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Good morning, and welcome again to The Daily’s Sunday tradition version, by which one Atlantic author reveals what’s retaining them entertained.
Today, our particular visitor is Lenika Cruz, a senior editor who will publish an Atlantic Editions e book on the South Korean pop group BTS in January (preorder it right here). Lenika has lately written about the pleasure of watching motion pictures on planes and Mariquita: A Tragedy of Guam, a e book she referred to as a “story of all Pacific Islanders whose lives have been shattered by the wars of empire.” She’s at present rewatching The X-Files, enjoying Stardew Valley, and watching YouTube video essays about horror and art-house movies.
But first, listed below are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic:
The Culture Survey: Lenika Cruz
The upcoming occasion I’m most wanting ahead to: I desperately missed reside music through the first years of the pandemic, so I’ve been on an actual live performance kick currently. I lately noticed Muna once they carried out in D.C.; it was my first time again on the 9:30 Club in ages, and your complete present was joyful and superb and splendidly queer. In the subsequent couple of months, I’ll be seeing the British-Japanese pop artist Rina Sawayama, the electronic-pop duo Magdalena Bay, and the indie-rock legends Modest Mouse, who’re doing a Twenty fifth-anniversary tour for his or her album The Lonesome Crowded West. My husband and I are going to that final present collectively; LCW was one of many data we bonded over after we first met in highschool 15 years in the past, so it’ll be very significant and cute. [Related: A new generation of pop stars are dancing with the devil.]
The tv present I’m most having fun with proper now: My accomplice and I’ve been rewatching The X-Files this yr, and we’re now on Season 4. This present is little doubt a masterpiece, and a number of other episodes simply belong among the many best hours of tv ever (“Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” “Home”). But there are positively some clunkers scattered all through, episodes so bewilderingly unhealthy they’re entertaining (“Teso Dos Bichos,” “Teliko”). It’s enjoyable to look at Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny do their greatest with horrible materials. [Related: What The X-Files understood about the search for truth]
My favourite blockbuster and favourite artwork film: I’m a giant Titanic stan. It completely holds up and earns each minute of its run time. Picking my favourite artwork film is tough, however one movie I’ll always remember is Kanał, by the Polish auteur Andrzej Wajda. It’s the second movie in Wajda’s trilogy that options the better-known and acclaimed Ashes and Diamonds. Kanał is without doubt one of the most harrowing and beautiful motion pictures I’ve ever seen. [Related: I just saw Titanic for the first time, and it is awesome.]
Best novel I’ve lately learn, and the perfect work of nonfiction: I adored the novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, by Gabrielle Zevin, which my pal and Atlantic colleague Morgan Ome really helpful to me (she additionally wrote about it for a current books roundup). I learn it in a day and a half, and felt bereft afterward. How might I presumably transfer on to another e book? In brief, it’s about friendship, love, trauma, and video video games. As quickly as I completed it, all I needed to do was both instantly reread it or … play some actually nice video video games.
For nonfiction, I learn The Yellow House, by Sarah M. Broom, earlier this yr. It’s considered one of my all-time favourite memoirs, brimming with voice and humanity and a hefty quantity of analysis and reportage. It’s a young and sophisticated love letter to a metropolis (New Orleans), a painstaking reconstruction of a forgotten historical past, and a courageous familial reckoning.
A quiet tune I really like, and a loud tune I really like: Quiet: “Nowhere Near,” by Yo La Tengo. Loud: “Not Moving,” by DNA.
A musical artist who means so much to me: Well, I’ve an Atlantic Editions e book popping out subsequent January concerning the one and solely BTS! My love for that group isn’t any secret amongst those that know me or who occur to observe me on social media. (Hopefully you don’t?) BTS are once-in-a-generation artists. Even although they’ve slowed down on their group actions because the members put together to enlist for his or her necessary South Korean army service, they’re all planning to return out with particular person tasks.
The eldest member, Jin, would be the first to enlist, so he launched a wonderful single final week referred to as “The Astronaut,” which I’ve been listening to nonstop. The music video is layered with that means—it follows an alien who landed on Earth, discovered a household, and chooses to remain even when he will get the possibility to return to his planet. The tune itself, which Jin co-wrote with Coldplay, options English and Korean lyrics and conjures each bittersweet nostalgia and heat optimism. When the shimmering guitars and Jin’s one-of-a-kind, powerhouse vocals wash over me, I really feel an odd sense of cosmic reassurance; I’ve solely simply gotten to the purpose the place I can hear it with out crying. [Related: The spectacular vindication of BTS]
The final museum or gallery present I cherished: I used to be at a e book occasion on the Brooklyn Museum final month, and the work of a diasporic CHamoru artist named Gisela McDaniel had been projected on a display screen during the dialog. Her work is attractive and uncooked, and I extremely suggest checking it out.
Something I lately revisited: I attempted to get into the online game Stardew Valley final yr however had a tough time adjusting to it proper after enjoying plenty of Animal Crossing (a superficially related however very totally different, and simpler, recreation). I deserted it after simply a few play periods. After studying Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, I picked up my Nintendo Switch Lite to strive once more. This time I turned obsessed. I perceive now why individuals love this recreation a lot, and why it should’ve been such a consolation to play within the earlier months of the pandemic. (FWIW, I reside on a seaside farm with my spouse, Penny, and my cat, Miso.) [Related: The quiet revolution of Animal Crossing]
My favourite solution to waste time on my telephone: I don’t waste time on my telephone 🙂
An on-line creator that I’m a fan of: I don’t spend as a lot time on YouTube as I used to, however I lately watched some sensible video essays from a creator referred to as Spikima Movies. The particular person behind it principally focuses on horror and art-house movies, analyzing them formally, aesthetically, and thematically. I notably loved the movies about Hereditary, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Kairo; I discovered them to be clever, revelatory, and overflowing with a palpable affection for cinema. [Related: Hereditary and the monstrousness of creative moms]
A very good suggestion I lately obtained: Um. A pal satisfied me to purchase a pair of Crocs, though I’ve spent ages making enjoyable of them and swearing I’d by no means put on them. What can I say? They’re snug, colourful, and versatile. The youths have deemed them cool now. One of my favourite issues is discovering that one thing I beforehand thought was Bad is definitely Good, after which attempting to get different individuals to beat their hang-ups and expertise happiness with me.
Read previous editions of the Culture Survey by Sophie Gilbert, Hannah Giorgis, and Jordan Calhoun.
The Week Ahead
- Haruki Murakami’s e book Novelist as a Vocation (Tuesday)
- Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Friday)
- Bruce Springsteen’s twenty first album, Only the Strong Survive, a group of R&B and soul covers (Friday)
Essay
Star Wars Gets Political
By Adam Serwer
In the eighth episode of the Star Wars prequel collection Andor, the mysterious artwork vendor turned Rebel chief Luthen implores the extremist fighter Saw Gerrera to unite with different factions towards the evil Galactic Empire.
“Aren’t you tired of fighting with people who agree with you?” Luthen pleads with Gerrera. “There’s no chance any of us can make it real on our own.”
“Kreegyr’s a Separatist. Maya Pei’s a neo-republican!” Gerrera replies in disgust. “The Ghorman Front? The Partisan Alliance? Sectorists. Human Cultists. Galaxy Partitionists. They’re lost! All of them, lost! Lost!”
I need to be clear that, as a Star Wars fan since childhood, I don’t know who any of those persons are … But none of that issues.
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