07/01/22
This week: Shirley Maclaine’s return to TV, alt July 4th plans, and a reality TV rec you didn’t see coming.
TRENDS THIS WEEK:
Youtube An Elden Ring Story
Letterboxd DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS
Spotify As It Was - Harry Styles
Netflix SING 2
Twitter Kevin Durant
Trailer HOCUS POCUS 2
Shopify It’s Been A Week
LIFE & CULTURE
Apparently when the Supreme Court isn’t busy stripping Americans of their fundamental rights, it’s making it harder for the US to fight climate change. Yesterday, in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency the Supreme Court decided the EPA should have less authority to limit carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, a major source of this country’s pollution that is dangerously heating the planet. Among other things, this will set back Biden’s climate agenda, specifically his promise that the US will cut its greenhouse gas pollution in half by the end of the decade.
Less depressing news of the planet: We now know a lot more about our oceans, thanks to an international initiative called Seabed 2030, which is working to have the entirety of our oceans mapped by the end of this decade. So far, almost a quarter of the work is done, according to an update from the UN Ocean Conference this week. Mitsuyuki Unno, executive director of The Nippon Foundation, the organization behind the project, said that this work will “tackle some of the most pressing environmental challenges of our time, including climate change and marine pollution. It will enable us to safeguard the planet’s future.”
There’s one TikTok creator that I’ve been so excited to see on my FYP lately called @literallystarving (lol) who’s doing something really special. He goes up to different passersby on the streets of New York and simply asks them to name a dish—sometimes their favorite food, other times, what they’re craving at that moment. He then goes home and makes the exact dish, and delivers the food back to the person that told him about it. This series is so sweet, it’s really heartwarming to see people’s food dreams come to life, like this woman who was homesick and really wanted Brazilian moqueca. It’s also a fun twist on the man-on-the-street videos that have become popular on TikTok lately, and happen to be a style of journalism that I’ve always loved.
Outside of seeing pretty much the entirety of the BARBIE movie on the internet this week, I also enjoyed this video of a guy who has never tried any drink other than water trying a number of non-H2O drinks from Gatorade to a Slurpee, and this video of maybe the best trick I’ve ever seen a dog do.
—Darlene Kenney, Digital Strategist
FILM
FROM THE VAULT
Editor’s note: If you’re not feeling much like celebrating America on July 4, I get it. Let me propose an alternative. Because if you haven’t yet seen MINARI (trailer here), Lee Isaac Chung’s beautiful and intimate drama documenting one family’s American dream, this weekend is as good a time as any to do it.
While the film’s subject matter—a Korean-American family moves to Arkansas to start a farm—might sound small, MINARI is actually a sweeping emotional tale about a family trying to find success, which means something different to each family member. The film, I should mention, is also hilarious–the younger son (Alan Kim, awards season superstar and PS fave) and his grandmother (Youn Yuh-Jung) square off in a number of laugh-out-loud moments.
—Julia Hammer, Director of Production
TV
MTV’s long-running competition show THE CHALLENGE is 37 seasons in, and arguably more successful than ever. But that’s not the show I’m here to recommend. Instead, I am here to encourage you to watch the incredible spinoff series on Paramount+, THE CHALLENGE: ALL STARS. This All Stars edition brings the show’s OGs back to compete in a less physical but much more entertaining game format. Many of these All Stars—most first appeared on REAL WORLD or ROAD RULES—have been competing on THE CHALLENGE since I was in diapers, but they’re even more enthusiastic and fun to watch now than they were in the 90s. And not that reality TV has ever been wholesome, but the genuine camaraderie among these Challengers softens the drama and allows the viewers to appreciate the juicy, funny pettiness. For example, a recent episode included an emotional moment in which Challenge legend Veronica was removed from the game due to injury. Her fellow All Stars huddled around her and cheered, acknowledging her icon status in a sentimental sendoff. Seconds later, the show’s never-graceful long-time host TJ Lavin wrapped up Veronica’s goodbye by stating: “Well that sucked.” So perfectly abrupt, messy, unpolished, but oddly poignant. So perfectly THE CHALLENGE.
—Dustin Sloane, Development Assistant
ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING is back with its second season! The murder-mystery-comedy delightfully skewers the world of crime podcasts, and stars Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez. It’s the type of show that anyone can enjoy; I started watching it last year with my parents, and they are just as excited to keep up with the second season as I am. After watching the first episode, I can report that this season appears to be just as light and fun and bingeable as the first. Our protagonists are now much more notorious figures, which is bringing them exciting new adventures (TV show pitches! Reboots! Art cults!) and higher stakes, with more eyes on them. New faces include all-around icon Shirley Maclaine as the murdered Bunny’s mother, Cara Delevgine as a gallerist, and Amy Schumer as herself.
—Darlene Kenney, Digital Strategist
BOOK
Every summer I try to revisit one book I’ve read and loved before—the only criteria is that it needs to remind me of the blissfully lazy and youthful days of summer break. This year I picked Sandra Cisneros' THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET, a vignette-style novel chronicling one year of young Esperanza Cordero’s life as she grows up in Chicago. Reading it during one of my high school summers in Bangkok, I remember being struck by how simply Cisneros was able to depict the joy, fear, awe, and so much more that a young adolescent feels at the cusp of young adulthood. Esperanza, ages 11 through 13, observes her neighborhood filled with immigrants and first-generation Americans. Cisneros writes about the challenges and heartbreaking moments in the lives of those who are othered with such clarity that reading it so many years later still catches me by surprise. The prose, sometimes lyrical, is effortless because she’s just so honest. She never tries to make Esperanza seem any older, smarter, or more interesting than she is—she simply lets her be.
—Nimarta Narang, Digital Fellow
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Have a great weekend! And as always, be kind, stay healthy, and stay creative. ツ
