NO NONSENSE #81

Hey dolls!!

Hope you’re all having a fab week - happy Friday!! We’re back with a new edition of our biweekly recommendations newsletter, check it out below <3

Gina Tonic - Senior Editor

Book: Nausea by Jean Paul Satre

I know this is a nobhead thing to recommend but I got this at a car boot for a quid and wanted to read more challenging/classic books this year but in reality, this was funny and really relevant to today! Who would have thought!!

Film: Igby Goes Down

I thought at the age of 32 I had exhausted all kinda twee, kinda depressing indie films about out of place teenagers until I found this featuring a baby Kieran Culkin! With Susan Sarandon as his WASP cold mother!! And Ryan Phillippe as his knobhead brother! Search trigger warnings first though.

Misha MN - Contributing Culture Editor

Film - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

1st of June was Marilyn Monroe’s 100th birthday, so I’ve been watching a few of her most beloved films to remind myself how great she truly was. How To Marry A Millionaire was good, more of a Lauren Bacall vehicle, but Marilyn is charming and memorable, doing some great physical comedy about being blind as a bat but too vain to wear glasses. Some Like It Hot is often cited as her best work, playing a dazzling showgirl in an all-ladies band that is also harbouring two men in drag on the run from the mob. It’s got fun gender play and is shot in a very luxe looking black and white with some great classic costumes, but far and away my number one Marilyn film is Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. What could be better than one dazzling showgirl, but two dazzling showgirls? Paired with the incredible Jane Russell in some of the most iconic musical sequences of classic Hollywood, Marilyn is utterly magnetic, the very definition of a star from the second she steps on to the screen. Shown in glorious Technicolor, these are the images of Marilyn that everyone remembers. Honourable mention to her small role in All About Eve, where she a glamorous young actress looking for her first break. It’s amazing how keyed in to her bombshell persona she already is on this, her first film role. Five stars, and a lifetime of memories.

Album: Sylvester - Living Proof

I was recently reading an interesting thing about queer disco icon Sylvester and his fraught relationship performing with famous drag troupe the Cockettes in San Francisco, and it mentioned this album, so I had to track it down immediately. Recorded in 1979, this live concert in the San Francisco War Memorial Opera House, is a true testament to the power and artistry of Sylvester, from his disco version of Blackbird to the ecstatic gospel arrangement of disco mega-hit You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real). The album also features his incredible backup singers Martha Wash and Izora Rhodes, billed as Two Tons O’ Fun, who would later go on to become the Weather Girls, so there’s a little more sparkle for the disco legacy. Truly an incredible album, recording one of the best nights of Sylvester’s career, could not recommend it highly enough. Just fabulous.

Film - Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Having not seen Hedwig in years, I suddenly had an insatiable urge to track it down and relive one of John Cameron Mitchell’s most beloved films. Hedwig tells the story of an East German trans rock star who travels to America and tries to make it big, despite bad relationships and people plagiarising her songs. The music really holds up, with Wicked Little Town being the sleeper hit for me on this run through. Wig in a Box has always been an anthem and something I revisit on my phone when I’m in bed feeling sorry for myself, and it never fails to invoke joy. The clothes are also great, with some beautiful wiggotry and iconic makeup, with some of Hedwig’s day looks almost identical to the outfits girls today run around the gay clubs in. The styling of Tommy Gnosis remains some of the most beautiful boy rockstar looks in cinema, shame the actor is such a monster. Absolutely loved this film, five stars, but I might prefer Shortbus just a little but more.

Hatti Rex - Contributing Editor

Album: Bitknot by Feeble Little Horse (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

perfect collection of songs exploring the friction between human nature and convenience culture. It has the same bittersweet feeling of being dragged around the park by your friends in the sun after receiving some devastating news. Or being at work during the heatwave. But fun.

Book: Vanishing World by Sayaka Murata

the endorsement on the front of this book likens it to “The Handmaids Tale on Acid” which actually nearly put me off, it’s not like that at all? I hate when people liken new perspectives to being high, it’s lazybones behaviour. The story feels more like an extended version of Izumi Suzuki’s matriarchal story “Women and Women”, but IMO feels a bit more positive than dystopian, as though there are multiple possibilities for how society and family life could look. Even if all the options are a bit sinister.

Film: Sample People

Gutted that there’s absolutely no mention of this movie in the Kylie Minogue documentary. It’s like an Australian version of Human Traffic starring the princess of pop as a red version of Mia Wallace, her makeup is so good in it.

Churrifically Churros-y (ffs), Ben & Jerries new ice cream flavour

Immediate favourite on first bite and £3.75 in Iceland right now. Worth the chomp, despite my stupid ahh cow’s milk intolerance. Chewly churriffic :p

Camille Mariet - LA Editor

The photography of Anne Geddes

The year is 1997. Bitter Sweet Symphony is dominating the airwaves. Your mom finally has a pair of Bongo shorts in every color. Starbucks still plays jazz. And Anne Geddes is on top of the world. Dreamy images of babies dressed as heads of cabbage or napping in giant blooming flowers are absolutely flooding the landscape of printed merchandise. And until I got a random IG ad for her instagram profile, it never occurred to me that her iconic baby photography stopped being everywhere? How did elementary school admins and pediatric nurses across the globe let this happen to their Lisa Frank? Anyways, I do unironically love some of her images and I urge you to revisit them, even if just for nostalgia’s sake. Some of them are even a little, dare I say, Lynchian? There’s some real gold in her archives. My personal favorite is the one of two babies dressed as mice taking a nap in giant boots.

Stonefruit Panzanella

Stonefruit season is upon us once again, babyyyy!!!! And with that, one of my favorite little lunches/snacks is unlocked for a few gorgeous months. Dice up a couple ripe peaches (nectarines and plums are great, too), pit and halve about 10 cherries, and toss with croutons in olive oil, lemon juice, and a nice balsamic. Finish with a drizzle of saba if you happen to have it, a good pinch of Maldon salt, and basil. If you’re able to handle dairy (lucky), why not toss a little burrata in there, too? Thank me later!!!

See you next time!

XOXO,

The Polyester Team <3