08/21/20
TRENDS THIS WEEK
☞ YouTube: Binging With Babish: Parks & Rec
☞ Letterboxd: Project Power
☞ TikTok: #medievaltiktok
☞ Spotify: Super Bounce - Dckwrth
☞ Netflix: Lucifer
☞ Twitter: #DrunkHistory
LIFE + CULTURE
Gen Z and millennials are hitting the stock market and they’re taking some risky bets. With new platforms making the process of trading easier, the trading activity has gone up with more than half of Gen Z and millennial investors saying their "risk tolerance has grown since the pandemic began.” Let’s get that bread fam. And here are a few TikTokers who are teaching fellow users how to tackle personal finances.
Joe Exotic’s zoo featured in early-quar show Tiger King has permanently closed. While our Tiger King-binging days genuinely feel like a lifetime ago, the rivalry between Joe and Carole Baskin has, unsurprisingly, continued. Joe accused the US Department of Agriculture of falling for the "pressures of PETA," while Carole raised concerns for the zoo animal’s welfare, as Joe plans to open a new zoo in Oklahoma.
Zendaya revealed possible plans for a “bridge episode” for Euphoria, meant to give rabid fans a “little something” as they wait for season 2, which has been put on hold due to the pandemic as with everything else. As one of these rabid Euphoria fans, I will take what I can get.
Mac Miller’s record company released two previously unheard songs “Ayye” and “Back in The Day” this past week, in celebration of the 10 year anniversary of his breakout mixtape K.I.D.S. In other music news, The Pitch Perfect Bellas got back together for an a cappella version of Beyonce’s “Love On Top”. It's really cute, see it here. And today, finally, Travis Scott is dropping the TENET theme song, which apparently “sounds like a brain-liquefying trip through time and space".
SOCIAL MEDIA
A girl on TikTok deadass jumped into the Hudson River, right in front of the statue of liberty like it was nothing. Wild. The entire internet was up in arms, detailing how bad of an idea this was. The diver responded saying she had no clue the Hudson was so polluted, and that she lives by the YOLO mentality. 🤘
One of LA’s infamous TikTok houses (...glorified frat houses) got their water and power turned off this week by Mayor Garcetti. This is in an effort to defer the influencers from throwing parties, coming after TikToker Bryce Hall threw down to celebrate his 21st birthday with hundreds in attendance.
FILM
I can’t stop talking about BOYS STATE, A24’s newest documentary that dropped on Apple+ last weekend. The documentary follows a group of high school boys as they vie for votes and power at the annual Texas Boys State conference. It’s inspiring, terrifying, and heartbreaking. It’s the perfect companion piece to this and next week’s national conventions - close your eyes and you might not be able to tell which is which!
TV
The eagerly anticipated LOVECRAFT COUNTRY might be the coolest new show you’ll find this year. It’s one of the rare offerings that is equally exciting whether you’ve gobbled up the eclectic sources of inspiration or experience it with fresh eyes. I can’t tell what’s more horrifying between the blatant racism of Jim Crow America and terrifying monsters our characters must face, but the winning performances from Jurnee Smollett, Jonathan Majors, and Courtney B. Vance will keep you on the edge of your seat when they’re not charming the hell out of you in this subversive history lesson that couldn’t be more timely.
THEATRE
Another week, another Zoom-ified new musical to report! This time it’s ROMANTICS ANONYMOUS, an original musical from the Bristol Old Vic that saw its American premiere cancelled due to Covid. It’s a frothy and fun show about two timid chocolatiers who meet through the titular support group. Exactly the sort of escapist entertainment I’m craving these days! You can reserve tickets to the live-streamed performance here.
BOOK
With the success of Lily King's WRITERS & LOVERS this summer, I’ve picked up her novel EUPHORIA from 2014. A meticulously researched and thinly veiled account of Margaret Mead’s 1933 trip to New Guinea, the novel delves into the love triangle between Mead (or Nell in the book), her husband, and another anthropologist they meet on their trip. In addition to the rich and complicated characters, the details about Mead’s work are so thorough and transporting that it reads like the juiciest anthropology lesson you’ve ever had.
PODCAST
The third season of FIASCO, from Leon Neyfakh and Luminary, started streaming last week. The season will focus on what happened when Black civil rights activists in Boston demanded their children be given access to the same level of education as their white counterparts in the 1960s and 70s.
SHORT FILM
DO NO HARM by Roseanne Liang. Taking the short in a different direction this week –– a badass direction! This is an intense action short about a surgeon who has to break her physician’s oath when gangsters break into the operating room threatening her and her patient. The action sequences are brilliantly directed and left me wanting more! I can’t wait to see her new movie SHADOW IN THE CLOUD when it premieres at TIFF this year (thanks to my colleague Shuyu for the rec).
