Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important (pop) cultural happenings.
BUY: BushBabyArt
Turns out Brook Power, the Oahu-based Native American who was just crowned the 58th Playmate of the Year, makes psychedelic nudie collages in her spare time. “I like to create dreamy little worlds to let your imagination roam in,” she notes. “No deeper profound meanings, no social commentary or any of that bullshit.” (Available now)
WATCH: King Arthur: Legend of the Sword
Guy Ritchie turns the sword-in-the-stone tale into a grimier story of back alley brawlers and kinetic, Led Zeppelin-fueled battles — this looks more like a medieval Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels than a fantasy epic (Arthur even runs with a low-life “crew”). (May 12)
Look out for our full summer movie guide, coming May 4.
TRY OUT: David Lynch’s Rabbits
Lynch called this 50-minute film, shown as part of the Roxie’s festival devoted to the filmmaker, a sitcom. It stars his leading actresses from Mulholland Drive (Laura Elena Harring and Naomi Watts), and everyone’s dressed up like bunnies. Ready for that Twin Peaks reboot, you say? (May 4)
READ: Everybody Lies
Fan of Freakonomics and outside-the-box analysis like Michael Lewis and Malcolm Gladwell? Try this. Former Google data scientist and Harvard-trained economist Seth Stephens-Davidowitz uses big data to answer really uncomfortable questions about racism, gaming the stock market, violence in entertainment, parenting skills and “How many people actually read the books they buy?” If you buy this, read it. (May 9)
STUDY: Amarcord
It doesn’t get much better than this 1973 Fellini coming of age story — it’s the Italian director at his best and most nostalgic, tracing a year in the life of the inhabitants of a seaside Italian town. Charming, nasty, and thoroughly real. (May 13)
WATCH: Twin Peaks
Showtime’s really playing up the “mystery” part of their revival of David Lynch’s murder mystery … there’s exactly one new scene (tracking footage of a forest) that’s leaked. That said, the original cast plus Eddie Vedder, Laura Dern, Naomi Watts, Michael Cera, Jim Belushi and Jennifer Jason Leigh? Worth another look. (May 21)
GET IMMERSED IN: The Summer of Love Experience
Fact: Over 100,000 people flocked to the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood during the mid-1960s — most in search of peace, love, and a different style of living. The artistic ephemera of that migration is on exhibit here — all exploring “the new psychedelic impulse.” (Through Aug. 20)
EXPERIENCE: Obscura Day
Atlas Obscura, the alternative travel guide to the world’s weirdest attractions, puts on 170 unusual/cool cultural events around the globe during the first week of May. Including: canoeing through a flooded mine (headlamps and all) in Kansas City, kayaking the largest ship graveyard in the Western Hemisphere and touring an abandoned Berlin spy station with a former NSA agent (followed by a concert). If “A behind-the-scenes tour of cannibalism and miniatures in Denver” can’t sell you on the idea, then stay home. (May 6)
PERUSE: Implied
A new print mag built from a website where great photographers showcase beautiful implied nude photography. Porn? No, art.
LISTEN: Our monthly Spotify playlist
Eagerly awaited new tunes from Beth Ditto, Gorillaz, Soulwax and The War on Drugs, plus soon-to-be-classics from youngsters Royal Blood, White Reaper and Strange Bones.
And don’t forget: It’s a three-way tie for the “best book title of the month with the author’s name as part of the title” between The Awkward Thoughts of W. Kamau Bell: Tales of a 6’ 4″, African American, Heterosexual, Cisgender, Left-Leaning, Asthmatic, Black and Proud Blerd, Mama’s Boy, Dad, and Stand-Up Comedian (May 2), Al Franken, Giant of the Senate (May 30) and Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century (May 16) … Tracy Morgan makes his welcome return to the stage for a Netflix special (May 16) … The Bob’s Burgers soundtrack has 112 songs, including “Butts, Butts, Butts” (May 12) … Kingsman was the Bond movie the 21st century deserved. Its sequel has inspired a rather dapper clothing line for Mr. Porter (out now) … Speaking of Bond, how did George Lazenby get one film as 007? Hulu examines that anomaly in new doc Becoming Bond (May 20) … Prey is hella creepy and this year’s best first-person shooter (May 5) … Heat gets a 4K Blu-ray remaster and new extras, like an interview with the cast and crew (Mann, Pacino, De Niro) conducted by Christopher Nolan (May 9) … It doesn’t happen until September (and it’s sold out), but maybe you could book your stay at the kitschy Camp John Waters Club Getaway for next year.
Main image credit: Photographer: Vinny Kim. Model: Shawna Lee.
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