05/21/21
THIS WEEK: CROCS, A FEEL-GOOD HORSE MOVIE, AND LAUGH OF-LOUD FILM COMMENTARY FROM LINDY WEST.
TRENDS THIS WEEK
☞ Youtube Friends: The Reunion: Trailer
☞ Letterboxd THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW
☞ TikTok #FilmmakersofTikTok
☞ Spotify Lil Nas X - MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)
☞ Netflix WHO KILLED SARA
☞ Twitter KNIVES OUT 2
PS WEEKLY ツ
LIFE & CULTURE
Crocs’ newest partnership just makes good, practical sense. What goes with the comfiest, most practical slipper out there? Ranch dressing, obviously. The company teamed up with Hidden Valley Ranch to bring the public the shoe we never knew we needed. Honestly, it has been nothing short of beautiful to watch Crocs go from being the butt of every joke to somehow being cool. The shoes are without a doubt pretty ugly (in my opinion! Please don’t come after me, crocs lovers), but years of seeing people wear them ironically—plus collaborations with pop culture icons like Bad Bunny, Post Malone, Justin Bieber, Chinatown Market—has worn me down. If you’re in a similar boat and want to cop Crocs’ latest collab, the shoes are dropping later this year on its website.
If you ever dreamt of controlling objects with just your mind, having words appear on a page after merely thinking them, your dreams might be inching closer to reality. Nature just published a report detailing a new system that allows a computer to translate words that a paralyzed man simply thinks. According to the researchers, “our study participant, whose hand was paralysed from spinal cord injury, achieved typing speeds of 90 characters per minute with 94.1% raw accuracy online, and greater than 99% accuracy offline with a general-purpose autocorrect.” This study shows a big upgrade from the last one with a similar goal, which only managed about 25 characters per minute. Huge advances, even if the tech has only been tested with one person so far.
And in AR news that feels a little bit closer to reality, Snap came out with a new version of their Spectacles. This is its fourth generation of the product, which you might remember launching back in September 2016 to a lukewarm reception. But what’s different about this new version is that the first three were pretty much glasses with a camera attached to them, while this version actually generates virtual images over the world that the user is seeing. Another difference? They’re not being sold. The new glasses are now only available for developers. Snap is making the product available for people who already make AR effects in Snapchat, in order for them to test those lenses.
I’m gifting you all with three TikToks this week, because I think we all deserve it. This one depicts both peace and chaos in a small village. This one features a beautiful sausage dog and his extremely relatable walking pace. And this one brings to light a curious theory that should immediately be developed into an animated series. Okay, see you next week.
—Darlene Kenney, Digital Strategist
GUEST CURATED BY THE BRILLIANT MINDS AT
FILMMAKER
In 2018, we were fortunate to meet Nirav Bhakta when we judged the HBO APA Visionaries competition. Then in 2019, we nominated him for the CBS Leadership Pipeline Challenge, and not only was he selected for the inaugural class, he was one of three directors to advance to the finals!
Nirav is a filmmaker with goals of telling stories of the South Asian diaspora. He’s resourceful, unapologetic and bold as an individual. There was no doubt in our minds why his HBO APA Visionaries-winning short “Halwa” (co-directed with Gayatri Bajpai) stood out or why his sophomore short “Thank You, Come Again” leaves you stunned by the end. A true multi-hyphenate (actor-writer-filmmaker), Nirav approaches his work with honesty, courage, and clarity of vision, and we cannot wait to see what he will make in the future!
—Michelle K. Sugihara, Executive Director, CAPE
*Check this space every week during the month of May for a spotlight on an inspiring AAPI creative you need to know. Curated with love by our friends at CAPE. That’s short for Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment, and org that champions diversity by educating, connecting, and empowering Asian American and Pacific Islander artists and leaders in entertainment and media. Learn more about their work here.
FILM
While many of us tend to associate Sundance with darker and more indie-feeling fare, I had the pleasure of seeing Euros Lyn’s heartwarming DREAM HORSE (trailer here) at Sundance 2020, and it’s now out for everyone to watch! Based on a true story, the film is about a group of neighbors in a small Welsh town who decide to invest in a race horse. While the film has a relatively predictable sports-movie structure, I still found myself getting teary as the horse begins to win races and climb the ranks—and the racing sequences are gorgeously shot, too. If horses aren’t your thing, the film is also anchored by the ever-likeable Toni Collette and Damian Lewis. And it’s only rated PG, so it’s a great family quar watch!
—Julia Hammer, Director of Production
TV
STARTUP (trailer here) just dropped on Netflix last week and I am entirely obsessed. The show is about startups and crypto but unlike most of the tech stories we know, it’s not set in Silicon Valley, but instead the heat of Miami. The location is not the only atypical thing about the show. It’s about a female founder, played by Otmara Marrero, who puts her all into creating a new form of crypto and desperately needs funding to launch. She stumbles into an unlikely partnership with Adam Brody's character, who’s the son of a money launderer, and Edi Gathegi’s character, who’s a Haitian drug lord, to fund her business. Whether you’re just here for the Dogecoin memes or really invested in Bitcoin and the recent market manipulation speculations about Elon Musk, STARTUP is a must see.
—Eden Bekele, Digital Associate
THEATER
This week on Broadway’s Best Plays, you can stream THE SISTERS ROSENSWEIG, Wendy Wasserstein’s timeless comedy about three middle-aged sisters reuniting at a birthday dinner. Wasserstein excels at writing imperfect, relatable women and awkward social gatherings—so if you’ve been missing dinner-party small talk, this one’s for you! The cast of the reading includes Kathryn Hahn, Jason Alexander, Kathryn Newton, and Lisa Edelstein, and all proceeds go to The Actor’s Fund.
—Julia Hammer, Director of Production
BOOKS
Apologies if this actually belongs in the theater section, but one of my favorite institutions in the whole world, the Drama Book Shop, is reopening! This treasure trove of a bookstore was home to every play script you could possibly imagine, plus a plethora of nonfiction books about the arts. The store closed in 2019 due to financial issues, but it was swiftly bought by a group of New York theater heavy hitters, including Jeffrey Seller, James L. Nederlander, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Tommy Kail. It will now be opening in its new location, on 39th St. and 8th Ave, and will also have a café. So, if you find yourself in Times Square but don’t want to, y’know, actually be in Times Square, this is a great spot to hide out. They’ve created a “shopping reservation” system to limit the number of customers during Covid times, so be sure to book a spot in advance!
—Julia Hammer, Director of Production
If you’ve missed being able to watch movies with friends, I have the book for you. SHIT, ACTUALLY is written by the incredibly hilarious and sarcastic Lindy West, who you may recognize from her first book, SHRILL (which went on to inspire the Hulu series of the same name starring Aidy Bryant). SHIT, ACTUALLY is a collection of essays reviewing popular movies from THE FUGITIVE to TWILIGHT to TITANIC and everything in between, all featuring Lindy’s signature sense of humor. While this book truly had me laughing aloud, I also really appreciated that Lindy made every effort to comment on, and call out, the societal structures such as sexism, gender norms, racism, and homophobia, to name a few, that appear in our favorite classics. I highly recommend listening to this in audiobook format, read by the author herself, to get the full effect of feeling like you’re watching and commenting on each movie with a friend.
—Marisa Harris, Executive Assistant
PODCAST
Pineapple Street Studios’ new podcast STAY AWAY FROM MATTHEW MAGILL recounts the series of serendipitous events that led award-winning journalist Eric Mennel on a five- year journey to investigate the life of Matthew MaGill, a mysterious man who died alone in the Florida forest.
During his final years, MaGill told wondrous tales of a life filled with adventure, but due to his circumstances everyone doubted the veracity of his stories, writing him off as a fraud. That all changed when a box filled with proof of his incredible life was uncovered upon his death. This box contained records of everything—from his marriage to a famous Broadway star to his decision to go into hiding after a law enforcement raid. But what makes this podcast stand out in the marketplace is the powerful way that Mennel’s exploration of McGill prompts an exploration of his own life and his relationships with his family.
—Lucy Putnam, Creative Executive
MUSIC
With new festival dates being added literally every day this month, I want to spotlight an artist who I would pay top dollar to see live. Jayda G is a Canadian DJ and producer based in the UK, who has been making incredible strides this year with her Grammy-nominated single BOTH OF US. She’s been making music in the dance space since 2016, but has only recently been able to cross over to a more mainstream audience. Her recent sound is a representation of her eclectic tastes, drawing inspiration from soul, classic, disco, and house—creating a world of dance that is so infectious that it only makes sense that she will be doing endless festivals this summer and beyond. I recommend listening to BOTH OF US, ALL I NEED- DJ-KICKS, or her remix of COOL by Dua Lipa.
—Eden Bekele, Digital Associate
