The Fourth Ten Vibes
🚨Gossip Girl reboot today🚨 But first— Vibes!
Welcome back to The Vibes, a fortnightly newsletter that—to reiterate a past intro—only exists because the URL was available. Last week I sent out a bonus post about the uncanniness of Olivia Rodrigo’s SOUR Prom and Taylor Swift’s rerecording of Fearless—read that here. All other posts are available here.
Good morning!
The Vibes are once again off for me personally in that my spacebar on my laptop has completely stopped working. So, now I’m using an old Bluetooth Apple keyboard that I don’t hate but is mildly inconvenient. Anyway, just thought you should know the trouble!! I go through!! To get you this newsletter!! Anybody thinking of suggesting I go to the Apple store to fix it needs to reassess who they think I am!
But I’m willing to move past all that to give you this month’s Ten Vibes—
The sartorial pairing of shorts and shirts. Also generally long-sleeve tops and shorts because I love the disregard for seasons this look implies (not caring is cool!!) It turns out that Actual Fashion People agree with me, as seen on the runways of the most recent fashion week (I think they’re for Spring 2022? I am trying to know more about capital-F Fashion but I still have not worked out this whole fashion week thing) where blazers (aka long-sleeve top) and shorts were A Thing. In case you were wondering, my fav LSAS (long sleeve and short) look of fashion week was this JW Anderson knit and short combo (Hermès also had a few good LSAS looks but their short length was Not Ideal). Other fashion week Vibes were the colour of this suit (and the entire Wales Bonner collection), the silhouette of this Armani suit (bad shoes though), and this Jil Sander look.
Pop culturally, the LSAS look is demonstrated perfectly by Hugh Grant in Four Weddings and a Funeral (my fav movie look of all time) and by Eric Stoltz in Mr. Jealousy— can u believe this man went from Not Hot in Little Women and Average in Kicking and Screaming to Hot in Mr. Jealousy all because of the LSAS!? Both these examples have the shirt sleeves rolled up, which is acceptable but it is important to remember that they are long-sleeves rolled up— not a short sleeve shirt. Also, for clarification on short length— they should be Hugh’s length or shorter (as per recent images of H*rry. St*les who, despite the LSAS look, I refuse to acknowledge as a fashionable person)
images from mike newell’s four weddings and a funeral and noah baumbach’s mr jealousy. and yes! i am aware nothing about the pieces in the mr jealousy look is good but it is hot so idk what to tell you! Books that have the title and then a colon and then A Novel. Colon A Novel is for a book that has an old painting on the front cover but was published in the last year. Colon A Novel is for the novel where nothing much happens and is probably some form of transporting the real-life thoughts of the writer into a made-up character. Colon A Novel is so ridiculous (of course it’s a novel! It’s in the fiction section!) and it’s an indicator that the author takes themselves a little too seriously but I don’t care! I love it!
I cannot believe I have gotten through over 30 Vibes and not once focused one on Ethan Hawke!! Ethan Hawke is the Colon A Novel of humans!! and I love that about him!! I hate to quote myself (a blatant lie) but this is what I wrote on Instagram after finishing his most recent novel, A Bright Ray of Darkness:
One of the reasons this book is good/enjoyable to read is that Ethan Hawke is hot. And that hotness (specifically the adjective hot which is not necessarily the coolest adjective but is what Ethan Hawke is) presents itself as a sincerity that is not uncool and a pretentiousness that is not pretentious. This book is so unabashedly itself and so unabashed in its feelings of horniness and shame and lack of self-awareness that I cannot critique it for any of those things because they are what make Ethan Hawke so compelling. Every time you watch a video interview [with him] or watch a film where he is playing a version of himself he talks with the passion of a 15 year old who has just discovered a new obsession and that charisma carries through to his 50 year old self.
Personally, the only Ethan Hawke Vibes I choose to let in are him as a person/concept, him presenting himself as a person/concept (niche and I won’t elaborate), and him where he is on film playing basically himself. What I am trying to say here is that I won’t watch Gattaca! Or any of his horror/western/other genre movies that aren’t indie drama/indie rom-com! And if you see me watching Gattaca— a) no you didn’t ❤️ b) it is only because I wanted to see the film where he and Uma Thurman met c) you won’t!
Obviously, my fav Ethan Hawke performances are in the Before trilogy—Sunrise being the hottest, Sunset being the best—but I also have a huge soft spot for Maggie’s Plan (Ethan Hawke X Greta Gerwig X weirdly paced and strangely plotted movie? We love to see it!) and Juliet, Naked (the soundtrack of which contains 8 90s-indie-dad-rock songs sung by E.H. and is my 4th most played album of this year lol).
me last september — still me now! The weather when it is cold but the sky is clear and pale blue and the sun is shining. But at the moment, as we go through the peak This Weather time, I’m getting a strange sense of deja vu. Every time I step outside I am sent back to the daily walks of lockdown last year. I’m curious as to whether this feeling will last because I want it to revert back to the memories of London in December 2017 I used to have when This Weather hit instead of feeling like I need to be back in the house in 2 hours.
The song Change Shapes by Rebounder—
I hate to do it again! But I found out about this song via Chris Black tweeting about it or sharing it on his story or something like that. And you know what? It’s kind of silly but if it isn’t the catchiest song you’ve heard in a long time I’d be very surprised. I saw the little Instagram preview and couldn’t get the chorus out of my head for days even before listening to the full song. Some good words on the song—
I feel like my music taste is, like, months of slowish Guitar Music and then one album or song which is the poppiest, silliest music imaginable. Other examples that sit alongside Change Shapes include the most recent Bleachers songs and one of my favourite albums of all time— Paul Williams’ Surf Music.
I rewatched Lady Bird the other day and—even though I am a Girl Of A Certain Age so will love anything Greta Gerwig does—let me remind you all it is a perfect film. It’s funny! It’s moving! Every character feels fully developed and like there could be a movie following them but it just happens to be about this particular girl this time around. There’s so much to the way teenage girls are presented in this film that feels so new but it’s also a natural progression to the way teen girls have been presented in coming-of-age films. This is your little lead to let you know that the next essay edition will be a reworking of one of my favourite essays I wrote in uni that compares Lady Bird with Clueless and how they aren’t so different in how they represent teenage girls.
Little bit ~guilty pleasure~ Vibe but we have been spending evenings watching Agatha Christie’s Marple on some weird streaming platform called Acorn TV? It’s very much bringing me back to when I was like 9 or so and Friend of The Vibes Samantha and I became obsessed with them.
I think it’s very funny to think of Miss Marple as the original Girlboss, just coming in and thinking what she has to say is The Most Important even if it makes everyone else’s life harder (she would bring a dog into the office just to sniff out whether someone was actually allergic) but I love her anyway! Just so we all know, my Miss Marple is Geraldine McEwan, and to please only me— in the last episode she appears in, she is teamed up with her nephew played by none other than King of Selfies Richard E. Grant, the only photographer to capture this particular happy energy in Noah Baumbach.
Porridge, rice pudding, risotto, etc., etc. The Vibe for Winter is warm textured sludge! Famously, I am morally opposed to pureed soups (think me constantly quoting a man I overheard in England saying “I don’t consider myself Australian, I don’t get excited over pumpkin soup”) but something about a creamy bowl with a little bit of bite is the most comforting food I can think of.
Preferably we’re topping the bowl with some fruit (or veggies in the case of risotto) and maybe something for crunch. My favourite porridge combo at the moment is 1 part quick oats to 1.5 parts water and 0.5 parts oat milk, with a grated pink lady apple and some frozen raspberries cooked in and then topped with Greek yoghurt, pistachios, and maybe some banana as well.
The new TV series Starstruck, created by and starring Rose Matafeo who I’ve kind of been a little obsessed with since I saw her comedy festival show, Horndog, in 2018. This show also falls under one of the main types of content I gravitate towards.
The only way I can describe the types probably isn’t the most accurate way but it gets the job done— Number one is Minimalist American Cool, falling under this category you’ve got the book Fake Accounts by Lauren Oyler, ssense.com, the podcast How Long Gone (in theory, in practice it often falls under the next category), the films of Noah Baumbach. Number two is Indulgent Fun American— Succession, Gossip Girl, the writing of Hunter Harris, seeing something funny and typing ‘i’m screaming’. Number three is Cosy British— the books of Dolly Alderton and David Nicholls, the films of Richard Curtis, fireplaces, cooking for others.
Starstruck falls into category three. Set in London and a slightly altered version of Notting Hill (the guy is famous this time), it is the perfect TV show if you want to feel good. Alternatively, the TV show Feel Good is great for when you don’t! All the actors in the show are really captivating and Rose Matafeo + Alice Snedden (the other writer) really make you care about everything that happens.
The Clam Chair. This chair (that costs a Wild amount of money) was apparently originally designed by Arnold Madsen but has previously been linked to 3 other designers so this may still be incorrect.
the clam chair (image source) I believe I first heard about this chair on GQ’s Corporate Lunch podcast (but it could have been How Long Gone) and I am forever going to be a little mad I found out about it because I will never own it. The chair is the perfect balance of softness—with the seat shape and the shearling upholstery—and hardness—in the wood arms and legs— and I can’t tell if it would be comfortable but I think that’s what makes the best looking chairs. Similar to this chair (by Big Game I think?), the intrigue of whether you would actually sit on it kind of makes me like it more than if it were just an obviously comfortable or obviously uncomfortable piece.
Okay! That’s it! I’ll be back in two weeks (maybe earlier if I have Some Thoughts about something) with an essay about Lady Bird + Clueless and why they’re both pretty good representations of teenage girls.
Until then :)
Bianca