The Weekend Snack 2.18.24

Not Ekin-Su

Welcome to the Weekend Snack - a quick roundup of my favorite bites from the past weekend.

Happy Sunday, Culture Fanatics! After a few evenings of catching up with friends while fending off a cold, oh sweet Ekin-Su, I’m feeling grateful for a long weekend. A few recs from the last couple of days: 

Untitled, Ho Chi Minh City, 1998 by An-My Lê.

• 🎨 An-My Lê Exhibit at MoMA. I visited MoMA this past weekend to see An-My Lê: Two Rivers/Giữa hai giòng sông/Entre deux rivières. Lê, who was born in Vietnam in 1960 but came to the U.S. as a political refugee in 1975, visualizes our ideas of war not through active combat but through photographed pre-enactments and reenactments - interrogating how war is performed, rehearsed, and mythologized. The exhibit is an affecting career-spanning survey, but I was particularly impacted by a section that displays handwoven embroidered screenshots of a pornographic film - set in a fictional Vietcong village starring a group of American G.I.s and female Asian sex workers. The mixed media tapestries are juxtaposed against Lê’s photographs of erotic sculptures from excavated Pompeii ruins - images that were generally accepted as art at the time but featured enslaved war prisoners. An arresting look at the fetishization and sexual politics of war. The exhibit runs through March 16, and I’d make time for it if you’re in the area. 

• 🗞️ Struggling to make ends meet on $180k because you're spending $80k on childcare by

  Lindsey Stanberry
  of The Purse (the founding editor of Refinery29’s Money Diaries series). The Purse gives detailed insight into the day-to-day financial expenses of parenthood, and this specific article focuses on the rising childcare costs in the U.S. The comment section is an equally fascinating read, with both shared personal experiences and opposing viewpoints on full display. If you enjoy the Money Diaries series, you’ll find this project insightful.

• 📺 Nathan For You. As I’m still thinking about and talking about The Curse, I decided to revisit Nathan Fielder’s project from a few years ago, Nathan For You. It’s a docu-reality comedy series where Nathan positions himself as an advisor to real people with struggling businesses and suggests outlandish ideas to improve sales (parodying the reality show format). All featured people were real and aware they were being filmed but unaware of the show’s comedy bent to ensure genuine reactions. Did you see the above viral video of a goat saving a pig a few years ago? The product of one of Fielder’s business ideas that the press latched onto, unaware of its origins. You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly if this is for you, but I think it’s hysterical, and you get an excellent feel for the sensibility that evolved into The Curse. 

And I’ll leave you with this TikTok - because sometimes you can only process trauma by finding the funny.

@madihart_soccerplz dont bully him btw u just have to laugh!! #storytime #anxiousattachment #therapytiktok #daddyissues #storytimes

Tiktok failed to load.

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What did you watch this weekend? Tell me in the comments.