6 Things We Noticed This Week
A rundown of this weeks topics plus the media addendum.
This week I got an area rug and if you know anything about buying a rug, its an incredibly trying experience. It looks quite bad and I’m trying to not let it consume me. Decorating an apartment is a lesson in letting go and letting the universe guide you, unfortunately spirituality has become scarce on Etsy so I’m still working on learning that lesson. Luckily I had the rest of this week’s topics to distract me.
Etsy Witches are On the Outs
Etsy witches have had their highs and lows, proof of their power was never more apparent than on the day of Jaz’s wedding when the weather was good. Now, Etsy is cracking down on their long standing policies enforcing a ban on “selling an outcome” which leaves spell-casters for love and weather out in the cold.
The rule begs the question, what protections should be available for the gullible? If a man wants to spend over 700,000 on a local psychic should he be allowed to or should rules be in place to prevent people from making such mistakes?
I land somewhere in the middle. I do think that people should be allowed to spend their money the way they see fit. If they think an online witch can solve their problems they can spend their hard earned money however they see fit. On the other hand, I think only a fool tries to buy a magic spell through a computer because everybody knows shortcuts are the #1 way a spell goes wrong. If you want real magic the journey to procure the right spell is a part of the process and it has to happen face to face. But best of luck to the internet witches I’m sure that people who are googling for love will find you on your next platform.
The Olympic Ice Was Looking Messy
Last week Olympic skating fans were shocked to their core when skating prodigy Ilia Malinin came in not first, not second, not third, but eighth. After falling twice he fell further than anyone thought possible in the rankings. So many skaters fell that day and while many say Ilia was robbed by poor ice quality, I’d argue that if everyone skated on equally shitty ice the best skater (that day) still won.
Every skater who makes it to the Olympics has a story. They all really want it and they’ve all probably dedicated a huge chunk of their lives to training so while it would be nice to see the cutie pie with such high jumps win, we’re rooting for him because we know him and his story. I read a little about Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Shaidorov and now I find him just as, if not more, cutie pie.
It turns out the door for skating in Kazakhstan was swung open by a man named Denis Ten. He was the first skater from Kazakhstan to make the podium winning Bronze at the 2014 games in Sochi. He used the notoriety from his success to host advanced clinics for young skaters in Kazakhstan and directly paved the way for Mikhail Shaidorov to find his way in the sport. Denis was tragically killed in a robbery a few years ago and Shaidorov dedicated the medal to his memory. It’s quite sad and sweet and I’m so happy for that kid!
Ultimately the Olympics are about showing up on that day, everyone there wants it and everyone there has a story and I can’t wait to see what ends up making it into the movie version.
The SAVE Act Won’t Save Anyone
The SAVE Act has passed the House of Representatives and will head towards the Senate and is yet another effort from Republicans to make voting harder for American citizens.
It’s based on a made up idea that an enormous number of non citizens have been voting in US elections calling results into question. The truth is that according to recent research, so few voter verification cases have revealed non-citizens the number is nearly negligible. You might have group chats with more people than the number of non-citizen voters.
This law will require documentary proof of citizenship upon registering to vote and upon voting which, as proven by a recently imposed law in Kansas, will prevent thousands of people from voting because it will invalidate mail-in ballots, create hurdles for people who can’t afford to take the time or find the money to acquire the right documentation, and generally creating more steps makes people less likely to show up to vote.
This is of course, the goal. Republicans do not win elections with the popular vote, they win by Gerrymandering and crating obstacles to keep people from voting. If you live in a red state please call your senators!!! Tell them I said hi but mainly you can follow this script.
Margaret Qualley Drank Lemon Water
We may never know what’s going on inside Margaret Qualley’s mind and she certainly wont ever tell us. In her recent Vanity Fair profile she leaves almost nothing on the table. She reveals very little except for a nervousness to reveal too much.
Is she the most boring woman out there or is the inside of her mind an absolute minefield that she couldn’t possibly safely invite the public into? Based on a story we heard about her once, it could be the latter but because of her Kenzo World commercial, I’ll always just kind of like her.
I also wonder how many celebrities are just kind of cringe and annoying. When an extremely rich person who makes their living as an artist is surrounded by yes people I imagine their way of expressing themselves becomes this otherworldly theater kid on steroids situation. The relatability we’ve come to expect from long-form interviews is a performance in itself and to not put that on is a choice as well.
Mormons Go Mainstream
The mormons are everywhere and it’s not an accident. Last week The Cut took a look at the phases in the mainstream conversation around mormonism and found that because of mormon teachings around missions, documenting their lives, perfection, and assimilation, the church has been crafting the perfect influencer. Fashion influencers from New York and LA had been trying to showcase originality but the pioneering Utah influencers were affiliate commission superstars sharing accessible and replicable recipes for a perfectly curated life. The point of archival vintage is that not everyone can copy it exactly but anyone and everyone will wear The Zara Dress and the mormon moms aren’t afraid to link it.
With the rise in mormon influencers and reality TV stars making their way into the mainstream, the question remains: do more eyes on the church draw scrutiny or is all attention good attention?
Emerald Fennell is Just Having Fun
Emerald Fennell is known for visually stunning films, but should they mean something too? This week we did a deep dive on Emerald Fennell to look at the way her upper class upbringing informs her penchant for movies about hot-button issues that don’t engage with those issues in any real way.
After attending Oxford, Fennell wrote plays, novels, and started her professional career as an actress. She won awards for her role in The Crown and through connections, started writing for TV and collaborating with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Promising Young Woman was her first feature and and won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Saltburn was also received well by the awards circuit and Wuthering Heights (Claire’s review here) may not have the same critical reception but it will make her one of the highest grossing female directors. Watching these three films in a week made it increasingly unclear what her perspective is as a director. Her movies are marketed as fantastical projections of her imagination whether or not they’re based on existing source material yet the things that ground her in reality are extremely revealing.
In Promising Young Woman a woman is simply incapable of enacting any true form of revenge. In Saltburn the truth is the middle class will stop at nothing to take the throne of the generous rich people who happen to be above them in society. She claims that her movies have a purposeful level of pointlessness but can/ should art be pointless? Is her truth something she is unwilling to admit or is it something we’re unwilling to recognize?