In The Buzz Cut, we bring you a round-up of all the weird, controversial, and wonderful stories we’ve been reading all week.
This week marked 15 years since Disney’s ‘Hannah Montana,’ which featured Miley Cyrus in her alter ego persona. “Hi Hannah, it’s been a while,” Cyrus writes in a letter, regaling in the decade-old Malibu beach memories. She recounts heartbreaks, moments of grief, friendships that made all the difference. Growing up truly is a climb — a rather memorable one.
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There is something voyeuristic about Demi Lovato’s documentary: the spirit of confession around her drug abuse, sexual trauma, snoops from the music industry translates into entertainment viewing for an intrigued audience. The four-episode viewing, titled “Dancing with the Devil,” explores the heaviness and complexity of Lovato’s life, and is self-reflective in its treatment of vulnerability.
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From running and yoga to ancient Chinese and Egyptian ways of flexing limbs, the origins of working out point to a basal survival instinct. “Being buff was a means to an end — ideally, the end of the other guy,” a review of old sessions say, but seem to have come a long way. Who knows, our current ways of life that cheer forth bulging biceps, Crossfit, and Strava might end up as curious fables.
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Romantic poet John Keats has been dead for over 200 years, but a video of him speaking was recently screened for an enthralled audience. The CGI rendering was an ode to the poet, who wove nightingales and Grecian urns into provoking sojourns. As he speaks, his voice is full of life, and it is a thing of beauty.
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American rapper Jay-Z showed interest in donning the role of a ‘Black messiah,’ in his new song; crowning himself as the savior, selling the idea that being rich can solve all problems, even racial injustice. But hip-hop’s ‘godfather,’ so to speak, might be misguided in his revolution, and rather ends up playing by the system’s rules instead of subverting them. Much to Jay-Z’s dismay, the verdict seems to be: “He’s nobody’s savior—not even his own.”
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D.C. Universe sprung back to life with the release of director Zack Snyder’s four-hour-long cut of Justice League; but how the movie came to be makes for a rather curious case study. The ‘Snyder Cut’ started as a fan conspiracy theory, which grew into a glorious myth, and ended up a reality with a hyped-up release. It was an exercise in understanding “how distorted a major cultural narrative can be.”
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Sara Gruen, the author of the acclaimed novel Water for Elephants, had a lot going for her until she received a curious letter six years ago from someone claiming to be wrongfully convicted of first degree murder. This started the author on a costly, debilitating journey of proving his innocence. “She is still herself enough to understand how badly she is breaking.” Justice is known to be elusive, but its pursuit can be crippling.
