Severance s2 – of course! We all knew it would be on here. In my opinion, this is the best show currently on tv. It is existential and moody and weird and every episode ends in a cliffhanger or revelation that has me shouting at my tv screen. Chewing over theories and ruminating on the meaning of it all has been a blast. And although I try to appreciate every episode equally, Episode #7, Chikhai Bardo, was especially terrific, with some outrageously beautiful cinematography and some absolutely devastating character development. I’m not going to get any more specific, just in case you haven’t seen it yet, and if you have, well then, you already know: Severance is just so, so great.

My sister sent me a carousel of Ms. Casey memes and it makes me want to make a Severance fanzine mini where I just list out what I think Ms. Casey would tell my innie about me: “Yr outie woke up with a J Church song stuck in their head. Yr outie uses they/she pronouns, and likes when people switch between those pronouns when referring to them, favoring ‘they’. Yr outie has a pair of lucky sheep socks. Yr outie is anxious around dogs. Yr outie gets annoyed when people conflate anarchism with disorder. Yr outie’s favorite flavor of sparkling water is hibiscus LaCroix.” Let’s all make outie zines and trade them!

 

david lynch in the video void – Stray Cat Film Center is one of the places in Kansas City that really make me proud to call this town home. It’s a tiny, volunteer-run microcinema with about 50 seats tucked into an unassuming storefront in our city’s art district. They show everything from obscure Soviet animation, to obscure Japanese sci-fi, to obscure 80s shock horror. Last summer, they ran a month-long “Fucked Up Fairytales” series that was especially delightful, and once a month, they host Andrew’s Video Void: a montage of found footage, thrifted VHS tapes, music videos and memes, all set to a theme. February’s Void was held in honor of the late, great David Lynch, and while I wish we were gathering in his honor under different circumstances, it was still a weird and wonderful evening.

The night started with the Japanese Visual Soundtrack to Twin Peaks, which featured Angelo Badalamenti’s famous score playing over footage of the real life town where Twin Peaks was filmed, a sort of tourism highlight reel. Then Andrew shared a manipulated interview that paired Lynch up with Cher for a stilted and silly conversation, followed by a montage of some of Lynch’s commercials (including one of my fav’s – a hallucinatory PS2 commercial featuring a deer), the short film The Cowboy and the Frenchman, and a how-to video from David on the proper way to cook quinoa. Finally, we all descended into the luscious madness of Lynch, Badalamenti, and Julee Cruise’s Industrial Symphony No. 1: The Dream of the Brokenhearted which was horrifying and strange, cinematic and absolutely delightful, like some sort of Lynchian Cirque do Soleil. It was the perfect end to the evening, and it felt like the perfect way to celebrate one of my all-time favorite filmmakers.

I feel so damn lucky that I got to live in the same lifetime as David Lynch, to experience his beautiful nightmares. And I even got breathe the same air as him, share space with him, one night way back in 2007. I was seventeen and working at Hot Topic and had recently learned about his films (I think Mullhulland Drive was the first of his I watched? But it might’ve been Blue Velvet…) Anyways, I was raving about Lynch to anyone who would listen, when the cool psychobilly store manager overheard what I was saying and let me know that David Lynch would be in town. This weekend. At the AFI Film Fest in Dallas, screening his new film Inland Empire at a midnight showing. Needless to say, the moment I got home, I begged my parents and somehow I got my dad to agree to take me. By the time we got to the theatre, there was one single solitary ticket left, and my sweet dad bought it for me and then returned to the car to nap while the movie played. Which is how I ended up surrounded by strangers at midnight in a sold out movie theatre with David Lynch standing only a few rows in front of me, giving a speech about how we’re all the spiders in life’s web. It was like something outta a dream, and then the movie started and it was like a nightmare I didn’t want to wake up from, an unnerving, messy, terrifying, and altogether wonderful movie. There will never, ever be another David Lynch. What a truly singular artist.

 

film photography – Here’s a little bit of Dayna!lore… I used to be really, really into photography, spending my teenage years dressing up in weird outfits and taking “fashion” shots in the woods. I almost majored in it at art school, only switching to fiber after learning that my school got rid of their darkroom months before my arrival. BOO! Anyways, I used to really know my way around a camera, and I missed using photography as a purely artistic outlet. I picked up some rolls of film and have been messing around, just trying to remember the skills that used to come so easily to me, balancing iso and shutter speeds and retraining my eye towards framing and seeing shots in the mundane. I got my first roll of film developed last month and… truth be told, I’m a little bit rusty! There is a whole lotta rough and not very many diamonds among those prints, but it still feels good to be back and I know I’ll get better with practice.

 

interview zine – One of the best zines that I read last month was the interview zine “Questions and Answers” by Dave of Lazer Attack. You can see me talk about it in this episode of First Impression Zine Reviews. And like, I’ll admit to being a little bit biased because I am one of the interviewees… but even still, the reason I love this zine is because of the conversations with everyone else that is featured in it, like Billy and Sharaya and Ed Kemp. Dave is really good at asking questions that are both open-ended and specific, and you can tell that he has a knack for interviewing just based on the quality of everyone’s answers.

Anyways, he was sweet enough to send me some extra copies of the zine, so I decided to run a little giveaway! I’ve drawn 2 names from my email list and I’ll be sending them a copy of the zine, as well as some of my own titles (and a couple of extra surprises!) The winners are (drumroll please) Andressa and GuerlineArt! (If you see your name there, check yr email, because I’ve reached out to get these zines to you!) If you’re not already on my email list and you’d like to be (why thank you!) you can subscribe via this landing page.

 

otto – Okay, this one is kinda silly, but it really has been improving my quality of life…. Otto is a virtual phone pet that gains “energy” when you complete habits (these are customizable; some of mine include taking my vitamins and remembering to remove my makeup before bed). When Otto gets enough energy, he goes on an “exploration” and returns hours later with a trinket that can be used to decorate his tiny cartoon home (my Otto is currently exploring Japan, and has brought me a koi fish, ramen, and a bonzai sakura.) You can even dress your otter up in simple outfits, which is why mine currently looks like he’s about to start a push pit at a Touché Amoré show.

This app is cute and sorta frivolous, but it’s also been super effective: left to my own devices, I’m not great at doing the little things that make me feel good, but I sure as hell want to give Otto his energy. Apparently, all I needed to treat myself better was a cartoon otter giving me a blank, generous smile and telling me that he believes in me. Am I not feeling motivated to stretch or go for a jog? Too bad, I can’t disappoint Otto! And when I get a push notification from him reminding me to drink water, it doesn’t make me anxious like phone notifications typically do.

Otto also reminds me of the old Meomi Ot-to tour… was anyone else lowkey obsessed with Meomi in the early aughts? I used to covet their hand crocheted cat hats and was extremely jealous of anyone who got their paws on one of their adoptable pixel critters for their persite toybox. The Ot-to theme song (“la la la la, Ot-to makes dreams for you!”) has played in my head every time I’ve opened the app to complete a task and give my Otto energy.

And that’s it! At least for this month. Keep doing what you can to make yr world a better place, and every day, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it, just let it happen.