Hello, friends. 

I'm writing you from my couch at 11:51pm on Saturday, 4/11. We've been in the house, all four of us—myself, my husband, my infant daughter, and my teenage son—for a month now. Tensions are high. Dreams are starting to get bizarre. Toilet paper is scarce. Animal Crossing New Horizons has taken over my life. I rewatched Fight Club.These are bleak times (except for Animal Crossing; that fucking whips ass). I will admit my mental health has been questionable, and it is difficult to get up most days. We watched the finale of Schitt's Creek and something in me opened up and I scream sobbed for an hour. What I am trying to say is things have been better. 

Last month we featured some amazing writers, including our Writer of the Month Brendan Joyce. I encourage you to follow him at @nicetryofficer on Twitter and support him and his art as much as possible. Like so many of us, Brendan has lost work due to the pandemic, and I would like to boost him in any way I can. 

Here, we have our beloved Pop Culture issue. We are going live so much later than usual, and I hope no one holds it against us. But JFC, this issue is jam packed AND has the added bonus of being supplemented by our long awaited cartoon anthology, Life is Like a Hurricane. That has its own editor's letter, so go read that next.

I could write yet another letter about how much we love pop culture, how much pop culture saves us, how nice it is to lose ourselves in a book or movie or music, but you know . . . we're all living it. Who among us didn't start this lock down with Tiger King? I myself took my community's "chalk your walk" initiative to scrawl "This is the perfect time to rewatch Mad Men" across the front of my driveway. I think in a way we are all trying to lose ourselves as to not drive ourselves batty refreshing Twitter to see that every day, as that dipshit Morrissey once said, is tired and gray. 

Every year we name our pop culture issue after a quote from the staff favorite, Vanderpump Rules. This year I chose to quote their theme song, Dena Deadly's "Raise Your Glass." "You know that it's our time", she sings. "These are the best days of our lives." While the latter isn't true, I believe for sure in the former. 2020, whether we like it or not, is our time. Let's raise our glasses high and promise to do as much as possible to weather through this storm together, to create art if we want to, to never pick up a pen again if we want to, to Zoom in our pjs, to put on makeup just to feel normal, to write to our representatives, to demand better of our government, to stand in the sun for a few moments a day (with a mask on, of course), and believe that we are here for a reason that is bigger than we can ever understand. We exist in this imperfect moment, both imperfect and perfectly. We are here.

I want to take a moment to thank our entire editorial staff, but namely Managing Editor Chris Pruitt, Founder Matt Guerrero, and Film Editor Sean Woodard. They busted their asses to get this gigantic issue and accompanying anthology ready and I love them forever for it. If you like this issue and feel like sending them a tip, we don't have a formal tip jar, but I can direct you accordingly. They do this labor for free. I can never repay them enough.

This month's issue is amazing. Each Pop Culture issue just gets better and better. And I can't speak more highly of our Writer of the Month, Joanna Valente, who dabbles in pop culture poetry a lot, but also is the author of many beautiful works. I once read from their book Marys of the Sea to my husband Fritz from the bathtub. And I never do stuff like that. Joanna is a person I am endlessly learning from. I hope you enjoy their—and everyone else's—work. 

This is getting a little long, and I'd like to sign off, but not without dedicating this issue to two of the most feel good pop culture icons in my life right now: Isabelle from Animal Crossing, and Raquel from Vanderpump Rules. Isabelle has always been helpful and wonderful, and the more Raquel is in the spotlight, the more we realize that she's not a stereotypical ditzy model. She is a fountain of empathy and kindness in a toxic environment. This one's for you tonight, ladies. 

Always,

Kolleen Carney Hoepfner

EIC

"And do you feel scared? I do. 
But I won't stop and falter.
And if we threw it all away, 
things can only get better," — Howard Jones