NO NONSENSE #32
Ding dong everyone!
It’s the Polyester team here again, gracing your inboxes with everything we’ve been loving for the past couple of weeks. From 60s pop to noughties TV, it’s a mixed bag, but we hope there’s something here you’re into.
We’re also really excited to see loads of you at our party next Friday (23rd February) in partnership with Mubi, to celebrate the release of Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla onto their platform. Tickets are now all gone, but for those of you who’ll be there, expect karaoke, themed snacks, cake decorating, movie screenings and more. We can’t wait and hope you can’t either!
In the meantime, however, let’s get into our recommendations:
Misha M-N - Culture Editor
Music - 60s motorbike pop
Whilst writing this month’s Culture Slut (Opens in a new window) about The Shangri Las I started really getting into songs about boys on motorcycles. “Leader Of The Pack” is obviously the winner of this category, but some other DEEP favs are “Terry” by Twinkle, and “Touch Me There” by The Tubes. Terry is a story about a girl who has a fight with her boyfriend who then dies in a motorbike crash, all with Twinkle’s signature 60s sad girl pop sound. It was then covered by German pop star Anika in 2010 in a stripped back dub version which is also great. Don’t “Touch Me There” by The Tubes is a 1970s send up of 60s motorbike songs, with incredible spoken word sections. Top lyrics include “your body gives me a thrill as it leans against mine, I love how it feels with your jeans against mine,” and “the smell of burning leather as we hold each other tight, as our rivets rub together flashing sparks into the night.” Pure poetry.
Music - Michael Nyman
Both of those Greenaway films had scores by Michael Nyman and made remember just how much I loved him. A pioneer of classical minimalism, he produces baroque scores inspired by Mozart, Handel and Purcell. Think my favourites would have to be “Miserere” from The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, a plea to god to be forgiven for past sins, forgive me my transgressions and I shall be whiter than snow! I also really love “Rochester’s Farewell”, a lament from 2005’s The Libertine, where the titular poet has finally succumb to syphilis. “Pray for him that prayed too late, so that he might shine on judgement day.” An album I recently discovered was the incredible Six Celan Songs, a look into Nyman’s more standalone operatic work, based on Celan’s poetry, featuring perennial Nyman favourite and muse classical soprano Sarah Leonard. Top marks, fully recommend.
Film - Peter Greenaway
Was flicking through MUBI and found some Peter Greenaway films I hadn’t seen before, so started making my way through them and I love it. The Draughtsman’s Contract is a period piece murder mystery sex romp focused around an artist commissioned to draw a wealthy woman’s estate. Beautifully shot, great costumes, incredible Michael Nyman score, and lots of interesting focus on the process of drawing. Fun fact, the costume designer for this was Sue Blane, who also did The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and who’s punk usage of safety pins and leather and fetish wear predates Vivienne Westwood by a few years. Maybe Viv saw it upstairs at the Royal Court Theatre in 1973 and took some inspiration. The other Greenaway film I liked was A Zed & Two Noughts, kind of a surrealist musing on grief, decay and sexuality. Its first half sort of made me think of Cronenberg’s Crash, all car accidents and amputees having sex with each other, but then it got even weirder with lots of focus the physical decay of dying animals, punctuated with sexual zoophilic stories told by a prostitute. Not one for the vegetarians. This film marks Greenaway’s first collaboration with iconic cinematographer Sacha Vierny, who helped shape Greenaway’s cinematic legacy. A lot of the production team here also worked on his best film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, making this a great companion piece.
Lauren O’Neill - Copy Editor
TV: Pulling
I love Sharon Horgan so much, so it’s weird that I’d not seen Pulling, one of her first TV shows, before very recently. It’s from the early 2000s and follows a group of three mates in their late 20s and early 30s who live together in London. Really bleakly funny with three amazing central performances. Should be a really big deal and for some reason isn’t! I love it!
Charlotte Landrum - Platform Editor
Stuff: Notebooks
I recently started to write things down in a physical notebook and it is a game changer. Get a nice pen and a nice notebook and go to town. It makes everything feel more important and the sensation of writing with a nice pen is unmatched
Food: Fruit
Fruit is back. A friend told me I looked deficient in vitamin C so I got a big box of easy peelers and went to town. I also had fruit and yogurt for brekkie this morning and it was so refreshing. Bring back fruit!
Gina Tonic - Senior Editor
Film: Natural Born Killers
Watched this as our Valentine’s flick as I’d never seen it and wow, what a picture!!! Loved each and every frame, every shot is so fun and considered and ofc, Juliette Lewis is a stand out !!
Book: Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings Been picking this up as part of the research for a project I’m working on but would encourage reading it no matter how involved you are in fat liberation – this book is a very granular deep dive into the origins of beauty standards and medical sizeism.
See you next time!
XOXO
The Polyester Team
