Did the title give it away? Do you remember back in college when you had a really important essay to read? Except, it wasn’t that interesting, so you’d skim it over, reading the key parts that allowed you to digest the point. You’d skim enough so you could write an essay, and maybe not enough for a test. You’d have to re-read (or re-skim, whatever floats your boat) for that. Nevertheless, that is how I feel about the what-feels-to-me fizziling culture craze that is NYFW and award show season this year.
I loved it all once, like truly. It excited me. It felt near and so very far. And I mostly, no matter if I was watching an award show on tv or attending a show in person, felt inspired to take it all in. My capacity for ingestion may be at a max lately. Or it may be because reality and what’s far and inspirational has become an unavoidable clash that is only perpetuated by times’ insistence to move forward and the ones with the moola, choosing to not. Or it is all that once excited and inspired me has completely shifted. I’ve heard that this is what happens when you’re 30, and when your kids get older. Or simply, when you are in a season and time of life that has your brain tapping out.
But for the sake of this space, I do feel like I’m skipping out on work a bit. As my instagram handle references a society and culture website, and this space should reach beyond the nuances of family, the inspiration of design, and the history, expansion, and contraction of predjudice, politics and race. Does it feel like that when you get here and I don’t acknowledge such things? I’m always interested.
Nevertheless, I did my homework friends!
Here are four very important things I saw, read, and dived into, over the social media live-posting culture course last night. Just call me your cheat-sheet.
+ Janelle Monáe’s mind-blowing dress that reminded me SO MUCH of a combination of Whitney Houston’s epic looks in The Bodyguard. Her opening performace with Billy Porter, which celebrated the art of story telling, that was left from last night’s recognition.
Right?
+ Hair love, a favorite book (one in which I recently recommended) won Best Animated Short. And all three of it’s black filmmakers went up to accept the award. I love love loved this, as a black woman, natural hair wearer, and of course, as a mother.
+ Maya Rudolph (in that orange sequin Valentino caftan I will dream about for months!!!) and Kristen Wig (loved her haircut and dress combo… those shapes!) showing off dramatic acting. And it was old and new, and dry and hilarious.
+ I saw Parasite during my visit to Berlin last month. This is to say, every inch of it is still fresh in my mind (for better or for worse). I watched it while sitting on a small leather stool tucked in a corner, because the theater was packed with what I bet were a bunch of non-native english speakers. So, when reading the subtitles, and practically falling over in my seat with shock, I didn’t feel alone. Less about me, more about the movie, Parasite won Best Picture, a first for a non-english speaking film. And this floating line from Bong Joon Ho, who quoted Scorsese in his speach has made my Monday, “The most personal is the most creative.”
Anything I’ve missed?
(Top photo of Janelle Monáe via The New York Times by Josh Haner)
