Letting it linger
Reviewing shenanigans, On being just like the other girls, The Irish, Sylvanian Drama, 'Good friends', Writer's Block and more
Hello, back again.
Not too much to report, still tip tapping away. I’m currently in a stand-off with a mouse that’s been living in my apartment. It’s been getting bolder by the day and has stopped to look me right in the eyes. We used to stay in a shack where we would watch families of them do laps around the skirting of the room. Somehow one feels personal...
In other news, I will be seeing Arsenal play in Melbourne in May! After many late nights and early mornings, they’ll be in my own backyard (and perhaps more importantly, time-zone).
Also, if anyone has any good book recommendations that are set in Rome please send them my way. Naturally, one of the most important travel preparations is reading novels set in your destination.
Let’s get into it.
This week:
Our ‘good friend’ in the White House
Just like the other girls
Okay, maybe we can have one more
Letting it linger
Long Live Ireland
Why is everyone a Letterboxd head now?
A critic is not just a job. It’s a lifestyle.
Sylvanian Drama
Writer’s Block
The Return of Gayotic
Our ‘good friend’ in the White House:
Sally Rooney (who has been openly vocal about her support for Palestine for many years) wrote a piece in the Irish Times calling out Ireland for their complicity in the onslaught in Gaza.
Leo Varadkar (former Irish Prime Minister - he resigned last week) visited the White House for a photo op on St Patrick’s Day. The Irish and Palestinians have a very long history of solidarity and support which has been even more vocal since October. However “while it is clear with whom the Irish people’s allegiance lies, the same cannot be said about that of the country’s political representatives.”1
I think Sally Rooney is a born essayist. On the White House visit she wrote:
This illustrates neatly the Irish Government’s approach to the war on Gaza. Strong straightforward criticism is reserved for the relatively small (and increasingly globally isolated) state of Israel. The US, on the other hand – which supplies about 80% of Israel’s weapons imports, as well as billions of dollars in aid – is treated as a kind of neutral third party, and of course as a “very good friend”. This way, our Government can bask in the moral glow of condemning the bombers, while preserving a cosy relationship with those supplying the bombs.
Australia, similarly pathetic in its action or criticism has also exported “arms and ammunition” to Israel totalling $15.5 million Australian dollars from 2016-20232.
“What is happening in Gaza is not only Israel’s war: it is a US war, and it is most particularly Biden’s war. Israel simply could not afford to carry out this prolonged and resource-intensive assault on the Palestinian people without US money and weaponry.”
Over 32,600 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 and more than 65,000 tonnes of primarily US-made explosives have been dropped on the Gaza Strip.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Palestine published her report last week confirming with international law, what we already knew. Israel is committing genocide. You can read her offical report Anatomy of a Genocide here.
Also, not exactly new news but Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong, and Peter Dutton (among others) have all been referred to the International Criminal Court for being an accessory to the genocide occurring in the Gaza Strip. The claim accuses them of aiding genocide via the cutting of funding to UNRWA, the main aid channel into Gaza, while ambiguously deploying a military contingent, permitting Australians to fight for Israel and providing unequivocal support to it.3
In good-ish news the UN Security Council has passed the first-ever resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza because the USA has finally not vetoed it.
I’d also recommend this piece/conversation Witnessing Future Violence- On Images from Gaza: A Conversation with Dr Jennifer Good about the complexities of the way we are witnessing and consuming this violence.
“Watching on our phones, from our normal, boring, blessed lives, we feel helpless; our ability to meaningfully change anything is limited by our ineffectual governments; and the images keep coming. They demand our attention. And so — what next?”
“In amongst the despair, the casting about for ways to help, to resolve feelings that cannot be resolved, I am thinking about the pictures. I want to know: what exactly can images do during a time like this, and what are their limits? Does ‘raising awareness’ help? What happens when social media is a source for our news? Can we fully process and understand images of death and devastation? Do we have a responsibility not to look away? At a time when images often come to us without context, how can we improve our visual literacy? Do images taken by civilians change the way we see and understand conflict? What can history teach us about how to respond to images of war?”
Just like the other girls:
On a very, very, different note, I read a post in Eliza McLamb’s substack about how everyone’s writing sounds the same now.
“Have you read that essay about the year of the girl? No not that one, the other one. The one that talks about commodifying our image in the new social media landscape. The one where they talk about bows and Barbie. No, I’m talking about the other one where the female writer shares a story from her own girlhood and connects it to Taylor Swift. Have you read that before? Have you read it a million times?”
Guilty as charged…
“It seems that every other twenty-something teenage girl is announcing her newsletter dissecting womanhood and culture (hi, welcome to mine). Like with Twilight and One Direction, the old adage is rearing its head once again — if enough young women like something, it’s about to get majorly cringe.”
McLamb does a good job of explaining this phenomenon in the context of cultural cycles and the inevitable copycats (or inspired) young writers.
I have to admit even I have become a little overwhelmed by all the substacks that are oh-so-similar. My criteria for subscribing has tightened.
(The irony that my newsletter probably falls into this category doesn’t escape me). Ah well, it seems I’m just like the other girls.
Okay, maybe we can have one more:
To directly contradict the sentiment above, maybe we can have one more essay. Helena Aeberli wrote a good essay about the complexities of ‘coming of age’ in today’s society and the internet’s obsession with youth and girlhood.
“At this point, everyone knows that the internet’s obsession with girlhood is symptomatic of a deeper feeling of alienation and disassociation among young women, a collective flight into a comforting fantasy of youth and femininity.”
But “if everyone is an adolescent, is anyone really an adolescent? By which I mean: is the category of youth changing, warping under the influence of social media, consumerism, and an increasingly isolated, homogenised social life?…Are we living in the golden age of adolescence, or witnessing its end?”
Anyway, I won’t go on in case you’ve reached your tipping point with girlhood essays, but she discusses redefining a meaningful adulthood, one of my favourite movies Frances Ha, and the filmic foreclosure of adulthood.
Long Live Ireland!
In honour of St Patrick’s Day, here’s an ode to the homeland.
There’s a possibility we will be getting a rom-com with Irish Royalty Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal. This was posted by romance author Emily Beach 👀.
Paul and Ayo both recently said they wanted to do a romcom and Paul even mentioned Ayo as a potential leading lady… I could be grabbing at straws but one can dream.
Ayo is also the only person to have a sensible view of time travel.
This baby popped up on my timeline, he looks like he’s about to tell Colin Farrell he doesn’t want to be friends anymore.
And on the important art of letting it linger:
This video of Aisling Bea, Andrew Scott, and Ben Whishaw dancing to Linger by The Cranberries remains an all-time fav.
And anyone who tries to tell me this isn’t a highly danceable song can fight me.
Why is everyone a Letterboxd head now?
I read this piece in GQ about why it seems everyone is a Letterboxd-head now. Since 2020, Letterboxd’s membership has exploded from 2 to 12 million members. As a newcomer to the club I’d describe it as the art-school child of Twitter and Goodreads.
“Letterboxd has successfully tapped into the Gen Z phenomenon of ‘the memeification of everything’,”
I’m by no means a film buff but I’m here for the niche lists, and funny reviews, especially Ayo Edebiri’s. I can’t even begin to capture some of the funniest Letterboxd reviews I have seen. You can check out the twitter account @bestofletterboxd for a few. I’m also obsessed with people’s extremely specific Lists.
Recently, I watched Anatomy of a Fall which I really enjoyed. So here are some reviews of that.
Also from the Oscars, we got this clip of the man who played the lawyer “pro-Palestine, dancing to Beyoncé & just sticking to his 15 y/o co-star all night the last good man on earth maybe”.
And finally:
Speaking of leaving reviews…
A critic is not just a job. It’s a lifestyle.
One of the world’s most wanted men, a “notorious narco kingpin” with a $15 million bounty, implicated in multiple murders, has exposed his whereabouts by leaving a trail of Google Reviews.
In recent years, Christopher Kinahan Sr has tried to to reinvent himself, using his first and middle names “Christopher Vincent”. Surprisingly, he has left behind a significant digital footprint linked to this identity.
These reviews cross countries from 2019 and bizarrely even review a number of establishments near his house. Bellingcat, was able to confirm the account (and email address) belonged to him. His reflection also appears in windows or mirrors in several of the images posted to the profile. They also did an open-source digital investigation that you can read here.
The reviews themselves are pretty mundane, you can read them here. “The restaurant is chic and plush, the service was good but not outstanding.” Criminals can have hobbies too!
Another fun fact, he is nicknamed ‘The Dapper Don’, reportedly due to his impeccable dress sense.
I can only conclude that his desire to review, and critic, overruled the logical safety/privacy concerns of being an wanted criminal. It just goes to show, critics aren’t made, their born.
Sylvanian Drama:
As a general rule, people on the internet have too much time on their hands. However, every time I see a Sylvanian Drama video I think, “waste-of-time well spent”.
In the videos, idyllic Sylvanian Families dolls are recast in soap opera narratives that devolve into jailbreaks, murder, addiction battles, and cheating scandals, all to the sound of a 2000s bop. As someone who grew up loving Sylvanian families, GQ said it well when they wrote “there’s something innately funny about seeing a cohort of cutesy dolls, with all their connotations of childhood innocence, engage in downright bad behaviour.”
I’m sure there’s much deeper psychological and social commentary to be made around adults making doll roleplay videos. But for now, I’m just enjoying the chaos. The only dramatic tv show viewing I can handle. Heres a few:
The meaning of life.
Finding your passion.
Relapsing.
I will also never not chuckle when someone replies “okay perf” to me.
Writer’s block:
I am deeply intrigued and entertained by Kelsey McKinney’s absolutely unhinged method for pushing through writer’s block. Rest assured I will be trialling this.
The Return of Gayotic:
Finally, in happy news, Gayotic is back! Famous Podcasters (or as they are less known- the band MUNA) are back for Series 3 baby! I am not kidding when I tell you I had this day marked in my calendar.
Naomi has also been on the inspo board for wearing ties. The incorporation of ties into my wardrobe has primarily come about because I am often hosted and cooked dinner by a 7 year old who gives me a dress code of “fancy”. I cannot disappoint, his cooking simply too good.
Side note: shout-out to the one man at the tram stop who told me “Wow! I love the tie!”. I was a little nervous but he really made my day. Maybe ties will make a more frequent appearance in my outfits…
That’s all for this week, it was a bit of an odd mix of things. But thanks for reading!
Love,
Rimini