Category: News

Foraging isn’t a trend. It’s something that has been part of human existence since we, well, existed. But as we moved into cities and capitalism took control of every aspect of our lives in order to make living in those cities viable, a lot of us stepped further and further away from nature. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Living in a city doesn’t mean you can’t forage for food. Taking a little time on days off to get back into the country is healthy for your body and soul. It can also really help you keep a cleaner, fresher, and healthier pantry too.

We’re not saying you should just go out in the woods and start poking around and hope for the best. Don’t do that. Successfully and safely foraging requires education about what is actually out there. That education used to feel a million miles away for some, especially if you were in an urban area. Today, more than ever, there are people who are doing the heavy lifting for you and then sharing that wisdom online, on their dinner plates, and in books. So we’re going to highlight three folks we think you should follow if you want to get into foraging and harvesting your own food, even in a small way.

Karl Holl:

Meet Chef Karl Holl:

Chef Karl Holl didn’t reinvent the foraged menu. He knows that. But that doesn’t stop him from diving deep into the woods outside of Portland, Oregon in the pursuit of something that goes beyond just “local” for his menus at Spätzle & Speck.

Holl has been foraging for over 15 years now both for personal use and his kitchens. Holl has taken that knowledge of foraging for herbs, spices, and the illustrious dearth of Pacific Northwest mushrooms and rolled that into an outreach program called Forager Goods & Company. Based in Portland, Holl, and his team will take you out into the wilds and teach you how to find edible plants and fungi while also imparting knowledge about how to actually use them in your meals.

Advice for Getting Started:

Holl’s first bit of advice is about what your goals should be when foraging. “I don’t go out there and just focus on one thing,” Holl explains. “Of course, you target something that day. But there’s such an abundance that I feel like there are endless edibles that pop up throughout the season that you should be looking for.”

Then there’s the matter of knowing what to look for and Holl takes a laidback but very engaged approach that trades the library for a farmer’s market. Holl puts it this way, “you need to keep educating yourself and staying curious of what’s out there.” Holl continues, “but, I don’t find myself deep in books. I find myself spending more time at the farmer’s market and asking foragers and farmers I met there about their incredible finds, what grows where, and which windows you can actually harvest what they’re selling.” Holl says that connecting through the local community on a one-to-one basis is what really drives his education and ability to go out there in the woods and harvest for himself, his diners, and his community.

Indy Srinath

Meet Indy Srinath:

Indy Srinath wants you to source your own food, even if you’re living in a densely populated city. Srinath works as a model but her passion in life is in both urban farming and foraging for her food. Srinath’s engagement with foraging goes beyond just filling her own pantry, she’s deeply devoted to learning about the way things grow and why before she harvests, how those foods nourish our bodies and minds, and who she can learn from to better understand the ecosystem that we’re all a part of.

It’s in that last point that we can all learn something before we go out into nature ourselves. Srinath believes that a big part of harvesting wild foods is to listen to the plants and, most importantly, the people that came before us.

Advice for Getting Started:

Srinath took a unique approach to start her path as a forager. She wasn’t out in the wood going after honeypots of mushrooms after a rainstorm. Srinath breaks down her first experiences foraging like this, “When I started foraging, I actually studied identifying flowers because I feel like they’re really abundant, they’re all so unique and different, and there’s a lot of medicinal wildflowers.” Srinath started out by identifying the flowers that grew around her which is something pretty much any person can go out and do right now. “Violets, dandy lions, and goldenrod can be a great beginner exercise in foraging,” Srinath tells us. “And there’s a lot less chance of misidentification when you’re foraging for wildflowers.”

M. Karlos Baca

Meet M. Karlos Baca:

M. Karlos Baca is an Indigenous (former) chef, harvester, farmer, activist, educator, and leader. Baca works directly with his community and other Indigenous nations to help them reconnect with their traditional foodways of both harvesting and farming, which starts with understanding the massive pantry that is the natural world all around us.

Through communities like iCollecitve, Baca has worked with other Indigenous chefs, bakers, seed-savers, foragers, and farmers to create an online journal called The Gathering Basket. The digital book is one-part cookbook and one-part community harvesting journal that’s “rooted in the cultivation of Indigenous food sovereignty and elevating and preserving Indigenous Narratives.” The book is available to anyone looking to learn from the original stewards of these lands for only $7 per issue.

Advice for Getting Started:

While subscribing to The Gathering Basket is the first step any budding forager should take, Baca has more insight to pass along to anyone looking to source their own wild foods. “When you finally decide that, ‘Okay, I’m not going to live this way [on industrialized food]. I don’t want to be an asshole anymore by playing my part in destroying the earth and engaging in this western white supremacy [food system].’ Once you start engaging in that way and you see a plant,” Karlos explains, “You can feel it call you. You can feel something tug and you go, ‘Hey, I’m going to introduce myself, I don’t know you. But I can tell that you’re trying to say something that I can’t hear yet.’” Karlos continues, “and so I always just ask for a teacher. I ask, ‘when you’re ready to bring a teacher to me, or that information forward for me to experience a relationship with you, then that’s what we’ll do.’”

Baca makes it clear that engaging with nature isn’t about just taking whatever you see. It’s about taking your time, listening to nature, and allowing your knowledge to build organically as you grow along with the rest of the world out there.

At last, Bruno Mars and Anderson. Paak’s new Silk Sonic album, An Evening With Silk Sonic, is finally out. With Mars and .Paak at the helm, there’s not much need for featured guests, but they packed a couple into one track: Bootsy Collins (who also serves as the album’s narrator) and Thundercat join the fun on the smooth and funky “After Last Night.”

Mars told Apple Music of the song, “That one got a lot of Bootsy on it. And my boy Thundercat came in and blessed us. It’s just one of them songs — everything was built to be played live, so that song is one of those we can keep going for 10 minutes.”

In an interview from March, Mars said of working with Collins, “He represents what a superstar is, from the whole package, everything. From the silhouette, the glasses, and we grew up listening to that. He’s got that iconic voice, so when me and Andy put this project together, I said, ‘It’d be cool to have Bootsy narrate this thing and thread all these songs together.’” .Paak added, “We put the setlist of doom together, you know, and we needed somebody, a real OG, to host it and guide everything along.

Meanwhile, Thundercat has been doing some tweeting about the album. Late last night, he shared a photo of himself with .Paak and Mars, and this morning, he revealed he apparently got a gift from Collins, as he posted a photo of a pair of flashy glasses and wrote, “Thank you uncle @Bootsy_Collins you have made me who I am & I love you so much. Blastin off into some good vibrations!!!”

Listen to “After Last Night” above.

An Evening With Silk Sonic is out now via Atlantic Records. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Sitting at lunch in West Hollywood with rising pop star Faouzia a few weeks ago, she almost could’ve been any other 21-year-old excited about visiting Los Angeles. Almost, except very few other 21-year-olds could expertly describe the brilliant, stretchy black Annakiki dress she was rocking, a piece with striking, geometric shoulders that read high-fashion without any overbearing glitz and glam. As we settled in for an interview at Cavatina, an outdoor garden-side restaurant tucked just inside the Sunset Marquis Hotel, the Moroccan-born singer-songwriter immediately began to gush about the designs of Anna Kolomoiets, aka Annakiki, a Ukrainian designer who has caught her attention of late.

“I’m actually wearing Annakiki right now,” she says. “I’m a big fan of Annakiki because it’s a designer that has such unique shapes, very cool prints and very cool colors. It’s definitely a brand that stands out — in the way that you know it’s Annakiki when you see it.” Born Faouzia Ouihya in Casablanca, Morocco, the artist moved to Canada at a very young age and grew up in Manitoba, where fashion was always one of her interests. Along with a very obvious early talent for music, Faouzia has been paying attention to her own personal taste for a lot longer than the average twenty-something, partly due to the intersecting cultures in her background.

“I’m obsessed with style and fashion, that’s a really big world for me, even though music is the one that’s obviously the most apparent,” she continues. “I find it’s just as important and it’s truly a passion of mine.” And that isn’t just lip service, either — the day after our interview she flew to Dubai to attend the always exclusive Chanel fashion show there, and shoot a spread for Harper’s Bazaar, one of the most prestigious style magazines in the world. “I’m literally over the moon, I probably won’t be getting any sleep tonight,” she laughs, happy to withstand the grueling flight for the chance to preview a new season from one of her favorite brands.

If you’ve ever caught Faouzia at a live performance, or seen one of her colorful, carefully choreographed music videos, her emphasis on style as an element within her music will stand out immediately. Though she’s still starting out in her career as an artist, the singer-songwriter already has a signature style all her own, one that’s defined by high-fashion taste level, unexpected modern twists, and the balance between her stage persona, her at-home presence, and her Morrocan heritage.

“There’s three different Faouzias: Casual/dressed down Faouzia, show/artist Faouzia, and then there’s Moroccan Faouzia,” she explains. “I like to tap into those three categories and vary between them. Most of the time you’ll find me in the dressed-down Faouzia phase, where I resort to really big, oversized hoodies, a cool shoe with a pant, and then dress my hair and makeup up to do something cool with that.” And as she continues to establish herself as a performing artist, her stage look is getting the necessary attention from designers who want to be a part of the persona she’s building for the stage.

“I’ve been talking with fashion designers to build that brand and build that image for show Faouzia,” she says. “I want it to be very weird and cool, and play off shapes and colors. I like to stay very uniform with colors, so sticking to like two colors per outfit. And I like to be over-the-top when it comes to performing and the outfits I wear as artist Faouzia. I’m a big fan of really high heels, like chunky boots or chunky heels. And then for Moroccan Faouzia I would say it’s just traditional wear, like the kaftan, which is more traditional, dressed up attire, or the djellaba, which is more dressed down.”

Even after moving to Manitoba, Faouzia’s Moroccan heritage remained a huge part of her life. She describes her childhood home as a “mini Morocco” with a full Moroccan living room, and she spoke in Arabic or French with her parents at home. “I ate Morrocan food, and I’m still very tied to my roots,” she explains. “I don’t feel like I disconnected from my culture, which is really great. I got to really experience two different cultures growing up, Canadian culture and Moroccan culture.”

Along with Annakiki, Faouzia also lists Chanel, Prada, and Bulgari as other designers who have influenced her personal style.“Chanel is one of them, I’m a big big fan of Chanel,” she says of her couture picks. “Prada is another brand that I really love. They have really interesting shapes, too. I recently got a pair of Prada shoes and the bottom has two parts to it, a shape that almost looks like an animal or something. So if I turn to the side you can see the two different shapes — it’s a very cool shoe. Bulgari also has really amazing bags and accessories. They focus mainly on purses and bags, but they’re mostly known for their bags. Those are probably my top three.”

But long before she was old enough to be interested in couture, Faouzia’s powerhouse voice was turning heads globally. As a teenager, she won so many local contests and competitions that Paradigm Talent Agency signed her — and Atlantic Records followed shortly after and she began releasing a steady stream of singles. Last year’s Stripped EP, includes six of her songs pared down to their simplest form to highlight her voice, and she’s continued releasing new music throughout this year, too. 2020’s standout included a duet with John Legend on the grief-stricken, elegant piano ballad “Minefields,” and this year’s offerings, “Hero” and her latest single “Puppet,” emphasize a fierce independence that comes through in everything she does.

As a Muslim woman, Faouzia’s identity intersects with her style in another key way — she prefers modesty even while building her own iconic looks. And it isn’t always super accessible to lock in the fresh, hip looks while also covering up. “I’ve always strived to dress modestly and be as covered up as possible,” she says. “But I’ve always wanted to do that in a way that felt like I was being true to myself and my creative direction. It’s been a lot of fun exploring this world of artistry, but also being covered up. I just want to prove to myself and to any other young girls like me that you can do that. I just want there to be a space for people who want to be fashionable and have a signature look, and do want to cover up.”

As she continues to explore what works best for her personal style and artistic persona, there are lots of female role models in the pop world that Faouzia looks up to. “Rihanna is the style icon,” she laughs. “I’m always anticipating what she’s going to wear, and she never disappoints. And then Lady Gaga, because she’s always out of the box. She makes choices that people would think are weird into something fashionable. Also, Ariana Grande has a very simple and sweet style that I like. There’s something about taking something so simple and making it feel so elevated.”

Faouzia is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s impossible to deny that travel has a massive ecological impact on the planet. From emissions to single-use products to entire accessory industries built around cheap plastic (looking at you, the luggage industry), the effect is massive and needs to change. It’s time to start taking the idea of making changes seriously and for all of us to start doing our part to forge greener solutions.

A small place to start would be by making smarter purchases for your own travel needs. It’s not going to fix everything, but it is a step in the right direction towards a greener life. And that’s where the eco-leaders below come in.

We’ve compiled a list of forward-thinkers working in the travel space who want to offer you a chance to green your gear when you travel. This covers everything from who your money supports when you book a hotel to the shoes on your feet. Hopefully, the four entries below will help you on your own journey to making more environmentally solid choices when you travel.

Jessica Blotter and Sean Krejci — Kind Traveler

Kind Traveler is the first socially conscious Give + Get hotel booking platform that allows travelers to impact the communities they visit positively. Co-Founded by Jessica Blotter and Sean Krejci, the pair designed Kind Traveler to help people unlock exclusive hotel rates and perks in exchange for a $10 nightly donation to a highlighted local charity. 100 percent of the proceeds from the donations are given to charities.

Kind Traveler is growing a global movement that helps travelers give back to locals while also supporting hotels, allowing these businesses to make a comeback after long setbacks. To help better support the return of travel and local charities even more broadly, Blotter and Krejci launch Kind Traveler 2.0. They’re expanding destinations, hotels, and charities with even more opportunities for positive impact.

Mark Tsigounis — The Hibear All Day Adventure Flask

Bringing consciousness and sustainability to the adventure community was an essential goal for Mark Tsigounis. After traveling around the world, Mark learned the value of doing more than just talking about the environment. He wanted to contribute something, so he developed The Hibear All Day Adventure Flask.

The flask was explicitly designed to provide travelers with a better and more sustainable bottle for everyday adventures. This award-winning all-day adventure flask has a stylish design and is often referred to as the Swiss Army Knife of bottles. The 32-oz. vacuum insulated bottle has a built-in pour-over feature that works for everything from coffee and tea to margaritas to hearty clam chowder.

Indré Rockefeller and Andy Krantz — Paravel

From luggage to bags to organizers, co-founders Indré Rockefeller and Andy Krantz started Paravel in 2016 to create travel goods that feature a timeless aesthetic, exceptional functionality, and forward-thinking sustainability. These two spent years comparing travel hacks and notes on luggage but could never find a brand that checked all the boxes. So, they decided to make the products they couldn’t find themselves.

Recently awarded the 2021 Travel + Leisure Global Vision Award, they constructed luggage goods sustainably with EcoCraft Canvas made from upcycled water bottles, recycled vegan leather, recycled zippers, and recycled polycarbonate. Paravel has upcycled over two million plastic water bottles to date, offset 8,150 tons of Co2 through their carbon-neutral shipping program, and planted over 35,000 trees with their Eden Reforestation Projects. So next time you are packing up to go anywhere, invest in luggage that supports better choices for your journeys ahead.

Monxi Garza — SUAVS

SUAVS Founder Monxi Garza couldn’t find the travel shoe she wanted, so she made one. Garza designed a sustainable travel shoe built to withstand the all-day wear that comes with walking the streets of a new city. They are also designed to help keep your feet dry and prevent blisters, which is crucial for any globetrotting traveler out there.

All of Garza’s shoes are made with one hundred percent recycled knit derived from post-consumer recycled plastic bottles. An average of eight bottles go into each pair of shoes instead of into a landfill. Garza also sources 100 percent vegan materials, packages her shoes in dual-purpose boxes, and donates all extra footwear to organizations like Soles4Souls.

What do you think of when you imagine a beer? Whatever you see in your mind’s eye is probably your favorite beer. If you love Pilsner Urquell, you likely imagine a pint of that crisp, refreshing, classic beer. If you prefer barrel-aged stouts, maybe you envision a tulip glass with Founders KBS or Fremont Barrel Aged Dark Star. But what if we told you that you could only pick one beer for the rest of your life, what would you pick?

In the past, we’ve asked craft beer experts to tell us their favorite stouts, porters, and fall beers. Asking about IPAs, stouts, and other specific styles leads you to a pretty direct path to some well-known favorites. Even asking for fall beer picks leads to Oktoberfest beers, wet-hopped IPAs, and other fall favorites. Today, we decided to get wild with it. Instead of asking for a specific season or style, we asked some craft beer experts to tell us their all-time favorite beers.

And when we say all-time favorite beers, we’re literally talking about any beer style they imbibe any time of year. Their answers definitely didn’t disappoint. They gave us a mix of American and European beers, pilsner, lagers, rauchbiers, and even trappist ales. Keep scrolling to see their selections. Comment at the end and tell us your all-time favorite beers.

Spezial Rauchbier

Jack Hendler, co-owner/brewer of Jack’s Abby Craft Lagers in Framingham, Massachusetts

ABV: 4.9%

Average Price: $7 for a 500ml bottle

Why This Beer?

It’s not the smokiest of the Bamberg beers but they still smoke all their own malts in the brewery themselves. It’s sort of a coppery-ambery style beer. It’s an awesome beer year-round. This beer reminds me of being in Bamberg. I loved smoked beers. People get scared off by these beers because of the smoke flavor. It’s really unfortunate because they are really missing out. It’s not one of the over-the-top smokey beers, so it’s still mainly malty with more traditional lager flavors.

Coors Banquet Beer

Shaun O’Sullivan, co-founder and brewmaster at 21st Amendment Brewery in San Francisco

ABV: 5%

Average Price: $6 for a six-pack

Why This Beer?

For me, when choosing a beer that I’ll drink forever, it needs to have high drinkability. It should be pleasant, approachable, and accessible for all occasions. Coors Banquet is that beer for me (bring on the hate mail beer people!) with its refreshing sweet notes, light malt aroma, and zippy carbonation.

Duchesse de Bourgogne

David “Zambo” Szamborski, brewmaster at Paperback Brewing in Glendale, California

ABV: 6.2%

Average Price: $14 for a 750ml bottle

Why This Beer?

I wish I could brew Flemish beers without tainting my whole brewery. Rodenbach and Duchesse de Bourgogne are both favorites. The sour cherry notes are balanced by rich malt flavors.

Leffe Blonde

Jerry Siotte, co-owner and director of brewhouse operations at Lone Tree Brewing in Lone Tree, Colorado

ABV: 6.6%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

Why This Beer?

Leffe Blonde is my go-to beer. It’s strong, malty, and has a spicy yeast character. It drinks like a meal and that’s not a bad thing.

Hofbräu München Original

Mike Kasian, brewer at Bootstrap Brewing in Longmont, Colorado

ABV: 5.1%

Average Price: $9 for a six-pack

Why This Beer?

Munich Helles is crisp and clean with a little malt backbone to it. Just a quintessential German-style that never disappoints. It’s hard to beat Hofbräu München Original. It’s classic, crisp, and perfect any time of year.

Orval Trappist Ale

Isaiah Mangold, innovation supervisor at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California

ABV: 6.9%

Average Price: $6 for a 12-ounce bottle

Why This Beer?

This authentic Trappist ale is truly one of a kind. This beer truly is alive with flavors and when properly cellared evolves beautifully. Slight fruity notes of apricot, tropical fruit with mild spicy notes from both the fermentation, and dry hopping blend with a pronounced bitterness that invites drinkability. Add in the twist of conditioning with a touch of wild yeast and this beer’s flavor will continue to evolve over time. Amazing.

Poperings Hommel Bier

Matthew Barry, director of operations at Fieldwork Brewing Company in Berkeley, California

ABV: 7.5%

Average Price: $19 for a four-pack

Why This Beer?

Poperings Hommel Bier is a hopped-up Belgian brew that defies easy categorization. Belgian IPA? Hoppy Belgian Strong? I first seriously dove into the beer world while working at a wine shop where we had two coolers of bottled beer, one for German beer and one for Belgian beer. This beer has very floral Belgian esters, grassy hop character, plus orange blossom and grapefruit pith. I still need to make the trip out to Poperings’ hop festival.

North Coast Puck Saison

Chris McManus, head brewer at Phantom Canyon Brewing Company in Colorado Springs, Colorado

ABV: 4%

Average Price: $8 for a four-pack

Why This Beer?

Puck Saison from North Coast brewing is my all-time favorite. Something about this light, crisp, and effervescent petite Saison just makes me happy.

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier

Adam Lawrence, head brewer at Left Hand Brewing in Longmont, Colorado

ABV: 4.5%

Average Price: $10 for a six-pack

Why This Beer?

Weihenstephaner Hefe Weissbier is a classic. When I am overwhelmed with over-the-top beers, I seek this out. This beer is flavorful and rich, which is achieved through a great balance among only malt, hops, and yeast. The banana aroma is perfect.

Pinthouse Pizza Electric Jellyfish IPA

Alex Paine, sales manager at WeldWerks Brewing in Greeley, Colorado

ABV: 6.5%

Average Price: $19 for a four-pack of 16-ounce cans

Why This Beer?

Pinthouse Pizza Electric Jellyfish is a great beer for any setting. It is an easily-approachable IPA for any beer drinker. Big notes of mango and citrus, while maintaining a great balance of piney bitterness.

Carlsberg Pilsner

Mark Youngquist, founder of Dolores River Brewery in Dolores, Colorado

ABV: 5%

Average Price: $15 for a twelve-pack

Why This Beer?

Carlsberg’s insatiable curiosity gave us the pH scale, pure yeast cultures, and one fine pilsner. It’s round and soft with pleasingly understated carbonation and finishes crisp and clean. Far different than its Bavarian and Czech cousins, Carlsberg is less about hop forward bitter, and more about crisp balance. It approaches beer-drinking Nirvana.

Fonta Flora Errday Saison

Patrick Ware, co-founder & head of brewing ops at Arizona Wilderness Brewing Co. in Phoenix, Arizona

ABV: 3.8%

Average Price: $39 for a 1.5 liter bottle

Why This Beer?

This has beautiful farmhouse ale-level acidity with a funky aroma at a crushable ABV. Beers like this make so much sense to my palate. My mind thinks of putting in a hard day’s work in the sun, then rewarding yourself with something refreshing. This is that beer.

It goes without saying, but Ye (formerly Kanye West) and Taylor Swift have had a famously contentious relationship since the infamous stage-crashing incident at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards. Now, Ye has revealed that the situation really impacted him, so much so that during the aftermath, he fled to Japan.

The second part of Ye’s recent Drink Champs interview is out now, and in it, he revealed (as Pitchfork notes) that after the VMAs, he “did a personal exile” with Virgil Abloh in Japan because “all of America hated” him. He also said, “Everyone was like, ‘You wrong for this one, you won’t win this,’ by telling me, ‘You shouldn’t have ran on stage, you were rude,’ God forbid.”

He also addressed the VMAs in the previously released first part of the interview, saying, “I was actually talked in to going to the awards show. At that time, it was [my manager] Don C.’s job to talk me into stuff. They find new people whose job would be to talk me into doing something that I don’t want to do — influencers, people around you. So that night, I said, ‘Man, I’m not going to this awards show. I’m not sitting through this no more.’ And the very first award, they sit me in the front row. You got [Beyoncé’s] ‘Single Ladies’ video… this is one of the best videos in history. So it’s not that it’s just for her when the artist does something that’s that compelling and incredible. We got to respect it.”

Watch the new Drink Champs episode below.

Rebecca Hall, well-known British actress and daughter of mixed-race American opera singer Maria Ewing, makes her directorial debut with Passing, out on Netflix this week. Adapted by Hall from Nella Larson’s novel of the same name, Passing tells the story of Reeny and Clare (Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga), two high school friends, the latter of whom is now “passing” as white and married to a racist white man in 1920s Harlem.

Hall’s pedigree, as a theater actress at Cambridge and daughter of the founder of the Royal Shakespeare Company, shows in a film that feels very much like a stage play or a Masterpiece Theatre production; tasteful, erudite, meticulously staged and impeccably acted. Which is to say, it feels more like a film I know I should like than one I actually do. It’s so painfully mannered that it doesn’t have much room to breathe, where the characters talk more like people probably wrote in letters than they actually spoke in daily life. Where the lead character says things like “Clare? Why, I haven’t seen her in an unmentionable time.”

Passing sets up its premise early on when Thompson’s painfully proper Irene “Reeny” bumps into her old friend Clare (Negga), a modern cosmopolitan type who Reeny soon realizes has been “passing” as white. Complete with a husband, played by Alexander Skarsgard, who has “affectionally” nicknamed her “Nig” and who, when pressed on his racial views, specifies that he doesn’t just dislike “Negroes,” he hates them. Of course, he doesn’t realize that his own wife is African-American herself, and the situation has trapped Reeny in a kind of non-consensual passing, forced to keep up the ruse out of fidelity to Clare and fear for both their safety.

It’s an interesting, provocative situation on the face of it, but the movie basically treads water from there, basically maintaining a kind of narrative stasis until a grandly symbolic deus ex machina ending. Symbolic of what I’m not quite sure, but it seems to be going more for symbolism than realism. The flapper clothes and art deco stylings are all rendered in gauzy black and white photography, which, again, feels like a gesture of conspicuous symbolism. It invites us to ponder the artistic gesture of it all while keeping us at arm’s length from the actual feelings of its characters, who are trying to make their way in a multi-hued yet painfully colorist world. It feels less driven by the characters than by its creator making a choice.

The great André Holland, again playing a doctor in early 20th century New York just like he did in The Knick, shows up as Reeny’s husband, Brian, who seems intent on exposing his children to the horrors of race relations in America. Reeny, meanwhile, chairwoman of the Negro Welfare League, would prefer to shield them from all the gory details of the latest lynchings. This kind of thing takes up most of the movie, two characters taking opposite sides of various racial debates. Clare wants to “pass,” Reeny claims she’s happy just the way she is. Brian wants to move the family abroad, Reeny doesn’t. Issues are discussed! If you’ve seen a play before, you’ve seen these kinds of dialogues.

Reeny seems determined to avoid Clare, and Clare is equally determined to butt into her life, to experience the Harlem Renaissance she’s been missing while cloistered amongst the whites. Brian seems to have a thing for overtly sexual Clare, who represents something different than his white-gloved wife. Glances are exchanged. Words become terse. That’s about it.

These characters all seem so locked into “types,” so studiously crafted to represent issues in debates, that they don’t have much space to evolve or banter or simply exist as believable human beings. There’s one scene, a party at the Negro League where we meet Bill Camp’s louche intellectual, Hugh, in which the film finally feels like a living breathing thing rather than just a machine for setting up premises. It’s the lone scene where the characters seem like they just get to hang out and interact with one another rather than be stand-ins and debate props for various societal issues.

Passing seems so intent on being Symbolic and Dramatic and Meaningful that it forgets to just be, to try to live in the characters just a little before forcing them into various provocative dichotomies. When the Big Ending comes, it does so, predictably, feeling like a forced attempt at having something Very Dramatic Happen, rather than as a natural culmination of believable characters interacting. It’s certainly pregnant with meaning, though it would’ve been nice if it had been pregnant with being interesting.

‘Passing’ is available now in theaters and on Netflix. Vince Mancini is on Twitter. You can check out his film review archive here.

Showtime’s Yellowjackets is a piece of slow-burn splatter art that hits the canvas in intense, albeit imperfect form. It’s a glorious mess that includes the somehow-never-before-attempted chemistry combination of Juliette Lewis and Christina Ricci. Filling out the lead (adult) quartet would be Tawney Cypress and Melanie Lynskey, the latter of whom managed to score the juiciest role out of a show filled with juicy parts. These four ladies portray the f*cked up adult versions of 1990s teen female athletes whose plane crashed in the Canadian wilderness. Mind you, there were many more survivors of the initial crash in this group, and some of them didn’t stay alive long enough to be rescued, 19 months later. Those who did survive were (surprise, surprise) more than a little bit traumatized by their experiences.

Whatever happened in those woods did not stay behind in those woods, and the show spends a great deal of time bouncing back and forth between 1996 and the present day, a quarter-century later. Mind you, this is a show (and I’ve viewed six out of the ten episodes that shall fill this season) that is chock full of characters and developments, and it’s worth pointing out that the two casts (the young and older versions of the main characters, plus all the outliers) flow almost too well together. The show also manages to feel entirely fresh and original despite bearing very obvious resemblance to some infamous influences (Lord of the Flies, Lost) and a subtler resemblance to recent entries in the teen-drama realm (The Wilds, Cruel Summer, even a little bit of Outer Banks). Let’s talk about the reasons why this series (which hails from creators Ashley Lyle and Bart Nickerson, producers of Narcos and Dispatches from Elsewhere) is worth watching:

(1) The very name of the series, Yellowjackets, refers to the girls’ soccer team but means to recall Lord of the Flies, and we’re finally getting the riot grrrl version that the template deserves. Yes, it’s different for girls; and they’re plenty tough, but there’s something different about how the way they maneuver, and how they work together, and how they might turn against each other, and how a plot point makes it necessary to mention that they’ve synched up periods. Mind you, they’re not merely operating on the social hierarchy, as has been the case for social satires or like Mean Girls or Heathers. Rather, this show stresses how survival does not end with a rescue. There’s also the lasting trauma that one must endure, along with the societal expectations for how survivors should behave. They must also deal with unwanted notoriety, along with reintegrating into a society that sure would like to know what these girls did in the woods. Inevitably, the four leads find themselves propelled toward each other in adulthood, even though at least three of them would rather not relive the past.

That’s the case even though they’re already reliving the past every day, as we see with what Melanie Lynskey’s Shauna does while cooking dinner one night. Lynskey crushes this role, which is filled to the brim with nuance. One would think that Shauna’s got the most “mainstream” life (as a housewife) that allows for enough distraction to wipe away any living nightmares, but nope. The way that she deftly navigates every obstacle that she encounters is fascinating. She acquired enough skills in the wilderness to work through any difficult “human” issue by pinpointing her opponents’ weaknesses, and it gives her an edge when confronted with any threat to the equilibrium that she’s constructed. She’s the character who I’d most like to see in a spinoff, hands down.

(2) What a slow burn of a story. That’s the best way to describe what happens here, but it’s also more like this: an adrenaline-pumping scene, then the slow teasing of anticipation until you can’t bear it, then boom, it’s time to be rewarded for the wait, and repeat. For the most part, the show does not disappoint with that type of pacing (this drives home the girls’ slow realization that they won’t be rescued within days, and maybe a lecture about not eating all the Corn Nuts on the first day will turn out to be a sad waste of energy). The show inevitably churns out more disturbing developments (including cannibalism) as these characters cannot shake their collective ordeal for decades to come. The show’s at once a survival tale, a psychological thriller, and an incredibly disturbing coming-of-age story, along with an examination of how humans turn out to be bigger monsters than the ones that might be hiding in the woods.

(3) Speaking of monsters, there’s one part of Yellowjackets that doesn’t flow too well for me — the suggestions of supernatural stuff. Granted, that’s tied to the story of how the four lead survivor characters come back together in adulthood, but the execution of exactly what the supernatural aspects mean, well, that’s not clicking yet. It’s the weakest link in the entire show, and I’m not convinced that it couldn’t have been left out altogether with some rewrites pulling the past and present together in a more effective way. Like I said, it’s possible enough for humans to do terrible things without otherworldly influence, and for hallucinations to be explained through drug use, PTSD, and so on. This isn’t enough to derail Yellowjackets, and maybe things come together more in the final portion of the season. I’d enjoy being proven wrong on this note.

(4) The casting directors did the thing. It’s truly worth noting that this show goes an extra 100 miles when it comes to matching up actresses to play the younger and older versions of these survivors. That’s particularly the case when it comes to casting the younger version of Juliette Lewis’ stoner character, Natalie, who’s also portrayed by Sophie Thatcher as a punky blonde whose coping skills were already honed during a horrible home life; and the Christina Ricci’s straight-up warped Misty, who’s forged out of eager resourcefulness gone terribly wrong by Samantha Hanratty. If not for the younger actresses’ performances, we’d never be able to believe how the adult versions came to be, especially when it comes to Misty. Trust me, you don’t want to see this nurse coming your way, ever.

And she’s only one of the reasons why Yellowjackets will stick with you, although the ’90s soundtrack (including Hole, Salt-N-Pepa, Liz Phair, the and PJ Harvey’s “Down By The Water”) is quite a contender, too. The show’s a nightmare, alright, but it’s one you’ll likely be eager to keep watching.

Showtime’s ‘Yellowjackets’ debuts on Sunday, November 14.

If it sometimes feels as if we’re all living inside a dystopian movie we cannot escape from, that’s because we sometimes are. Case in point: At this very second, elected officials and school board members in Virginia are very seriously discussing the possibility of an organized book-burning session in order to rid their community of books that someone, somewhere, has deemed inappropriate for the area’s younger readers.

As Insider reports, it all began when Virginia’s Spotsylvania County School Board demanded that any and all “sexually-explicit” books be removed from library shelves in the county starting immediately. But since deeming what might be too explicit can be a matter of personal taste, there are also a series of books that are up for review by the school board; if they fail the board’s smut sniff test, into the burn pile they’ll go.

As John Haltiwanger wrote for Insider:

The directive to remove “sexually explicit” books was seemingly prompted by a school board meeting on Monday during which parents expressed concerns about literature students can access via the Riverbend High School’s digital library app.

One parent was apparently alarmed by the availability of “LGBTQIA” fiction, the Lance-Star said, and found a book called 33 Snowfish by Adam Rapp especially troubling. The American Library Association named the book a Best Book for Young Adults in 2004. According to a Publishers Weekly review, the book is “dark tale about three runaways who understand hatred and violence better than love.”

Feeding this fire is the promise of newly-minted Governor-Elect Glenn Youngkin, who promised during his campaign that banning the teaching of “critical race theory” in the classroom was something he would address on day one of his tenure.

While this particular incident is relegated to Virginia, it seems to be a microcosm of conversations taking place at school board meetings across the country. In an analysis of the book-burning chatter being heard across the country, Philip Bump wrote a piece for The Washington Post in which he noted:

One might justifiably dismiss this incident as an exception, one member of one small school board making one comment about destroying books. The Washington Post’s Aaron Blake, though, points out the broader context. Republican officials (like those in Virginia) have repeatedly called for the removal of books from school and public libraries in recent weeks, or have called for material to be reviewed as a first step to that end.

What’s useful to keep in mind about these efforts is how they contrast with the efforts to which they’ve been compared, the burning of books in Nazi Germany. As the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum points out in this video, the impetus for removing books from university libraries in the 1930s was largely to eliminate anti-German rhetoric and thought. Though it eventually became a tool of the state, many initial efforts stemmed from enthusiastic university students who sought a sort of ideological purification of their schools.

If by “useful” Bump means “terrifying,” then he’s absolutely right.

(Via Insider)

This week’s episode of Indiecast is dedicated to two of the greatest indie rock success stories over the last decade. First up is Idles, whose new album Crawler follows up 2020’s Ultra Mono and continues down a musical path toward what Steve recently called “the mix of political righteousness and musical bluntness that once caused people to call The Clash ‘the only band that matters.’” Does Idles actually pull of the tightrope walk on Crawler?

Next on the review list is Courtney Barnett, whose new album Things Take Time, Take Time is her first in a little more than three years. While Barnett isn’t necessarily as consistently discussed on music publications and music writer Twitter as a band like Idles, her albums are always well-received and her touring business is consistently growing and lucrative, making for an ideal situation for indie rock stardom. Things Take Time, Take Time is surely to continue Barnett’s trajectory and build her fervent fan base.

In this week’s Recommendation Corner, Ian is plugging the latest release from SeeYouSpaceCowboy, and Steve is enjoying A Way Forward, the second album in two years from Brooklyn trio Nation Of Language.

New episodes of Indiecast drop every Friday. Listen to Episode 65 on Spotify below, and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts here. You can submit questions for Steve and Ian at [email protected], and make sure to follow us on Instagram and Twitter for all the latest news. We also recently launched a visualizer for our favorite Indiecast moments. Check those out here.