Society of the Spectacle
March cultural highlights
The world keeps making my head spin but we’re still out here trying to find beauty in culture despite the absolute devastation of it all.
In the rubric of things that made me curious/kept me joyful:
This month on a girls’ trip, I tried a new fruit, Pouteria Sapota, in Isla Holbox- which our Airbnb host just found at the market and had never seen either. It was like an avocado with a sweet potato flavor and the appearance of a melon.
I also discovered that what I always thought were a flamingos’ knees are actually their ankles (?!)- their knee is invisible to the naked eye.
The beauty and ease of marbling clay (which also makes me hungry because it reminds me of marble cake?).
That there used to be a national holiday called “Moving Day”, sometimes called “Rent Day” when landlords would give notice to their tenants and thousands of people all had to move at the same time.
Here are some movies, exhibits, books that also made my month. As always I love to hear yours.
Movies/TV/Streaming
All of RaMell Ross’ Repertoire- “Nickel Boys” and “Hale This County This Morning This Evening” and his photography: If you need to feel inspired I recommend reading RaMell Ross’ bio in addition to seeing his work. The ex-Georgetown basketball player came to film and photography later in life and directed his first- absolutely stunning- documentary Hale This County This Morning This Evening when he was teaching photography and coaching basketball in a GED program in Alabama and it really sets the tone for the Oscar nominated beauty that is Nickel Boys. In his first documentary, Hale This County, he follows a group of young college basketball players, their ambitions, their family lives and their struggles for some as young parents trying to make a life for themselves and their children. It’s one of the most intimate portrayals of Black life that I’ve ever seen, and a signature he carries through with Nickel Boys, which is filmed from the point of view of the two main subjects. As you watch their arm, idling in the grass, you find yourself relating in a way that is closer than in most films. As a mover and photographer, he manages to really follow and get very close to the body- saying and making you feel a lot with very little dialogue. We are lucky to live in a time where RaMell is making work.
Still from Hale This Country This Morning This Evening
Janet Planet
Annie Baker’s directorial debut reads like a play and moved me to my core. A coming of age movie that will make you want to spend the summer in the Berkshires, it follows Lacy, an 11 year old and loner, who is losing herself in her single mom’s life as a way to escape her own. Her boyfriends, friends, acupuncture clients and rollercoaster of emotions. Their relationship and intimacy is hard for those weaving in and out of her life to understand but it’s what keeps her going. An incredible performance by young Zoe Ziegler and one of the most beautiful movies that makes you dream of another more simpler life- it kind of reminded me of Stealing Beauty in that way.
The Last Showgirl
I never expected to see Pamela Anderson in a Sofia Coppola movie and somehow it makes complete sense. Pamela is heartbreaking (or is it my hormones?) in this movie about a mother who set aside for family life to pursue her dreams of being a showgirl- and her wrestling with age, and that life taking a turn. Jamie Lee Curtis is the other surprising gem in this cotton candy utopia bathed in nostalgia and parental misunderstandings that reminded me of her movies Bling Ring and Somewhere.
Dying for Sex
Short plug but this TV show is based on a Wondery podcast and the true story executive produced by its two main characters. Nikki and Molly, best friends for years, came together to tell the story of Molly’s last years living with terminal breast cancer, and a wish to separate from her husband and experience a sexual awakening- which also involved having to confront child trauma. We had the premiere last week and it was so moving to see how involved Nikki was in the production of the TV show as well and how she honored her best friend in this show that touches on womanhood and terminal illness- what it means to “live” and societal’s perceptions of the choices that Molly made for herself. And the depth of trauma in the body. A beautiful homage to a beautiful person, with an impeccable cast, full of laughter and sorrow.
Visual Art
Weegee: Society of The Spectacle at ICP: Charlie and I caught this incredible restrospective of Weegee’s photographs that focus on documenting crowds and onlookers in New York’s 30s and 40s of crime scenes and premieres. Both grotesque (actual crime scenes) and star studded (portraits of celebrities), the show really shows the breadth of his work.
Pow Martinez at Silverlens: I fell in love with Pow’s cartoonish colorful paintings which he claims are what a “nature painter might do in a digital landscape”. Pow has mentioned that painting is his way of making sense of the world around him and will watch endless YouTube feeds for inspiration.
Books
Pure Innocent Fun by Ira Madison III: If you’re bad at reading like me right now, I really recommend this series of essays by the critic and television writer who shares the pop culture sensations that shaped him and his career (including but not limited to Oprah’s toxic diets, the MTV cartoon Daria and more). It’s fun, self-deprecating and unapologetic.
Show/Venue/Other
I saw two shows that I am not going to discuss because they both came with their own issues but I want to highlight the story of a neighbor who salvaged a historic space.
On Saturday, I met Peter Tulloch (below), at an opening at the Crown Hill Theater. It was originally the first Black movie theater in America and seized after being squatted many years later. Peter rehabbed the whole place and has made it a film school for young folks in the area and a rentable venue which includes music studios, the empty movie theater that recently hosted Andre 3000’s first solo show (and can fit 1000 people) and classroom spaces.
It’s so rare to see new arts spaces being built and this is the biggest cultural space in our area so check out their schedule/rent!
Podcast
If you have to listen to one episode of one show this month: In this incredibly vulnerable and heartbreaking episode, journalist Zach Mack makes a bet with his conspiracy ridden father to change his mind. Both love each other and are trying to meet halfway and the courage it takes Zach to record his whole family going through upheavals as his dad falls deeper in the conspiracy trenches is heroic and should serve as documentation of the time we live in.
Hang in there and hope to see/hear from you soon <3
Allie