Good morning!
Welcome to Digestable, your mouthful of things happening in the world.
Today’s ferments:
Hello friends! Today I’m reading this article on sweetness and power and appreciating these little owls.
The Second Look
Half-baked cultural criticism from Gabriel Coleman.
It’s my bird day today so today’s column is a little different! Birthdays are times to look back and to look forward, especially in the month of the two-faced god Janus. Serendipitously, there have been a couple of things in the past week that have made think “haven’t I seen (and written a column about) this before?” So let’s get into it!!
First, our girl September, whose song Cry For You was the focus of my column on the Early Chorus Octave Leap Idiom (ECOLI) is back in people’s ears after Rina Sawayama and Charli XCX released their highly anticipated collaboration Beg For You. Beg For You samples a few of September's tracks and the chorus is entirely lifted from Cry For You with slightly altered lyrics. My good Judy Cosi informed me this is called an "interpolation" - like Olivia Rodrigo's Good 4U was retroactively labeled an "interpolation" of Paramore after folks brought up how similar it is to Misery Business. I've written previously in The Second Look about the beauty of remixing and sampling but, personally, neither Good 4U or Beg For You really do it 4 me. To interpolate is to expand upon something, to expand upon the data you have to give a more complete picture. Mx. XCX has done this to great effect before but not here Charli baby.
If you're looking for some actually cool pop-culture interpolations, I'm obsessed with the goofy rotoscoped remixes of KPop videos by 조씨Jossi. The recorder and voice covers and the amateur-seeming animations of songs like Twice's Scientist and Lisa's LALISA are clearly acts of deep love and respect. I especially love their rehash of Let It Go from Frozen.
The other thing I NEED to bring up is the new project by architectural grifter Thomas Heatherwick. I talked previously about the stupid things Heatherwick Studios built along the Hudson river, especially the billionaire playground of Little Island. But, as architecture meme account blank_gehry reported last night, there's a new stupid billionaire funded island being built by Heatherwick Studios in Seoul! Not to fucking toot my own horn but I fucking CALLED IT BINCHES! These billionaires are going to keep building stupid islands into the sea until the ocean swallows us up. Talk to ya next week!
*Hot Goss*
Brought to you by the superb Latifah Azlan.
I don't think it's a controversial opinion to have to think that Kanye West is exhausting AF. Even putting his reported struggles with mental health aside, Kanye just seems like a wholly demanding person. A lot of tantrums and opinions, which is not something that I think I could ever put up with from a man. It would be tolerable if I was allowed to check out, but Kanye actually expects people to entertain his ranting and raving and gets frustrated when they don't. Which has been happening quite a bit since he and Kim Kardashian officially divorced last year.
Unless you've been living under a rock the last six months, you would know that Kim is currently dating comedian Pete Davidson, which caused quite the commotion when it was first confirmed. People were not only surprised that Kim would deign to date someone like Pete, but also at the fact that Pete keeps finding himself in high-profile relationships with some of the most famous and beautiful women on the planet. I personally don't think it's all that mysterious. I mean, dating a goofy, chilled out, funny guy like Pete after being with a high-strung, image-conscious, and exigent person like Kanye? Yeah, I'll take Pete, even if he looks like he showers as often as Jake Gyllenhaal does. I feel like a lot of people would feel the same -- which makes Kanye mad for some reason, and according to the tabloids, he's been dissing Pete all over town.
First, The Sun reported that Kanye thinks that Kim and Pete's relationship is "fake." Oh, he also thinks Pete has shitty style and wears clothes "from the mall." According to sources, Kanye totally believes that this relationship is being manufactured for Kardashian show storylines. But he's particularly annoyed about the fact that Pete doesn't seem to care as much as he does about clothes and fashion because it's "undoing all the work he did with Kim." I know it's The Sun but I totally believe all of this (or some version of it) because Kanye is definitely this narcissistic! To give credit where it's due, Kanye isn't wrong in saying he did a lot to open doors for Kim and elevate her brand during the time they were together. But at the same time, we all know this isn't about fashion and style -- it's just Kanye throwing a tantrum about the fact that he can't control Kim anymore, even in their divorce. It's become very clear that other than co-parenting their four children together, Kim's drawing some hard boundaries around how much access to her Kanye can have, and her more freeing relationship with Pete exemplifies that. So Kanye's frustrated and lashing out -- and focusing all his dress-up Barbie energy on his new girlfriend, actress Julia Fox.
Now TMZ and Page Six are saying that Kanye is spreading rumors that Pete is a gay drug addict who has AIDS. Yes, please, take the time you need to read, reread, and digest that sentence because it truly is so bizarre and outlandish that it's hardly believable. But tabloid sources are swearing on their mama's lives that it's true, and even DJ Akademiks talked about it on a Twitch stream. IF this is true and Kanye really has been doing this, that's just a new low. I mean, telling the world that Pete shops at Staten Island's flagship souvenir shack is funny. But trying to convince people that he's an addict with AIDS is just cruel and horrible. I wonder if Kanye spends his dates with Julia yelling at her about Kim and Pete. I wouldn't be surprised if he did do that because it's obvious that Pete is living in his head rent-free. But yeah, someone needs to talk to him or distract him with more clothes or whatever because this is going to continue getting nasty, and it's his family and children who are seeing this play out so publicly.