Never News: The Clownery Continues
Good morning angels! It's Producer Georgia here from an unseasonably warm Chicago, Illinois with the newsletter you crave.
And may I remind you that now is a great time to become a member!! You get ad-free episodes and my hard-won respect and admiration. Just go to neverpo.st and click "become a member" to join. Go make me proud!
And now, on to the news.
VULTURE: on Timothée Chalamet and the performance of Blackness
This piece and its extremely grabby headline have been making the rounds on all of my feeds, and for good reason. Thimothée Chalamet is simply the latest in a long line of White celebrities who perform qualities of Blackness to earn cultural clout...only to drop the act once they're in circles where that wouldn't be seen as a plus. Think Miley Cyrus's post-Disney career turn, where she could be found rapping lines like "I'm in the club /high off purp / with some shades on" only to cast aside her tongue out, twerking persona once she successfully extricated herself from Hannah Montana; or the Kardashian family's various aesthetic decisions over the last, say, 15 years. There's an excellent episode of Vibe Check about this phenomenon, and I recommend listening to that in tandem with this piece. But across the board, it's worth discussing the difference between a White celebrity who cashes in on certain elements of Black culture, compared to actual Black people who can't "try on" (and later, cast aside) their identity on a whim.
SHOW NEWS: Member poll about archive episodes!
The headline says it all – I've got a question for you beautiful and gorgeous members out there in cyberspace. We have begun publishing archive episodes onto the main feed, and sometimes those episodes have new/updated introductions. You can see an example of these episodes here. If you're a member, do you want ad-free versions of these individual segments uploaded to the member feed? Share your opinion here, on this Google form, and we shall do your bidding!
MORE SHOW NEWS: ROMChip Fundraiser Livestream!
Also! On Saturday, Feb 21 @ 2pm ET Mike is gonna be live streaming as part of the journal ROMChip's yearly fundraiser! He'll be playing the 1990 cyberpunk noir detective game Rise of Dragon, which will either be horrible, or amazing, or somehow both. Learn more about ROMChip here, the fundraiser here and follow on Twitch here. See you there?
THE NEW YORKER: Patching the missing parts of Orson Welles' failed magnum opus...with AI?
The 1942 film "The Magnificent Ambersons" was meant to be Orson Welles' greatest achievement. But RKO slashed it apart; against Welles' wishes, they left 43 minutes of scenes on the cutting room floor, changed the ending completely, and destroyed everything they took out. The resulting film was a far cry from Welles' vision, and the failure of this movie haunted him for the rest of his life. His career faltered – and never quite recovered – because of it. Virtually since its release, Welles-heads have wanted to restore the film to its originally intended glory. Enter: über-wealthy tech businessman Edward Saatchi, who plans to to recreate those lost 43 minutes...with the help of AI. This article is long, but it's a worthy read for anyone who, like me, hears "AI" and is overtaken with such a rage that they want to shred apart a phone book with their bare hands. Here, the notion of AI as a restorative tool remains fraught, but it presents an interesting, complicated case to debate its limitations...and possible merits.
THE CUT: The Mormon-fluencers commeth
I'll be honest with you: this is a part of online culture that I've completely missed. But as this article is quick to map out, there's been an onslaught of Mormon women who have come to dominate a wide swath of pop culture, and notably through online/digital channels. I've been tangentially aware of the Salt Lake City contingent of the Real Housewives, and have watched as some of the women from that season have benefitted from the "housewife-to-author-to-online celebrity" pipeline that has taken place across that franchise. but I can now see that the online influence of Mormon women (and yes, it's overwhelmingly women) is vast and ever-growing. Long gone are the days of Mitt Romney as the titular Mormon Guy. Now, this version of Mormonism is all smiles and highlights and chestnut-colored beach waves. Mormonism has its own relationship to, for example, visually notable sugary drinks, Stanley cups, and the performance of a certain kind of femininity. And as it turns out, that makes for very popular content online. The relationship between religion, the culture around Mormonism specifically, and influencing through digital channels is a fascinating combination to me here.
Alright divas, that's all for me over here in the Never News-land. May you have a beautiful day, a restful weekend, and normal dreams that don't hint at dark, subconscious evils that lurk within. Ciao!