On the rise of horror films that turn the industry of Hollywood into the villain and on the give-and-take of negative news (and how that crafts depressive people).
Hi Kyle, as always thank you again for your weekly writings! Not sure if I ever mentioned this in any previous comments, but The Trend Report was THE reason I signed up for Substack in the first place earlier this year; even though I've come across other talented creators since, your work is still what has me coming back week after week, probably because I love that you offer such a great mix of serious and silly. Keep up the amazing work! I agree with Dejaih Smith - "come on get happy" was 10/10
oh wow!! thank YOU for this Zoe!!! what an endorsement: so glad you enjoy — and so glad to keep the good times going. yay! thank you for putting some juice in the tank 🌟
Hello nearly a week later (I’m a working stiff again) and popping in to say you are onto something re: Charli — I have a theory I’d like to turn into an essay someday about Charli and Taylor. As Charli captures in Sympathy Is A Knife, “I’m opposite / I’m on the other side” she could have said I’m beneath her, I don’t compete, but the lyric choice suggests they are two sides of the same coin (which I know has been assigned to Lorde, but that’s surface level thinking). Both artists are incredibly ambitious, hard-working, have similar influences, aren’t too far apart in age, and started in the industry a long time ago. And I think both are painfully uncool, but I love that they exist regardless because you don’t have to be cool to be famous!!! I’m also in their age bracket, so weirdly enough I feel “represented” with them on top, lmfao.
this is so good and i think is exactly it like they are two sides of that coin which speaks to how, say, there have always been economies of culture which i think plays into a bigger essay that i do not have time to write (maybe next weekend??) about how culture has strangely become so compartmentalized, less in the sense of having your different buckets but that everything is "a clique" politics, music, movies, etc.: subcultures are less "sub" and now just different neighborhoods that rarely intersect, a la there will never be a combination Pizza Hut / Taco Bell of Taylor and Charli. you gotta write about this!!!!! i may tackle clique culture next weekend as a pre-election something hmm hmmmm
More great essays! Your writing always makes me think and I love that!
Break the Camera gave me 2 thoughts. 1: It made me think of Timothy Leary's Chaos and Cyber Culture. Essentially he was making a point that the next phase of human evolution was to discard our bodies and live entirely through our connections to machines. Our connections with each other will be primarily electronic and we won't need our physical bodies anymore. We called it "cyber space" back then. I think we are 1/2 if not 2/3 of the way there. 2: Horror/Sci-Fi movies have always been a reflection of the cultural fears of the time. We could add The Terminator to the list of movies about how our reliance on technology will be our ultimate destruction. We felt this all the way back in the 1980s-90s. But also alien invasion movies were always about Xenophobia and the loss of our safe, white suburbs. I'm sure there are many more connections we can make.
okay LOVE this and i'm not familiar with Timothy Leary's book but i am bookmarking it!!!!! this very much is a "cultural fear" reflected now, which is so wild as it seems so obvious but also "easy to miss" when you're busy being entertained. and, to your point, this is why i've always loved horror: it's the most incisive, smart way to speak to culture's problems and fears. what a genre! what great stuff!! thank you for this, Kelsey!!!
Hi Kyle, as always thank you again for your weekly writings! Not sure if I ever mentioned this in any previous comments, but The Trend Report was THE reason I signed up for Substack in the first place earlier this year; even though I've come across other talented creators since, your work is still what has me coming back week after week, probably because I love that you offer such a great mix of serious and silly. Keep up the amazing work! I agree with Dejaih Smith - "come on get happy" was 10/10
oh wow!! thank YOU for this Zoe!!! what an endorsement: so glad you enjoy — and so glad to keep the good times going. yay! thank you for putting some juice in the tank 🌟
The “come on get happy” section about mental health was 10/10
omg 😭 thank you, Dejaih!!!!! it was...not an easy write so glad to hear it was worth the read!!!
100% worth it!!! 🫶🏾
Hello nearly a week later (I’m a working stiff again) and popping in to say you are onto something re: Charli — I have a theory I’d like to turn into an essay someday about Charli and Taylor. As Charli captures in Sympathy Is A Knife, “I’m opposite / I’m on the other side” she could have said I’m beneath her, I don’t compete, but the lyric choice suggests they are two sides of the same coin (which I know has been assigned to Lorde, but that’s surface level thinking). Both artists are incredibly ambitious, hard-working, have similar influences, aren’t too far apart in age, and started in the industry a long time ago. And I think both are painfully uncool, but I love that they exist regardless because you don’t have to be cool to be famous!!! I’m also in their age bracket, so weirdly enough I feel “represented” with them on top, lmfao.
this is so good and i think is exactly it like they are two sides of that coin which speaks to how, say, there have always been economies of culture which i think plays into a bigger essay that i do not have time to write (maybe next weekend??) about how culture has strangely become so compartmentalized, less in the sense of having your different buckets but that everything is "a clique" politics, music, movies, etc.: subcultures are less "sub" and now just different neighborhoods that rarely intersect, a la there will never be a combination Pizza Hut / Taco Bell of Taylor and Charli. you gotta write about this!!!!! i may tackle clique culture next weekend as a pre-election something hmm hmmmm
ADA YOU ARE COOKING!!!!!!!!!!!
More great essays! Your writing always makes me think and I love that!
Break the Camera gave me 2 thoughts. 1: It made me think of Timothy Leary's Chaos and Cyber Culture. Essentially he was making a point that the next phase of human evolution was to discard our bodies and live entirely through our connections to machines. Our connections with each other will be primarily electronic and we won't need our physical bodies anymore. We called it "cyber space" back then. I think we are 1/2 if not 2/3 of the way there. 2: Horror/Sci-Fi movies have always been a reflection of the cultural fears of the time. We could add The Terminator to the list of movies about how our reliance on technology will be our ultimate destruction. We felt this all the way back in the 1980s-90s. But also alien invasion movies were always about Xenophobia and the loss of our safe, white suburbs. I'm sure there are many more connections we can make.
okay LOVE this and i'm not familiar with Timothy Leary's book but i am bookmarking it!!!!! this very much is a "cultural fear" reflected now, which is so wild as it seems so obvious but also "easy to miss" when you're busy being entertained. and, to your point, this is why i've always loved horror: it's the most incisive, smart way to speak to culture's problems and fears. what a genre! what great stuff!! thank you for this, Kelsey!!!