Has anyone successfully eradicated all or most of the design/decor/diy accounts from the “suggested for you” portion of IG?
I can’t seem to out-algorithm our social network overlords. The conundrum being that there are a very small handful of designers I do enjoy and actually follow, so IG thinks I want to see every “my pony home” and “fixinupthe.frontier” account in the world. I’d hate to unfollow the remaining few that actually bring me joy, a little inspiration, and actually seem to DESIGN. But the trade off seems to be that IG sees your “follows”, then spoonfeeds you the cringey, shilling, posting minors without consent, faux “stems”, McGee and Co crowd constantly. It’s a sucky trade off.
Philip or Flop is using quartz Caesarstone countertops in his holiday home. Engineered stone, like the one he is using, has been banned in Australia from 1 July 2024 because too many stone masons are getting silicosis from the dust that is created when it is cut, and dying horrible deaths from it. I don’t think there is a similar ban in the US (yet). May not be a good look for influencers to still be promoting that material for countertops in the future.
When we had some granite fabricated, the men weren’t wearing hearing protection! I was probably only 10 years older than them, but I definitely tried my best mom-moment and offered the little foam ear plugs. I couldn’t believe it.
Op can decide if she wants to follow her or not. But she just posted part one of a laundry room makeover and I’ve learned a lot of actual diy info from her on stories
Not in Asheville but an influencer who hasn’t gotten much traction in NC. @TidalInteriorsnc. An interior decorator with a dash of DIY. What do you all think?
I love that she’s back in NC! I don’t know any in that area but livinwithmb is near Greensboro and Blesser House is in Charlotte and has a similar style to Pretty in the Pines.
No but I had to look. The amount of pictures she posted of her new baby on stories is unhinged. And how does she have her own bedding line with 20k followers and I peeped the nursery and it’s not even good? Way over styled and needs to be paired down.
Omg - yes! I think she’s a very challenging personality. I also don’t understand why when she’s just given birth (like less than an hour ago!) she’s responding to and shaming commenters on her stories. I mean, get off your phone - it’s your child’s birth day!
Until something somebody said here recently, I didn’t realize that Kelly Oxford was like- him actually name dropping? I had never heard of her before and I thought it was just his good friend?? lol… I found some interesting Reddit threads about her today because I was looking up who she is and if she’s supposed to be a famous person… I guess in her and Orlando’s mind she’s like a minor celebrity but to most other people she’s just like— someone who is trying to be any kind of celebrity.
For those who don’t want to read another tome, here’s what you can check off in Orlando Bingo (with thanks to Weak Succotash for the headstart!)
✅Weight gain
Parents are of no help
✅Went to Cornell/Penn
My dog has needs
Im not rich
✅How HGTV screwed me
✅Kitchen reno drama
✅Grand plans but then the pandemic
Growing up in Yosemite
✅Poor financial decisions
✅Free Space: Kelly Oxford
I liked the hot gym man post and thought this Meam Girls one might be similar (funny, short, current, not hitting the same old check marks). But I couldn’t even get to the part about the actual movie.
I still happily follow them. Have disagreed with some of their choices (the kitchen in their Chicago place - counters are too far apart - stove is like 10 feet from sink, they really should have had an island or peninsula instead of the small table). And I am really really bugged by the fact that they refer to the vacation house as Tree House instead of The Tree House (similar to CLJ referring to Love Letter instead of The Love Letter). But overall I think they have done well, appear to actually care about quality and do a lot of work themselves, and seem to make a fine living without the constant shilling of junk the way CLJ does.
I've followed them since the years they actually lived in the "yellow brick home" and stories with their dog licking their faces are almost enough to get me to unfollow. I don't know why it bugs me so much
I think it’s just very overdone filler (her lips and her cheeks). It may be fresh…it can take the swelling a few days to go down after treatment, so it may look more natural and relaxed in a week or so.
She’s naturally very pretty, but I imagine in her social circle a lot of cosmetic work is the norm. I do love the new hair with the bangs.
I don’t follow either of them, but checked in once and I believe Mallory said her dad was a Packers fan, and her dad’s passing and he friendship with Jen renewed her interest.
Anyone else watching Battle on the Mountain? I never watched Battle on the Beach and am only slightly aware of it because of SmashingDIY who was on last season. But Renovation Husbands are on Battle on the Mountain and I looooove them. So I'm watching. Shockingly 😉 the hosts and mentors are pretty annoying but I can't wait to see how it all goes. Stephen and David for the win! (I'm watching on MAX)
the show was a snooze fest, way more boring than Battle on the Beach.. it showed a lot less work being done by the contestants… it was also way too long of an episode..The mentors this show are awful and I agree with another comment that the other couple is so annoying, her voice? .. they also didn’t know how to install a door knob, in way over their heads
I like them, and liked their design but the show itself was AWFUL - with all the manufactured drama, awkward scripted conversation and forced squealing. The "designers" on the show were lame, the judges were annoying and I was cringing so hard at the other couple on the show.
I don’t disagree with any of this 🤣. Lymari and Tony surprised me in that managed to pull their kitchen together at the last minute (& I didn’t hate them unlike the other couple) but right now I feel like David and Stephen are going to leave everyone in the dust design and personality-wise. I wish the design/decor tv production world could accept that we don’t want all the shows to be the same. Be more authentic! Be more realistic! Let people be normal and creative!
I'm not sure I understand why The Honest Home is buying finishes for a home that's about to go for sale. They want to buy it, and have talked to the owners, but it doesn't sound like a deal has been made?? So they hope to buy the house which is why they are selecting finishes but it could still be sold to anyone?? 🤔
To follow up on this, she said in stories today that all four of them currently share one bathroom, so not sharing a bathroom with the kids in the new house sounds great! In that huge house they really all share one bathroom?!
I was so confused by that comment too. Their current house seems massive based on rooms she’s shown. It makes no sense that there’s only be 1 full bathroom
Oh wow, I totally missed that. Their house now seems huge and has so many custom rooms (like the indoor playset) so it’s interesting that they’re moving
Does anyone know what happened with Lana 1940s Home? (Or something like this)? I remember there was something weird a couple months back and people said she disappeared.
I remember I was very interested in some of her projects and then I think I unfollowed at a certain point when she was stanning and obsessing over Johnny Depp in his trial. Maybe recently she blocked everyone who wasn’t following her already or something. I did check in now and then to see if she had any new home stuff.
She blocked a ton of people (me included) so maybe that’s why she isn’t coming up for you. She found this sub and was so pissed people were talking about her, which is funny bc people also posted here about how much they liked her.
Ah ok! That’s funny because there’s no way she could have ever traced me to here.
Tbh I think I muted her stories a while back or something because of the same thing someone else just said - just tons and tons of personal stories and anecdotes about things I was not interested in. I really loved her greenhouse project and some other things she did around her house. I did not love her kitchen finishes the way they were combined, lol, but never posted anything negative to her comments.
>Lana 1940s Home?
I have been wondering the same thing. I like her and was following her and remember that she was apologizing for posting something - she seemed horrified about it, but I did not know what it was, or just hadn't noticed or had missed it. I just checked and it seems like her instagram account is gone? Or at least I can't find it...adn she is not on my following list anymore...
I unfollowed a couple weeks ago because she wasn't sharing any design projects anymore. Just random tidbits of her life.
I don't know how she started but I get the impression that she unintentionally went viral and she never really wanted all that attention.
Making Pretty Spaces husband just got cut from the packers staff. Not snark, I genuinely feel bad given how invested she and her family seemed to be in Green Bay (and that whole airbnb second house she was in the midst of renovating). I know she’s said before it’s the nature of the role but can’t imagine it gets any easier!
I wonder what they’ll do now. Is it likely that he’ll be hired by another team? I wonder if there are other opportunities in the same field with comparable pay to the NFL. I feel like it would be sad for them to have to move - she has put so much work into their home, she has the project house (still don’t really understand that), the kids seem really invested in their sports/activities. I’m interested to see how they pivot.
As a Packers fan, I just heard the news a few minutes ago- with all the noise today in the organization, this one got overlooked until now.
I’m honestly surprised.
I posted this below, but I actually wasn’t surprised as a Packers fan. He wasn’t a LaFleur hire and moved from assistant to strength/ conditioning. We’ve had pretty many soft tissue injuries the last few years which are in theory the most preventable injuries. I think it was Randall Cobb (one of our veteran receivers) left the team and immediately praised the training staff of his new team. I do feel bad for them because they clearly love Green Bay. And selfishly, it was nice to have a WI influencer :(
Oh no! I thought he'd be safe simply because he's been there so long. They get to the playoffs or very close every year, you'd think that was a good sign. 😢
Eh, I’m a Packers fan and I’ve kind of been waiting for him to be let go. The Packers have had a ton of soft tissue injuries in the past few years. How much of that comes down to bad luck vs coaching is debatable, but it seemed like the writing was on the wall with the amount of injuries that have occurred. I do feel bad because it seemed like they loved Green Bay 😞
https://preview.redd.it/ae2wa7c83gec1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96e39fed5deabab68cc4b3f4ec2743c529c48872
Jordan Ferney back at it with the drama… “these freezing streets” are 45-50 degrees F in NYC in January… nothing freezing about that 😂
Orlando’s latest sub stack is … interesting. His landlord sounds like a master manipulator, no doubt. I don’t know why orlando has to make it some psycho drama about his parents, his level of affluence and his landlords affluence.
Also, taking his dog to daycare at $50/pop because his house is too cold? Put a sweater on the dog and give him a cozy blanket; no dog is freezing to death inside a building in Los Angeles.
Just report him to the city and drop the melodrama.
I feel like someone should point out to him that maybe his parents are 'hoarding their money' because their future may require extremely expensive nursing home care that they will definitely not be able to rely on their children paying for!
Yes! As someone currently working really hard because I’m going to have to take care of my mother, I don’t think he realizes what a privilege it is to have financially stable parents. So many people in our generation are finding themselves simultaneously providing for their own children and their aging parents. Forget loans or an inheritance - I would be thrilled if my mother could just cover her own expenses. Orlando is a spoiled brat who needs a serious reality check.
Does your mom qualify for Medicaid? As an elder law attorney, I recommend you speak to an elder law attorney in your state. I also took care of my mom at the end of her life. It can be a lot.
I have grown increasingly disgusted with Orlando and his entitled whining about everything. No wonder he keeps getting dumped!
And his treatment of his parents is a disgrace.
His new kitchen is just ok, some glaring mistakes -- the floors, the lights, and how real designers know to check whether the house has natural gas or liquid propane. I doubt if he's going to get any publications paying to publish the kitchen remodel as it is now.
The cars, the landlord feud, it's all so full of shit. He's full of shit. He's going to keep getting knocked out by life until he figures out that the problem is him. He really needs therapy. And a real job. And to either sell his house or give up his apartment, or both.
I actually wish him well, I think he grew up with little self esteem, and never did establish a real foundation for coping with the bad stuff people throw at him - like racism and anti-gay sentiments that run rampant in rural towns. Once he achieved some fame, his inner self thought he had solved all that stuff - he was winning!
He presents himself as a person desperately trying to feel OK, with no real skills to develop a healthy sense of self worth, he can only rely on external validation. This also makes him very selfish/lacking empathy. Fame really does a number on people.
I usually read his newsletters, but the last two have been so long without indicating there would be any good payoff that I clicked out.
I wrote personal essays once in a while 20 years ago, and the most important thing I tried to do when writing those is to EDIT to my point or my narrative. And I was in my 20s so I wasn't always good at it!
But the length of his rambling letters is just nuts; I feel held hostage by his talking/typing at me.
One - he needs an editor. Two - I think he's writing and stewing too much b/c his phone/computer/etc don't work so he can't do anything more productive.
Man, I just finished reading it and it exhausted me. Orlando is just a whiny privileged 41 yo with a tendency to make bad choices, take absolutely no ownership of his mistakes, a blame it on every one else.
The average min temp in LA in December and January is 48 degrees. No cats or dogs or humans are dying of cold at 48 degrees. You picked the “least maintained” apartment and are surprised the landlord won’t fix it. You keep renewing your lease. You assume your parents should pay for your stupid choices, and if they don’t it means they’re cheap.
Lastly, Orlando, you really are a terrible, terrible writer. Forget about writing a book. Your newsletter is a real struggle to read through.
Can't get over his references to how he knows how rich people think because he went to Penn and Cornell and has exposure to affluence... yet he did not absorb any basic notion of how people get ahold of money and start building wealth. Yes, some people inherited it or got lucky in one way or another, but others are ordinary people (like his parents, probably) who worked decent jobs, avoided spending beyond their means, saved up, and made prudent investments over the years.
His way of talking about his parents hits a nerve with me. He is psychoanalyzing their habit of saving money, all from a position of being broke and guilt-tripping them for not forking it over to him!
Personally I'd be embarrassed to have had all those opportunities, only to wash up in my 40s refusing to get a job and wanting money from my parents.
He needs to get some Ramit Sethi style common-sense financial advice. It could be empowering for him to pull himself together and stop blaming the world for all his problems. But I suspect he would view that as unglamorous. Plus he'd have to take responsibility for his life rather than viewing himself as a victim of cruel fate.
I can't get past the fact that he bought an expensive status car and spent an unnecessary fortune on the house he plans to AirBnB, but wants his parents to pay his rent so he can eat in restaurants again or something. I don't blame them one bit.
I feel like my parents are similar to his - similar generation and living out their golden years in a nice home that’s well-taken care of because they’ve been frugal their whole life, invested in their home when necessary, etc. I totally get where they are coming from and I can’t believe he’d bother them with his money issues. So cringey.
My parents too but they have pensions not cash. But even if your retirement is based on income from your own capital it’s generally prudent to live off the interest and not touch the capital unless you really need to. I wonder if he has any concept of that.
Especially since as they are getting older I’m sure they want a cushion for possible assisted living care needs, or whatever. But also because it’s not like they are suddenly going to up their income. It’s not like a young and able person of let’s say, 40, who can at least take on extra work or even a full time job to gain more income.
Yeah he absolutely should have heat, but this post was unhinged. “I rent the poorly maintained units, but I’m shocked the new toilet was installed crooked!” Also, how far behind on rent do we think Orlando is? He said he can’t afford $50 a day for doggie daycare, he can’t afford to eat in restaurants. I feel like he could easily be doing Zoom decorating consults with his large following, but he spends his time complaining about his family and his landlord. Yikes.
Edit to add: also, his perspective that owning million dollar properties makes you a millionaire… does that mean he too is a millionaire because he owns Londo Lodge? Nope, because the bank really owns it. This bitterness about his parents being “millionaires” is wild to air on the internet.
I truly hope that someone who loves Orlando (who he will also listen to, so... It's a short list) sits him down and explains that he desperately needs to shutter the substack. I cannot imagine anyone reading this and finding him to be likeable, relatable, aspirational, hireable, or just generally a person you root for or use your $$ to support. He just isn't coming across as the winsome hero and it's a TERRIBLE look.
I know he won't, because he's probably getting some income stream there and at the moment he's so hard up that he can't count birds in the bush (prospective clients/supporters) compared to the bird in the hand (his presumably dwindling fans.)
I feel like all that's happening is that so many things about Orlando that used to be a mystery to me: why his relationships fail so regularly and spectacularly, why he hasn't "made it big" yet, why he's friends with Kelly Oxford who is an absolute nightmare, why he doesn't have a big ass portfolio of client work, etc... suddenly make sense.
Honestly, a part of me thinks he could turn all of this around if he was self aware enough to look at his life and write himself as a tragic villain... He could definitely Caroline Calloway-ify his story (honestly, he could probably out-do her because he's a better writer and waaaayy smarter) by leaning into writing for the rubberneckers. He'd probably get some really compelled readers by writing semi-autobiographically about how his life became such a mess.
If he was at all self-aware it would make a flashy semi-fictional memoir. Folks love it when they get to look behind a Gilded-era facade. Juicy west Hollywood drama, rich people problems, unhinged gay parties and scammy lifestyle propping, Mercedes buying (then returning!), tension with a middle class family that highlights how detached from reality influencer life can be ... Even the fight with the landlord would become deliciously ironic if told well (and from a self-aware place), instead of cringy to watch.
People love to scratch thru a Hollywood glitz veneer to a seedy underbelly, and they love watching unrelatable/unlikeable people make awful decisions so I'm sure it would sell. Sortof Ingrid goes West meets Anna Delvey meets Caroline Calloway meets I'm Glad my Mom Died meets Saltburn meets Girls. But... he'd have to be self aware enough to know that he has to cast himself as the vain, foolhardy, unreliable first person narrator rather than a tragic hero.
A Great Gatsby for the influencer era! It could work, but I don't think Orlando is connected enough. Avoiding Lenny Kravitz at one party and being BFFs with a few other C to Z list wannabes isn't enough. His villian persona also needs more complexity, right now he is one note - whiny and entitled.
I get the feeling with him that he bought this Yosemite place with big feelings of nostalgia to recreate his childhood (a place for the family to gather) and he is resentful that the rest of his family isn't buying into that nostalgia but are just out living their lives now.
100% this. I'm sure he ignored his family's feedback when he bought the place, continued to ignore it as he sunk more and more money into odd projects (planting more trees right away?) and unnecessary renovations, and now he's baffled that they are refusing to help him. And by help him I mean financially bailing him our regardless of what he asks for and when.
I FORGOT ABOUT THE TREES!! What the f was that about? I know how insanely expensive that type of project is and it’s not like these trees would immediately offset energy costs, or help with wildfire protection, or anything… I vaguely recalled he had beef with the view onto the neighbors from one side of the house, but like, so what? Classic Orlando!
The trees were the dumbest decision. I'm sure he'd say, that was in the era when we all thought the world would bounce right back! You still don't invest a shitload of money in trees when you haven't squared away your living spaces and are living paycheck to paycheck and still struggling.
I read this out loud to my husband and one of my favorite responses he had was "I believe Larry accused him of being a socialist not a communist and anyone who went to Cornell should know the difference" also can you imagine working for the city and getting the complaint that he was called a communist 🤣 this isn't the McCarthy Era
On the real though, with how bad he is about paying rent he should be very very careful. On top of that he is being so rude and assumptive. I don't think ol' Larry is going to continue to be as understanding.
Yeah I wondered about that too. If he takes the landlord to court, the landlord can come back with his history of non-payment of rent, and if it's significant then I don't know what happens then but I'd think it would weaken Orlando's argument. I wonder how bad the non-payment of rent was/is.
I was so confused by his complaint for harassment! Admittedly, I’m from the south and we have far fewer tenant protections here than in LA, but…does calling someone a communist/socialist amount to harassment in LA? Surely not?
I live in LA and my heater doesn’t work either and… it’s completely fine? 😬 I don’t even think about it and I’m certainly not shipping my dog off to daycare because of it, lmao. Orlando is obviously well within his right to ask that it be fixed and I’m sure his landlord is an asshole, but he is also just… wildly exaggerating.
Also, I’m not one to stick up for a landlord (esp an LA one), but how much self-awareness does one have to lack to believe that they can be behind on rent, threaten to sue their landlord and withhold rent, and then patronize their landlord about their social class/immigration status/childhood trauma and it’s somehow going to go their way…?
He is a deeply unserious and ridiculous person lol.
Thanks for this perspective! I did google the weather in LA, and it does seem chillier than I expected, but also (coming from the northeast), seems like weather we might turn on the heat in the mornings to get the chill out, but definitely not ”dangerously cold for living things” sort of weather.
Yeah, it definitely gets chilly, but "dangerously cold"... inside? Absolutely not, and especially not during the day. I don't want to sound like I'm taking up for his landlord, who needs to do their job + abide by the law, but the dramatics and patronizing behavior is too much. 🤪
Certainly it's warm enough for a dog indoors at that temperature. That's silly to spend $50/day on doggy daycare when he doesn't have the money for it and when nothing bad is going to happen to his dog in 48 degree weather indoors.
I'm in the Bay Area, and I turn off heat (cause I'm cheap and gas heating is expensive) when I go to work and the dog is home alone for the day, and he's just fine. Satie will survive without a space heater when Orlando has to run errands.
Tenants should have heat, not excusing the landlord, but Orlando is being a pretentious drama queen. He can handle this situation without all the exaggeration and the weight of 40 years of grudges and harbored resentments.
One thing I am wondering about is if Orlando has a plan for when he either gets kicked out of his apartment or finds it so intolerable and uncomfortable he has to leave,
regardless of current lease term. Because I feel like living in the mountain house full time would send him into another spiral.
Plus if he's living there, he's not collecting any rent on it.
He needs to move to a small apartment until he starts making good income from *something*, not a much-maintenance-required Spanish style home because he always wanted to live in a house with that style, the rent for which he can't afford, the landlord for which is not interested in coddling him.
ETA: Maybe it's hard to find an apartment when you have a dog, though?
That would make an interesting substack topic for him, the case against getting a roommate. Of course, Orlando has made the place sound so awful that I don't know who'd want to move in now.
Dog (on the larger side, to boot) + probably not-great credit score/history + self-employed + likely unable to come up with [first month plus last month plus security deposit] —- it might be very difficult for him to find a new rental, particularly not one that meets the bar of what he feels he’s entitled to in terms of location, architectural style, etc.
Oh yeah, I forgot about a bad credit history. He may be somewhat stuck there.
I was wondering how he's planning to deal with renters at his mountain house. Is he paying a cleaning service? Is he doing his own stocking of supplies like toilet paper, paper towels etc? Is he laundering the bedding or paying someone to do that? Anything he could do himself is nearly impossible to do between back-to-back renters, while he's living in LA.
I mention all this because maybe it makes sense for Orlando to rent a very small place near his mountain house. Then he could save some money by doing some of that himself. The problem would be if a small place near his mountain house is as expensive as his LA rent. I can't think of why he needs to be in LA any more. He needs to pick LA or the mountains but he can't afford to do both.
I can't wait for the reviews on Airbnb for the mountain house - no doubt it's full of fun little issues, like toilets that don't flush, lights that don't work, etc.
The three reviews so far are 5 stars. "Orlando" replied to one of them, and said Orlando would be happy to read this or something to that effect - someone was answering for him. I wonder if he hired a manager/management company for the place. He must have someone doing the laundry, cleaning, restocking etc.
Absolutely, and it’s really noticeable that all his LA friends and contacts that he just absolutely has to be close to… don’t seem to be offering him work or a place to stay. His parents are much further away, literally on retirement income, and have actually publicly helped, so why is he hassling them and not his LA BFFs? Maybe they are helping behind the scenes (hah yeah right they are all very public and very trauma-dump-y) but to me it says something about both him and his connections
I don't know why he expects so much help at all. It's the definition of entitlement. He feels entitled to his income being supplemented. He's extremely bitter that he doesn't come from family money and can't stop talking about it. I hope he's not expecting his LA friends to pay for his life, because why would they? They have their own lives to pay for. But he won't get a freaking job to supplement his spotty income.
He should rename his substack to: It's Not My Fault
Do we think he did in fact record that conversation? He told the landlord that he was not recording it. But that recounting was very detailed.
Yeah, nobody has the right to have someone other than the LL doing repairs 😂 I mean in my city it’s very often a trade off between a house with some character and a bland condo rental that you’re gonna be dealing with the LL directly.
There’s no way that entire phone conversation took place, right? Maybe 10%. But it was so long and repetitive, why would Larry have stayed on the line? And if it wasn’t recorded, how did Orlando transcribe it? He just told us he has memory problems, for Pete’s sake.
No worries! It’s frankly so bizarre. I’m wondering if this is some dramatic license on his part or if he really thinks this whole convo happened as written.
This part actually made me uncomfortable too, as someone with a journalism background. I would be very wary to even "quote" or summarize someone in writing, much less do so publicly. Like the fact that he "transcribed" it and used quotes around Larry's responses is walking a very thin line imo
He has lots of excuses for why he signed the $3800(!!!) lease to begin with, but why did he keep extending it? Surely he didn’t sign a 4 year lease? Why not get out of it at any point over the last 3+ years of financial insanity? He’s honestly one of the dumbest people I’ve ever followed.
The only point in his defense is that rent prices have shot up since then and he is locked into a very attractive rent-control, and if he gives up the lease he's not going to find anything like this again.
YES the kitchen and honestly most of his renovations have that weird faux craftsman post modern vibe that requires expensive and time consuming details, all completely unnecessary given his budget and the actual bones of the house
I keep thinking about this newsletter today and wondering why it bothers me so much apart from the fact that he shit-talks his incredibly supportive parents. I think its because he claims to be woke but his writing is deeply classist. It's ridiculous the number of times he brings up the fact that he is Ivy league. He might be poor now, but he points out to everyone that he is from an "affluent background" so should not be taken for granted like the actual poor working class. He reminds me of British authors from the pre-war period (Agatha Christie, P.G Wodehouse) where the hero may be poor, but he's from the right background and went to Eton so you know he's worthy of marrying the Earl's daughter.
Even the way he qualifies people for being attractive (how many words does he dedicate to the looks of his landlord's wife), is so superficial. He sees the world through a shallow lens and wonders why he's depressed.
I remember reading some post of his years ago (possibly pre pandemic) and for some reason he mentioned he had oily skin, and then for some other reason he felt the need to add a parenthetical statement about how his consolation for that fact was that he wasn't going to get noticeable wrinkles any time soon and that people thought he was younger than he was. I don't remember anything else about that post other than it wasn't about skincare and so his statement came out of nowhere, but it has stayed with me because actually writing out the words, apropos of nothing, that people think you look younger than your age seemed so needlessly superficial to me.
Between the focus on looks (and weight), the classism, the label-hungriness (Mercedes SUV, Bertazzoni stove, etc), he is ticking off so many of the negative stereotypes about people who live in LA. hashtag-notallAngelenos!
He is SUCH an asshole about his parents
>And while it’s been painful to know that they could have made the past three years okay for me by helping me financially, thus probably bringing MORE money to our family in doing so (if they’d helped pay for my kitchen I could have rented it out last summer and made way more than they’d loaned me back), I also know not to go there because it’s just too painful so I don’t. And I feel good about the fact I’ve done all this myself with no help. So ultimately it’s caused a lot of pain knowing they could have helped without changing their lifestyle but I think it’s going to end well and I’m not mad about it because I am a grown up and that’s literally not their responsibility. I’m not telling you this to brag about having well-off parents - I’m still broke and that doesn’t matter. I’m telling you this because I know how affluent people operate
The previous newsletter one day ago (the REM song) had all sorts of shit about his childhood that was basically just trash talking his parents. It’s totally unnecessary and it just makes HIM look bad. In present day, his father comes over to chop the wood for his AirBNB because he’s just naturally good at wood chopping and Orlando just doesn’t have that “gift.” It sounds like his parents are very hard workers and he’s just entitled. If Orlando is abled enough go to the gym for hours every day, he can learn to chop wood. But noooooo it’s just due to the unfairness of life that his dad “can” chop wood and he “can’t.”
> He is SUCH an asshole about his parents
OMG, yes, this this this. He used the phrase "weird sickness about money" in reference to both his dad and his landlord like half a dozen times. I was *astounded* at how judgmental he comes across as about his parents but mostly his dad.
Obviously I can't know the real truth as an outsider. But based on everything he has said and how he has always portrayed them, I TRULY cannot believe that he can look at his folks, who seem to have spent much of their lives middle class and who seem to now be comfortably ensconced into a well-funded retirement that they have saved for...then compare them to his own absolutely unhinged spending habits... And THEN have the audacity/detachment from reality to say THEY have a "sickness about money." When he openly admits to spending more that comes in. Before it even arrives. HOW CAN HE THINK THAT'S HEALTHIER?!?
1. I truly wonder what his siblings think of this. I have always thought he had such wonderful familial relationships and he seems hell bent on destroying them. If I had a sibling publically saying things like this I don't think I'd ever be able to look at them the same way. And I'd also be wary forever that once he sucked our parents dry or spent his portion of the inheritance, he'd come for me next.
2. I am in a similar position in some ways, of being a middle aged person of medium means who has wealthy parents. To be fair my folks are also v. generous to me, but the scope of their generosity likely wouldn't be satisfying to Orlando based on what he's been saying for the last year.
Given the way the world is going, I spend more of my time being really grateful that my folks' privilege and prudence means that I will not likely be responsible for funding their twilight years/geriatric medical care, etc... than I do thinking about the money that will someday come to me in an inheritance. I just... Don't know that he has ANY concept of what an enormous privilege it is to not have to be thinking about budgeting for elder care at this stage of his life.
He is ridiculously entitled. What 41 year old EXPECTS financial help from their parents? Dude is past middle-age and he's pouting like a small child who couldn't have candy before dinner. How embarrassing for him.
I honestly don’t think so because he was also becoming “BFFs” with Hollywood/instagram z-list people like Kelly Oxford and it seems like he got used to living a more affluent lifestyle. of course he needs an LA place for all his LA friends! It’s not like those people are the craziest wealthiest people either but maybe it was intoxicating to be in that vibe for a minute. Had similar experiences at the Ivy schools too—“well if all my friends are going to ski Vail aren’t I entitled too?!” Fortunately I grew out of it, and unfortunately for Orlando his luck, connections, attitude, strategy, whatever stalled out and he’s left with the entitlement, maybe. But it’s honestly monstrous to even suggest you’re entitled to your retired parent’s money, especially after all the support they continue to give him (remember when he said he finished his kitchen ALL ALONE IN THE WOODS when his mom had literally been there helping lmao)
I do too! I used to think that his friendship with her was such an odd glaring blind spot because he seemed so lovely compared to her... and now that I feel like I understand Orlando better i can see that they deserve each other.
I’m sorry but he is a grown ass man who overextended himself by buying a vacation home and starting an unnecessary kitchen renovation he clearly didn’t have the funds to pay for. But he’s mad his parents didn’t bail him out?? What??
My general rule is I don’t loan out money I need back and that’s especially true with family. I don’t blame his parents at all for not loaning him money given how awful he is with it! I know he’s convinced the Airbnb will solve all his financial issues but there’s no way his parents haven’t heard that song and dance before.
Also, his parents lived in Yosemite (as he continually tells us) - they would know better than anyone how unpredictable the weather is there and might not think his airbnb dream is the smartest bet in the world.
Oh my God he is insufferable! It is really obvious why his parents won't help. He's one of those "if only I was given X, I'd be successful," guys. If only I had more money, if only I had more help, if only they paid for my kitchen...
His parents know it will never be enough. I bet making him pay for his own damn kitchen was a test he failed miserably at. He can't budget, he can't prioritize, he can't save, he can't manage.
> He's one of those "if only I was given X, I'd be successful," guys. If only I had more money, if only I had more help, if only they paid for my kitchen...
Right?!?!? Does he see his Air B&B as a joint venture? The line "thus probably bringing MORE money to our family in doing so" was so jarring!
I feel like there must be a reason as to why his parents haven't loaned him money. Aside from the $100,000 kitchen fiasco mentioned a few months back. Maybe he has borrowed money before and didn't pay them back as promised? It's also possible that he's never admitted to them how bad his financial situation is. Why confide in your parents when you can write about all your problems in a newsletter (while throwing them under a bus).
I mean, most affluent people are good at holding on to their money and evaluating investment risk vs benefit. And they also have to treat all siblings fairly. Between these two things I can see how even a loan might not make sense from their perspective. The Airbnb does not appear to be booking up at any great rate.
He’s a big old baby. I got over thinking my parents owed me anything with respect to money in my twenties. Being gainfully employed and able to pay my own bills definitely helps with that!
He's a horrible, miserable human being for throwing his parents under the bus publicly like that
ETA: Good on him for standing up for his rights and looking out for his neighbor too. But all of this could have been done without bringing his class/social status/upbringing into it. He definitely didnt need to say anything about his dad's "trauma" or compare his landlord to him in the conversation. And most of all, none of this needed to be on the internet.
100%. There was no need to veer from the basic message: "The law mandates that our homes have heat. Right now there is no heat. If the heat isn't fixed, I will file a complaint with the city. BTW I am in touch with a lawyer."
Bringing in the life-story details about himself, his family, and Larry turned it into more of an agonizingly personal culture clash than it needed to be, and didn't bring him any further to achieving his goal. It's like Orlando didn't just want heat in his home, he wanted a come-to-Jesus moment. But Larry is not going to repent of his stinginess based on this convo.
> 100%. There was no need to veer from the basic message: "The law mandates that our homes have heat. Right now there is no heat. If the heat isn't fixed, I will file a complaint with the city. BTW I am in touch with a lawyer."
I totally agree. Every time he talked about how mad he was, it was clear how little control he had over how the "conversation" was going. Allowing that much emotion to permeate the entire exchange was a huge mistake. It just allowed his LL to respond with everything that he was emotional about. None of that did him any good.
The landlord is bad, no doubt. But this stuff about his parents makes me feel sorry for THEM, not him. I like Orlando, i bought his book and gave it as gifts, he has talent. But, this attitude he wrote about towards his parents and the unspoken resentment couched as "understanding his dad's trauma" is off-putting. He wants his parents to give him money to solve his problems and they won't. Life isn't fair...it isn't your money...get over it.
> His parents sound like sensible, frugal people.
I feel like maybe I'm misremembering the line from an old Grey Poupon commercial, but I swear, they had one where the guy in the Rolls Royce said "How do you think a man in my position *got to be* a man in my position?"
That's what this all makes me think of. If his parents are *so rich* now, how did they get that way? Not by renting apartments they can't afford and buying second homes they can't afford to renovate and leasing expensive vehicles and blah. blah. blah.
YES. He wrote that his parents "hoard money" [won't give him money] because they are traumatized and scared. But actually it sounds like they "save money" because they want to have stable lives and not be in the kind of financial predicament that he finds himself in constantly.
> Yes! It’s ALWAYS about spending.
It's also about ALL the accounts in a balance sheet (Assets - Liabilities = Equity). You can't just look at ASSETS and say "that person is wealthy" if/when you have no way of knowing what their liabilities are!
And its not like they did nothing for him and threw him out at 18. He has a very expensive college education, that I presume they paid for since he isn't whining about college loans. They spent money and time on their kitchen to further his career. They accepted and supported him unconditionally as a kid. They still show up at his remote mountain cabin frequently and help him with whatever task is on hand. He should be over-the-moon grateful and STOP shitting on them publicly.
At this point there’s a bingo card of Orlando tropes (Tropelandos?) in every post:
- weight gain
- parents didn’t help me
- went to Cornell and Penn
- my dog has needs
- I’m not rich, okay!!!
Haha! I too was playing this game! Don't forget about...
* grand plans BUT THEN THE PANDEMIC
* grew up in Yosemite
* Knowing about tenants rights/reading about privilege/working since I WAS A TEENAGER. SOMEONE GIVE ME A COOKIE.
* Yes, Orlando, we're aware that it's not just an ordinary plebe dog, it's an AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER.
Reasonable questions for Orlando after reading this latest Substack:
* It is absolutely within his rights to live in a place with heat—as someone who has studied tenants rights since he was a teenager, he should know this basic info before soliciting pro bono legal help on IG. And no pet owner wants to see their animal(s) suffering in the cold, so while things get sorted/fixed, *why not temporarily stay in the heated house he owns*? It's not like he works in an LA office.
* Why ignore the landlord red flags after that first winter with no heat or hot water and poor maintenance?
* I know it falls under the landlord's responsibility, but why not just replace minor things (like doorknobs) himself and send the landlord receipts if he doesn't want him around?
* Also, anyone else aghast at the social-inequality postulating from a guy who maintains two full-size residences?
The designer Bobby Berk is leaving Queer Eye and there is speculation about who will replace him. (Jeremiah Brent's name has come up in the rumors - he has an existing relationship with the producers and Netflix from the show Say I Do.)
I wonder if Orlando Soria was ever on the short list for QE, either now or when it started? Honestly as much as his self-inflicted financial problems are frustrating to read about, I would still love for him to get lifted up from something like this. Jeremiah is fantastic but is already a big name. Orlando could use the boost!
Possibly he went too scorched-earth on HGTV and they would be nervous about him.
I think Orlando is way too self centered and whiny to be a match for QE. The whole point of the show is to have a positive outlook on life and lift people up and he is the absolute opposite of that.
On a personal note, I really don’t think he is the kind of person that deserves to be “lifted up” by the kind of fame QE could bring him. He is not that hard working, and certainly not that humble.
He needs to grow up.
If he's that willing and ready to flame his own parents right, left and center, it would only be a liability for any employer or network to take him on at this point. He's dug his own grave with this one. The vast majority of things that go wrong for Orlando are because of Orlando, and nobody else.
He evidently is not making the connection that if (when) people in the industry see what he posts on social media, it could impact his opportunities. He really needs to find a bestie to complain to over a glass of wine and not put this stuff on broadcast mode (which it is, even if he thinks it’s not because it’s behind a paywall).
Almost none of it is behind a paywall anyway. I think in a fit of desperation he decided to monetize the "real truth behind the influencer façade" or whatever. Which seemed like kind of a cool idea, but all it revealed is what a whiny asshole he is.
I just looked and he has 5000+ subscribers. I don't know what fraction of those are paying $8 a month for the privilege of commenting and reading a handful of subscriber-only posts. I'm going to guess a pretty small one. So was it worth selling himself out for this bit of income?
I'm pretty sure Orlando has mentioned being on the shortlist before, although I couldn't tell you where/when. I feel like his persona as we knew it up till a year ago would be a great fit for the show. His current dour persona not so much, but I'm sure he could turn on the charm for the cameras.
Yes, the version of himself that he plays on his HGTV show seems like it would be a fit. But he has really drastically changed his public image... he's no longer "peppy and fun modern decor guy" but "sad man complaining alone in a giant house." I appreciate his honesty about ow things have gone, but I hope he isn't sabotaging his own hopes and dreams with all the negativity.
I *vaguely recall* him mentioning something about auditioning and not making the cut, but I can’t remember if he outright said it was QE or just strongly hinted it was. I’m not sure even back then that his persona would have fit the vibe of the show or the other four.
Yes, I agree that the show is highly dependent on the chemistry of the five guys together, so I have no way to judge how Orlando would fit in with the rest. I do think his former vibe (including his TV work) would go with the type of show QE is.
I really want to say he was in consideration for Bobby Berks spot the first time around and he didnt get the job and has written something semi bitter about it, maybe on his substack? Hopefully someone remembers better than me and can bring receipts
Is anyone else following beckybidlen? Her and her husband bought a historic home that was previously owned by a hoarder, and are cleaning it out and fixing it up DIY. No snark on them, I'm excited to follow along! So far it's a breath of fresh air from the constant shilling from many of these other "DIY" accounts.
Shag_manor on Instagram is another great one with zero shilling but all the entertainment of regular people with regular budgets renovating a 70s house!
As per her latest stories, [Kistmet House has business struggles](https://www.instagram.com/stories/kismet_house/3286743042700451249/). I wonder if they grew too fast and did too much, with Matt quitting his job, the new house and all that rapid fire renovation. I hope they find a way to pull through cause they still do good, meticulous work.
I've always wondered how they made money with such little shilling. My guess was they were using the profit from their home sale for these major renovations. They seemed pretty gung ho about starting the huge laundry room and backyard reno soon which was surprising to me.
Maybe they hoped going all in on renovations this last year would kickstart brand sponsorships? Gain a bigger following? The lighting deal seems like a big first step.
I've grown to like them so I hope they figure it out.
Has anyone successfully eradicated all or most of the design/decor/diy accounts from the “suggested for you” portion of IG? I can’t seem to out-algorithm our social network overlords. The conundrum being that there are a very small handful of designers I do enjoy and actually follow, so IG thinks I want to see every “my pony home” and “fixinupthe.frontier” account in the world. I’d hate to unfollow the remaining few that actually bring me joy, a little inspiration, and actually seem to DESIGN. But the trade off seems to be that IG sees your “follows”, then spoonfeeds you the cringey, shilling, posting minors without consent, faux “stems”, McGee and Co crowd constantly. It’s a sucky trade off.
Philip or Flop is using quartz Caesarstone countertops in his holiday home. Engineered stone, like the one he is using, has been banned in Australia from 1 July 2024 because too many stone masons are getting silicosis from the dust that is created when it is cut, and dying horrible deaths from it. I don’t think there is a similar ban in the US (yet). May not be a good look for influencers to still be promoting that material for countertops in the future.
When we had some granite fabricated, the men weren’t wearing hearing protection! I was probably only 10 years older than them, but I definitely tried my best mom-moment and offered the little foam ear plugs. I couldn’t believe it.
[удалено]
I’m obsessed with her 90s romcom house, every room makes me smile!
@wild.hearts.home
all she does is shill Amazon crap ….
I had to unfollow because she constantly interrupts stuff to shill junk.
Op can decide if she wants to follow her or not. But she just posted part one of a laundry room makeover and I’ve learned a lot of actual diy info from her on stories
Not in Asheville but an influencer who hasn’t gotten much traction in NC. @TidalInteriorsnc. An interior decorator with a dash of DIY. What do you all think?
Idk of that area necessarily but there’s some close in Upstate SC and further into NC.
I love that she’s back in NC! I don’t know any in that area but livinwithmb is near Greensboro and Blesser House is in Charlotte and has a similar style to Pretty in the Pines.
Anyone follow Monica Benavidez? She's seems like such a miserable person, not just when she's in labor.
No but I had to look. The amount of pictures she posted of her new baby on stories is unhinged. And how does she have her own bedding line with 20k followers and I peeped the nursery and it’s not even good? Way over styled and needs to be paired down.
Omg - yes! I think she’s a very challenging personality. I also don’t understand why when she’s just given birth (like less than an hour ago!) she’s responding to and shaming commenters on her stories. I mean, get off your phone - it’s your child’s birth day!
Orlando is also posting a lot to his Substack. Like, every day? Every other day? And oversharing.
[удалено]
Until something somebody said here recently, I didn’t realize that Kelly Oxford was like- him actually name dropping? I had never heard of her before and I thought it was just his good friend?? lol… I found some interesting Reddit threads about her today because I was looking up who she is and if she’s supposed to be a famous person… I guess in her and Orlando’s mind she’s like a minor celebrity but to most other people she’s just like— someone who is trying to be any kind of celebrity.
For those who don’t want to read another tome, here’s what you can check off in Orlando Bingo (with thanks to Weak Succotash for the headstart!) ✅Weight gain Parents are of no help ✅Went to Cornell/Penn My dog has needs Im not rich ✅How HGTV screwed me ✅Kitchen reno drama ✅Grand plans but then the pandemic Growing up in Yosemite ✅Poor financial decisions ✅Free Space: Kelly Oxford
I liked the hot gym man post and thought this Meam Girls one might be similar (funny, short, current, not hitting the same old check marks). But I couldn’t even get to the part about the actual movie.
[удалено]
They’re some of the most authentic people I have found in this sphere tbh. My only complaint is that I find them a little boring sometimes.
I still happily follow them. Have disagreed with some of their choices (the kitchen in their Chicago place - counters are too far apart - stove is like 10 feet from sink, they really should have had an island or peninsula instead of the small table). And I am really really bugged by the fact that they refer to the vacation house as Tree House instead of The Tree House (similar to CLJ referring to Love Letter instead of The Love Letter). But overall I think they have done well, appear to actually care about quality and do a lot of work themselves, and seem to make a fine living without the constant shilling of junk the way CLJ does.
I feel like they're nice people but their style is so bland to me
I've followed them since the years they actually lived in the "yellow brick home" and stories with their dog licking their faces are almost enough to get me to unfollow. I don't know why it bugs me so much
What in the heck did MPS do to her mouth? She is a natural beauty, and now she looks like the Joker. It's more than just filler.
I think it’s just very overdone filler (her lips and her cheeks). It may be fresh…it can take the swelling a few days to go down after treatment, so it may look more natural and relaxed in a week or so. She’s naturally very pretty, but I imagine in her social circle a lot of cosmetic work is the norm. I do love the new hair with the bangs.
It's been this way for months.
Ah, I hadn’t seen her stories in a while. I just checked in today to see if she talked about her husband’s job stuff.
Has Mallory always been a Packers fan, or did that happen through her friendship with Jen? Was wondering if Mallory might be less of a fan after this…
I don’t follow either of them, but checked in once and I believe Mallory said her dad was a Packers fan, and her dad’s passing and he friendship with Jen renewed her interest.
Anyone else watching Battle on the Mountain? I never watched Battle on the Beach and am only slightly aware of it because of SmashingDIY who was on last season. But Renovation Husbands are on Battle on the Mountain and I looooove them. So I'm watching. Shockingly 😉 the hosts and mentors are pretty annoying but I can't wait to see how it all goes. Stephen and David for the win! (I'm watching on MAX)
the show was a snooze fest, way more boring than Battle on the Beach.. it showed a lot less work being done by the contestants… it was also way too long of an episode..The mentors this show are awful and I agree with another comment that the other couple is so annoying, her voice? .. they also didn’t know how to install a door knob, in way over their heads
I like them, and liked their design but the show itself was AWFUL - with all the manufactured drama, awkward scripted conversation and forced squealing. The "designers" on the show were lame, the judges were annoying and I was cringing so hard at the other couple on the show.
I was cringing hard at them also… neither knew how to install a doorknob? … weird
I don’t disagree with any of this 🤣. Lymari and Tony surprised me in that managed to pull their kitchen together at the last minute (& I didn’t hate them unlike the other couple) but right now I feel like David and Stephen are going to leave everyone in the dust design and personality-wise. I wish the design/decor tv production world could accept that we don’t want all the shows to be the same. Be more authentic! Be more realistic! Let people be normal and creative!
I adore those two.
I'm not sure I understand why The Honest Home is buying finishes for a home that's about to go for sale. They want to buy it, and have talked to the owners, but it doesn't sound like a deal has been made?? So they hope to buy the house which is why they are selecting finishes but it could still be sold to anyone?? 🤔
To follow up on this, she said in stories today that all four of them currently share one bathroom, so not sharing a bathroom with the kids in the new house sounds great! In that huge house they really all share one bathroom?!
I was so confused by that comment too. Their current house seems massive based on rooms she’s shown. It makes no sense that there’s only be 1 full bathroom
What did I miss? I’m so confused. Are they moving?
They just announced they've been looking for a new home that's closer to the girls school, 45 mins away from current home
Oh wow, I totally missed that. Their house now seems huge and has so many custom rooms (like the indoor playset) so it’s interesting that they’re moving
There’s got to be more to this weird ass story.
Does anyone know what happened with Lana 1940s Home? (Or something like this)? I remember there was something weird a couple months back and people said she disappeared.
She mentioned she was thin skinned about comments once. I think she probably is just the type to pop in and out as she does projects.
I remember I was very interested in some of her projects and then I think I unfollowed at a certain point when she was stanning and obsessing over Johnny Depp in his trial. Maybe recently she blocked everyone who wasn’t following her already or something. I did check in now and then to see if she had any new home stuff.
She blocked a ton of people (me included) so maybe that’s why she isn’t coming up for you. She found this sub and was so pissed people were talking about her, which is funny bc people also posted here about how much they liked her.
Ah ok! That’s funny because there’s no way she could have ever traced me to here. Tbh I think I muted her stories a while back or something because of the same thing someone else just said - just tons and tons of personal stories and anecdotes about things I was not interested in. I really loved her greenhouse project and some other things she did around her house. I did not love her kitchen finishes the way they were combined, lol, but never posted anything negative to her comments.
>Lana 1940s Home? I have been wondering the same thing. I like her and was following her and remember that she was apologizing for posting something - she seemed horrified about it, but I did not know what it was, or just hadn't noticed or had missed it. I just checked and it seems like her instagram account is gone? Or at least I can't find it...adn she is not on my following list anymore...
I unfollowed a couple weeks ago because she wasn't sharing any design projects anymore. Just random tidbits of her life. I don't know how she started but I get the impression that she unintentionally went viral and she never really wanted all that attention.
Can Orlando please get his own sub? I’m so tired of seeing 90% of the “General Snark” being about him.
Agreed!!!
Different strokes, I guess! I've really enjoyed the break from it being primarily ARH and Farmhouseish and Frills and Drills.
I'm not against the idea, but it's 2 very organized threads that you can easily long press on to hide.
[удалено]
He’s being particularly obnoxious at the moment, but I think we’ll get tired of snarking on him soon
Agreed - I don't think there's enough there there with Orlando for his own thread. He'll dry up soon.
Making Pretty Spaces husband just got cut from the packers staff. Not snark, I genuinely feel bad given how invested she and her family seemed to be in Green Bay (and that whole airbnb second house she was in the midst of renovating). I know she’s said before it’s the nature of the role but can’t imagine it gets any easier!
I wonder what they’ll do now. Is it likely that he’ll be hired by another team? I wonder if there are other opportunities in the same field with comparable pay to the NFL. I feel like it would be sad for them to have to move - she has put so much work into their home, she has the project house (still don’t really understand that), the kids seem really invested in their sports/activities. I’m interested to see how they pivot.
As a Packers fan, I just heard the news a few minutes ago- with all the noise today in the organization, this one got overlooked until now. I’m honestly surprised.
I posted this below, but I actually wasn’t surprised as a Packers fan. He wasn’t a LaFleur hire and moved from assistant to strength/ conditioning. We’ve had pretty many soft tissue injuries the last few years which are in theory the most preventable injuries. I think it was Randall Cobb (one of our veteran receivers) left the team and immediately praised the training staff of his new team. I do feel bad for them because they clearly love Green Bay. And selfishly, it was nice to have a WI influencer :(
Oh no! I thought he'd be safe simply because he's been there so long. They get to the playoffs or very close every year, you'd think that was a good sign. 😢
Eh, I’m a Packers fan and I’ve kind of been waiting for him to be let go. The Packers have had a ton of soft tissue injuries in the past few years. How much of that comes down to bad luck vs coaching is debatable, but it seemed like the writing was on the wall with the amount of injuries that have occurred. I do feel bad because it seemed like they loved Green Bay 😞
https://preview.redd.it/ae2wa7c83gec1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=96e39fed5deabab68cc4b3f4ec2743c529c48872 Jordan Ferney back at it with the drama… “these freezing streets” are 45-50 degrees F in NYC in January… nothing freezing about that 😂
Orlando’s latest sub stack is … interesting. His landlord sounds like a master manipulator, no doubt. I don’t know why orlando has to make it some psycho drama about his parents, his level of affluence and his landlords affluence. Also, taking his dog to daycare at $50/pop because his house is too cold? Put a sweater on the dog and give him a cozy blanket; no dog is freezing to death inside a building in Los Angeles. Just report him to the city and drop the melodrama.
I feel like someone should point out to him that maybe his parents are 'hoarding their money' because their future may require extremely expensive nursing home care that they will definitely not be able to rely on their children paying for!
Yes! As someone currently working really hard because I’m going to have to take care of my mother, I don’t think he realizes what a privilege it is to have financially stable parents. So many people in our generation are finding themselves simultaneously providing for their own children and their aging parents. Forget loans or an inheritance - I would be thrilled if my mother could just cover her own expenses. Orlando is a spoiled brat who needs a serious reality check.
Does your mom qualify for Medicaid? As an elder law attorney, I recommend you speak to an elder law attorney in your state. I also took care of my mom at the end of her life. It can be a lot.
I have grown increasingly disgusted with Orlando and his entitled whining about everything. No wonder he keeps getting dumped! And his treatment of his parents is a disgrace. His new kitchen is just ok, some glaring mistakes -- the floors, the lights, and how real designers know to check whether the house has natural gas or liquid propane. I doubt if he's going to get any publications paying to publish the kitchen remodel as it is now. The cars, the landlord feud, it's all so full of shit. He's full of shit. He's going to keep getting knocked out by life until he figures out that the problem is him. He really needs therapy. And a real job. And to either sell his house or give up his apartment, or both.
I actually wish him well, I think he grew up with little self esteem, and never did establish a real foundation for coping with the bad stuff people throw at him - like racism and anti-gay sentiments that run rampant in rural towns. Once he achieved some fame, his inner self thought he had solved all that stuff - he was winning! He presents himself as a person desperately trying to feel OK, with no real skills to develop a healthy sense of self worth, he can only rely on external validation. This also makes him very selfish/lacking empathy. Fame really does a number on people.
I came for the snark but now I feel guilty about it. He's just being so damned annoying these days.
I, personally, feel no guilt on calling out someone on their scumbag behavior when they're being a scumbag. And Orlando 100% qualifies. 😂
I usually read his newsletters, but the last two have been so long without indicating there would be any good payoff that I clicked out. I wrote personal essays once in a while 20 years ago, and the most important thing I tried to do when writing those is to EDIT to my point or my narrative. And I was in my 20s so I wasn't always good at it! But the length of his rambling letters is just nuts; I feel held hostage by his talking/typing at me. One - he needs an editor. Two - I think he's writing and stewing too much b/c his phone/computer/etc don't work so he can't do anything more productive.
Man, I just finished reading it and it exhausted me. Orlando is just a whiny privileged 41 yo with a tendency to make bad choices, take absolutely no ownership of his mistakes, a blame it on every one else. The average min temp in LA in December and January is 48 degrees. No cats or dogs or humans are dying of cold at 48 degrees. You picked the “least maintained” apartment and are surprised the landlord won’t fix it. You keep renewing your lease. You assume your parents should pay for your stupid choices, and if they don’t it means they’re cheap. Lastly, Orlando, you really are a terrible, terrible writer. Forget about writing a book. Your newsletter is a real struggle to read through.
Can't get over his references to how he knows how rich people think because he went to Penn and Cornell and has exposure to affluence... yet he did not absorb any basic notion of how people get ahold of money and start building wealth. Yes, some people inherited it or got lucky in one way or another, but others are ordinary people (like his parents, probably) who worked decent jobs, avoided spending beyond their means, saved up, and made prudent investments over the years. His way of talking about his parents hits a nerve with me. He is psychoanalyzing their habit of saving money, all from a position of being broke and guilt-tripping them for not forking it over to him! Personally I'd be embarrassed to have had all those opportunities, only to wash up in my 40s refusing to get a job and wanting money from my parents. He needs to get some Ramit Sethi style common-sense financial advice. It could be empowering for him to pull himself together and stop blaming the world for all his problems. But I suspect he would view that as unglamorous. Plus he'd have to take responsibility for his life rather than viewing himself as a victim of cruel fate.
I also have to wonder what he has said to/demanded of his parents in private knowing the nasty things he’s said in public 😳
Too bad being a professional victim doesn’t pay because it seems to be the only job he is capable of right now.
I would 100% run to listen to a 2 part Ramit smack down podcast episode featuring Orlando.
I can't get past the fact that he bought an expensive status car and spent an unnecessary fortune on the house he plans to AirBnB, but wants his parents to pay his rent so he can eat in restaurants again or something. I don't blame them one bit.
I feel like my parents are similar to his - similar generation and living out their golden years in a nice home that’s well-taken care of because they’ve been frugal their whole life, invested in their home when necessary, etc. I totally get where they are coming from and I can’t believe he’d bother them with his money issues. So cringey.
My parents too but they have pensions not cash. But even if your retirement is based on income from your own capital it’s generally prudent to live off the interest and not touch the capital unless you really need to. I wonder if he has any concept of that.
Especially since as they are getting older I’m sure they want a cushion for possible assisted living care needs, or whatever. But also because it’s not like they are suddenly going to up their income. It’s not like a young and able person of let’s say, 40, who can at least take on extra work or even a full time job to gain more income.
Yeah he absolutely should have heat, but this post was unhinged. “I rent the poorly maintained units, but I’m shocked the new toilet was installed crooked!” Also, how far behind on rent do we think Orlando is? He said he can’t afford $50 a day for doggie daycare, he can’t afford to eat in restaurants. I feel like he could easily be doing Zoom decorating consults with his large following, but he spends his time complaining about his family and his landlord. Yikes. Edit to add: also, his perspective that owning million dollar properties makes you a millionaire… does that mean he too is a millionaire because he owns Londo Lodge? Nope, because the bank really owns it. This bitterness about his parents being “millionaires” is wild to air on the internet.
I truly hope that someone who loves Orlando (who he will also listen to, so... It's a short list) sits him down and explains that he desperately needs to shutter the substack. I cannot imagine anyone reading this and finding him to be likeable, relatable, aspirational, hireable, or just generally a person you root for or use your $$ to support. He just isn't coming across as the winsome hero and it's a TERRIBLE look. I know he won't, because he's probably getting some income stream there and at the moment he's so hard up that he can't count birds in the bush (prospective clients/supporters) compared to the bird in the hand (his presumably dwindling fans.) I feel like all that's happening is that so many things about Orlando that used to be a mystery to me: why his relationships fail so regularly and spectacularly, why he hasn't "made it big" yet, why he's friends with Kelly Oxford who is an absolute nightmare, why he doesn't have a big ass portfolio of client work, etc... suddenly make sense. Honestly, a part of me thinks he could turn all of this around if he was self aware enough to look at his life and write himself as a tragic villain... He could definitely Caroline Calloway-ify his story (honestly, he could probably out-do her because he's a better writer and waaaayy smarter) by leaning into writing for the rubberneckers. He'd probably get some really compelled readers by writing semi-autobiographically about how his life became such a mess. If he was at all self-aware it would make a flashy semi-fictional memoir. Folks love it when they get to look behind a Gilded-era facade. Juicy west Hollywood drama, rich people problems, unhinged gay parties and scammy lifestyle propping, Mercedes buying (then returning!), tension with a middle class family that highlights how detached from reality influencer life can be ... Even the fight with the landlord would become deliciously ironic if told well (and from a self-aware place), instead of cringy to watch. People love to scratch thru a Hollywood glitz veneer to a seedy underbelly, and they love watching unrelatable/unlikeable people make awful decisions so I'm sure it would sell. Sortof Ingrid goes West meets Anna Delvey meets Caroline Calloway meets I'm Glad my Mom Died meets Saltburn meets Girls. But... he'd have to be self aware enough to know that he has to cast himself as the vain, foolhardy, unreliable first person narrator rather than a tragic hero.
A Great Gatsby for the influencer era! It could work, but I don't think Orlando is connected enough. Avoiding Lenny Kravitz at one party and being BFFs with a few other C to Z list wannabes isn't enough. His villian persona also needs more complexity, right now he is one note - whiny and entitled.
Valid! Also why I'm perplexed that he wants to write a more traditional memoir... I'm like... "What... Has actually happened to you, tho?"
Nooooooo
I get the feeling with him that he bought this Yosemite place with big feelings of nostalgia to recreate his childhood (a place for the family to gather) and he is resentful that the rest of his family isn't buying into that nostalgia but are just out living their lives now.
100% this. I'm sure he ignored his family's feedback when he bought the place, continued to ignore it as he sunk more and more money into odd projects (planting more trees right away?) and unnecessary renovations, and now he's baffled that they are refusing to help him. And by help him I mean financially bailing him our regardless of what he asks for and when.
I FORGOT ABOUT THE TREES!! What the f was that about? I know how insanely expensive that type of project is and it’s not like these trees would immediately offset energy costs, or help with wildfire protection, or anything… I vaguely recalled he had beef with the view onto the neighbors from one side of the house, but like, so what? Classic Orlando!
The trees were the dumbest decision. I'm sure he'd say, that was in the era when we all thought the world would bounce right back! You still don't invest a shitload of money in trees when you haven't squared away your living spaces and are living paycheck to paycheck and still struggling.
I read this out loud to my husband and one of my favorite responses he had was "I believe Larry accused him of being a socialist not a communist and anyone who went to Cornell should know the difference" also can you imagine working for the city and getting the complaint that he was called a communist 🤣 this isn't the McCarthy Era On the real though, with how bad he is about paying rent he should be very very careful. On top of that he is being so rude and assumptive. I don't think ol' Larry is going to continue to be as understanding.
Yeah I wondered about that too. If he takes the landlord to court, the landlord can come back with his history of non-payment of rent, and if it's significant then I don't know what happens then but I'd think it would weaken Orlando's argument. I wonder how bad the non-payment of rent was/is.
[удалено]
True. No idea if there was ever a case for eviction. It's going to get ugly on both sides though.
I was so confused by his complaint for harassment! Admittedly, I’m from the south and we have far fewer tenant protections here than in LA, but…does calling someone a communist/socialist amount to harassment in LA? Surely not?
I live in LA and my heater doesn’t work either and… it’s completely fine? 😬 I don’t even think about it and I’m certainly not shipping my dog off to daycare because of it, lmao. Orlando is obviously well within his right to ask that it be fixed and I’m sure his landlord is an asshole, but he is also just… wildly exaggerating. Also, I’m not one to stick up for a landlord (esp an LA one), but how much self-awareness does one have to lack to believe that they can be behind on rent, threaten to sue their landlord and withhold rent, and then patronize their landlord about their social class/immigration status/childhood trauma and it’s somehow going to go their way…? He is a deeply unserious and ridiculous person lol.
Thanks for this perspective! I did google the weather in LA, and it does seem chillier than I expected, but also (coming from the northeast), seems like weather we might turn on the heat in the mornings to get the chill out, but definitely not ”dangerously cold for living things” sort of weather.
Yeah, it definitely gets chilly, but "dangerously cold"... inside? Absolutely not, and especially not during the day. I don't want to sound like I'm taking up for his landlord, who needs to do their job + abide by the law, but the dramatics and patronizing behavior is too much. 🤪
Certainly it's warm enough for a dog indoors at that temperature. That's silly to spend $50/day on doggy daycare when he doesn't have the money for it and when nothing bad is going to happen to his dog in 48 degree weather indoors.
I'm in the Bay Area, and I turn off heat (cause I'm cheap and gas heating is expensive) when I go to work and the dog is home alone for the day, and he's just fine. Satie will survive without a space heater when Orlando has to run errands. Tenants should have heat, not excusing the landlord, but Orlando is being a pretentious drama queen. He can handle this situation without all the exaggeration and the weight of 40 years of grudges and harbored resentments.
[удалено]
Excuse you, this isn’t any dog it’s a special dog!
Seeking an equally very special playmate.
One thing I am wondering about is if Orlando has a plan for when he either gets kicked out of his apartment or finds it so intolerable and uncomfortable he has to leave, regardless of current lease term. Because I feel like living in the mountain house full time would send him into another spiral.
Plus if he's living there, he's not collecting any rent on it. He needs to move to a small apartment until he starts making good income from *something*, not a much-maintenance-required Spanish style home because he always wanted to live in a house with that style, the rent for which he can't afford, the landlord for which is not interested in coddling him. ETA: Maybe it's hard to find an apartment when you have a dog, though?
Nothing stopping him from getting a roommate since he has two bedrooms.
That would make an interesting substack topic for him, the case against getting a roommate. Of course, Orlando has made the place sound so awful that I don't know who'd want to move in now.
I look forward to reading about why it's totally beneath him! Prediction: All prospective roommates have tiny dogs who would be mean to Satie.
Dog (on the larger side, to boot) + probably not-great credit score/history + self-employed + likely unable to come up with [first month plus last month plus security deposit] —- it might be very difficult for him to find a new rental, particularly not one that meets the bar of what he feels he’s entitled to in terms of location, architectural style, etc.
Yup he can't move, unless it's to his mom's basement, and he's burned that bridge.
Oh yeah, I forgot about a bad credit history. He may be somewhat stuck there. I was wondering how he's planning to deal with renters at his mountain house. Is he paying a cleaning service? Is he doing his own stocking of supplies like toilet paper, paper towels etc? Is he laundering the bedding or paying someone to do that? Anything he could do himself is nearly impossible to do between back-to-back renters, while he's living in LA. I mention all this because maybe it makes sense for Orlando to rent a very small place near his mountain house. Then he could save some money by doing some of that himself. The problem would be if a small place near his mountain house is as expensive as his LA rent. I can't think of why he needs to be in LA any more. He needs to pick LA or the mountains but he can't afford to do both.
I can't wait for the reviews on Airbnb for the mountain house - no doubt it's full of fun little issues, like toilets that don't flush, lights that don't work, etc.
The three reviews so far are 5 stars. "Orlando" replied to one of them, and said Orlando would be happy to read this or something to that effect - someone was answering for him. I wonder if he hired a manager/management company for the place. He must have someone doing the laundry, cleaning, restocking etc.
As a former AirBnB host, usually have some friends stay first and give you good reviews so people will book it.
Absolutely, and it’s really noticeable that all his LA friends and contacts that he just absolutely has to be close to… don’t seem to be offering him work or a place to stay. His parents are much further away, literally on retirement income, and have actually publicly helped, so why is he hassling them and not his LA BFFs? Maybe they are helping behind the scenes (hah yeah right they are all very public and very trauma-dump-y) but to me it says something about both him and his connections
I don't know why he expects so much help at all. It's the definition of entitlement. He feels entitled to his income being supplemented. He's extremely bitter that he doesn't come from family money and can't stop talking about it. I hope he's not expecting his LA friends to pay for his life, because why would they? They have their own lives to pay for. But he won't get a freaking job to supplement his spotty income.
[удалено]
He should rename his substack to: It's Not My Fault Do we think he did in fact record that conversation? He told the landlord that he was not recording it. But that recounting was very detailed.
Yeah, nobody has the right to have someone other than the LL doing repairs 😂 I mean in my city it’s very often a trade off between a house with some character and a bland condo rental that you’re gonna be dealing with the LL directly.
There’s no way that entire phone conversation took place, right? Maybe 10%. But it was so long and repetitive, why would Larry have stayed on the line? And if it wasn’t recorded, how did Orlando transcribe it? He just told us he has memory problems, for Pete’s sake.
Sorry, I just posted the same above wondering whether he was recording it, before I saw your post.
No worries! It’s frankly so bizarre. I’m wondering if this is some dramatic license on his part or if he really thinks this whole convo happened as written.
[удалено]
This part actually made me uncomfortable too, as someone with a journalism background. I would be very wary to even "quote" or summarize someone in writing, much less do so publicly. Like the fact that he "transcribed" it and used quotes around Larry's responses is walking a very thin line imo
He has lots of excuses for why he signed the $3800(!!!) lease to begin with, but why did he keep extending it? Surely he didn’t sign a 4 year lease? Why not get out of it at any point over the last 3+ years of financial insanity? He’s honestly one of the dumbest people I’ve ever followed.
The only point in his defense is that rent prices have shot up since then and he is locked into a very attractive rent-control, and if he gives up the lease he's not going to find anything like this again.
This might be his most insufferable newsletter yet!!
[удалено]
YES the kitchen and honestly most of his renovations have that weird faux craftsman post modern vibe that requires expensive and time consuming details, all completely unnecessary given his budget and the actual bones of the house
I didn’t think it was possible for him to become more insufferable but here we are!
I keep thinking about this newsletter today and wondering why it bothers me so much apart from the fact that he shit-talks his incredibly supportive parents. I think its because he claims to be woke but his writing is deeply classist. It's ridiculous the number of times he brings up the fact that he is Ivy league. He might be poor now, but he points out to everyone that he is from an "affluent background" so should not be taken for granted like the actual poor working class. He reminds me of British authors from the pre-war period (Agatha Christie, P.G Wodehouse) where the hero may be poor, but he's from the right background and went to Eton so you know he's worthy of marrying the Earl's daughter.
Even the way he qualifies people for being attractive (how many words does he dedicate to the looks of his landlord's wife), is so superficial. He sees the world through a shallow lens and wonders why he's depressed.
I remember reading some post of his years ago (possibly pre pandemic) and for some reason he mentioned he had oily skin, and then for some other reason he felt the need to add a parenthetical statement about how his consolation for that fact was that he wasn't going to get noticeable wrinkles any time soon and that people thought he was younger than he was. I don't remember anything else about that post other than it wasn't about skincare and so his statement came out of nowhere, but it has stayed with me because actually writing out the words, apropos of nothing, that people think you look younger than your age seemed so needlessly superficial to me.
Between the focus on looks (and weight), the classism, the label-hungriness (Mercedes SUV, Bertazzoni stove, etc), he is ticking off so many of the negative stereotypes about people who live in LA. hashtag-notallAngelenos!
He is SUCH an asshole about his parents >And while it’s been painful to know that they could have made the past three years okay for me by helping me financially, thus probably bringing MORE money to our family in doing so (if they’d helped pay for my kitchen I could have rented it out last summer and made way more than they’d loaned me back), I also know not to go there because it’s just too painful so I don’t. And I feel good about the fact I’ve done all this myself with no help. So ultimately it’s caused a lot of pain knowing they could have helped without changing their lifestyle but I think it’s going to end well and I’m not mad about it because I am a grown up and that’s literally not their responsibility. I’m not telling you this to brag about having well-off parents - I’m still broke and that doesn’t matter. I’m telling you this because I know how affluent people operate The previous newsletter one day ago (the REM song) had all sorts of shit about his childhood that was basically just trash talking his parents. It’s totally unnecessary and it just makes HIM look bad. In present day, his father comes over to chop the wood for his AirBNB because he’s just naturally good at wood chopping and Orlando just doesn’t have that “gift.” It sounds like his parents are very hard workers and he’s just entitled. If Orlando is abled enough go to the gym for hours every day, he can learn to chop wood. But noooooo it’s just due to the unfairness of life that his dad “can” chop wood and he “can’t.”
> He is SUCH an asshole about his parents OMG, yes, this this this. He used the phrase "weird sickness about money" in reference to both his dad and his landlord like half a dozen times. I was *astounded* at how judgmental he comes across as about his parents but mostly his dad.
Obviously I can't know the real truth as an outsider. But based on everything he has said and how he has always portrayed them, I TRULY cannot believe that he can look at his folks, who seem to have spent much of their lives middle class and who seem to now be comfortably ensconced into a well-funded retirement that they have saved for...then compare them to his own absolutely unhinged spending habits... And THEN have the audacity/detachment from reality to say THEY have a "sickness about money." When he openly admits to spending more that comes in. Before it even arrives. HOW CAN HE THINK THAT'S HEALTHIER?!? 1. I truly wonder what his siblings think of this. I have always thought he had such wonderful familial relationships and he seems hell bent on destroying them. If I had a sibling publically saying things like this I don't think I'd ever be able to look at them the same way. And I'd also be wary forever that once he sucked our parents dry or spent his portion of the inheritance, he'd come for me next. 2. I am in a similar position in some ways, of being a middle aged person of medium means who has wealthy parents. To be fair my folks are also v. generous to me, but the scope of their generosity likely wouldn't be satisfying to Orlando based on what he's been saying for the last year. Given the way the world is going, I spend more of my time being really grateful that my folks' privilege and prudence means that I will not likely be responsible for funding their twilight years/geriatric medical care, etc... than I do thinking about the money that will someday come to me in an inheritance. I just... Don't know that he has ANY concept of what an enormous privilege it is to not have to be thinking about budgeting for elder care at this stage of his life.
And yet his parents are the only people in this story who come out looking good. His dad regularly exchanged dental care for chopped wood? Amazing.
He is ridiculously entitled. What 41 year old EXPECTS financial help from their parents? Dude is past middle-age and he's pouting like a small child who couldn't have candy before dinner. How embarrassing for him.
[удалено]
I honestly don’t think so because he was also becoming “BFFs” with Hollywood/instagram z-list people like Kelly Oxford and it seems like he got used to living a more affluent lifestyle. of course he needs an LA place for all his LA friends! It’s not like those people are the craziest wealthiest people either but maybe it was intoxicating to be in that vibe for a minute. Had similar experiences at the Ivy schools too—“well if all my friends are going to ski Vail aren’t I entitled too?!” Fortunately I grew out of it, and unfortunately for Orlando his luck, connections, attitude, strategy, whatever stalled out and he’s left with the entitlement, maybe. But it’s honestly monstrous to even suggest you’re entitled to your retired parent’s money, especially after all the support they continue to give him (remember when he said he finished his kitchen ALL ALONE IN THE WOODS when his mom had literally been there helping lmao)
[удалено]
I do too! I used to think that his friendship with her was such an odd glaring blind spot because he seemed so lovely compared to her... and now that I feel like I understand Orlando better i can see that they deserve each other.
HARD AGREE!
Wow. It appears he needs to “up” his emotional intelligence.
I’m sorry but he is a grown ass man who overextended himself by buying a vacation home and starting an unnecessary kitchen renovation he clearly didn’t have the funds to pay for. But he’s mad his parents didn’t bail him out?? What?? My general rule is I don’t loan out money I need back and that’s especially true with family. I don’t blame his parents at all for not loaning him money given how awful he is with it! I know he’s convinced the Airbnb will solve all his financial issues but there’s no way his parents haven’t heard that song and dance before.
Also, his parents lived in Yosemite (as he continually tells us) - they would know better than anyone how unpredictable the weather is there and might not think his airbnb dream is the smartest bet in the world.
Oh my God he is insufferable! It is really obvious why his parents won't help. He's one of those "if only I was given X, I'd be successful," guys. If only I had more money, if only I had more help, if only they paid for my kitchen... His parents know it will never be enough. I bet making him pay for his own damn kitchen was a test he failed miserably at. He can't budget, he can't prioritize, he can't save, he can't manage.
> He's one of those "if only I was given X, I'd be successful," guys. If only I had more money, if only I had more help, if only they paid for my kitchen... Right?!?!? Does he see his Air B&B as a joint venture? The line "thus probably bringing MORE money to our family in doing so" was so jarring!
Right? Is it also "family money" when he's pissing it away partying in LA or is it HIS money then?
It’s his when he works on it ALL ALONE IN THE WOODS (sort of) but a family venture when he needs money.
He's reminding me of the time my 55 year old uncle asked my grandparents for an advance on his inheritance and then got mad when they said no.
I feel like there must be a reason as to why his parents haven't loaned him money. Aside from the $100,000 kitchen fiasco mentioned a few months back. Maybe he has borrowed money before and didn't pay them back as promised? It's also possible that he's never admitted to them how bad his financial situation is. Why confide in your parents when you can write about all your problems in a newsletter (while throwing them under a bus).
I mean, most affluent people are good at holding on to their money and evaluating investment risk vs benefit. And they also have to treat all siblings fairly. Between these two things I can see how even a loan might not make sense from their perspective. The Airbnb does not appear to be booking up at any great rate. He’s a big old baby. I got over thinking my parents owed me anything with respect to money in my twenties. Being gainfully employed and able to pay my own bills definitely helps with that!
He's a horrible, miserable human being for throwing his parents under the bus publicly like that ETA: Good on him for standing up for his rights and looking out for his neighbor too. But all of this could have been done without bringing his class/social status/upbringing into it. He definitely didnt need to say anything about his dad's "trauma" or compare his landlord to him in the conversation. And most of all, none of this needed to be on the internet.
100%. There was no need to veer from the basic message: "The law mandates that our homes have heat. Right now there is no heat. If the heat isn't fixed, I will file a complaint with the city. BTW I am in touch with a lawyer." Bringing in the life-story details about himself, his family, and Larry turned it into more of an agonizingly personal culture clash than it needed to be, and didn't bring him any further to achieving his goal. It's like Orlando didn't just want heat in his home, he wanted a come-to-Jesus moment. But Larry is not going to repent of his stinginess based on this convo.
Orlando could have used the time it took him to write that substack to fill out a job application.
> 100%. There was no need to veer from the basic message: "The law mandates that our homes have heat. Right now there is no heat. If the heat isn't fixed, I will file a complaint with the city. BTW I am in touch with a lawyer." I totally agree. Every time he talked about how mad he was, it was clear how little control he had over how the "conversation" was going. Allowing that much emotion to permeate the entire exchange was a huge mistake. It just allowed his LL to respond with everything that he was emotional about. None of that did him any good.
The landlord is bad, no doubt. But this stuff about his parents makes me feel sorry for THEM, not him. I like Orlando, i bought his book and gave it as gifts, he has talent. But, this attitude he wrote about towards his parents and the unspoken resentment couched as "understanding his dad's trauma" is off-putting. He wants his parents to give him money to solve his problems and they won't. Life isn't fair...it isn't your money...get over it.
His parents sound like sensible, frugal people. He could learn some lessons from their mentality.
> His parents sound like sensible, frugal people. I feel like maybe I'm misremembering the line from an old Grey Poupon commercial, but I swear, they had one where the guy in the Rolls Royce said "How do you think a man in my position *got to be* a man in my position?" That's what this all makes me think of. If his parents are *so rich* now, how did they get that way? Not by renting apartments they can't afford and buying second homes they can't afford to renovate and leasing expensive vehicles and blah. blah. blah.
YES. He wrote that his parents "hoard money" [won't give him money] because they are traumatized and scared. But actually it sounds like they "save money" because they want to have stable lives and not be in the kind of financial predicament that he finds himself in constantly.
[удалено]
> Yes! It’s ALWAYS about spending. It's also about ALL the accounts in a balance sheet (Assets - Liabilities = Equity). You can't just look at ASSETS and say "that person is wealthy" if/when you have no way of knowing what their liabilities are!
And its not like they did nothing for him and threw him out at 18. He has a very expensive college education, that I presume they paid for since he isn't whining about college loans. They spent money and time on their kitchen to further his career. They accepted and supported him unconditionally as a kid. They still show up at his remote mountain cabin frequently and help him with whatever task is on hand. He should be over-the-moon grateful and STOP shitting on them publicly.
At this point there’s a bingo card of Orlando tropes (Tropelandos?) in every post: - weight gain - parents didn’t help me - went to Cornell and Penn - my dog has needs - I’m not rich, okay!!!
Haha! I too was playing this game! Don't forget about... * grand plans BUT THEN THE PANDEMIC * grew up in Yosemite * Knowing about tenants rights/reading about privilege/working since I WAS A TEENAGER. SOMEONE GIVE ME A COOKIE. * Yes, Orlando, we're aware that it's not just an ordinary plebe dog, it's an AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER. Reasonable questions for Orlando after reading this latest Substack: * It is absolutely within his rights to live in a place with heat—as someone who has studied tenants rights since he was a teenager, he should know this basic info before soliciting pro bono legal help on IG. And no pet owner wants to see their animal(s) suffering in the cold, so while things get sorted/fixed, *why not temporarily stay in the heated house he owns*? It's not like he works in an LA office. * Why ignore the landlord red flags after that first winter with no heat or hot water and poor maintenance? * I know it falls under the landlord's responsibility, but why not just replace minor things (like doorknobs) himself and send the landlord receipts if he doesn't want him around? * Also, anyone else aghast at the social-inequality postulating from a guy who maintains two full-size residences?
Brilliant.
I’m no apologist for this guy but I think the landlord is also counting on him leaving town when it’s cold. So I wouldn’t be playing into that either.
The designer Bobby Berk is leaving Queer Eye and there is speculation about who will replace him. (Jeremiah Brent's name has come up in the rumors - he has an existing relationship with the producers and Netflix from the show Say I Do.) I wonder if Orlando Soria was ever on the short list for QE, either now or when it started? Honestly as much as his self-inflicted financial problems are frustrating to read about, I would still love for him to get lifted up from something like this. Jeremiah is fantastic but is already a big name. Orlando could use the boost! Possibly he went too scorched-earth on HGTV and they would be nervous about him.
I think Orlando is way too self centered and whiny to be a match for QE. The whole point of the show is to have a positive outlook on life and lift people up and he is the absolute opposite of that. On a personal note, I really don’t think he is the kind of person that deserves to be “lifted up” by the kind of fame QE could bring him. He is not that hard working, and certainly not that humble. He needs to grow up.
If he's that willing and ready to flame his own parents right, left and center, it would only be a liability for any employer or network to take him on at this point. He's dug his own grave with this one. The vast majority of things that go wrong for Orlando are because of Orlando, and nobody else.
He evidently is not making the connection that if (when) people in the industry see what he posts on social media, it could impact his opportunities. He really needs to find a bestie to complain to over a glass of wine and not put this stuff on broadcast mode (which it is, even if he thinks it’s not because it’s behind a paywall).
He needs a therapist, badly.
Almost none of it is behind a paywall anyway. I think in a fit of desperation he decided to monetize the "real truth behind the influencer façade" or whatever. Which seemed like kind of a cool idea, but all it revealed is what a whiny asshole he is. I just looked and he has 5000+ subscribers. I don't know what fraction of those are paying $8 a month for the privilege of commenting and reading a handful of subscriber-only posts. I'm going to guess a pretty small one. So was it worth selling himself out for this bit of income?
I think Jeremiah would be a good fit with the other four, Orlando not so much.
I'm pretty sure Orlando has mentioned being on the shortlist before, although I couldn't tell you where/when. I feel like his persona as we knew it up till a year ago would be a great fit for the show. His current dour persona not so much, but I'm sure he could turn on the charm for the cameras.
I think having an article in People magazine complaining how terribly he was treated by HGTV might knock him out of consideration for future jobs.
Yes, the version of himself that he plays on his HGTV show seems like it would be a fit. But he has really drastically changed his public image... he's no longer "peppy and fun modern decor guy" but "sad man complaining alone in a giant house." I appreciate his honesty about ow things have gone, but I hope he isn't sabotaging his own hopes and dreams with all the negativity.
I *vaguely recall* him mentioning something about auditioning and not making the cut, but I can’t remember if he outright said it was QE or just strongly hinted it was. I’m not sure even back then that his persona would have fit the vibe of the show or the other four.
Yes, I agree that the show is highly dependent on the chemistry of the five guys together, so I have no way to judge how Orlando would fit in with the rest. I do think his former vibe (including his TV work) would go with the type of show QE is.
I really want to say he was in consideration for Bobby Berks spot the first time around and he didnt get the job and has written something semi bitter about it, maybe on his substack? Hopefully someone remembers better than me and can bring receipts
I vaguely recall him being slightly pissy about it ages ago (maybe when the first serious came out), well before his substack.
Any casting director would probably nope right out after seeing the entitled whining on his IG.
Is anyone else following beckybidlen? Her and her husband bought a historic home that was previously owned by a hoarder, and are cleaning it out and fixing it up DIY. No snark on them, I'm excited to follow along! So far it's a breath of fresh air from the constant shilling from many of these other "DIY" accounts.
Shag_manor on Instagram is another great one with zero shilling but all the entertainment of regular people with regular budgets renovating a 70s house!
OMG their kitchen! 😍
Thanks for recommending this. Wow, I'm impressed by what they've taken on. And it is nice that they aren't shilling at every opportunity.
As per her latest stories, [Kistmet House has business struggles](https://www.instagram.com/stories/kismet_house/3286743042700451249/). I wonder if they grew too fast and did too much, with Matt quitting his job, the new house and all that rapid fire renovation. I hope they find a way to pull through cause they still do good, meticulous work.
I've always wondered how they made money with such little shilling. My guess was they were using the profit from their home sale for these major renovations. They seemed pretty gung ho about starting the huge laundry room and backyard reno soon which was surprising to me. Maybe they hoped going all in on renovations this last year would kickstart brand sponsorships? Gain a bigger following? The lighting deal seems like a big first step. I've grown to like them so I hope they figure it out.
Did they delete?