We understand there to be a sporting fixture scheduled for this evening which will garner the attention of a significant portion of the British public. Here at The Cut, we remain mildly uninterested in the whole rigmarole, although we obviously wish the national team the very best of luck. We’re waiting for the Olympics, frankly. At least there’s a bit of variety.
This week, join us in the joys of accidental connections, the delight of queer beer and bounce with us to a wild reinvention of a classic slab of metal.
Now is the time. Here is the place. This is The Cut.
Everything about our opening piece feels like a crazy bit of science-fictional satire. Hiring novelists to predict the possible flash points of a future war? Nonsense, right? Typically, the phrase ‘you couldn’t make it up’ is all too true in the strange case of Project Cassandra…
Vintage movie posters can go for a lot of money on the open market, due to their rarity. They were not designed to last. Advertising ephemera, the posters would go up for a couple of weeks and then go in the bin to make room for the next one. There are some forward-thinkers who chose to stockpile and preserve these lovely bits of functional art. Now The Harry Ransom Centre in Texas has digitised thousands of posters and made them available to download at very high resolution. Go have a delve. There’s some beautiful stuff in there.
https://www.domestika.org/en/blog/3033-over-10-000-movie-posters-available-to-download-for-free
Can beer be queer? Well, it can be brewed by LGBTQ people and sold with an awareness of gay culture and history. A percentage of the profits can go to queer charities. Is it likely to be any more or less delicious than other brands? That is a decision to be made by you and your tastebuds alone. We’re open to the idea, but then it’s difficult for us to say no to a beer. We do struggle with sours, though…
https://www.eater.com/22464377/gay-queer-lgbtq-beer-brands
Yes, it’s a Vittles piece, which you’ve probably already read if you’ve paid attention to our continued exhortations to subscribe. This is a good one, digging into an underground food culture run by women, filling the demand for cuisines which are not easily found on Deliveroo. Who knew Ashford in Kent would be such a hotbed of auntiepreneureal activity?
https://vittles.substack.com/p/the-whatsapp-auntiepreneurs
‘Kill your darlings’ is a phrase every writer will come across during their life at the word-mines. It relates to the painful process of editing, and the inevitable point where you have to get rid of some of your favourite bits of a work for the sake of the progress of the whole. Austin Kleon disagrees with the notion, and argues that there is another, less wasteful way…
Relocate your darlings
We dug this post on The Conversation about how Maasai herders embrace wrong numbers in order to make accidental and sometimes useful connections with each other. We have questions, particularly around the way women suffer from restricted access to the technology, but in general it’s interesting to see a set of people who welcome the appearance of an unknown number on their phone screen. Phone scammers can’t be much of a thing in east Africa…
The news of this week’s heatwave in the Pacific Northwest has brought a lot of concerns over climate catastrophe into sharp focus. It’s real, it’s here and it’s happening to people we know and love. The anxiety over this and what we do to cope on a personal level is a fascinating subject. A changing world needs new approaches to everything, including the care of our own mental landscapes…
Brilliant news from Neil Gaiman this week. He announced work has started on a sequel to Good Omens, the fantastic TV show based on the book he wrote with the late lamented Terry Pratchett. It seems a second story featuring Crowley and Aziraphail was completely plotted and ready to write. Circumstances got in the way. But now… you know, let’s let Neil tell the story. He’s better at this stuff than us.
https://journal.neilgaiman.com/2021/06/really-bloody-excellent-omens.html
COMICS NERDERY ALERT. The following is a very deep dive into 90’s Batman and in particular the art of Jim Aparo, who drew the quintessential Darknight Detective of the time. You will perhaps recognise characters featured in The Dark Knight Returns, but that’s not the point of the exercise. As writer Tegan O’Neil makes clear, there’s a lot of Batman out there. Over seventy years, thousands of issues and millions of pages appeared on spinner racks. Sometimes the stuff that is critically lauded and constantly reprinted is not the stuff which represents the character in the truest way.
The Light That You Shine Can be Seen
And finally, speaking of heavy nerdery, we offer up a link to an ongoing project from an X&HTeam-mate, Keith Eyles. His YouTube channel is currently running live-streamed discussions on the latest Marvel series, Loki (extremely good, by the way). Well worth a look if you’re into the show. Beware spoilers, obviously. This ep also features our good pal Clive ‘Leading Man’ Ashenden. Listen out for the nod to one of Excuses And Half Truths’ earlier adventures in podcasting, all still available through the Podcastery link in the sidebar.
Jason Isbell performs our Exit Music this week, with a killer version of Metallica’s Sad But True. It’s part of the Blacklist, an album of reimaginings of tracks from the classic Black Album. St. Vincent also does a killer version of this tune which is well worth checking out, but this shades it for us. A really imaginative twist that would definitely get us out on the dance floor.
See you next Saturday, cowpunchers.
EXCUSES AND HALF TRUTHS 