sept set

[adevyish]

Links roundup:

• You can now buy piano sheet music for Gris! I kind of want the physical book, of course, but I would probably wreck the edges so fast if I used it with an actual piano. The arrangements are quite good.

• An essay about Dutch baroque typography, and how modern typography is unnecessarily gendered.

• Chaoyang Trap S2 E1 — this is a great newsletter about Chinese pop culture and internet life, and this specific issue covers how the Taiwanese indie scene is perceived in and operates on the mainland. Of course, it touches on cross-strait politics and the shared cultural nostalgia around Teresa Teng; but there’s also an entire section of how machismo gets associated with authenticity, rock music, and Beijing. It also comes with a playlist (Youtube / Spotify). [CW: the music videos by Chthonic and Obsess have violent imagery. Also there’s a bunch of smoking and alcohol in various videos and lyrics.]

• Last month someone in The Old Guard fandom was exposed for racefaking and claiming to be a cultural authority in order to bully POC.

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I stopped following British comedy around 2016 because I was going through it (it being the One Direction hiatus). A few months ago I finally attended one single party, where we watched some Only Connect while waiting for food and it was a lot of fun. Sadly it’s less fun without ex-high school trivia team friends, so somehow I landed on the one Britcom show that is wholly legally on the internet: Taskmaster, hosted by Greg Davies.

It turns out I got back into Britcom just in time: my must-watch show of the early noughties, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, has just been rebooted … with Greg Davies as permanent host. The first episode was great. Singers Jade of Little Mix and Anne-Marie have always been hilarious in interviews, and comedian Nish Kumar was surprisingly good at the music quiz stuff.

And Taskmaster is also back on, so suddenly I have gone from not having followed any television shows since 2016 (Yuri on Ice) to following two.

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Speaking of early noughties comebacks, The Wanted, of “Glad You Came” fame, recently reunited. It was spurred by Tom Parker’s cancer diagnosis last year; their first show in seven years was a charity gig to raise money for cancer research. I watched it and surprised myself by becoming teary. I mean, sure, the two hit singles they led with, “All Time Low” and “Gold Forever”, have relevant and emotion-laden lyrics, but it’s also seeing Tom crying and Siva and Max keeping an arm on Tom. Seven years ago, Max was the first person to say he was leaving the band and Tom sent him angry, profane tweets. It was such a contrast now to see Max so supportive, singing face-to-face with Tom, kissing Tom on the temple, turning a back to the audience to hug Tom.

This was a boyband I only ever followed casually — music videos, albums, appearances on British tv shows I watched anyway. At their best their banter was casual and quick-witted, but they were always the “bad boy” band and they made “problematic” their brand. But now, seven years later, seeing them on stage made me want to write essays on how Max and Tom were the heart of this group.

Comments

[adevyish]

Definitely. It’s like, please focus on the actual harm that occurred? (Which is why I ended up linking to the second post despite its focus.) I understand the urge to be petty but that’s what private chats with friends are for.

(I’m also uncomfortable with the idea that 1/4 isn’t “enough” of a background; it really depends on how close you are with your grandparents. Misrepresentation is the actual issue here.)