T Lo’s Weekend Pop Culture Reading List

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Kittens, we’ll be back tomorrow for a Drag Race All-Stars recap, so this isn’t our final goodbye before jetting off to Christmas fierceness. Nonetheless, we couldn’t leave you all without something fabulous to read during our jingle-jangle jaunt, so here are all the articles and essays that tickled our fancies this week. Happy Holidays, darlings!

A December 1942 article in The Times — possibly the first mention in this newspaper of the stuff — advised New York City residents that pitchers of evergreen boughs, placed in their windows for the winter holidays, would offer “additional scintillation” if “sprinkled with dime-store ‘glitter’ or mica.” The pitchers were to replace Christmas candles, which the wartime Army had banned after sunset — along with neon signs in Times Square and the light from the Statue of Liberty’s torch — after determining that the nighttime glow threw offshore Allied vessels into silhouette, transforming them into floating U-boat targets.

Most of the glitter that adorns America’s name brand products is made in one of two places: The first is in New Jersey, but the second, however, is also in New Jersey. The first, the rumored farm site of glitter’s invention, refused to answer any of my questions. “We are a very private company,” a representative said via email. The second is Glitterex.

What is Glitter? by Caity Weaver at the New York Times

Why do companies keep making such offensive, and dumb, mistakes with their products? And can we stop it from happening next year?

Fashion’s Year in Cultural Don’ts by Vanessa Friedman at The New York Times

The actor who starred in the original film dislikes the new one’s animation and says the biggest challenge wasn’t the hoofing but finally getting the accent right.

Dick Van Dyke on ‘Mary Poppins Returns’ and Dancing at 93 by Margy Rochlin at The New York Times

Mackie went on to create decades’ worth of Cher’s outrageous outfits, arguably surpassing Bono as her defining collaborator. His willingness to try anything matched her willingness to try on anything—even as Mackie piled on sequins and subtracted fabric.

A Lifetime of Dressing Cher by Michael Schulman at The New Yorker

Kate Bush, the English singer-songwriter, is one of those who have held fast without shrinking, so it is curious and instructive to see how certain cultural signifiers have been trotted out over the years to diminish her. Certainly, she’s had her share of respect and even adoration. Prince, Peter Gabriel, and Elton John collaborated on songs with her, and she has inspired younger talents; Tori Amos, Björk, Joanna Newsom, St. Vincent, Perfume Genius, and Mitski are all heirs.

The Enduring, Incandescent Power of Kate Bush by Margaret Talbot at The New Yorker

Was the ensemble appropriate? Sure. Obama’s book tour is the equivalent of a literary rock concert, so she dressed the part of a rock star — transforming two relatively low-key looks on the runway into one eye-popping sparkle-fest. As a stage costume, it’s a look that can resonate through a stadium, all the way back to the cheap seats. And certainly, Obama looks pleased with her fashion choice.

Michelle Obama can wear whatever she wants now. What she wants is sparkly thigh-high boots. by Robin Ghivan at The Washington Post

A new year marks a peak time for popular books to fly off the shelves onto the screen.

From ‘Little Women’ to ‘The Sun Is Also a Star’: 18 Books That Will Be Adapted in 2019 by Lexy Perez at The Hollywood Reporter

For an art form whose very name evokes faddish glamour, voguing has aged flawlessly—no bags, no lines, lovely. Born out of the New York house-ball scene of the 1970s and ’80s, it was ushered into the mainstream in the late ’80s and early ’90s by Malcolm McLaren, Madonna, and Jennie Livingston’s seminal documentary Paris Is Burning. And yet, voguing continues to strut its way through the culture, its often uncredited influence felt further afield than even during the subculture’s breakthrough moment.

Kia LaBeija Is Remodeling One of Ballroom’s Legendary Houses For the Future by Horacio Silva at W Magazine

The beauty and fashion world felt a collective pang of grief yesterday at the sudden news of hairstylist Oribe Canales’s passing. He was just 62 years old. Many of his friends, fans, and fellow beauty pros took to Instagram, their posts evoking a mix of shock, sadness, and sincere reverence for a man whose career in the industry spanned an unprecedented four decades.

In Memory of Oribe Canales: Friends and Colleagues Share Their Memories of the Legendary Hairstylist by Sophia Panych at Allure

I don’t read reviews, luckily. I’m always curious when there is a general opinion about a woman not being likable. I take personal offense to it, as well. I really struggle with how to have those conversations with people and not be defensive, but actually talk about what those words mean, and why qualities that are called unlikable when they are attributed to a female character in cinema are not at all applied to a man. I’ve had that even recently with Divorce. It’s so curious. It’s not without frustration on my part.

I didn’t think she was unlikable at all. Especially in romantic comedies, there’s this idea about likable, relatable gals. I think it does a huge disservice to the billions of woman who are all wonderfully different. Somebody is nervous, or lacks confidence? I found none of it unlikable. In fact, I found her compelling. I was drawn to her because of her exhibited neuroses.

Sarah Jessica Parker Answers Almost Every Question We Have About The Family Stone by Hunter Harris at The Cut

Ms. Ferrarini, 61, described herself as a street artist, but most people in Trancoso know her as the bikini lady. Since 1998, she has been selling handmade crochet-and-elastic bikinis on the beach, walking up and down the sand with her creations dangling off a hula hoop. She and the suit are inseparable. “It’s my husband,” she said, with a laugh.

I looked at one of the bikinis in her living room. Ms. Ferrarini’s standard two-piece has two dark denim triangles connected by visible stitches of embroidery thread to crochet straps with brightly colored elastics woven through them. The bottom is made to match. It is virtually identical to the bikini Ms. Irgit had copyrighted.

The Itsy-Bitsy, Teenie-Weenie, Very Litigious Bikini by Katherine Rosman at the New York Times

Although Mary Poppins Returns is an ardent, nearly shot-for-shot love letter to the first film, its more somber thematic premise pairs with its efforts to craft characters and a narrative that are more culturally evolved. In order to incorporate Jack into the larger Poppins narrative, the film introduces him as a former chimney sweep who, as a child, was under Bert’s tutelage and who, conveniently, did not die of black lung before adolescence. He and Mary revel in one another’s company with platonic warmth; there are no traces of the sexual disappointment Bert (Dick Van Dyke) betrays during “Jolly Holiday” when Mary thanks him for “never pressing [his] advantage” and summarily indicates that they will never be an item. In fact, we learn that Jack has adored Jane Banks since youth, formerly gazing up at her nursery window, an image making manifest the socioeconomic berth that once precluded their companionship.

Everything Is Possible in Mary Poppins Returns by Rachel Vorona Cote at The New Republic

[Photo Credit: Sarah Lawrence/Vox]

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