145: send it
THIS WEEK: owl’s city’s “fireflies” on the dance floor, in the mood for love, aphorisms as dialogue
There’s always time to join Tia and I’s book club: Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch. Here is a scanned PDF copy if you need it.
I got on the horn with friends of the Report, Jessica Kasiama and Hannah Ziegler this week to talk about Lorde’s Virgin. The first audio dispatch (”podcast”) of Consumption Report, for paid subscribers only.1
Last night a dream came true that I didn’t even know I had: I danced to Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon” on a dance floor. Thanks go out to three-fourths of Beach Fossils, whose approach to DJing is not that dissimilar from my own: playing songs from 2009 off iTunes (I love to put “Bottoms Up” on at the pre).2 They also played “Believe” and Owl City’s “Fireflies” (imagine if they’d played Faith Hill’s?) and “Hey Ya.” When they were done, The Dare, Gen-Z’s answer to Mark Ronson, played a pretty fun set and we all lost our minds when he played “Fame is a Gun.” I can’t wait till he produces the soundtrack for the live action Polly Pocket movie that we deserve.
Earlier this week, I watched In the Mood For Love in bed, even though I could have seen it at Film at Lincoln Center. (They’re also showing it at BAM at 4:15 today if you’re in NYC and interested.) Wong Kar Wai’s fan favorite is a slow-burn, like the romance at its center, but it’s extremely satisfying. Of course it’s beautiful—its sumptuous greens and reds, Maggie Cheung’s costumes. I loved how easy it was to feel invested in the characters, not just Mrs Chan (Cheung) and Mr Chow (Tony Leung), our central couple, but also drunken Mr Koo next door and the always invisible Miss Yu (Mrs Chan’s boss’ mistress) and her gauche taste in ties. If you’re not familiar with the plot (I wasn’t, despite seeing the screenshots online for years), Mrs Chan and Mr Chow are neighbors who realize their respective spouses are engaged in an affair. Part of how Mrs Chan and Mr Chow build their own relationship is through “rehearsing” how they will confront their spouses about the affair. Often times these rehearsals are played out without giving us context that they’re at play, which makes the overall romance feel a little bit like a game. Even if their feelings are real, in Hong Kong in 1962, Mrs Chan and Mr Chow’s love can only be a kind of game, an interlude before they go back to their real lives.
The play of In the Mood of Love reminded me of Harrison Ford’s Deckard telling Jared Leto’s Wallace, “I know what’s real,” in Blade Runner 2049, and the silence and unease that follows that declaration. I watched BR 2049 on Friday night with friends. I’ve never seen the original Blade Runner. Denis Villenueve’s film is, visually, exceptionally stunning and I’d mostly watch it again for the aesthetics. I did fall asleep in the middle, though I don’t think I missed anything super substantial. I found the writing left a lot to be desired—it was vague with a tinge of depth that makes you think you’ve heard something profound. Aphorisms as dialogue. There’s a part where Harrison Ford says something like, “Sometimes to love someone, you have to be a stranger.” And at first I was like, hmmm, interesting. And then I was like, that’s nonsense. Still, fun was had and we all agreed that this was Ana de Armas’ best performance.3
I really want to talk about the new HAIM album but I need to listen to their entire discography first for a little more context. What I will say is that “Gone” and “Now it’s time” are my favorite opener-closer duo in recent history.
Read these:
Charlotte Shane, “The Novel of Men”
What Michelle Santiago Cortés has read so far this year (some good stuff for our Federici readers)
For better or worse, the more paid subscribers I get, the likelier that I will get myself a podcast mic, and we can really level up this operation.
I know “Bottoms Up” is from 2010 but you get the picture.
I still have much fondness for whatever she’s doing in Deep Water.
would actually kill for a comprehensive haim issue of CR