.
- GenresEssaysNonfictionMemoir
200 pages, Paperback
First published May 10, 2022
9 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
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May 13, 2022Video review: https://youtu.be/ZU72zbDA_pI
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May 13, 2022Why I *had*to*buy*this*book*:
"It's as vulnerable and intimate as a living frog dissecting itself on the table in front of the biology student."
Quote here: https://youtu.be/ZU72zbDA_pI?t=596
Start here: https://youtu.be/ZU72zbDA_pI
*shakes broke-ass old-man fist NCwards*
"It's as vulnerable and intimate as a living frog dissecting itself on the table in front of the biology student."
Quote here: https://youtu.be/ZU72zbDA_pI?t=596
Start here: https://youtu.be/ZU72zbDA_pI
*shakes broke-ass old-man fist NCwards*
September 20, 2024
Streaming Now: Postcards from The Thing That Is Happening, is a collection of journal entrees which she calls postcards written through the pandemic. I was introduced to Laurie Stone's substack by a writing friend and followed. She comments on movies, writers, and popular culture, along with philosophy and international writers, in a way that is engaging even if the reader has not seen or read what she is writing about.
She used to write for the Village Voice, I'm sure I read many of her pieces when I lived in NYC. In a later section titled "Catering," she writes, "I got fired from the Voice when I was fifty-three. I was ready to leave. A door closes: a great jagged gap in your inner life opens. I was never ready to leave. It was 1999. I had been writing for the paper since 1974."
In the opening of the book is a statement in italics about the book: "When my sister was dying, I would walk in the city mornings and sit on a bench and write what came to mind, and I got to thinking of these exercises as "postcards." I was writing to her from a specific place and also writing to everyone from anywhere." This is what this book evolved from.
Quotes
"On the phone the other day, a friend asked if there was a future, and I said there was a future with a narrative that has been broken. It's good this narrative has been broken. It's good this narrative has been broken. In the narrative that has been broken, people ignored the way so many things they wanted required the suffering of others." (HUDSON, New York, September 29, 2020)
"It's not as if I've fallen out of love with his films. [Jean-Luc Godard] To fall out of love, you need the wear and tear of daily life, or the sudden awareness you have been living in a place where you do not know the language and have been wrong about the words." . . .
"The job of a woman in the world Godard depicts is to pretend not to see the contempt in which women are held. It's a full-time job. It's sometimes all any woman has time to do to get through life." . . .
"When we bought the house where we live, I didn't understand what was needed to make it work. It was like falling in love—which is more or less resistance to feeling doom." (HUDSON, New York, December 4, 2020)
"Some things have been rattling around in my head I wish I could talk to you about. In the past, when we went into the streets, it felt like we were in conversation with a government, however repungnant its policies. We thought we could actually produce change, and we did: Johnson decided not to run again. Nixon resigned. Abortion became a legal right. Now, marching feels like running the old game with the old rules, when none of this exists anymore. It feels like accepting some kind of framework where oligarchic feudal terrorism is considered a government and we stand for that government's tolerance of protest." (Postcard to Ann Snitow (1943-2019))
She used to write for the Village Voice, I'm sure I read many of her pieces when I lived in NYC. In a later section titled "Catering," she writes, "I got fired from the Voice when I was fifty-three. I was ready to leave. A door closes: a great jagged gap in your inner life opens. I was never ready to leave. It was 1999. I had been writing for the paper since 1974."
In the opening of the book is a statement in italics about the book: "When my sister was dying, I would walk in the city mornings and sit on a bench and write what came to mind, and I got to thinking of these exercises as "postcards." I was writing to her from a specific place and also writing to everyone from anywhere." This is what this book evolved from.
Quotes
"On the phone the other day, a friend asked if there was a future, and I said there was a future with a narrative that has been broken. It's good this narrative has been broken. It's good this narrative has been broken. In the narrative that has been broken, people ignored the way so many things they wanted required the suffering of others." (HUDSON, New York, September 29, 2020)
"It's not as if I've fallen out of love with his films. [Jean-Luc Godard] To fall out of love, you need the wear and tear of daily life, or the sudden awareness you have been living in a place where you do not know the language and have been wrong about the words." . . .
"The job of a woman in the world Godard depicts is to pretend not to see the contempt in which women are held. It's a full-time job. It's sometimes all any woman has time to do to get through life." . . .
"When we bought the house where we live, I didn't understand what was needed to make it work. It was like falling in love—which is more or less resistance to feeling doom." (HUDSON, New York, December 4, 2020)
"Some things have been rattling around in my head I wish I could talk to you about. In the past, when we went into the streets, it felt like we were in conversation with a government, however repungnant its policies. We thought we could actually produce change, and we did: Johnson decided not to run again. Nixon resigned. Abortion became a legal right. Now, marching feels like running the old game with the old rules, when none of this exists anymore. It feels like accepting some kind of framework where oligarchic feudal terrorism is considered a government and we stand for that government's tolerance of protest." (Postcard to Ann Snitow (1943-2019))
August 31, 2022
This book was (at the risk of being dramatic) close to life-saving or at least creativity-saving. What a voice!
December 10, 2025
This is an unusual collection of writings. They aren't quite essays or journal entries. Are they postcards? Are they paragraphs of thought? During the pandemic could anyone think continuously for more time than it takes to write a paragraph? Who can remember? How can five years feel like a blur?
The first half of the book represents excerpts of Laurie Stone's life during the pandemic. Laurie and the man she lives with moved out of Manhattan to hunker down in Hudson Valley. There are definitely thoughts, ideas and memories here in this collection that demonstrate that the author has had an intriguing, fascinating life. The second half of the book was especially fascinating to me. Anyone who was born and raised in New York City and lived in Manhattan in the 1970s has some stories.
There are a lot of thoughts on feminism that are worth reading and discussing with like-minded people. This collection could be read multiple times. I am saving it to read again at some point in the future.
The first half of the book represents excerpts of Laurie Stone's life during the pandemic. Laurie and the man she lives with moved out of Manhattan to hunker down in Hudson Valley. There are definitely thoughts, ideas and memories here in this collection that demonstrate that the author has had an intriguing, fascinating life. The second half of the book was especially fascinating to me. Anyone who was born and raised in New York City and lived in Manhattan in the 1970s has some stories.
There are a lot of thoughts on feminism that are worth reading and discussing with like-minded people. This collection could be read multiple times. I am saving it to read again at some point in the future.
May 8, 2025
This is probably a three and a half star book. But not a four. These are online entries that have been stitched together. She calls them postcards and I love the way she writes. I just wasn't engaged in the first section, about life in the pandemic. It offered nothing I was looking for. The other pieces at emd of book we're more engaging.
January 14, 2023
I would call this book a “pandemic diary” where Stone shares select entries to document a year and a half of the film and television she consumed. Really delightful twists, turns, and insights! Would recommend to folks who just like to snoop in other people’s thoughts ;)
June 30, 2022
3.5, rounded up to 4
Read
August 3, 2023Laurie has a unique way of seeing the world and expressing herself. Some of her sentences just made me stop and think, WOW!
July 16, 2024
|| STREAMING NOW ||
#gifted @dottirpress
•
I love discovering new female writers, what a gem this little collection is! A feminist narrative/social commentary blended with memoir that capture the many paradoxes of life. From the pandemic to gender politics, friendships to sex, public scandals, film and television and much in between. Stone effectively shifts between subjects in a fragmented style. These "pandemic postcards" are connective to a time we all had too much time to ponder our thoughts and the world around us. I highlighted so much of this slim book! Searching out narratives by women over 50 has been a bit of a reading project I have undertaken this year and I can reccomend this one! She also has a substack that is enjoyable!
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Dottir Press is woman owned and takes a feminist approach to publishing and artistic production, working to fill the absences in both our history and present culture through storytelling in all forms and for all ages. @dottirpress check out their books!
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
#gifted @dottirpress
•
I love discovering new female writers, what a gem this little collection is! A feminist narrative/social commentary blended with memoir that capture the many paradoxes of life. From the pandemic to gender politics, friendships to sex, public scandals, film and television and much in between. Stone effectively shifts between subjects in a fragmented style. These "pandemic postcards" are connective to a time we all had too much time to ponder our thoughts and the world around us. I highlighted so much of this slim book! Searching out narratives by women over 50 has been a bit of a reading project I have undertaken this year and I can reccomend this one! She also has a substack that is enjoyable!
•
Dottir Press is woman owned and takes a feminist approach to publishing and artistic production, working to fill the absences in both our history and present culture through storytelling in all forms and for all ages. @dottirpress check out their books!
For more of my book content check out instagram.com/bookalong
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews