This week’s out-of-touch guide is a snapshot of a sleepy week in youth pop culture. Nothing groundbreaking happened, just a great new show about an all-Muslim, all-female punk band, a debate about popcorn buttering, and an Xbox branded mini fridge.
This week on the stream: This is Lady Parts
I don’t know if it’s a trend or what, but lately all-female punk rock bands have been popping up all over the place. There is the great thing The Linda Lindasthe less great Vagrant brands, and now the all-Muslim band in Peacock’s We Are Lady Parts.
The British import in six episodes takes us into both Muslim and punk rock cultures, and turns the expectations and stereotypes of both on their heads. The parents of leading actress Aminas do not want their daughter to give up punk rock and her studies in order to get married. The Parts mysterious manager Momtaz wears a full nijab with spiked bracelets and works in a lingerie store. The band’s songs that actually sound like punk rock and have titles like “Ain’t No One Gonna Honor Kill My Sister But Me”. Try this out This is Lady Parts Trailer here, then download Peacock for the whole shebang. It is wonderful.
Are you buttering your popcorn the wrong way?
Have you greased your cinema popcorn incorrectly all these years? TikToker Colleen Lepp thinks that and she has a solution. The problem, says Lepp, is that the butter is only spread on top of the corn and most of the grains stay dry. The solution: put a straw in the bucket and send the butter to the floor.
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Over six million people have viewed Colleen’s corn hack, and commentators praised it or pointed out that positioning the stream of melted butter into the straw can be messy. I like this video because it suggests people can go back to the movies and make stupid arguments about popcorn again.
Hashtag of the week: # 2018vs2021
Only young people would make # 2018vs2021 a trending hashtag. The point here is to imagine that your 2018 self is battling your 2021 self by comparing images. Personally, I’m a little bit fatter and a little bit more bald than I was a few years ago, but essentially the same plain old white guy. But kids are really different! You also have a different idea of how time flies – for me 2018 just happened, but the period between 16-19 was a lifetime.
Anyway check out the videos and project yourself back to a time when three years seemed like forever and you were confident / deluded enough to believe that everyone would care about the changes you are going through.
This Week in Video Games: It’s E3 Week … It just doesn’t feel like E3 Week
This is E3 week, but you may not even know it. With large gatherings still banned, the video game world cannot meet in a convention center to showcase new games and products, so the hype is no longer what it used to be. Even so, of course, there have been some cool announcements of upcoming games and products being delivered via streaming videos.
- Nintendo showed the first footage of the next Zelda game. The sequel to Breath of the Wild is slated for 2022.
- Square Enix announced Guardians of the Galaxy game will be released on October 26th.
- There’s a sequel to my personal favorite game of 2019, Plague Tale: Innocence. Plague story: Requiem will be released sometime in 2022.
- By far the biggest video game announcement this E3 is the Xbox mini fridge. Echoing the blocky look and slogan of their new console, Microsoft promises gamers “the world’s most powerful mini-fridge,” with “Xbox Velocity Cooling Architecture” and undoubtedly all the monster energy drinks you need. Besides, it’s not a joke. I mean, it’s kind of a joke, but you really will be able to get one this holiday season.
Viral Video of the Week: Lumberjack
This week’s viral video is from rapper / virtuoso Tyler, The Creator, a musician whose work I don’t understand. I’m way out of line, but I know a genius when I hear one. In just over a minute lumberjack Video raps Tyler about … something (I’m not sure what) about provocative images that look like Super 8 films and … represent something.
A real product of the online world, Tyler has been creating unique and non-directed art since the days of MySpace and I’m glad he’s out there doing everything he does and I’m happy that millions are sharing and still enjoy his videos. Tyler, The Creator proves that the online world’s relentless pursuit of likes and shares doesn’t always result in boring, terrible art with the lowest common denominator; it leads to inexplicable greatness like lumberjack at times. If you want to understand Tyler check out this feature Length of explanatory video. But if you’re like me, you still won’t get it.
