hi everyone, remember me?
I hope this finds you in the perfect place to ignore the fact that the last time I landed in your inbox was New Year’s Eve. especially since I come bearing gifts!
It’s been a weird year, for me at least, but amongst it I’ve been on a bit of a crusade to find more joy and balance and just generally feel re-inspired by life - focusing less on myself and more on what’s going on Out There. Basically, I’ve been inhaling films, TV, art, theatre & music at a pace and in quantities that I wouldn’t necessarily advise without consulting a medical professional.
I realised the more I shared parts of that with other people and sparked conversations, the more connected and hopeful I’ve been feeling. In the last few weeks, I thought it might be something worth doing on a more regular, official, less whatsapp-based basis. so I present to you…
✨ for fans of ✨
This’ll be a little (hopefully monthly) strand on here, split into the five key cultural food groups - PAGE, SCREEN, SOUND, OUTSIDE and ONLINE of course. A pretty short, sweet and most importantly spoiler-free culture guide for anyone looking for reccos on what to fill the commute with / stay in / get out the house for…
PAGE
BOOK: Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
Starting with reading materials sort of feels like eating your veggies first to get them out the way, but I promise this rec is a lot more fun than that.
I’m usually someone who can paint myself into a corner when it comes to the types of books I read. It’s such a hard skill and I have the attention span of a wasp, so I tend to be allergic to anything contingent on extensive world-building or generational time jumps or run-on sentences or anaemic plots or even the faintest threat of ~emotional damage~. But the snarky voice of this pitch-black sapphic love-adjacent story gripped me from the first paragraph. Following an aimless middle-aged transcriptionist’s stream of consciousness, it’s an absurd, winding rollercoaster that goes everywhere and nowhere at once. Exploring trauma, secrets, sex, violence, purpose and crucially, dogs, it swings from laugh-out-loud funny to bone-chilling bleakness and back, but remains consistently charismatic and unpredictable throughout.
If you’re into audiobooks, I highly recommend trying it out on Audible as it’s expertly narrated by a bunch of great voices. (But I also bought the hardback version about halfway through to so I could own it and finish it physically, so this definitely still counts and you can’t judge me.)
ffo: Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados, Cleopatra & Frankenstein by Coco Mellors, pretty much anything by Curtis Sittenfield
ARTICLE: How a regular ‘liker’ on social media became my stalker by Laura Barton
An article that’s stayed with me for days since I read it, about a journalist’s experience with a parasocial online follower gone wrong. It touches on so many anxieties that I think anyone who uses social media can relate to, in terms of etiquette and sign-reading when dealing with strangers on the internet, as well as how insidious and incremental the switch can be from innocuous to dangerous. Especially as people who rely on social media as a professional channel or who want to be trusting and open and connected, or just as women, programmed to place politeness over our own comfort so often. A heavy but necessary read.
SCREEN
FILM: Past Lives (2023)
I had such high hopes going into this film that I’m still quite stunned it managed to exceed them. I’m sure you’ve already seen the stunning trailer floating around for months, but in case you haven’t had a chance to watch yet, it’s a story about long lost childhood friends and the journey of their paths crossing into adulthood and beyond borders. It’s a quietly stirring meditation on fate versus circumstance, dreams versus reality, past you versus present you, all while exploring the nuances of immigrant experiences and shaping your own life’s purpose. Plot aside, set between New York City and Seoul, it’s also one of the most breathtaking beautiful films to just take in, with all your senses. Every shot is transfixing, like the page of a graphic novel come to life, the cities feel dream-like and the soundtrack is minimal but moving.
I saw a clip of director Celine Song speaking about how the film will live under the skin of its viewer, each taking something different from it depending on their on perspective and history. Potentially even the same person finding new things in it over a lifetime. And the film is so roomy yet charged with what’s unspoken (though the actual script carries just as much of a gut-punch at times) that I loved that idea of it serving as a trick mirror or optical illusion of sorts - its message refracted through the prism of your own loves, losses and what if’s. As enlightening as it is exposing in that sense, I was honestly reeling for hours after I got home, but it really was a pain that hurt so good.
ffo: Before Sunset, Master of None, In the Mood for Love, Normal People
SOUND
SONG: So You Are Tired by Sufjan Stevens
I’ve been trying to temper my excitement for his upcoming album Javelin, out October 6, so I don’t set myself up for disappointment, but this song really does just sound like the best of him. It’s obscene how many times I’ve already looped this on bus routes. And I’m taking it as a divine sign, that this project is dropping right before my very CMBYN-coded villa family holiday, that the gods of blissful melancholy are on our side and we are so incredible BACK.
ffo: Call Me By Your Name and weeping
OUTSIDE
PLAY: The Effect at National Theatre
Set against the backdrop of a clinical trial, written by Succession’s own Lucy Prebble, this play is such an innovative, emotional and cinematic investigation of two of life’s most complex subjects: love and sanity. Worlds apart from Wall Street, in the way that all good sci-fi does, at its core it’s still all humans and philosophy and therefore, precisely my shit. Dissecting all kinds of questions about who we are beyond our own grey matter and wisely, not offering all that many answers either. If our thoughts, desires, feelings, shortcomings can be morphed and altered by chemistry, can we trust our own reality? what’s left for us to hold on to if not our thoughts? how do we find a way to work with or win against them? are we the way that we are because of or despite them? Originally staged 11 years ago with Billie Piper, I was definitely roped in by the star studded cast - Paapa Essiedu of I May Destroy You and The Capture and Taylor Russell of Waves and Bones & All - and both leads were tactile, witty and tender, with more chemistry than all the romcoms released this year combined. But it was Michele Austin’s performance as the supervising doctor - and specifically her brain-wielding Othello-esque monologue - that absolutely shattered me. On until Oct 7th, prices are getting scarier as it nears its wrap date but I’d still say run don’t walk!
ffo: Black Mirror (the lovey-dovey episodes), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, that one episode of Mad Men with Pete Campbell and whatever Alexis Bledel’s character was called.
ONLINE
COMMUNITY: Novel Song
If you’re trying to get back into reading or just dealing with literary choice paralysis, can I suggest this lovely little digital book club venture by the equally lovely artist Hope Tala, called Novel Song. It’s a fairly new online space based on IG, where she’s convening to absorb two of her big passions, books and music, in community with other like-minded individuals. Each month is a new thoughtful pairing, that’s then unpacked virtually, from icons like Toni Morrison and Beyoncé or the ancestral duo of Chinua Achebe and Kendrick Lamar, but is generally just a really tasteful, wholesome balance of modern and classic and all things good and nerdy.
alright! that’s it for this time - feel free to throw any thoughts, feelings or interest in an emotional support group my way. I’m only just noticing that all my selects this month are pretty heavily steeped in Feelings™, so if you need an energy cleanse, I’m dropping in a dopamine playlist I’ve been working on to help start my days on a no-thoughts-just-good-vibes tip, especially as autumn looms. (still a W.I.P though so go easy on me)
see you in October for more. we’re back baby <3