Where has the time gone this month? With some glorious sunny weather and the summer solstice bringing us into the second half of the year I have been spending a lot of time outside soaking up that Vitamin D. Fear not though, plenty of culture was still consumed but this month I have been loving anything I can listen to whilst baking in the sun, so audiobooks, podcasts and plenty of music!
Film and TV
We Are Lady Parts, Streaming on All 4
This show is everything television in 2021 and beyond should be! When punk band Lady Parts need a guitarist they seek out stage shy, PhD student Amina. Amina loves playing music but can’t get on stage without being sick. Feeling the pressure from best friend Noor, she thinks happiness is in finding a husband and settling down, rather than engaging in musical anarchy. The show challenges the stereotypical representation of Muslim women but more than that, it puts female Muslim narratives and interiority at the centre of the story, showing these women as multi-faceted, dynamic individuals, something often not afforded to anyone who isn’t white on screen. It is joyful, chaotic and with six, twenty-five minute episodes it is so bingeable.
My favourite ‘Lady Parts’:
- The trip to the countryside
- Ayesha’s job as an Uber driver
- Momtaz vs. influencer Zarina in the seventh episode
Also I need ‘Bashir With the Good Beard’ on Spotify immediately!
Pieces of a Woman, Currently streaming on Netflix (TW: Birth trauma)
Starring Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman follows young couple, Martha and Sean, who lose their baby, shortly after it is born. The first half an hour of the film has you gripped as we follow Martha’s labour in what appears like one continuous shot. As an audience we know that something is going to go wrong and you are waiting for the obvious moment of complication, that never comes. It is intimate, realistic and incredibly visceral and in all honesty I found it very uncomfortable to watch because it was shot and told so brilliantly.
We follow how the grief consumes the couple in the months that follow. We feel Martha’s isolation and see the invisible signs of trauma that so many women have to carry with them inside their bodies. We see the breakdown in relationships with family members and how grief can manifest in self-destructive behaviours like addiction. I thought the film did a great job of honing in on the details of grief, of womanhood, sobriety and trauma but perhaps in a desire to tie things up positively the ending felt a little bit rushed and overly symbolic.
Glow Up, Streaming on BBC iPlayer
This month saw the grand finale of this year’s Glow Up competition. Glow Up is my happy place, over lockdown last year I would watch it on my lunch break and it would give me an hour of calm appreciation watching the MUA’s at work. There is something mesmeric in watching someone use a face like a blank canvas and transform it into something extraordinary; especially when that is not your skill set, my make-up knowledge extends to occasionally cracking out a NAKED palette!
If you haven’t seen the show, each week the contestants compete in two challenges, they have an industry style task usually at a photoshoot or on set for a TV show, where they have to create a make-up look utilising a specific skill. They then have the creative brief which they design ahead of time and have to execute in a few hours. The two weakest MUA’s of the week then compete in the Face Off, where they are given a technical task to do on a pair of identical twins. (Every week I wonder where they keep finding these new twins!) They are judged by make-up legends Val Garland and Dominic Skinner and the contestant who is the weakest in the Face Off is sent home.
What is joyful about the show is watching how these passionate artists bloom under the pressure of the competition. No matter how far they get in the competion each contestant has their own light because they have found something they love and that makes for an addictive, feel-good watch with a few make-up tips thrown in!
Luca, Available on Disney +
The latest addition to Pixar’s catalogue, Luca is the beautiful story of sea nymphs, Luca and Alberto, who fall in love with life on land despite their parents’ fears that they will be mistreated by land folk because they are different. The film is an allegory for anything that sets a young person apart from the community around them, but given the tender relationship between Luca and Alberto, this is Disney’s venture into a queer narrative and I only wish they had been bolder with it.
I loved the depiction of the small Italian fishing village, which after a year of looking at the same four walls felt like being on a mini-holiday, I loved how much pasta was eaten, I loved the Peter Pan vibes I was getting from Alberto, I loved the iconography of the vespa and I loved the positive depiction of learning and seeking knowledge. This is a perfect Sunday afternoon watch, just have some tissues handy, because like most Pixar films, it is one emotional sucker punch after another.
Books
Hot Stew by Fiona Mozley
I picked up this book because it is about the eclectic inhabitants of London’s, Soho. I love Soho and I can’t wait to get back to those narrow, laddered streets as soon as possible. Told from several different perspectives the novel focuses on one particular row of buildings in the area belonging to wealthy property developer, Agatha, who’s family has had a monopoly on the area for decades. Above ground we meet sex workers, punters, actors and lawyers, below ground we meet the rising number of homeless people who have sought shelter in the underground sewers and cellars of the capital. The book is a bit of an epic, with a wide scope across characters and stories but I stuck with it as each story developed and the relationships between the characters more entangled and messy. It is a reminder of the lives that co-exist within the deepest hearts of our cities and a comment on how capitalism can obliterate our history.
Podcasts
Table Manners, Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify
I bloody love Table Manners, the podcast hosted by singer Jessie Ware and her mum, Lennie direct from their kitchen. Each episode they have a celebrity guest over, Lennie cooks something delicious and they ask their guest about their favourite meals, where they like to eat and also about upcoming projects and life in general. The first one I listened to, well over a year ago, was the episode featuring Mark Ronson where they treated him to some matzo ball soup and a Jewish spread of dreams. I’ve been obsessed ever since!
I am featuring it this month as they released two particularly brilliant episodes. The first was with Michelle Visage who has the exact same, no-nonsense, ‘I’ve lived a million lives’ energy as my own mum, and who I could listen to all day. The second was Guy Garvey, of band, Elbow, who turns up with a box of pastel de natas and an honest, funny, everyman charm that I was not expecting. His episode was a joy to listen to (whether you are a fan of Elbow or not) and they talk all things music, Manchester and of course food.
Music
Fine Line by Harry Styles
Harry Styles’ album Fine Line released in 2019 is sunshine in audio form. With the sunny weather this month I cranked up the volume on ‘Golden’ and played out the rest of the album while I baked in the sun. It is punchy and playful in places, heartfelt and earnest in others. It is wonderfully balanced and Styles sounds like an artist who finally has the freedom to make whatever music they feel like whether that be poppy tracks like ‘Adore You’, reflective tracks like ‘Cherry’, or slightly psychedelic inspired ‘Sunflower, Vol.6’ and ‘Treat People With Kindness’. I’ve had this album on repeat this month and couldn’t recommend it more for those days when you need an injection of sunshine or optimism!
Transparent Soul by WILLOW ft. Travis Barker
My sixteen year old self was SCREAMING when I heard this for the first time on TikTok. It sounds like it could have come straight off of Paramore’s 2007 album, Riot! but the track is actually by WILLOW, as in Willow Smith, as in ‘I Whip My Hair Back Forth’. WILLOW is now a fully fledged rock star and while listening to ‘Transparent Soul’ on repeat this month, I also listened to some of her recent back catalogue and couldn’t recommend it enough, tracks like ‘Wait A Minute!’, ‘Meet Me At Our Spot’ and ‘Marceline’ in particular. Like with We Are Lady Parts, it is refreshing to see a black woman absolutely owning the rock scene and making music that reflects who they are rather than who society is used to seeing them as. G’warn WILLOW! I’ll just be over here, pretending that my biggest problem is still teenage angst rather than the cost of council tax!
Midnight Culture 
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