THANK GOD!, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, and What I Talk About When I Talk About Running
Featuring a podcast episode with Rhys Langston.
Welcome to the forty-third installation of The Q : your one-stop weekly newsletter of culture recommendations.
Album
THANK GOD! GIANT FROM THE X TELEPATHIC GOTHIKA ISSUE #5 by Big Up Menace X
Big Up Menace X’s five-part autobiography is complete. After two years of projects digging through a tortured man’s mind, we have reached its beautiful and transformative conclusion. The final installment of Big Up Menace X’s autobiography, titled THANK GOD! GIANT FROM THE X TELEPATHIC GOTHIKA ISSUE #5, is a subtle yet stark departure from his previous work. It feels like an emotional conclusion to a lifelong journey. The entire work is an extremely intricate and personal conversation that we are lucky enough to overhear. The album pushes experimental boundaries in all the right ways and demonstrates mastery over the form.
Film
Hale County This Morning, This Evening directed by RaMell Ross
Watching the billowing smoke of burning tires, director RaMell Ross is approached by a man who’d seen the flames from afar. Concerned, the man asks what he is doing. Ross responds that he is recording the fire. “Making it look like the house is on fire?” the man challenges. Ross continues, “Nah, but it’s like, when the smoke comes up and the light comes through it [...] like, how often do you see that?” The man is listening now. Maybe, beginning to understand. “When the smoke gets the sun right behind it. You see, like, the daggers that are coming in.”
Book
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
Every month I have a handful of terrible runs — the kind where my legs feel detached from my body and my brain powerfully persuades me that if I go an extra block I will not find strength and resilience, but rather a horrible and painful death (jeez stop being so dramatic!). It is during these awful runs that I think about author Haruki Murakami’s 2007 memoir, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running. Particularly, I am reminded of a line where he says, “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional. Say you’re running and you think, ‘Man, this hurts, I can’t take it anymore. The ‘hurt’ part is an unavoidable reality, but whether or not you can stand anymore is up to the runner himself.”
Playlist
Alice’s “spring 21” features The Velvet Underground, REI AMI, and King Princess
Alice’s favorite track: “Steamboat” by Adrienne Lenker
Description: This is the playlist I’ve been listening to during the start of spring. It encompasses the range of emotions I’ve felt at the change of seasons and a glimpse of post pandemic life. I’ve been meditating on the loneliness and freedom of being alone, as well as love in different forms. REI AMI and BIA embody the careless badassery I’ve been trying to achieve, while Raveena and Alice Phoebe Lou describe not-quite the right lover through their breathy vocals.
Podcast
Episode #43: Grapefruit Juice and an Interview with Rhys Langston
On this week's episode, Sam and Teresa interview Rhys Langston over a cup of grapefruit juice. Rhys Langston is a music producer, writer, and a visual and performing artist based in Los Angeles. His work explores the performances of race and identity, as well as the space between emotion intimacy and abstraction. His debut album, Language Arts Unit, was released on February 26, 2020, and was entirely mixed and almost entirely produced by him. Rhys talks to Teresa and Sam about pushing instrumental boundaries, lyrical contradictions, and what he's most proud of.
