No Nonsense #74- Wuthering Heights, Deleting Twitter and Cher
Hi Dolls!
Happy new year! We’re back with our first no nonsense of the year and we have loads to share. Check it out below!!!!! <3
Ione Gamble - Editor in Chief
Wuthering Heights book club
Me and Jenn have decided to read Wuthering Heights so we’re educated in time for the Emerald Fennell film and I urge everyone else to join us! We are both very classics-averse so keep you posted on how it goes
Film: Bugonia
Finally watched Bugonia over christmas and absolutely LOVED it. Emma Stone is genuinely one of our best actors. Warning there is one part of the film so ugly it nearly put me off the whole thing but don’t be deterred.
Film: The Long Walk
Divisive in the Polyester studio because I made Jenn watch it and she was disgusted but I also loved The Long Walk. Cooper Hoffman i love you!!! I love friendship!!! I love the Hunger Games for adults!!!!
Our editorial Assistant Tanya has just released a new issue of her gorgeous publication SISTA. The second issue is a beautiful exploration of Yoga with stunning features, illustration, and put together beautifully. Get your copy now!
Gina Tonic - Senior Editor
Deleting Twitter
Everyone I know irl is sick of me mentioning this, but it’s genuinely a) made me see so much less horrible shit on the regular and b) freed up more time. The only problem is that I’m using the spare time to play Pokemon Legends Z-A religiously…
Film: The Apartment
I watched this on New Year’s Day (the perfect time to watch it, but please don’t wait until then to catch it) and it’s so much more sweet and melancholic and deep than I expected it to be. I love Shirley Maclaine!!!
Film: Rear Window
I also watched this and Psycho over the break by Hitchcock and this was my favourite. It’s so silly but taut and just an all round great watch - who would have thought.
Hatti Rex - Contributing Editor
Ran out of another beauty product that I will be repurchasing, I genuinely think I’ve used up all my skincare products in these newsletters now as I only use a few things repeatedly. Don’t ask me exactly what they do but something is happening, I just slap it on after washing my face in the morning and before putting my makeup on. Shoutout Molly for putting me on.
Trying to leave the house as much as possible so I don’t become permanently frozen to the furniture so have been looking for interesting non-fiction audiobooks to pop on my headphones, Cher’s autobiography on Spotify was perfect for this because she has sure lived a life. Only part one is out currently and I’ll be the first one clicking play when it’s out but so much happens. It’s partly voiced by the legend herself.
Sea Lions
I cannot tell you how many TikTok clips I’ve watched of these little guys, endless entertainment. Don’t understand how they exist.
Jenn Lehwald - Social Editor
I am currently experiencing the misery that is living and London and renewing my lease/rent increases/all that fun stuff. I got an email from my estate agent stating ‘To get started, you'll need to set up an account with Goodlord’ (we live in actual hell btw) which reminded me of this book by Ella Frears of the same name.
This is a fictional memoir/stream-of-consciousness written in the form of a long email to an estate agent. I read this last summer and remembered really enjoying it - going to revisit!!!!
Misha MN - Contributing Editor
Film: Maria
Watched this at some point last year and liked it, but rewatched this January when I was ill AND I LOVED IT. Third in the trilogy of tragic historic 20th century women from Pablo Larrain, following Jackie and Spencer, Maria follows the final week of Maria Callas’ life as she battles with failing health, prescription quaaludes and her own mental faculties. On paper this film has everything I could want; Angelina Jolie playing the greatest opera singer of all time, gargantuan Parisian apartments full of flowers, beautiful 1970s wardrobe, a diva in rapid decline giving grand interviews to an imaginary film crew, and it delivers on all fronts. This is exactly the period of her life that I would have wanted to see a film about, when she loses her voice and her grip on reality. Feels like it was made specifically for me, and me alone. Five stars. Get me a Mandrax, stat.
As a lover of 1950s and 60s female jazz singers like June Christie and Sarah Vaughan, discovering Jonathan and Darlene Edwards feels like a fever dream. Starting off as a private joke that became a grammy-award winning comedy musical act, perfect-pitch chanteuse Jo Stafford and her husband the famous American arranger-conductor Paul Weston created new personas for themselves as an off-key torch singer and overly-decorative pianist. Their renditions of jazz standards are intentionally off, with Darlene’s quavering vocals being drowned out by ragtime-via-Rachmaninoff piano forte. Its dissonant, its anarchic, its thrilling. Honestly, it might be because of my fever, but I felt high listening to this, like I’d just dropped a pill. It’s incredible. Their most famous album is Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris (which won a Grammy for comedy album), but my favourite is Slaughter Standards, which includes a huge swathe of their discography, including some of the Paris recordings. If you love jazz and want to feel something wild, I highly recommend the Edwards.
Series: Next in Fashion, season 1
You cannot tell me that there has been a better fashion competition reality series than Next in Fashion s1 in the last ten years. It was better than the declining Project Runway, better than the ambitious Making The Cut, better than all of them. Rewatching from my sick bed, seeing people like Minju Kim, Marco Marco and Daniel Fletcher struggle to make fabulous evening wear, sexy lingerie and rockstar garb is truly a comfort exercise for me at this point. Yes, forcing them to compete in seemingly random teams was a weird choice, yes some of the challenges seem v outdated, even for 2020 (who even uses the word rockstar anymore), and yes, the much delayed season 2 is possibly the worst downgrade in the history of fashion competition tv, but they can never take season 1 away from us. Focusing on the camaraderie between the contestants, the application of their creative skills to a real-world industry, being much more grounded than the self-sucking standards of now institutionalised tv giants, Next in Fashion s1 was about heart, fun, and intuitive talent. Looking forward to my next week of bed-rotting when I can watch it all over again, whenever that may be.
Lauren O’Neill - Managing Editor
Making Plans
this is kind of vague I know but honestly if you are anything like me and are experiencing January under a little bit of a raincloud (understatement lol), the best thing I can recommend is planning stuff, for the simple reason that it's really nice to have stuff to look forward to. It doesn't even have to be big or expensive or lavish - just something to take the sharp edge of the first month of the year off. Maybe it's just like, "getting a pizza for dinner and eating it while you watch Traitors", you know? If you want some examples from someone who very much needs fun plans, mine include seeing a movie, booking in a cheap lunch with friends in a couple weekends' time, going around to watch TV at a pal's new flat, celebrating Ione's birthday soon (hehe), and, honestly, getting a pizza for dinner and eating it while I watch Traitors. It's a shitty month so yeah, my big recommend is just for the things that help you keep putting one foot in front of the other. It might not seem like much but in my experience it really does help even just a little bit!
Rob Corsini - Junior Editor
Series: Heated Rivalry
I’m taking the bait. I thought I would not be interested in this gay hockey show but I have been charmed. If I am the first person to recommend this to you I will be surprised because it’s everywhere BUT I like it so there. Do I think it is good? The real question is, does that matter?
Video Game: 1000xRESIST
This dropped on PlayStation towards the end of last year and I waited a little to pick it up. I’d heard incredible things but couldn’t quite understand the gameplay before I played it - and it is a little sparse - but the story is so incredible, from the first ten mins I was unbelievably hooked. I actively don’t care about spoilers - but it is one of those games where you should actively avoid them.
oh to have 4 cats in your window
Camille Mariet - LA Editor
Sobacha
I’ve been drinking this Japanese roasted buckwheat tea nonstop lately. It’s got a nice toasty flavor and is caffeine free which is nice if you’re like me and can only handle 1 caffeinated bev per day but still crave something cozy and hot.
TIGHTS AS PANTS!!!!!
If u know me, u knew this was coming. I am generally a big advocate of taking style leaps that feel a little scary because this is where the magic is. Paired with a high rise brief, a tied-off tee, and a pointy-toed kitten heel, are u kiddinnnng? There’s just something so sexy-elizabethan-thespian about a Tights As Pants silhouette that really itches a scratch for me.
Tanya Fevzi - Editorial Assistant
Stretching in the morning
We’re in the dead of winter, which means waking up to an alarm is that bit more dreadful. The simple act of flinging my duvet off my body and unravelling myself from the foetal position I curled into to keep warm is my most courageous act of the day. I am someone, however, who jumps out of bed as soon as my alarm rings for fear of falling back to sleep. What makes this experience slightly enjoyable is moving from bed to bedroom floor and taking a few minutes to stretch my body. Child’s pose (kneel, sit back on your heels, and fold over your thighs) is my favourite, and I usually roll my neck a couple of times to get any kinks out too.
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See you next time!
XOXO,
The Polyester Team
