July 11, 2025, 12:15pm
This was a week for escapist coping. We lived off indie pop and indie movies. We dreamed of a throwback internet and healthier lungs.
Molly Odintz has music to thank for making it to Friday. Specifically The Marías, who she got to see live at the Moody Theater in Austin. María Zardoya, frontwoman for the eclectic bilingual indie outfit, was apparently “dressed like Morticia Adams and sang like CocoRosie mixed with Portishead.” IYKYK!
McKayla Coyle also recommends some jubilant summer bop. “Automatic,” from the California-based Half Alive, reminds me of MTV’s heyday in more ways than one. The single’s glorious video includes a puppet, a rad group dance, and a dense, crunchy guitar. I’m with McKayla. “Bring back choreography!” (And videos.)
In other old-school news, Drew Broussard recommends an extra goofy sketch from Pile of Garbage, a Skeeter to watch. “Bozo eat dust, this bag two thirds air” is true crackpot. Or in Drew’s words, “Hilarious, weird, and the kind of thing that makes me hopeful for a return to an internet that looks more like the one I grew up on.”
I, Brittany Allen, am also feeling nostalgic. My happy thing this week was a network television show that’s been off the air for four years. Freeform’s The Bold Type has just the right mix of goofiness and treacle for this gal’s smooth, hopeful nighttime brain. I’m charmed by the friendship at the center of this workplace bildungsroman. Our three buddy heroes end almost every episode in a hug, while suitors circle the periphery.
The much more intrepid Julia Hass fell in love with a new flick—the auteur comedian Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby. “After a slew of mediocre films that promised greatness, it was such a relief to see a movie that felt so powerful, so raw, so real,” says Julia. “Eva Victor is a force!” I cosign endorsement of this chamber piece, which explores how trauma scuttles our sense of time.
Speaking of weird brains, James Folta has been fighting a nasty cold (prayers up!) with Vitamin C and podcasts. Some of the best medicine has turned out to be In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg. Every episode of this dope show includes a mini lecture by three experts, “and the topics are all over the map: The Sack of Rome in 1527, The Kalevala, horses, The Gin Craze, ‘P versus NP,’ vampires and on and on…” says our sniffling hero.
“There are over a thousand episodes and they all start with Bragg’s very proper ‘Hello.”‘This week’s episode is on the evolution of lungs, and had a wild detail on how hiccups started as a way for freaked out frogs to run faster.” May we all follow suit.
Finally, we at Lit Hub refuse to stop ringing the pickle bell. Jessie Gaynor’s joy this week was a crisp chickpea salad. She reminds us all not to sleep on pickled onions.
Wishing you a weekend full of satisfying brine and group dancing.