No Nonsense #81: Olivia Rodrigo, Meg Stalter and Barbarella
Hey divas!
Hope you’re all having a great week and enjoying the sunshine. We’re back with a new edition of our biweekly recommendations newsletter. Check them out below <3
Rob Corsini - Contributing Editor
Album: Olivia Rodrigo - You Seem Pretty Sad for a Girl So in Love
I’m getting in there early because I know half the team wants to recommend this, but I think this is Olivia Rodrigo’s best album so far. Truly banger after banger but personal highlights are Stupid Song, Maggots for Brains, U + Me = <3, and What’s Wrong With ME
Gina Tonic - Senior Editor
Book: The Lonely Girl's Vegetable Patch by Genevieve Plunkett
I was so blessed to get a proof for this book that is out in September but it was such a great novel to join the feral girl literary canon a la Big Swiss. Really recommend pre-ordering!
Jenn Lehwald - Social Editor
Meg Stalter performing ‘Prettiest Girl in America’ at the Culture Awards
play the track and no one gets hurt!
I’m genuinely obsessed with this bit Meg Stalter is currently doing and also it’s frying me that this performance is like.. kinda good? I’ve watched this probably 5 times. I love her.
My friends have only gone and put out a bloody book! And it’s great! A deep dive into the joy and power of personal pleasures, quirks, obsessions and bad taste. Go buy a copy!
Misha MN - Contributing Culture Editor
Films: 1960s Science Fiction
Over the weekend I found myself having a 60s sci-fi double bill that really showed the breadth of the genre. 2001: A Space Odyssey and Barbarella both came out in 1968 and both exemplify different qualities that are essential in good sci-fi. First of all, 2001 is the much more grounded of the two, following serious scientific space exploration as humans try to learn more about the makeup of the galaxy, but so much of it can be seen in our technology today. Corporate space shuttles, video phones, individual TVs in the headrests of airline seating, screens that look like iPads at the breakfast table, it’s all come true, and as for the homicidal AI that tries to kill its users? Who can say at this point. The film making is obviously top notch, what else do you expect from Stanley Kubrick, but the sound design in particular really stood out to me on this watch, with grand orchestras and uncanny jarring chorals, but also long periods of silence, high tension sequences scored only with the actor’s breath in the helmet of a space suit. Barbarella is the exact opposite, it’s gloriously kitsch and camp, a busty blonde naked Jane Fonda rolling around an orange shag carpeted spaceship in an electrical storm, ending up on a strange planet where she has lots of different kind of sex with lots of different kinds of natives. For a long time, Barbarella was the only kind of sci-fi I wanted to see, and whilst my tastes have expanded this remains an undying favourite. The best, weirdest and campest part of the film is 60s it girl Anita Pallenberg (girlfriend of several Rolling Stones) playing the brunette villain, but with her voice overdubbed by camp cinema icon Joan Greenwood, truly a sight to behold. 2001 and Barbarella overlap in their extended abstract psychedelic sequences, both push boundaries in their own unique ways, and the world wouldn’t be the same without them. God bless 1968 and pre-moon landing sci-fi, you will always be famous.
Theatre: Jinkx Monsoon is Judy Garland in End of the Rainbow
So lucky to catch this in its final week of performances at Soho Theatre, on a hangover post-Bad-Taste-book-launch, no less, and it was incredible. The play was written in 2005, focusing on Judy Garland’s final nightclub residency in London 1968 (I’m having a very 1968 time right now) through to her death the following year. Having had a few revivals already, a film adaptation starred Renee Zellweger and won her an Oscar in 2019, but was, in my opinion, not a great movie. Jinkx Monsoon (drag race winner turned Broadway star) and her performance far outshines the film, and probably the script too tbh. She is strong, she’s vulnerable, she’s funny, she’s heartbreaking, and the musical sequences are breathtaking. Massive shout out to the production designers of this, the set is transformed only by lighting when it has to differentiate between the rehearsal room setting and the night club, but it is so effective. Judy’s star power is physicalised by bright golden light that pours out over the audience at the climax of her musical numbers and it feels heavy. The costumes were also great, classic identifiable Judy stage outfits but made more slay by drag costumers, every element was so well thought out. The finale gives us everything, Jinkx as Judy singing Over the Rainbow in a beautiful gown as rose petals shower down from the ceiling and the golden lights paint the faces of the audience, and the weight of the tragedy that has unfolded melts away in a moment of pure bliss. Five stars.
Hatti Rex - Contributing Editor
Book: I Want to Go Home but I’m Already There by Roísín Lanagan
Renting is a horror story, especially in London. This novel came out last year and explores how everyday life can quickly become stifling in the wrong environment. Sadly relatable as I’ve been driven completely nuts by all my previous renting situations, whether it’s from mold, noise or housemates (not all of them though!!!)
Feel like all the songs I’ve been recommending recently have been a bittersweet sad Summer vibe and this is no different lmao, I just like it!
Food: Chai masala soft serve from Tangra
On a more positive note, the buzzy Indochinese fusion restaurant in Soho has launched it’s new menu including this incredible flavour of plant-based ice cream. Wish they did takeaway cones so bad, though legit everything on their menu is delish.
——
See you next time!
XOXO,
The Polyester Team <3
