Editorials
What the Cecil Hotel Reveals About Toxic True Crime Fandom
In 2013, the body of 21 year old Elisa Lam was discovered in the rooftop water tank of Los Angeles’ infamous Cecil Hotel. What was eventually ruled an accidental drowning took on a life of its own due to law enforcement’s decision to release surveillance footage of Lam’s final moments. Netflix’s new docuseries Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel pieces together this mysterious tragedy by examining Lam’s life and the complicated history of the hotel itself. Yet it also exposes the harmful nature of Internet sleuthing by questioning the ethics of true crime fandom and highlighting the line between compassion and exploitation. Morbid Obsession <img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1104713" data-attachment-id="1104713" data-permalink="https://consequen...
In Defense of Phoebe Bridgers Smashing Her Guitar on Saturday Night Live
This past weekend, Phoebe Bridgers made her eagerly anticipated debut as the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. During the final moments of her performance of “I Know the End”, a track from her buzzy sophomore album, Punisher, Bridgers went out with a bang — literally — when she repeatedly smashed her guitar into a monitor onstage. Unfortunately, the Internet being what it is, Bridgers’ epic moment of punk euphoria was clouded by curmudgeonly chatter. A simple search of “Phoebe Bridgers guitar” on Twitter brings up a litany of comments wondering why “that woman” had the nerve to “damage expensive property.” Others called the act pointless and even poked fun at Bridgers for apparently not being strong enough to have done more physical damage to the instrument. No matter how much doom scr...
Iggy and the Stooges’ Raw Power Still Thrives on Chaos and Unyielding Fury
When rock and roll evolved from the harmonious sludge of ditties about loving a gal from down the street or how kids wanted to rebel against their parents, The Beatles and Stones pushed our consciousness. Those bands dared us to see the emotional and sonic boundaries via large, orchestrated movements with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band or the smooth but malicious undertones of Let It Bleed. These two bands broke the mold. They accelerated what the culture and artform were, but even as the Stones dipped their toes in dark water, it was still palatable to the masses, selling millions. But soon, new bands pushed harder. They came at the culture like a brick to the teeth: Jimi Hendrix took us to a different plane of existence, Black Sabbath dared us to see the devil and dance with him, ...
What WandaVision’s “Very Special Episode” Reveal Means for the Marvel Cinematic Universe
The following editorial is heavy on spoilers… Previously On WandaVision… Though Disney+’s WandaVision has already carved a niche for itself as a risk-taking series unlike anything the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) has attempted before, the spinoff series’ most recent installment delivered a reveal in the final seconds of this week’s episode that completely redefines the possibilities in the MCU. “On a Very Special Episode…” — WandaVision’s longest outing yet with nearly double the runtime of the four prior episodes — saw Darcy Lewis (Kat Jenning), Jimmy Woo (Randall Park), and the newly-returned Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) try to find a way in to Westview, the town that Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) has turned into her own fever-dream version of classic sitcoms. With Monica’s...
