Lena Dunham’s new doc on cult cartoon Eloise, the ultimate 90s RnB songs, and why a bad cup of tea ruins everything :( Here’s what the Dazed team are hyping this week
LENA DUNHAM AND THE MAN WHO DREW ELOISE
“One of my favourite directors of recent years is Matt Wolf. He has made moving portraits of Arthur Russell and Joe Brainard and Teenage, an outstanding essay films about the prehistory of youth culture. On Monday, HBO broadcast his latest, a doc about Hilary Knight, the 80-something who drew cult classic cartoon Eloise back in the 50s. Starring and produced by Lena Dunham, who is such an Eloise fan she inked Knight's designs on her arm, it's available on HBO Go." – Charlie Robin Jones, Digital Editor (@CharliexJones)
50 BEST R&B SONGS FROM THE 90S
"I feel like this is what the millennial in me has been waiting for since the first time my eight-year-old self sung along to Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’ in my nan's loungeroom while watching Rage on TV. And, as a closeted (lies! I'm totally out) Mariah Carey fan, I'm grateful for her landing on this list three times. Thank you, Complex <3” – Ashleigh Kane, Digital Assistant (@AshleighKane)
“Stumbled across this gem while while scrolling through my Facebook wall. As one youtuber commented, it's like: ‘trawling TV Ark at 3am, running on mirtazapine and coedine.....’ Someone needs to commission this as a full series.” – Dan Adeyemi, Front End Web Developer (@iamdeaneyelid)
"This is an article about how "flawless" became a feminist affirmation - STAY WITH ME! I know this sounds like the most reductive 'keep calm and be feminist' basic-ass bullshit ever, but it's actually a fascinating look into semiotics, drag culture and how one word can come to symbolise a whole new frontier of beauty. Bonus points for the shoutout to Flawless Sabrina, who has become my favourite drag icon since Diana Tourjee did a great feature on her in Dazed." – Zing Tsjeng, Digital News Editor (@MissZing)
SKATEBOARDING AND THE MYTH OF PUBLIC SPACE
"This clip from The Current radio is super relevant in the lead up to the elections, re-evaluating how we think about public space. The host interviews an actor who spent a period living on the streets in London. He says the experience changed 'the way he saw his city' and how it felt like 'something that was designed against him.' Ex-proskateboarder (now professor of History and Architectural History at the University of Oregon) Ocean Howell goes on to describe how skateboarding (which is often problematic because of design features which might seem invisible to you and I) can highlight the myth that public space belongs to all." – Fiona Cook, Social Media Manager (@FionaWCook)
“Journalist Habibe Jafarian describes what it's like to be a woman in Iran in this beautiful and bizarre essay. 'This is a fight,' she writes. 'I stay because, as my mother never stopped repeating, I am my own woman, but also my own man.' I read this over a bowl of Alpen one morning and I enjoyed it so much that it made me really late for work – but I won't distract you with my cool anecdotes right now.” – Dominique Sisley, Editorial Assistant (@DominiqueSisley)
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BLADE RUNNER’S SEAN YOUNG: “IF I WERE A MAN I’D HAVE BEEN TREATED BETTER”
“Not only was she smoke-enwreathed seductive replicant Rachael in 1982 SF Blade Runner, but actress Sean Young has a dark past that runs the gamut – including, but not limited to, her being released from a Hollywood prison in a floor-length gown on Oscar night. This email interview is one of those rare exchanges where a flagging celebrity craves an outlet just as much as an outlet craves a story.” – Trey Taylor, Film Editor (@TreyTylor)
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AMERICAN DOCTORS ARE KILLING THEMSELVES AND NO ONE’S TALKING ABOUT IT
“Last week an image circulated around Reddit of a doctor grieving for a 19-year old patient that he’d been unable to save. It was a haunting image and served as a reminder that doctors deal with the thin gaps between life and death every single day. That must affect you. This Daily Beast article lays bare the fact that 400 doctors in the US kill themselves each year and struggle, like the rest of us, with depression, anxiety or addiction. Doctors are often regarded as being super human and in so many ways they are, but the agony of watching people die with such regularity must alter the way in which you view the world." – Thomas Gorton, News Editor (@AngstromHoot)
"WARNING: this article is pointless. It won't teach you anything, and you probably won't even reach the end. But the point is valid. A bad cup of tea in the morning can ruin your whole day. A bad cup of tea can ruin a relationship (trust me.) Good tea is like chasing the first high. Like that time someone handed me my first Yorkshire Gold cuppa in the haze of a hangover. I have never been able to recreate that brew. I’ve flirted with green tea and all kinds of herbal faff but a good cuppa equals comfort. It fixes heads and hearts. (And a bad one can break them.)" – Natasha Slee, Social Media Assistant (@TashaLouiseS)
CAN I BE A LONE WOLF AND A WOMAN, TOO?
"You'd think there'd be a lot of female hermits, because patriarchy. But there's not, because patriarchy. Rhian Sasseen sums it up brilliantly in this Aeon essay: 'For women, for most of history, it’s been mother or maiden, daughter or wife. The roles shuffle, their names and details changing, but all share one feature: which man does she care for, which man does she take care of? Woman as defined by man; woman as seen by man. How unappealing. With so few choices, it’s clear why we know of so few women hermits, and why solitude is viewed as male.' Bummer." – Aimee Cliff, Music Editor (@AimeeCliff)
"Let's be honest who doesn’t like Jaegermeister? If you don’t we can’t be friends. In this short film American skate photographer Atiba Jefferson takes you through a brief and very shot fuelled history of the drink at the Jägermeister factory in Wolfenbüttel, Germany." – Sean Carpenter, Digital Marketing Coordinator (@SeanCarpenter2)
GET LOST WITH GRANTA'S LATEST ISSUE
"Granta, the online and print magazine for new writing, has managed to stay at the forefront of some of the best lit websites, despite running since 1889 as a periodical, where it published the some of the earliest writing efforts of iconic names like Sylvia Plath. Each issue brings together contemporary writers – from debut novelists to the Nobel laureates – who focus on a theme, such as their ‘F-word’ issue on new feminist writing, the great narrative of American writing in 'American Wild, and the topical study of the modern definition of the immigrant in 'Aliens'. Although they do not have a political agenda, they are well-versed in using the universal power of storytelling to describe and illuminate different aspects of culture. The latest issue release focuses on India, and captivatingly reflects the non fiction movement happening in the country through memoir, biography, and travel accounts – don’t miss it. And if you do get end up getting lost in the archives, look out for some exclusive short stories and memoirs from Haruki Murakami, and follow the Japanese novelist as he revisits his past in A Walk to Kobe.” – Mandalena Munkonge, Editorial Intern (@1Lena_Eleonora)
