After reliable recommendations for music, books, film in April? The RUSSH editors have you covered. The team has a one-track mind as far as Succession is concerned, and each new episode continues to show just how out of their depth the Roy children are. Julia Fox and Niki Takesh's Forbidden Fruits podcast is a winner, meanwhile a new single from Sparks is keeping our Music Editor Alys Hale occupied this month. As everything else we're watching, reading and listening to in April 2023? Keep scrolling.
Kitty Callaghan
Contributing Editor
Watch… I have taken to watching the accompanying video content for the Forbidden Fruits podcast with Julia Fox and Niki Takesh. They are an animated and well-dressed duo in the studio. I enjoyed watching the conversation between them and Richie Shazam.
Read… Have You Seen The Horizon Lately by Yoko Ono. It’s a great survey into one of my favourite bodies of work by Yoko in 1998 that was both visual and aural. Yoko was and is so ahead of her time.
Listen… Post Malone’s Chemical and Sky Tellie’s debut single Stay. The video, directed by Toto Vivian and Benjamin Cooper is transcendent and makes me nostalgic for travel in my early 20s. A voyeuristic delight that will make you want to slow down time. This is a listen and watch order.
Olivia Repaci
Creative Studio and Campaigns Manager
Watch… Aftersun. I finally had a chance to go and see what all the fuss was about (and experience Paul Mescal on the big screen). Safe to say this movie is still haunting me to this day. The powerful performances of both Paul and Frankie, mixed with the intimate nature of Well’s directorial style, created this surreal little world that I simultaneously never want to, and desperately need to leave.
Read… A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. This is a book I have been trying to tackle for years. Something about the size of it really intimidates me. I’m giving it another go from the halfway mark, and something tells me the second half is going to be much more haunting and intriguing than the first. An interesting thing is that despite picking up and putting down this book over the past 7 years, I still somehow remember every detail.
Listen… The Record by boygenius. As a major fan of Phoebe Bridgers, I’m getting my fix of her haunting voice and melancholy through her latest project, boygenius. I love how beautifully Lucy Dacus, Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers' voices weave together so seamlessly, my favourite song from the album is currently Not Strong Enough.
Cassandra Dimitroff
Production Editor
Watch… Succession. In news to absolutely no one, this show is all anyone can talk about this month, so I’ve finally found the time to zoom my way through the first few seasons. It’s a show well worth the hype it gets.
Read… The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway. This is my first proper foray into the literary works of Hemingway, and I have been enjoying taking my time with this one. This novel is slow-moving, following a group of young expatriates as they flit between Paris and Pamplona in the 1920s. All in all, it’s been a good lesson in mindful reading, not so much about some twist ending or grand plot as it is about the little in-between details.
Listen… With A Hammer by Yaeji. There’s something so special about all the music produced by Yaeji, and I was very eagerly awaiting this release ever since What We Drew 우리가 그려왔던. Currently have track 2, For Granted on repeat.
Mia Steiber
Digital Strategy Director
Watch… Like everyone else who is perpetually online, I’m watching Beef. It’s gritty, quirky and incredibly well written. I was recommended by my journalist friend Bianca, and now I’m paying it forward. Watch it.
Read… I’ve had it on my shelf for some time but this month I finally got the time to thumb through Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist. It’s such an interesting work, and almost meta-textual in the way it was received and criticised. I’m only a third of the way through but I think it’s a great read for anyone living in our current context where nuance seems to have shrivelled up and died.
Listen… I’ve had Brinawa St. by Stumps playing on repeat for at least a week. The trio have to be one of my favourite Australian bands at the moment and this new track is fire. An odd comparison but it sounds like a cross between Morrissey and Minus the Bear.
Alys Hale
Music Editor
Watch… Fire Of Love by Sara Dosa. Yes, it came out last year and I have only recently found the time to dedicate a session to watching it. It’s beautiful, funny, mesmerising and heartbreaking. Miranda July’s narration is like art house ASMR, it is one of those documentaries that both educates and moves you.
Read… The Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen. I’m sure you’ve read it but I would deeply recommend listening to him read it to you via Audible at the same time. It allows you to imagine that you’re privy to the first drafts, or better yet, that you’re the muse.
Listen…The new Sparks single, Veronica Lake, is weirdly subtle given the audacity of the band historically but still infectious.
Jasmine Pirovic
Arts & Culture Editor
Watch... Besides my embarrassing scramble to get up to date with the latest season of Succession, I have also only just ticked Tár off on my watch list. You don't need me to tell you how brilliant Cate Blanchett is as the self-described "u-haul lesbian", EGOT-winning conductor, just about every review will do that for you. But what I will say is I haven't stopped thinking about her wardrobe, where a coat from The Row is as commonplace as the vintage Rolex turned inward on her wrist. Talk about quiet luxury! And don't get me started on that Brutalist Berlin apartment...
Read... I've just finished Funny Ethnics by Shirley Le, which is further proof that Sweatshop Literacy Movement is producing some of the best writers this country has. I'm also part way through Elfy Scott's book The One Thing We've Never Spoken About for my book club, which has transformed my understanding of schizophrenia.
Listen... Piano, and lots of it. After speaking with a composer for the upcoming issue of RUSSH, and with the recent deaths of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, it's been coursing through my earphones non-stop.
