British Baking, Frank Ocean, and The Outsiders
The new season of the cult-classic show The Great British Baking Show was just added to Netflix, and you should all be watching. This is no average cooking show. According to one blog writer, “It is rife with controversy and it is aggressively quaint and it is top-notch drama and comedy and tragedy and coming-of-age and success and magic and action and horror.” If you aren’t watching by now, what are you doing?
In music, there's a lot to be excited about right now. The Shins recently came out with their new album, Heartworms, and it’s seriously worth a listen. Pitchfork’s Evan Rytlewski writes of frontman James Mercer, “His gift for making fussy arrangements seem effortless remains unparalleled. Heartworms’ chipper title track is all weightless wonder, as free and euphoric as anything on Inverted World.” Also check out Frank Ocean’s new single “Chanel,” which he put out this week. The song is his first single following the release of Ocean’s critically-acclaimed sophomore album Blonde.
After the election, many of our most cherished cultural objects took on a completely new meaning. We have begun to reconsider things we used to love unconditionally, or, at the very least, we interpret their significance in a different way. Author Margaret Atwood wrote in The New York Times about the second life of her classic science fiction novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” during the Trump presidency. Speaking of classics, everyone’s favorite middle school coming-of-age novel The Outsiders just celebrated its 50th anniversary. The New York Times writes about why the book remains as relevant as ever. Images via and via