This Life Reel !
The highs, lows, and woahs of culture and the many ways we shape it. Knowing that a little navel gazing wouldn't hurt from time to time (and goes a long way).
Teller Tell-All
A rare sit down with the eponymous photographer we all either love or hate today. It caught me off guard how little I knew about him, but I eventually grasped who he is and how his unique POV and influence on so many people made so much sense towards the end. Such an intimate and raw profile we need more of!
YSL Talks Episode 1: Juergen Teller
Mumblecore, At Its Best
I have been meaning to watch A Real Pain for a while now, so reading Jesse Eisenberg's profile on The New Yorker will suffice. In my head, Jesse Eisenberg and Michael Cera are one person or genre, but in a way, they're just different fonts (haha). This is not to discredit the name and work they've built and done so well separately, but something about who they are as actors forces you to notice more like it's your first time doing it. Throwing in casting Kieran Culkin as Jesse's cousin is already a perfect recipe for a less pretentious mumblecore film. It feels less indulgent to self-ponder and question the weight of Life because of the sharp humor and nuances they bring to the table and their choices.
It already feels like the genres of Fleishman is in Trouble and The Adults, two favorites I hold dearly.
Jesse Eisenberg Has a Few Questions, The New Yorker
The Self and Everything Else
I stumbled upon this unique gifting suggestion from The New York Times, which I didn’t expect to exist elsewhere. It’s basically a personalized keepsake folio for anyone born between 1974 and 2014 on every front page. Had such a full-stop moment with the whole idea just thinking about being transported back in time to revisit the headlines, stories, articles, and photos at a specific point in history and how culture has shaped today. Such a big brain move to conceptualize a conversation starter and a treasure trove of information!
Birthday Pages, from the NYT Store
The Mundane Gaze
I have such vivid early memories of when I first started watching The Untalkative Bunny when I was a kid in grade school. Something about this almost philosophical take on a show targeted at kids feels so meditative even before then, with all the tongue-in-cheek and enlightened plotlines within a 4-5 minute episode. Fast forward to now, I've found a YouTube channel that uploaded all of the episodes, and I tend to watch it to shut my brain off (on the rare times my day isn't filled) and before I go to sleep. It's not at arm's length like rubbish television but keeps you sat enough to see what happens to a facially expressive yellow rabbit and its life in the big city.
Untalkative Bunny Full Episodes
Modern Humor
I have a soft spot for artists who use words to convey their art: Jenny Holzer, Barbar Kruger, Lawrence Weiner, and Tracy Emin, to name a few, with the intent that there is more than what the literal messages usually are (for which I totally agree and totally on the same page with). On a more contemporary take, I’ve always admired Charlotte Le Bon’s eye, cheekiness, and wink, which she brings to her creative practice. From her self-directed film, Falcon Lake, and art through sculpture and photography, even her drawings and paintings all feel like extensions of each other, always in conversation and alive. This piece is no exception, with strokes of humor akin to Rene Magritte, who already pushed the boundaries of what art could be and the many ways we see.
Charlotte Le Bon
Yours, Unapologetically
Jenny Slate, who I know from roles in films (see Everything Everywhere All At Once and Marcel the Shell) and her stand-up, has caught my attention for a while now, ever since her collaboration with Cat Bird and eventually discovering she's a newly minted writer too. Something about her sense of humor and quirks makes it hard not to notice and be intrigued by what she has to say. With the promise of a dazzling, impossible-to-categorize debut, the book channels the pain and beauty of life in writing that feels fresh, new, and burstingly alive. With a summary from the author herself:
Hello and welcome to my book. Inside you will find:
× The smell of honeysuckle
× Heartbreak
× A French-kissing rabbit
× A haunted house
× Death
× A vagina singing sad old songs
× Young geraniums in an ancient castle
× Birth
× A dog who appears in dreams as a spiritual guide
× Divorce
× Electromagnetic energy fields
× Emotional horniness
× The ghost of a sea captain
× And more
I hope you enjoy these little weirds.
Love,
Jenny Slate
Little Weirds by Jenny Slate
The “It” Girl of Parasocials
I’d like to think a person’s favorite vlogger represents themselves and their essence in a completely aspirational way. ‘Tell me your favorite vlogger, and I can tell who you are’ kind of thing. Or ‘you are who you really watch.’ The evolution of YouTube and content on the platform has led us to paths where we can have front seats in the lives of people we might not even imagine we’ll ever come across. Or better yet, have a scoop on their schedules and what’s going on in their lives, which eventually leads us to develop pseudo relationships as if we know them in real life with the amount of access and information given to the public. I don’t have a definitive judgment on whether this is a good or bad thing just yet because, for the most part, it builds community and a sense of self (similar to having a friend or a chic big sister); it’s tough not to turn a blind eye to the negative and dark sides it sheds on too.
I have been enjoying and staying entertained with Devon Lee Carlson’s vlogs for a while now. I just think she wears her coolness on her sleeve so lightly and has this knack for staying true to her personal style, which remains to be so inspiring.
Devon Lee Carlson, Youtube
The Glass is____?
All this time, I had this black hole feeling about social classes (where I stand, how to cope, and survival of it all), especially belonging to an industry that influences and somehow depends on it so much. The success part mostly. Whether you’re looking at it in a relationship, friendship, career, and future trajectory kind of a way, it’s an odd feeling to be perceived, for starters, what more if classes are involved? Wherein it can affect the projects you get, the friends or people you attract, but also how you relate to the world and how you show up as.
“I’ve been working class and I’ve been middle – this is the real difference“