culture porn 4/5
this week’s playlist
screenshot me:
carnival (¥$)
controversy is embedded in this song from kanye west and ty dolla $ign, but anyone who hears the song seems to agree it's a catchy listen that transports the listener to a stadium surrounded by chanting fans. what do you make of it?
***
act II: cowboy carter (parkwood/columbia)
i grew up riding horses and wearing a stetson in texas. but that's not all beyoncé and i have in common: we both love us some genre-busting. her 27 tracks ride the range (haha) from opera to rap, dolly to miley, willie nelson to post malone, elevating rhiannon giddens and overlooked black country artists along the way. inventively riffing on tropes to make them distinctively new, the new album is stirring debate – an isn't that the point of art?
***
love on the spectrum (netflix)
season 2 of this show brings back fan favorites like abbey and dani, while introducing us to new folks navigating the world of neurodivergent dating. while some have thoughtfully criticized the show, many (including myself) were quite touched by the relatability of how awkward dating in general is, and joy at seeing people's personal growth through the process.
***
freaknik: the wildest story never told (hulu)
if you weren't in atlanta during the late 80s/early 90s, you might have missed the meteoric rise and ignoble fall of the HBCU spring break phenomenon. i'd love to hear from anyone who was there, or even traveled from other parts of the country, when it went from quiet community to all-out chaos. while the press has sensationalized the later years, FREAKNIK's place in cultural history stands as a home-grown celebration of Blackness.
***
escaping twin flames (netflix)
after hearing megan fox reference her "twin flame" (machine gun kelly) on CALL HER DADDY, i was inspired enough to watch an entire docuseries on a duo who anointed themselves with the power to identify one's twin flame (and managed to turn it into a NXIVM-style MLM scheme-turned-religion). i found it an interesting watch - less for the conventional cult tropes (though interviews with excommunicated family members certainly are sad) and more for the amoral entrepreneurialism adopted by the leaders, who founded a religion seemingly to avoid taxes, forced gender reassignment to create more successful twin flames among members, and even launched a meal plan offering. notably: youtube and zoom was a preferred medium, not unlike the livestreaming of LOVE HAS WON (also a cult docuseries on NETFLIX), meaning we've officially entered the age of the social media cult. you can second screen while scrolling through their social media channels.
***
3 body problem (netflix)
never mind if you don't like sci-fi or didn't watch GAME OF THRONES. if you enjoy well-drawn characters, complicated interpersonal relationships, and premium storytelling, give this a try. plus, the amazing video-game sequences and epic callbacks to china's troubling history are stunning unto themselves.
insights & inspo
why are we defined by genre when the audience is not?
genres within entertainment and culture have become indefinable, largely due to digital media and gen z. genre-hopping, blending, and fluidity are emerging as the new norm and it seems rightly so. why should art have to be bound to singularity?
more insights here