DESEDO FILMS

89?

The word ‘urban’ is used as ad industry shorthand for black/latino people, as noted by our friend Amanda. Even though we are in the business of communications, few folks speak simply about race. This can make for very circular conversations about casting and locations, some funny, some SMH.

05?

restless pen syndrome

Earlier this month in the hipsters hoods, Barbarian Group executed a brilliant subway campaign for Hello Health. I’d been meaning to wax poetic ever since seeing it, but been busy busy. Luckily for yall, the Barbs wrote about it here.

a very bromantic pic here

The film Pineapple Express brings forth the new genre of Bromantic Comedy. How new is this term? It ain’t yet on Wikipedia.

Over the last few years, Hollywood has taken male bonding to a new level of intimacy, far more sensitive than Lethal Weapon. Entourage, Superbad, 40 Year Old Virgin and the forthcoming Bromance.- all of these are about male friendship and openly speak to the fact that Guys Have Feelings. (’feelings’ being historically ‘unmanly/queer’) While the scripts are rife with jokes about being gay, the stories are grounded in the pursuit of punani.

Not so in Pineapple, a film in which many of the male characters are painted with unasked/unanswered question marks about their sexuality. Women are used moreso for comic relief than to reaffirm the hetero status of the characters. So if this film makes a tidy profit, I do wonder what the next step in this narrative trend will be.

shine on you crazy diamond

Raafi and I first met at a bar in Brooklyn back in ‘02. There was much drinking and debating, one topic being which OutKast album is better - ATLiens (mhb) or Aquemini (rr). Months later, I was listening to RR’s choice while picking olives on a farm in Paganico. Through my head went the thought hmmmm that dude Raaf might be right. And now one of our heroes - The Sartorialist - bumped into another hero - Andre 3000 - not too far from that farm. So now I bop out into the night and leave you with the story.

My friend Court hearts Stevie Nicks and sent me this below clip with a note that “…this is one of my faves, watching it I always have this dual elation and sadness.” And now I can’t get the song out of my head.

I find this duality true in many songs that I love, be it Luna, Ghostface or Fleetwood Mac - the tracks often evoke both emotions during a 3 minute spell. I wonder if that’s what nostalgia might be constructed of too?

Motherwell's Elegy to the Spanish Republic

Even if authorial intent is one thing, audience interpretation can remix and recontextualize the meaning. One man’s song of joy is another’s sorrow song. It reminds me of painter Robert Motherwell, who once recounted that he “respected a collector who returned one of my “abstract” pictures to the gallery, saying it was too tragic in feeling for her to be able to look at it every day.”