Welcome to 5 Quick Things that I saw since last month that I thought were interesting enough to share with you. None of them are particularly timely so feel free to just enjoy 🙂
>Number One<
Holy Camp Batman
You may not know this about me but I’m a big fan of Batman Forever. It’s probably the worst rated movie that I seriously think is kind of good. I never quite got on the same train with Batman & Robin even though I was probably the prime audience for it but I suppose it’s too high camp for even me to appreciate it but it, and its stellar costume and makeup design are a testament to what can happen when you combine camp and Hollywood and this article outlines that to a T.
>Number Two<
We Need the Future
We, as a world full of people, are having a bit of moment. A crisis. Or 12. The shocking (or really, not so shocking in hindsight) thing about this piece about emergency and our current is that it was written before the pandemic thus joining the multitude of bejeweled cultural artifacts which are “about the pandemic” but “not about the pandemic”. However, I like this piece because it helps give guidance through story and narrative to that dark part of myself that wants to turn away and shut down in the face of such adversity. Personally, I need that hope and direction more than ever so I’m glad I can find it somewhere.
>Number Three<
An Ouroboros of Culture and Critique
I found Ro Ramdin‘s YouTube channel a few months back and she’s a special kind of Gen Z content creator that makes me so hopeful for the future. Fast talking, considerate, but not above the fray Ro really breaks down an issue and then builds an idea of it back up into something workable. You could say that I’ve had a moderate to mild fascination with the whole…Squid Game becoming “content” instead of becoming movements for social commentary and change (many things follow this path, look out folks The Boys and Handmaiden are there too) and lord if Mr.Beast making his own Squid Game isn’t just the cherry on top of the wild shit storm of capitalism co-opting movements into profit. But it’s more complicated than that and I love Ro’s engagement and earnestness to address why this is such an odd case. Really great stuff, I look forward to many great videos in the future.
>Number Four<
Body : Horror
When I was 7 I watched Videodrome. Probably my small child-like brain was not ready to deal with it and somewhere between the engagement of porn and body as metaphor and art as a metaphor for the body, and body as a metaphor for a site of resistance, I was kind of “sucked in” to Cronenberg’s ideas about how we experience ourselves, each other, and the world through our bodies which are also, for better or worse, a site for horror. This article talks a bit about his work as a whole through that lens and also his new movie which I didn’t love but as always, found very interesting. As I’ve grown older I feel like I have had to experience my own body as a site of horror more often (especially as a woman) so I find myself less engaged with this sort of exploration but it is interesting.
>Number Five<
Online Community and the Empty Field of the Middle Ground
Lord, I pray that no one ever decides my horrible brain worms (aka my incredibly serious and life destroying mental illness) is some sort of special community that I should engage with. Watching ADHD become a hot topic and a hot button for many people has been very interesting. It’s spawned memes that make me unhappy to the level of “I’m an introvert” discourse and I don’t even have to engage with any of it since despite what TikTok things, my weird urge to scream and never stop shockingly is no ADHD but the author of this article was diagnosed and then waded into the trenches for me and you. What a uniquely ADHD urge!
Alright folks that’s all she wrote, see you next month!