Rampant Media Consumption—November 2015: Confessions and Guilty Pleasures

A year ago when we first launched the RMC, people were pretty excited about it, and would send in their short book + movie + tv + art + more experimental media (like the sounds on the bus) links and reviews every week. But participation dwindled. We started posting monthly, and then less than once a month, just when enough people had sent that in. Then, during a staff meeting, it came out that a lot of us feel a little self-conscious about what we go home and read/watch/listen to unwind. So we decided that this month we’d all be super honest and not worry about meeting some invisible cultural bar. 

So here it is, the RMC guilty pleasures edition!

Jeff

My mom got me into watching Dr. Who. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but it’s strangely addicting.

I found a free Hank Williams record and said “Why not?”

But I’m not sure why I keep playing it.

Hadn’t seen the movie Trading Places in a long long time. So yeah, I watched it again. 

Meggyn

Erykah Badu’s new mixtape “But You Cain’t Use My Phone” is hands down my favorite release this year. It was released today and it’s a careful selection of phone related songs that have been important to the r&b/hip hop scene for the past two decades. This is important. 

[Meggyn also wrote: “I made a playlist called Velotronica on Spotify full of my guilty Vegas dance favorites. Should I link? (They power me through the hardest hills.)” But she did not send the link.]

Elly

I watched the whole latest season of Project Runway. Then for a while I couldn’t stop watching all the Bollywood movies that are hitting Netflix, especially the amazing ones from the 90s starring Shah Rukh Khan—my favorite was Dil to Pagal Hai (The Heart is Crazy), which left me feeling weirdly giddy and whistling the tag line on my bike for a week.

I spend a lot more time every week than I ever plan to reading long articles online. Recent ones that stuck with me include Rebecca Solnit’s ultimate answer to the whole “having it all” racket + the tedious questions women are supposed to constantly field about our reproductive plans, and the super-long New Yorker article about Megan Phelps-Roper—every paragraph had a new amazing reveal. And here’s a real pleasure: Carrie Fisher and her dog Gary splendidly demolish inane interview questions on Good Morning America.

Thea

Can’t stop watching Spiral, the French crime drama. 

Finally watched This Must be the Place movie with Sean Penn by Paolo Sorrentino. Wasn’t disappointed. 

More BBC bicycle love.

Ack! Now even coloring books are gendered. 

Tomy

The Great British Baking Show — It’s great. I don’t know what it is about it that makes me very happy.