WTF Did I Just Watch/Read??? (Part 2)
Some of these are WTF - I will never get these hours of my life back. But some of these are WTF - our society sucks & we need to do better!
James Baldwin at 100 and Anti-Prime Deals!
Anti-Prime Days: This week (and every week) support independent bookstores by buying books from your local independent bookstores and/or Bookshop.org on its Anti-Prime Days July 15-17, 2024. Free shipping July 15-17, and a free Bookshop.org Tote Bag with orders over $100. You can pick your favorite indie bookstore on the site and a percentage of what you buy will support that store.
James Baldwin at 100: James Baldwin would have been 100 on August 2, 2024 and many amazing writers, thinkers, and culture critics (and Random House) have created great opportunities for us to spend more time with his work, or learn about him for the first time! Check out this new podcast that could be a great refresher and/or introduction for us all! “Join host Cree Myles of the award-winning All Ways Black as she goes behind the scenes with Dr. Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Roxane Gay, Billy Dee Williams, Robert Jones Jr., and other luminaries to give the inside scoop on who James Baldwin was and why he and his works are more relevant than ever today.”
Okay back to the WTF did I just watch, Part 2! Starting with some timely recommendations that will no doubt frustrate, anger, and/or give you hope or sadden you, but important and worth it.
Timely Fascism WTF: Book: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century: A brief but clear treatise on identifying how and when we are in descent into tyranny (spoiler alert, we have been descending for a long time). I read it when it first came out but seemed an evergreen recommendation for these times.
Another writer I admire recently shared some perspectives on this “creep” in the US and around the world:
“…a growing number of people who have lived within the freedom and abundance of the liberal order, now see the wolf of a fully realized fascism at the gate. And also, the wolf has been prowling through the village and woods, preying on others considered expendable by those in power, and nothing was done.” - Sarah Thankam Mathews
Timely Olympics WTF: Documentary: Athlete A (Netflix): As we look forward to a hopefully amazing performance by the USA gymnastics women team in a few weeks at the 2024 Olympics, it is worth watching this documentary about the gymnasts who held team doctor Larry Nassar, USA Gymnastics (the institution), and the FBI (who failed in their investigations) accountable for ongoing sexual assault. And it also acknowledges that the lengths of physical and verbal abuse and toxic coaching that was allowed even before the sexual assault came to light, was not appropriate either, and the desire to win at all costs, is the root of all of it.
UGH WTF: Documentary Series: The Man with 1000 Kids (Netflix): I thought this was going to be about yet another fertility doctor using their sperm to impregnate patients, which is a real pattern and bad enough. But no, this was about a dude, and some accomplices who donate their sperm privately and through sperm banks around the WORLD because of a belief that masculinity means populating the world supporting crypto currency. And if that wasn’t enough, at least one of his alleged accomplices admitted he wanted to make the world more WHITE. These are horrible people, and they did this AND CONTINUE to do this because there are no regulations globally to regulate sperm donors across country. And the specific country regulations that exist are insufficient and basically work on the honor system. Meanwhile all the parents are trying their best to prevent “unintentional” incest by connecting with other families who used his sperm.
UGH WTF: Book: There is No Ethan: How Three Women Caught America’s Biggest Catfish: This is a true story of how a few women figured out they were 1) all in a romantic online relationship with the same person and 2) that person, ETHAN, was not who he said he was. I was shocked, and this person has been revealed publicly many times since 2014, and is still out there, a practicing OBGYN, and more you won’t believe! It is one of the kookiest stories I’ve read and if you don’t have time to read the book, you can read the article it was based on.
UGH WTF: Documentary Series: Six Schizophrenic Brothers (Max): This is based on the nonfiction bestseller, Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family, which I read but found quite hard to take in. This series put the context of this large family, economic class, religion, mental health diagnosis and stigma up front and center. Even as we get into modern times, it’s frustrating to see who has to shoulder the care of the remaining brothers. I may try to read the book again now.
BAD WTF: TV: Eric (Netflix): I don’t understand this show or why it was made or why Benedict Cumberbatch is in it. Lots of hours I can’t get back. The setting of 1980s New York and a missing kid drama drew me in but then it just went elsewhere with puppets, and magical elements and I wasn’t there for it, but other critics really liked it.
FOLLOW UP UGH: A few weeks ago, in a newsletter about Documentaries, I shared White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch. Since then, there has been a rush of articles (pushed by their marketing team) about their rebrand, that I wanted to share!
“The Abercrombie brand, once an easy cultural punching bag, now brings in more revenue than it did when it dominated teen culture in the aughts. (Last year, sales reached $2.2 billion.) … To get here, Abercrombie’s leaders did something deceptively simple. They killed almost everything the preppy, testosterone-driven brand once stood for — sex, privilege, wealth, good breeding. Today’s Abercrombie has replaced that fantasy with a humble practicality, offering a reasonably priced uniform for the TikTok-adjacent life where every outfit is familiar but unidentifiable, minimalist but just trendy enough. The result is less a rebranding than an unbranding, untethered from any particular aesthetic … If Abercrombie once monetized our insecurities, now it profits from another mind-set: a pervasive fashion malaise. We want our jeans priced well and baggy enough to fit the trends, not to promise to turn us into different kinds of people. We all know sex sells, but, it turns out, so does boring. Perhaps each era gets the Abercrombie it deserves.” — The Unbranding of Abercrombie: The problematic mall brand pulled off the most exciting makeover in American retail. How?