5 Culture Recs for September
Highest 2 Lowest
I’ve been trying to go to the movies more because A) I love an indie theatre, and B) I have a lot of restless energy and find it hard to just sit down and watch a movie at home. At the theatre, you have to sit there, and everybody else is also sitting there, and the screen is so big that there’s nothing else to look at really but what’s going on up there. What’s going on up there this time is Spike Lee’s new movie, featuring Denzel Washington and A$AP Rocky, who are so electric in it, especially (especially!) when they’re in scenes together. This movie admittedly has a slow start, so if you’re trying it out at home, give it like 30 minutes or so because when it heats up, it becomes this lowkey experimentally shot, super fast-paced, buzzing project that reminds me of Lee’s early (and canonical) work, especially Do the Right Thing. Highest 2 Lowest was also produced by A24, which is interesting?? Def worth checking out.
Moderation by Elaine Castillo
I’ve been reading this for Roxane Gay’s The Audacious Book Club (which I’d also recommend if you, like me, miss thinking through and writing about books with others the way you might’ve in school!). At first, I thought Moderation was going to be very scary lol because the beginning is super dark and graphic in order to help you get a sense of the main character’s intense job in this futuristic world, where the Internet and its darkest corners are sadly still alive and well. But then, I don’t know, it gets like fun and funny and about family and about how being POC causes you to bump up against White culture in a way that being White doesn’t always allow you to see. The book’s love storyline is also very subtle and cute and introverted in a way that’s making me super root for the protagonist and her crush (I’m about a third of the way through, so fingers crossed for them!).
Why Won’t You Date Me? with Nicole Byer (the “We Dated?!” episode)
One thing you should know about me is that I will listen to Nicole Byer’s Why Won’t You Date Me? podcast all day every day. I listen to it every time I wash and retwist my hair. I listen to it on hours-long road trips back to Tennessee. I listened to it when it started, and she was earnestly and honestly asking, why will no one be with her, what does she need to change about her dating profile, would her podcast guests date her, why or why not lol and I’ve been listening to it lately, now that she’s in a relationship that she seems really happy and comfortable in and is more talking to her guests from a place of curiosity for curiosity’s sake. How did they find or how are they trying to find love—what has their story looked like? I really liked this episode with Lou Wilson, especially because he seems—like Nicole—to be this Black weirdo artist who is just trying to figure out how to keep moving and grooving through life, finding his missteps hilarious, worth gabbing and bursting into laughter about with Nicole. Their dynamic is really fun, and the end of the podcast, when she asks him if he’d date her, is full-on awkward comedy gold.
“Prototype” by Outkast
Okay so Speakerboxxx/The Love Below came out in 2003, which means that I was precisely 7 years old when it debuted, but when I say I had such a fixation on “Roses” when I was a kid. I loved this song. I loved the music video. I didn’t understand how roses smelled like poo poo poo, but I didn’t need to because I would listen to anything Outkast said if they said it this well. “Prototype” wasn’t on my radar as a child, but the other day, it came up on some playlist Spotify handed me, and I listened to it like four times in a row. I’ve been listening to it a lot since then, finding it grounding as a love song that is both saying what most love songs tend to say at the root—you’re the one for me, you’re perfect, I love you—and saying it in such a zany and enticing way: “I hope that you’re the one / If not, you are the prototype,” which is !!!! arguably more romantic? more agentic? just more?
Are You Mad at Me?: How to Stop Focusing on What Other Think and Start Living for You by Meg Josephson, LCSW
Okay, another thing you should know about me is that I am a fiend for self-development audiobooks (see Emily Nagoski’s Burnout and Come as You Are, Nedra Glover Tawwab’s Set Boundaries, Find Peace, Ramit Sethi’s I Will Teach You to Be Rich—I don’t want to be rich, but this book for sure helped me get my $$ together!). Josephson’s book crept up on me because A) I loved and related to the title, and B) I’ve read so many books on letting other people perceive you how they will (see also Mel Robbins’ Let Them Theory lol) that I thought I already knew what this book was about. If you have any, like, unresolved complications from childhood that might cause you to people please, this book could be very helpful for you. I’m kind of over dissecting my childhood bumps in the road, but this was a gentle reminder that that doesn’t mean it isn’t affecting me as an adult. This book discusses how to work through your early relationship dynamics so that you feel more grounded and confident in the present. I know it’s not like ~art~ culture, but still would def recommend giving it a lil listen while you’re putting up the dishes!
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This time, the additional quick hit recs are books written by my friends, weeee!
To the Moon and Back by Eliana Ramage, which is hilarious and weird and fun, with a cast of characters that are really endearing and juicily rendered.
The Tiny Things are Heavier by Esther Ifesinachi Okonkwo, which has such juicy dating drama & really apt reflections of what it is to be a person and to be love in the world, in convo w Sally Rooney’s work & Issa Rae’s Insecure (& Rap Sh!t too, honestly).
Goddess Complex by Sanjena Sathian, which is so smart and beautifully written and has such juicy mystery throughout it, all of which make it extra propulsive to read.
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