Talking dirty with Dostoevsky, 60-second meditation, the brutality in Baltimore and suspicious white boys – here’s a round-up of the Dazed team’s picks of the week
“At the height of their powers in the 80s and early 90s, David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker were the comedy kings of TV and cinema. Police Squad, Top Secret, and The Naked Gun series were pretty much on loop in my house as a small kid, with all the hammy jokes being thrown around most nights at the dinner table. To many, Airplane! is their greatest effort – the story of a doomed plane full of passengers whose only chance of survival lies in the hands of a traumatised ex-fighter pilot with a fear of flying. Looking back on it now, which this expansive AV Club oral history does to celebrate its 35th anniversary, it's fascinating to hear how a ramshackle crew of non comedic actors made one of the greatest disaster flick parodies of all time.” Tim Noakes, Editor-in-Chief (@TimNoakes)
“As Baltimore burns, and our newsfeeds fill with ever-more visceral accounts of the violence inflicted on Freddie Gray, TIME, that most august of all American media outlets, summed up the thoughts of most foreign (and domestic) readers. How is this 2015? The magazine goes on to explore this point, but the startling cover offers one point of difference between now and the bygone age that such flagrant brutality belongs in: the masterful shot was taken by @bydvnlln, an amateur photojournalist armed only with an Instagram account.” – Charlie Robin Jones, Digital Editor (@charliexjones)
JENNY ZHANG'S SEARCH FOR DECOLONIZED LOVE
“Sometimes you read something that makes you a bit sick because a) it's so well-written and b) it says something so true and undeniable about yourself it's almost like somebody plucked it from your brain while you were asleep. That's how I feel about Jenny Zhang's story about decolonial love, Weezer and dating sus white boys with Asian fetishes.” Zing Tsjeng, News Editor (@MissZing)
THE REVOLUTION CAN NOW BE LIVE WITH PERISCOPE APP
“When a something big happens in the world, Twitter makes it seem like we’re all in this together. Updates, disproved rumours, shared grief or happiness, and images whipping around the world in seconds. Now with Periscope you can watch these events unfurl live in all its un-edited glory, peering through your phone screen into a Narnia world. A Guardian US journalist went out onto the Baltimore streets to interview residents while the unrest happened around them; a real time feed bypassing potential BS filters of news channels. But the desensitising wall is still there. However close you can get virtually, you tweet your ‘opinion’ from the other side of the world, switch off, scroll and move on. Proximity is an illusion, and “until the bricks whizz past our ears and the glass smashes on our own streets, most of us will never have any idea what we’re talking about.” – Natasha Slee, Social Media Assistant (@TashaLouiseS)
MILIBRAND MANIA
"So after Twitter went crazy over pics of Miliband leaving Russell Brand’s Shoreditch house, Brand finally uploaded the ‘rumoured' interview with him and the Labour leader on his YouTube channel. The interview is pretty entertaining with Brand making outrageous observations and Miliband telling him he's completely wrong about everything. The best part of the vid has to be that it was set in a kitchen, because we all know ‘Two-Kitchen’s Ed’ loves to be interviewed in a nice kitchenette." – Natalie Turco-Williams, News Writer (@NatalieTurcoWil)
AN EXPERT OPINION ON IMMIGRATION
“Thanks to a certain Nigel Farage, immigration has been a huge part of conversation in the run up to this election. As someone who is definitely pro-immigration, but had thought that open borders might result in the country sinking, it was good to read this perspective from an expert who claims that there could be huge economic benefits to letting us all move around this giant rock as we please." – Thomas Gorton, Digital News Writer (@AngstromHoot)
“The title of this article – “Dirty Talk and Dostoyevsky on the Night Shift” – is basically enough to make me declare it the best thing on the internet this week. A young writer moves to London, finds herself in a low paid publishing job, and picks up some casual professional sexting work on the side, in the “grim” area of King’s Cross (this is 2004, before a studio flat would set you back £750k). She reads Dostoevsky to stave off the tedium of frantic masturbators with the more cheery world of madness and murder in snowy empire era Russia, and manages to find a strange peace amongst the incoming chat notifications.” Emma Hope Allwood, Fashion Features Writer (@emmahopeall)
PIXEL THOUGHTS: A 60 SECOND MEDITATION TO CLEAR YOUR MIND
“This meditation tool lets you type your most pressing worry into a ‘star’, and then lets you sit back and watch it shrink into the fabric of the galaxy over muscle-relaxing music, reminding you to take deep breaths and that you are microscopic in the grand scheme of things. It’s kind of like an ego-buster, but at the same time reminds you that not having any groceries isn’t a Very Big Deal. This, too, shall pass.” – Trey Taylor, Film Editor (@treytylor)
WHITE PEOPLE RIOTING FOR NO REASON
“In light of this week’s protests in Baltimore following the death of Freddie Gray at the hands of the police department - and in particular with the racially-charged description of those involved as ‘thugs’ and ‘criminals’ – NY Mag re-upped this photoset of White people rioting. A lot of angry sports fans out there. *sips tea*” – Hannah Moth, PR and Branding Manager (@hannah_moth)
TERRY CREWS GOES A THOUSAND MILES FOR LIP SYNC BATTLE
“Terry Crews, seemingly the manliest of all the men, has won the hearts of women globally. Not because of the slippery looking bulging pectorals he so proudly displays at every turn, but for his thoughts on feminism and the importance of gender equality. The husband and father of four young daughters is a proud feminist. Crews is a breath of fresh air in the male dominated world of American football, where he made his name playing for the LA Rams. Crews told Dame Magazine that men need to get in touch with their feminine side, stating that hyper-masculinity is a dangerous thing that leads to pride and conflict. He certainly put his money where his mouth is this week on the Jimmy Fallon show, lip syncing along to Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” – expertly, I might add – before ungracefully (and hilariously) prancing round stage twirling silk streamers. Embracing femininity and killing it on Lip Sync Battle? I think Terry is my new favourite feminist.” – Francesca Donovan, Editorial Intern (@Francesca_Don)