culture consumed (June, 2024)

[hermionesviolin]

books

• read Abby 4 Palestine picturebooks, 2 Learning About Bodies picturebooks, 6 Muslim picturebooks, 1 Pride picturebook [and read 1 other picturebook myself, and skim-read some others]
  
  
• [feminist sff book club] The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei -- fast-paced, largely a locked-room mystery; I didn't think it got into Issues as much as I was expecting from some of the ways it was talked about
  
  
• [work book club] Listen for the Lie by Amy Tintera -- a fast-paced mystery
  
  
• Hijab Butch Blues by Lamya H. (a pseudonym, and she/they pronouns) 
  This had been on my TBR for a while, and Abby started listening to it on audiobook (I didn't know the author had been on Gender Reveal)
  In one IG post, the author describes the book as, "a memoir in which I retell stories from the Quran as queer brown immigrant narratives alongside stories from my queer brown immigrant life." Unsurprisingly, I liked it a lot.

other

• Abby showed me "I'm You From the Future" on Nebula ["A dramatic scene we shot for an episode of Philosophy Tube, presented here in full without the video essay bits in between."]
  
  She had said: "It's beautiful; I laughed; I cried"
  I think it's fine?

theatr

• [CST/Front Porch] next to normal

  Dad’s an architect. Mom rushes to pack lunches and pour cereal. Their daughter and son are bright, wise-cracking teens. A typical American family. Except Mom’s been battling bipolar disorder for 16 years. With Front Porch Arts Collective (Ain’t Misbehavin), we bring you the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning, energetic pop-rock musical through the lens of a Black upper middle class family. Experience this emotional powerhouse at the intersection of mental health and race, gender and class.

  The original cast was white, and while this cast was Black (with the intentional exception of the health care professional), I don't think that added a racial element the way the dramaturg note asserted (especially since nothing about the musical was edited otherwise).
  
  Our friend Mark said, "It is one of my favorite musicals ever." (& "Trigger warning might be relevant. It is about bipolar, and I have known bipolar people who find it so intense that it was maybe a bad idea to watch it")  Though it turns out that's in part because of the times in his life he's seen it.

movies

• Nope & Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion -- a double-feature as part of the Brattle's series on Jordan Peele's influences
  
  Re: NGE, thedeadparrot was like, "Wasn't that a tv show?"  Well, the website said, "The incredible conclusion to this cult favorite series was remade as a theatrical feature"
  
  One of the other Nope companion films was Buck and the Preacher (a Black Western from 1972), which Abby ended up watching the previous weekend.  That wouldn't have worked with my schedule, but might have been a better choice.  I think NGE:TEoE would have made more sense if we'd seen the 24 episodes preceding it (Abby was not so sure), but the big influence on Nope isn't actually in the 2-episode movie we saw (I'm not sure if that's because the movie was a rewrite of the original final 2 episodes or not, but it feels like a poor choice on the Brattle curators regardless).
  
  Abby really loved Nope, though.  (Her first Jordan Peele film -- since she is even less of a scary movie person than I am.  I had previously seen Get Out and Us.)
  
  I shared a friend's Substack [which, Abby notes, "once the essay leaves direct discussion of the film, it doesn’t come back. This is a brief (but interesting) commentary on a film, followed by a long and rambling commentary on the nature of art criticism."].
  
  Abby commented:

  Unrelated to this substack (other than reminding me of the thought I had during the movie), I fucking loved the cinematography, and thought multiple times something along the lines of “this is how you film Black people.” Like, I could watch it again just to watch how they light (or don’t) the scenes in ways that would have very different results with a white cast.

  Speaking of lighting, our friend Hartley (who we saw Nope with) had mentioned during the film that the night scenes were shot during the day.  I later came across a Tumblr post about that.  (I would also recommend that poster's "nope movie" tag after you've seen the movie.  The lighting post isn't spoilery, but other posts in the tag are.)
  
  P.S. The Tumblr post doesn't cite its sources, but I Googled "nope night lighting" and immediately got hits from places like CineD and /Film interviewing cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema or the film's editor, Nicholas Monsour, so yes, it's legit.

live music

• Kinsey Scales (queer a cappella) Pride concert

***

Currently reading: 

Books I started reading in June:

A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice by Katie Tastrom -- while I was at the Institute for Theology and Disability

The Ministry for the Future: A Novel by Kim Stanley Robinson -- for July 17 climate change book club

Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics by Linn Marie Tonstad -- our Queer Pastoral Resident Michael suggested it when someone (Chelsea A.) posted to the private FB group, "If I wanted to learn more about Queer Theology, is Patrick Cheng's Radical Love: An Introduction to Queer Theology still the recommended place to start? (Should I call out hermionesviolin by name?)" and I've owned a copy for some time but hadn't gotten around to reading it.
I'm only about one chapter in, but I'm really liking it.

A Short History of Trans Misogyny by Jules Gill-Peterson -- because my library hold came in.  This book I'm struggling much more to read.  It's a lot denser?

Reading next: 

I mean, I'm kind of busy, per above.

Though at some point the new DEI book club a coworker started will pick a book for July (Disability Pride Month), and so far I've liked most all the suggested options, so I'll probably actually read the book?  (As opposed to June, when I was not interested in the Pride Month book that won the popular vote -- Bath Haus by P. J. Vernon.)

I'm also maybe gonna read A Disappearance in Fiji by Nilima Rao for the July 13th meeting of the Indian Food, Indian Fiction Meetup group I never go to.

Comments

[meat_and_breath]

I was today years old when I realized that Lamya H is a she/they and not a they/them. 😆

---

She had said: "It's beautiful; I laughed; I cried" I think it's fine?

God, you're such a cis.

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Speaking of lighting, our friend Hartley (who we saw Nope with) had mentioned during the film that the night scenes were shot during the day.

And I should note that I think that my comment is related, I just didn't know at the time that it was because they were shot during the day that they lighting worked so well.

[meat_and_breath]

Also, reading through that nope movie tag was amazing.

[lunabee34]

You have so many books going and they all sound fascinating!