July Recap & Recs

I love sharing art with the people I love. At the end of each month (or possibly beginning of the following month😅) I'll recap what media I've been consuming and what I am excited to recommend to others. It'll be cute, it'll be fun, it'll be hip, it'll be trendy. If you have recs, hmu :)

Books

Both books that I am passing on to you were shared with me by Sophie Deveranne. I must credit her with these excellent reads, and if you're ever looking for a book rec, she's your girl.

The Gentrification of the Mind: Witness to a Lost Imagination by Sarah Schulman (2013)

This striking memoir is written by an activist and AIDS historian. Schulman recounts the AIDS crisis and exposes how much erasure of it happened in history by the conservative public/majority. She discusses the co-opting of spaces of lower income, queer black and brown communities by upper middle class white wealthy folks who seek to live in up & coming artistic areas, specifically in New York. She makes an interesting argument that gentrification, by necessity, will eventually come to an end, and I'm not sure if I agree. But it is interesting to imagine a world without gentrification and what that would mean for the reframing of our thought processes and communities.

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous: A Novel by Ocean Vuong (2019)

In a long letter, from a son to a mother, Vuong explores a personal sort of fiction. This is one of the most beautiful books I've read, I think possibly ever? If you are a liker of poetry or descriptive narrative at all, this is a must. I don't even want to say any more because I would hate to ruin the experience for you.

Music

If you know me, you probably know that I make a new playlist every month, and have been since 2016. In this section, I guess I'll usually just throw my playlist here.

Both Doja's and Tyler's albums dropped and they were beautiful and amazing and all that.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5FNIWebsXauqg1ddIyOMJB?si=7748821c033e41a4

Movies

Okay so I'm not someone who used to watch a bunch of movies and tv and stuff-- pre-pandemic, I was busy af, but ever since quarantine I've tried to catch up with classics and necessaries. I've gotten way better at binge watching, for sure. What I'm saying is ,,, hold on with me if my watch suggestions are outdated, ok???

Jennifer's Body

I truly don't know how I waited until I was 22 to watch this movie. It's so cringy and camp and everything I need in a movie. And I haven't even mentioned Megan Fox yet. It's horribly perfect.

Zola

This is the first movie I saw in theaters since pre-COVID. It was a fun experience for the 10PM showing on a Monday night. It's a fun mindless watch, but it's pretty much word for word the twitter thread, with some of the messier bits cut out (thankfully--it would have been hard to watch some of that...).

TV Shows

Bojack Horseman

I don't normally like adult cartoons or like... animation in general? Something about it makes me vaguely uncomfortable and fuzzy feeling, if you know what I mean. But this show. THIS show!!! I feel like I'm super late to the game with this one. Don't be like me. I finally finished it and I miss it on a personal level? Deeply relating and rooting for the characters at time encouraged such introspection at times.... Much to think about. Definitely look up the trigger warnings before watching.

Jersey Shore (Seasons 2-4)

Okay, again SUPER LATE TO THE GAME with this one but... this show rocks my socks. The sheer DRAMA of it all... I adore it. It's so familiar but so mindless that it's easy to binge and lose myself in.

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