May 31, 2018
MAY: Stan Lee, Thor, Cheryl Blossom
by Alex Spencer
Hey there good looking!
Congratulations on signing up to this, the internet's leading newsletter for all things Alex Spencer.
Below you'll find my favourite things I've written and read this month, plus recommendations of music, TV and whatever else has crossed my path. The whole thing is split up into neat chunks, so if anything bores you can just move onto the next section.
[may]
May is the cruellest month. In a pretty literal sense, actually – the busiest I've had yet as a freelancer, and possibly the busiest of my entire life to date. Two weddings, clustered deadlines, and a themed party we'll talk about later. I spent today in a knackered daze, and am only now recovering. Writing a newsletter at bedtime is sure to make me feel better tomorrow, right?
Counter-intuitively, though, I've not actually got much to plug this month. Most of my writing has been for magazines, meaning I don't have much to link you to. I can, however, highly recommend picking up Official PlayStation Magazine, Edge and/or GamesMaster from your nearest all-good-newsagents stockist. I'll try and write more online stuff next month, promise.
[stuff i wrote]
STAN LEE’S COMICS LEGACY IS EMBROILED IN ACCUSATIONS, LAWSUITS AND CHALLENGES
This article is the other reason I don't have as much to plug – I spent a lot of time working with Polygon's editors and legal team on it, trying to condense months of grim incident into a single readable story and make sure no one would get sued in the process. Making it all about me for a second: this is about as far out of my journalistic comfort zone as I've ever strayed.
But about the actual story: Stan Lee become kind of a mascot for Marvel in recent years, but in real life, he's a 95-year-old widower who is being taken advantage of by – depending on who you listen to – his closest associates, and possibly even family. He's also a man who stands accused of sexual harassment by multiple parties. It's a complicated situation, and one I tried to get to the bottom of as non-sensationally as possible. Just don't expect any solid answers – there aren't any, at least not yet.
Read it here.
TIM+ALEX KILL THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: THOR
On a sunnier note, I teamed up with my best boy to discuss my favourite big Asgardian boy: Thor 'Washboard' Odinson. After getting tangled up in Iron Man 2 last month, this is a much breezier affair, taking in the mix of fantasy and sci-fi with trad superheroics, the forgotten origins of Ragnarok's slapstick humour, and my unabashed crush on Chris Hemsworth.
Read it here.
TWELVE CHARACTERS I LOVE
Finally, for something completely different... There was a 'one like, one character I love' meme doing the rounds on Twitter. Naturally I went overboard, writing a dozen micro-essays about some of my favourite characters. I even managed to include some who don't wear a cape or live in Springfield.
Read it here
[recs]
RIVERDALE
When I heard the CW was adapting the Archie comics with a dark twist – Gossip Girl meets Twin Peaks – it left me fairly cold. What I hadn't anticipated, though, was the thick vein of absurdist surrealism that runs through the show. It regularly pushes stock characters and situations to places I've never seen on TV before, so that each episode leaves me gasping at its sheer audacity and increasingly in love with Cheryl Blossom, possibly the greatest fictional character of the 21st century (see previous link). Two seasons later, I'm not sure I can accurately say I like Riverdale. It's something that lives under my skin, lending dark purpose to each miserable week. And now I have to wait months for more of it.
Watch it on Netflix.
JANE THE VIRGIN
So it's been a TV-heavy month. My and Imi's lives are basically owned by The CW at the moment and so, while we waited for our weekly dose of Riverdale, we caught up on the last two seasons of this. I can 100% accurately say I like Jane The Virgin, though it's a show I've found difficult to recommend to people, mostly because at first glance its telenovela-inspired premise – a young Venezualan-American woman, saving herself for marriage, accidentally gets inseminated with her boss' semen – is incredibly trashy. But as well as being one of the most playful TV programmes you could ever hope to watch, constantly messing with tropes and the way it's presented, JtV is emotionally warm and deceptively smart about discussing politics. Plus, yeah, it's got all that trashy soap-opera goodness. A dude gets impaled on an ice sculpture in like the second episode.
Watch it on Netflix.
[recipe]
MAPLE SYRUP OLD FASHIONED (aka 'CHERRY BOMBSHELL')
Imi and I held a party for the aforementioned season finale of Riverdale, with a menu of themed food and drink (i.e. burgers, milkshakes and lots of maple syrup). This was by far the most successful, and might have finally opened up the world of dark spirits to me, after nearly thirty years. What could possibly go wrong there?
[links]
It may not feel like it sometimes, but I am aware that I'm not the only writer in the world. Here are a few articles I've enjoyed reading this month, which you might dig too:
I'M NOT BLACK, I'M KANYE (The Atlantic)
Oh boy, Kanye. I'm hoping when his album drops, on... sweet Yeezus, it's tomorrow??? When it does, I'm hoping the music manages to make some sense of the shit he's been spouting, not that claiming slavery was a choice is particularly forgivable whatever the context. I've spent so many years defending Kanye from inept criticisms that I struggled to find a voice among the thousands of thinkpieces that spoke to my own feelings. Ta-Nehisi Coates, of course, nailed it. Coates talks around the topic as much – about himself, about Michael Jackson – as he does talk about it directly, but through that reaches a fascinating argument about Kanye trying to take advantage of what he calls "a white freedom, freedom without consequence, freedom without criticism, freedom to be proud and ignorant".
CHILDISH GAMBINO AND HOW THE INTERNET KILLED THE CULTURAL CRITIC (Wired)
The other pop cultural force that launched a thousand thinkpieces in May was Donald Glover, partly because SNL, partly because he's Lando Calrissian, but mostly because of the "This is America" video. Again I found myself reading dozens of articles – partly out of an attempt to understand why the video, which I think is actually less interesting than his SNL performance of the same song, had struck such a chord – and again being disappointed in The Discourse. This Wired piece gets to the bottom of why, and in the process manages to make it all about my favourite subject: the state of criticism, and by extension, me. Hahahahax jk?
6,000 YEARS OF MURDER (TWATD)
Despite having edited this series of blogs, I'm including them this section because they're so far removed from anything I could have written myself. Nominally a guide to the history of WicDiv's recurring Pantheons, you don't need to know much about the comic to enjoy this, as Tim basically writes an approachable, jovial history of human civilisation. I learned, I laughed, I cursed Tim for his talents and then thanked the gods he threw his lot in with me.
[lucky]
To say thank you for reading this far, every newsletter ends with a picture of my furry son, Lucky Spencer-Dale. Here he is looking magnificent on a wall, surveying his kingdom. (Everything the light touches, in case you were wondering.)
Catch you on the flipside, suckas.
Alex
Congratulations on signing up to this, the internet's leading newsletter for all things Alex Spencer.
Below you'll find my favourite things I've written and read this month, plus recommendations of music, TV and whatever else has crossed my path. The whole thing is split up into neat chunks, so if anything bores you can just move onto the next section.
[may]
May is the cruellest month. In a pretty literal sense, actually – the busiest I've had yet as a freelancer, and possibly the busiest of my entire life to date. Two weddings, clustered deadlines, and a themed party we'll talk about later. I spent today in a knackered daze, and am only now recovering. Writing a newsletter at bedtime is sure to make me feel better tomorrow, right?
Counter-intuitively, though, I've not actually got much to plug this month. Most of my writing has been for magazines, meaning I don't have much to link you to. I can, however, highly recommend picking up Official PlayStation Magazine, Edge and/or GamesMaster from your nearest all-good-newsagents stockist. I'll try and write more online stuff next month, promise.
[stuff i wrote]
STAN LEE’S COMICS LEGACY IS EMBROILED IN ACCUSATIONS, LAWSUITS AND CHALLENGES
This article is the other reason I don't have as much to plug – I spent a lot of time working with Polygon's editors and legal team on it, trying to condense months of grim incident into a single readable story and make sure no one would get sued in the process. Making it all about me for a second: this is about as far out of my journalistic comfort zone as I've ever strayed.
But about the actual story: Stan Lee become kind of a mascot for Marvel in recent years, but in real life, he's a 95-year-old widower who is being taken advantage of by – depending on who you listen to – his closest associates, and possibly even family. He's also a man who stands accused of sexual harassment by multiple parties. It's a complicated situation, and one I tried to get to the bottom of as non-sensationally as possible. Just don't expect any solid answers – there aren't any, at least not yet.
Read it here.
TIM+ALEX KILL THE MARVEL CINEMATIC UNIVERSE: THOR
On a sunnier note, I teamed up with my best boy to discuss my favourite big Asgardian boy: Thor 'Washboard' Odinson. After getting tangled up in Iron Man 2 last month, this is a much breezier affair, taking in the mix of fantasy and sci-fi with trad superheroics, the forgotten origins of Ragnarok's slapstick humour, and my unabashed crush on Chris Hemsworth.
Read it here.
TWELVE CHARACTERS I LOVE
Finally, for something completely different... There was a 'one like, one character I love' meme doing the rounds on Twitter. Naturally I went overboard, writing a dozen micro-essays about some of my favourite characters. I even managed to include some who don't wear a cape or live in Springfield.
Read it here
[recs]
RIVERDALE
When I heard the CW was adapting the Archie comics with a dark twist – Gossip Girl meets Twin Peaks – it left me fairly cold. What I hadn't anticipated, though, was the thick vein of absurdist surrealism that runs through the show. It regularly pushes stock characters and situations to places I've never seen on TV before, so that each episode leaves me gasping at its sheer audacity and increasingly in love with Cheryl Blossom, possibly the greatest fictional character of the 21st century (see previous link). Two seasons later, I'm not sure I can accurately say I like Riverdale. It's something that lives under my skin, lending dark purpose to each miserable week. And now I have to wait months for more of it.
Watch it on Netflix.
JANE THE VIRGIN
So it's been a TV-heavy month. My and Imi's lives are basically owned by The CW at the moment and so, while we waited for our weekly dose of Riverdale, we caught up on the last two seasons of this. I can 100% accurately say I like Jane The Virgin, though it's a show I've found difficult to recommend to people, mostly because at first glance its telenovela-inspired premise – a young Venezualan-American woman, saving herself for marriage, accidentally gets inseminated with her boss' semen – is incredibly trashy. But as well as being one of the most playful TV programmes you could ever hope to watch, constantly messing with tropes and the way it's presented, JtV is emotionally warm and deceptively smart about discussing politics. Plus, yeah, it's got all that trashy soap-opera goodness. A dude gets impaled on an ice sculpture in like the second episode.
Watch it on Netflix.
[recipe]
MAPLE SYRUP OLD FASHIONED (aka 'CHERRY BOMBSHELL')
Imi and I held a party for the aforementioned season finale of Riverdale, with a menu of themed food and drink (i.e. burgers, milkshakes and lots of maple syrup). This was by far the most successful, and might have finally opened up the world of dark spirits to me, after nearly thirty years. What could possibly go wrong there?
- 50ml bourbon
- 25ml maple syrup
- 25ml lemon juice
- Angostura bitters (optional)
- Maraschino cherry (optional)
[links]
It may not feel like it sometimes, but I am aware that I'm not the only writer in the world. Here are a few articles I've enjoyed reading this month, which you might dig too:
I'M NOT BLACK, I'M KANYE (The Atlantic)
Oh boy, Kanye. I'm hoping when his album drops, on... sweet Yeezus, it's tomorrow??? When it does, I'm hoping the music manages to make some sense of the shit he's been spouting, not that claiming slavery was a choice is particularly forgivable whatever the context. I've spent so many years defending Kanye from inept criticisms that I struggled to find a voice among the thousands of thinkpieces that spoke to my own feelings. Ta-Nehisi Coates, of course, nailed it. Coates talks around the topic as much – about himself, about Michael Jackson – as he does talk about it directly, but through that reaches a fascinating argument about Kanye trying to take advantage of what he calls "a white freedom, freedom without consequence, freedom without criticism, freedom to be proud and ignorant".
CHILDISH GAMBINO AND HOW THE INTERNET KILLED THE CULTURAL CRITIC (Wired)
The other pop cultural force that launched a thousand thinkpieces in May was Donald Glover, partly because SNL, partly because he's Lando Calrissian, but mostly because of the "This is America" video. Again I found myself reading dozens of articles – partly out of an attempt to understand why the video, which I think is actually less interesting than his SNL performance of the same song, had struck such a chord – and again being disappointed in The Discourse. This Wired piece gets to the bottom of why, and in the process manages to make it all about my favourite subject: the state of criticism, and by extension, me. Hahahahax jk?
6,000 YEARS OF MURDER (TWATD)
Despite having edited this series of blogs, I'm including them this section because they're so far removed from anything I could have written myself. Nominally a guide to the history of WicDiv's recurring Pantheons, you don't need to know much about the comic to enjoy this, as Tim basically writes an approachable, jovial history of human civilisation. I learned, I laughed, I cursed Tim for his talents and then thanked the gods he threw his lot in with me.
[lucky]
To say thank you for reading this far, every newsletter ends with a picture of my furry son, Lucky Spencer-Dale. Here he is looking magnificent on a wall, surveying his kingdom. (Everything the light touches, in case you were wondering.)
Catch you on the flipside, suckas.
Alex