(63 mins) | This week I brought on my friend and talented writer Laura Bannister to discuss the themes I explored in Sunday’s newsletter (#31: Lunacy), such as Looney Tunes, the US election, and whether art needs to be “relevant” to be worthwhile. Laura’s a fellow TuneHead (just made that up), an Australian witnessing her first US election up close, and an art critic obsessed with American chain restaurants, so I knew she’d be the perfect guest…and she was! We reference a ton of internet stuff—all the links below. I also do an audio reading of #31 at the end in case you’re interested. That’s around the 55-minute mark.
High interest on Laura’s beat being irrelevance. I’m sold on the investigative journalism piece about celebrity impersonators. Also bringing back the piece about TGIF’s unlimited appetizers for 24 hours. I remember reading that piece, standing on a full bus and being engrossed the entire time and needing to finish reading it all in one go. There IS an audience out there for this content!
I feel like the best of tiktok revived the irrelevant/peripheral in a way that is so easily eroded by its institutionalization/movement towards the centre. Escapism is almost reductionist of a description in my opinion, there's something profoundly liberating in it. My niche interest is a remarkable beach house (https://youtu.be/1ufqPAhy4YQ) by architects RV and Denise Scott Brown which was filled with 'vacation house' furniture, whose sort of nondescript, non performative generic ease promised a kind of liberation (come to think of it this remind me of a piece you wrote about weekend clothes). The flip side of this is, for me, the guilt that's hard to dissociate from it, which makes it ultimately supremely relevant..(sorry)
I share Laura's interest in impersonators! When I was a kid, one of the highlights of the holiday season was driving past "the Elvis house" with my parents. The house belonged to a locally famous Elvis impersonator in NJ who decorated his mansion and huge property with an insane amount of Christmas lights, decorations, and animatronics. There was a giant TCB light display with lightning bolts next to his pond (he had a pond!). Cars would be lined up down his block throughout the winter. One day, probably more than a decade ago, the lights just weren't there anymore. So many unanswered questions.
Don’t you think the perspective that Biden isn’t that different than Trump is incredibly privileged? Surely he isn’t as liberal as Warren or Bernie but he’s faaaaar from Trump.
High interest on Laura’s beat being irrelevance. I’m sold on the investigative journalism piece about celebrity impersonators. Also bringing back the piece about TGIF’s unlimited appetizers for 24 hours. I remember reading that piece, standing on a full bus and being engrossed the entire time and needing to finish reading it all in one go. There IS an audience out there for this content!
I feel like the best of tiktok revived the irrelevant/peripheral in a way that is so easily eroded by its institutionalization/movement towards the centre. Escapism is almost reductionist of a description in my opinion, there's something profoundly liberating in it. My niche interest is a remarkable beach house (https://youtu.be/1ufqPAhy4YQ) by architects RV and Denise Scott Brown which was filled with 'vacation house' furniture, whose sort of nondescript, non performative generic ease promised a kind of liberation (come to think of it this remind me of a piece you wrote about weekend clothes). The flip side of this is, for me, the guilt that's hard to dissociate from it, which makes it ultimately supremely relevant..(sorry)
Solo Paris trip...so Frances Ha of you Haley
I feel like.... Laura would be thrilled by the existence of Dollywood??
!i kept waiting for this to come up when yall were talking on relevancy / irrelevancy / loony tunes
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.them.us/story/bugs-bunny-usps-stamps-drag/amp
I share Laura's interest in impersonators! When I was a kid, one of the highlights of the holiday season was driving past "the Elvis house" with my parents. The house belonged to a locally famous Elvis impersonator in NJ who decorated his mansion and huge property with an insane amount of Christmas lights, decorations, and animatronics. There was a giant TCB light display with lightning bolts next to his pond (he had a pond!). Cars would be lined up down his block throughout the winter. One day, probably more than a decade ago, the lights just weren't there anymore. So many unanswered questions.
Don’t you think the perspective that Biden isn’t that different than Trump is incredibly privileged? Surely he isn’t as liberal as Warren or Bernie but he’s faaaaar from Trump.