The Trend Report™: Broify
A look at how bro culture is *the* culture and how to make community.
Can Offsets Reduce Dance Music's Footprint?
What Does It Take to Make Sustainable Merch?
Earth Day has sadly become a corporate something but it’s interesting to see how the little people – artists, that is – are considering their impact. Wonder if Hollywood ever will though…
Congress deny disability to Puerto Rico residents
What the fuck is this?? “Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only dissenter in the case”: OBVIOUSLY!! I think this country remembers that technically Puerto Ricans are American citizens. It’s the racism baby!!
What the Hell Happened to Netflix?
Who is surprised? I think Netflix is so boring but has a chokehold on all the streaming dolls. Here we are, at the inevitable great reckoning for the technotainment royal.
CNN+ Down One Month After Launch
Related: in case you missed this embarrassing thing.
Delta, Uber, Lyft, MTA: Who Is Still Requiring Masks?
Masking is basically over…for some! I have not gotten Covid – and I don’t think I will!
"isn’t an exoneration of homophobia"
Homophobia reminder.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Now in Court
SURPRISE!!! Watch more of this stupidity here.
“man down”
As this data on Joe Biden and student debt proves yet again, we need Biden to be good – because he’s not good at very basic, very easy wins.
an invasion of remote workers
I’m sure this is real but I have my doubts and I hate the portmanteau “Zoomtown.”
You Need to Put Away Your Bird Feeders
PSA: birds are getting sick so put away your baths and feeders.
How is it that bros have become everything?
Money? Bros.
Technology? Bros.
The internet? Bros.
Art? Bros.
Liberals? Bros.
Conservatives? Bros.
Lingerie? Bros.
Villains? Bros.
Queer people? Bros.
Drag queens? Bros.
While the last two items are in jest, everything seems to have turned bro, anyone of remote interest – Leggings! – colonized by men, turned inside out and gutted to remove meaning, a la made-for-men leggings. Like marketing to men, these things are pointless but in a way represent a graduation to extreme mainstream culture, that anything is up for grabs by American men who feel as if they can own literally everything.
This is to say: everything is as it was, a world ruled by straight white men, but there’s a specific texture to this now, where our state of inequality and dissatisfaction and malaise and oppression seems tied to that of broification. Even if “bro” isn’t exactly a monolith – as, in some ways, “bro” culture can defy gender and economic status, typically connoting those with techno-capitalistic appetites – there is the overwhelming feeling that the bro is eating everything alive, from “nerd stuff” transformed into spectacles of brawny bros to the art world having Jeff Koons continuing to Jeff Koons the art world to [insert literally anything about Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or Trump]. It’s all soft-imperialism: first they come for your culture, then they come for you. It’s an attempt to invalidate, to take power.
While seemingly unrelated, I’ve been thinking a lot about how this ties to a very real treat to the United States: America is so extremely mean, likely because America as an entity is the ultimate creator of and representation of the broified. Umair Haque sagely spoke about this earlier in the week, while musing on giving up democracy and “greedflation,” which allude to the capitalist colonizing of everything. This was echoed in recent talks about talking – Axios’ Structural stupidity, Alex Pareene’s They Know How Journalism Works!, Eoin Higgins’ The Bad Days Are Coming – that all dwell on the larger trend of cruelty, unkindness, and ignorance that have percolated into truth denial. The entire Libs of TikTok thing saga exploded this, placing you in the center of Barbara Kruger’s Forever, a piece centered on war, placing viewers atop this awful-but-hyper-real quote from George Orwell’s 1984: “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever.”
This all sounds so funny, so silly, that bros are taking over everything. We know this! We live in bro world and it’s as dumb as it is sad as it is awful. They are the boot. From the other side, surely people think we live in a queer world of biracial genderless femmes eager to castrate you as they tax you to death, but therein lies the success of bros: they distract you, before pushing your face further into the ground
(By the way, the Barbara Kruger at LACMA in Los Angeles is great.)
Karol G Salutes Latin Icons
I hated Coachella and have found much of this weekend’s festivities to be a tired, filmed dress rehearsal, but I loved Becky G’s tribute to Latin pop music history from last Sunday. It was just so good!
"the shift of Coachella culture/fashion"
"Coachella time machine"
The best takes on Coachella didn’t come from this newsletter but from @oldloserinbrooklyn on TikTok.
Doss Lives Up to the Hype
I’ve been obsessed with Doss for years and am very glad to see her getting her long overdue love!! She loves Tumblr and that seems ✨right✨ I love her so much!!!!
How Barnes & Noble Went From Villain to Hero
This is a super interesting story, on how Barnes & Noble is helping to battle Amazon while championing the little people. In the spirit of this story, here’s a great list of bookstores in LA!!
The 7 Deadly Sins of Dog Ownership
A lot of people own dogs and a lot of people are bad at owning dogs. I thought this story was a good summation of dos and don’ts!
"Mackenzie Davis for the Rodarte"
"@mandymooremm for the Rodarte"
The new Rodarte collection is so romantic and adorable, with these Mackenzie Davis and Mandy Moore pieces (plus their photography) being so breathtaking to me. Well done, Laura & Kate!! Ballet is in, I guess.
A Courtroom Artist Gives Us a Rare View
Obsessed with these courtroom drawings of Blac Chyna and the Kardashians. This also isn't the first courtroom viral moment as of late! I’m surprised we haven’t seen more courtroom art, etc. influencing fashion, animation, etc. yet.
"the smooth posing model"
You know that TikTok famous model who models super fast? She looks like an old auntie but she is…actually 29!!!!!! Fucking wild. She’s an Alexander Wang (Ugh.) model now!
How does one make a community? I’ve been wondering about this, as I’ve been longing to be in and to create community for years. I think I figured it out though, or at least found a kernel of truth, by examining the film community in Los Angeles versus not-Los Angeles, and via a story about Kim’s Video and Alamo Drafthouse.
The story is about how video stores are where the culture and community of video comes to life by literally connecting and grazing through a store of movies, which has become such a solitary act. In LA, this is literally everywhere because movies are the industry. But, if you live elsewhere, places like Kim’s Video and Alamo Drafthouse bring movie fans and movie makers together in an intentional way. It turns the isolating into something to be shared.
The idea that browsing is the main event hints at a basic difference between the new Kim’s Video project and the original idea of a video store. In the VHS heyday, the home viewing experience was the point. You would stop at the store after you picked up a pizza. Or you would throw a coat over pajamas and make a quick trip to get a video. You might spend some time, maybe longer than you expected, scanning the shelves, unsure what to settle on. But for most people, the store was not the goal; hanging out at home was.
At Alamo, the rental operation is intended to be an experience, part of the larger one of moviegoing. And as most stores have disappeared — with the exception of a smattering of big, respected ones like Movie Madness in Portland, Ore., and Scarecrow Video in Seattle — that may become a more common way for video stores to be understood by modern audiences, especially younger generations who never visited the stores in person.
It makes sense! It’s a place to bring ideas to life, to see fandoms collide to do something about their passions. This speaks to, you know, the need for physical spaces and for people to link up and bond over the things they love. This doesn’t have to be in-person – but that helps!
"VEINS REMAIN"
"Words can not describe this moment"
I’ve been talking about this for a year and I’m saying it again: the brands are getting so horny that they’re gonna post a dick pic. We’re getting closer and closer!
"IT’S OFFICIALLY TAURUS SEASON"
MY TAURUSES WHERE YALL AT ITS OUR TIME 😤
“happy shower lemon”
Speaking of Taurus, this bird has healed me. Good girl!!
Woman gets stuck head first behind a sofa
“At a bottomless brunch.” Legendary.
"unpopular opinion, but I don’t love this"
Oof, who made this??
"thank us. at 3rd floor."
Similar: these viral stairs are a design mess.
“brief pop moment”
I too thought this song was not-sung-by-a-man.
“It’s a boy!!”
Grandpas be making noises.
"just when I thought I’d heard it all"
Hall of fame comment.
"Himalayas fancam"
Need more geographic fancams.
“weblewoble and bobies”
Kids wanna see porn but they can’t even spell.
And, finally, who I see when I close my eyes.
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