June shoutouts
Proud.
This Pride Month has been a wonderful June filled with friend-hangs and comforting at-home experiences away from the climbing summer heat. I hope the season is off to a great start for all of you.
Here are some of the things I enjoyed this month! Reminder that you can SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER down below to get my monthly shoutouts in full before they appear here.
In perfect time for Pride Month, I received an advanced reader copy of Chuck Tingle’s new Hollywood slasher, which follows a semi-closeted TV writer whose career troubles are compounded when his own terrifying creations take on a life of their own. Fun, funny and inventive, this is a great vacation read.
“Bury Your Gays” by Chuck Tingle is now out from Tor Nightfire. My review: REVIEW: Hollywood horror comes to life in Chuck Tingle’s ‘Bury Your Gays’
Paul Schrader is among my favorite directors but I had never seen his 1979 noir thriller “Hardcore” until this month. The film follows a devout religious man from Michigan as he’s thrust into the underworld of the adult film industry in 1970s Los Angeles. The search for his runaway daughter will test his boundaries of right and wrong and force him to face his own hangups around sexuality. “Hardcore” is gorgeously crafted and wonderfully written and deserves to be listed among Schrader’s best.
“Hardcore” is available to stream on The Criterion Channel and can be rented or purchased across most platforms.
Based off the quality of the first three tracks released from dance-pop auteur Charli XCX’s latest album, “brat,” I was more excited for this album than I’ve been for any release in a long while. And Charli did not disappoint. It’s been a joy experiencing this album with friends and seeing endless numbers of reactions online. Here are a few of my favorite reactions: “I AM LOSING MY MIND!!” and “THE BRAT LISTENING PARTY.”
Standouts (aside from tracks I’ve mentioned in previous newsletters) are the Sleigh Bells-esque “Sympathy is a knife” and “365.” The latter of these is maybe my favorite song released this year by anyone (so far).
Since the majority of our Bravo reality shows are either off season or indefinitely on break, my husband and I have been perusing the network’s back catalogue. Recently, we watched the early 2000s one-season curio “NYC Prep.” Turns out it was the perfect Pride Month viewing because the entire show is a sinister, closeted teen terrorizing a group of underclassmen and all of them trying to keep from calling him the F-word. The Pope would have done it!
“NYC Prep” is currently available to stream on Peacock. It can also be purchased or rented across most other streaming platforms.
It’s really confusing but though “Ghosts: VI: Locusts” is the “fifth” installment of Nine Inch Nails’ “Ghosts” series, it’s only the third actual release. While I still need to listen to “Ghosts I-IV” and its follow-up, “Ghosts V,” I organically kind of came across one “Locusts” track and got drawn in — deciding to take it as a sign to finally begin my long-coming dive into the NIN discography. For fans of Trent Reznor’s film score work with Atticus Ross, “Locusts” doesn’t disappoint. Delivering upon the moody, drone-y atmosphere of Reznor-helmed scores for films like “Gone Girl” and “The Social Network,” “Locusts” is reminiscent of a film score because it was one. At least some portions of the score were rejected work for 2021’s “The Woman in the Window” adaptation, and these thoughtful-but-eerie tracks give a great glimpse of how different (better) that movie might have been with this music in-tact. Standouts include “The Cursed Clock,” “The Worriment Waltz” and “Your New Normal.”
Tom Crewe’s “The New Life” fictionalizes two real-life academic pioneers in Britain’s Victorian Era as they work to change attitudes and laws against homosexuality. This finely researched and delightful novel was a moving and educational experience to have through this month, remembering the LGBTQ+ people and allies who came before me and paid big prices. This is a very old-fashioned toned novel — which was challenged at first — but I’m glad I stuck with it before barreling through.
ODDS & ENDS
ARTICLES —In “Are Young Men Really Becoming More Sexist?”, The Atlantic writer Jerusalem Demsas talks to Dr. Alice Evans, a Stanford University researcher on gender relations across societies. Here, Evans explains the various ways young men are becoming more (or less) supportive of women’s rights and advancement in different countries. Evans also lays out the reasons why many of today’s high school and college-aged men are trending more traditional in terms of male-female societal dynamics than even their grandfathers.
VIDEO — One thing I love thinking about is different U.S. cities — as there are still so many I want to visit! — and learning their “vibes,” in addition to their livability and affordability. YouTuber CityNerd creates detailed videos exploring the particulars of America’s big and small cities in depth. Interesting topics covered include “Ten Cities that Do Sports Venues the Best (and Some Terrible Ones)” and “‘Reverse Commuting: Cities Where People Travel the ‘Wrong Way’ to Work (and Why).”
Next, the New York Times’ Popcast explores the surprise smash hit “Nasty,” by R&B artist Tinashe. Now a decade into her career (of which I’m a HUGE fan of), the triple-threat artist behind personal favorites like “Bouncin” and “Needs” is finally getting the wide acclaim she has deserved for so long.
MINI MIXTAPE
“Joker” — Porches (This first peek at the forthcoming album “Shirt” from synth-pop musician Aaron Maine, a.k.a. Porches conjures the artist’s familiar dreamy bedroom vibe but with an unexpected, vaguely folk influence)
“Disco Boots — Gavin Turek (I intended to include this song in May’s newsletter and forgot — but I’m still loving this very disco, very funky bop by Los Angeles R&B/dance artist Gavin Turek. I very much need to be on dancefloor somewhere this summer with this song cranking)
“Starburster” — Fontaines D.C. (The first single from the Irish post-punk band led by Grian Chatten (whose solo album I also loved last year!) is described in a YouTube comment on the video as an “absolute anthem for the alienated and asthmatic.” You’ll have to listen to it to understand)
“XTC” — urika’s bedroom (This acoustic-driven melancholy dream-pop tune reminds me of things that I can’t exactly put my finger on, though I’ll venture to guess it’s the guitar-y emotionality of the 2010s indie band Fences. I’m not very angsty anymore but me in my early 20s would have driven and thought about life to this)
“Busy Girl” — Tove Lo & SG Lewis (My favorite track from the dance artists’ fantastic joint EP “HEAT” continues the Brat summer aesthetic, delivering a bouncy electro-disco club hit that is begging for a sweaty summer night of dancing. Tove Lo may be a busy girl but she’s never too busy to give us exactly what we want!)
Center City
Philadelphia, PA
United States
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