Best Weekend
Best Weekend: Grace Jones’s Memoir, the Malala Doc + More
What we'll be listening to, watching, and reading to sate our pop culture needs.
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We can’t decide whether to dance to Chvrches, self-reflect with Shawn Colvin, or just spend all day in the kitchen with Ruth Reichl. Luckily, the weekend is here and we can do all that and (eat) a bag of chips with Malala and Alicia the good wife.
‘I’ll Never Write My Memoirs’ by Grace Jones
If Instagram pics of Grace Jones’s recent epic-looking live shows that you somehow didn’t get a ticket to have given you debilitating FOMO (No? Just us?), you can drown your sorrows in her new memoir. The gender-busting icon gets into all of it…her relationship with photographer Jean-Paul Goude (who cemented her image in pop culture forever), her unconventional relationship to the masculine and feminine, as well as her religious upbringing in Jamaica. With essays that include conclusions like this: “It’s why I want to fuck every man in the ass at least once,” how can you not be intrigued?
Cvurches—‘Every Open Eye’
Led by charismatic frontwoman and outspoken feminist Lauren Mayberry (her crusade against online misogyny is powerful), Chvurches, the Scottish synth-pop trio that took earbuds by storm in 2013, is back with their sophomore release Every Open Eye. This time around their millennial anthems are louder than ever, and their minimally produced new wave hooks have more than a hint of old-school Depeche Mode.
‘He Named Me Malala’
The Inconvenient Truth director Davis Guggenheim turned to a much more hope-inspiring subject for his new documentary: Malala Yousafzai. The film traces the trajectory of the Pakistani teen from her advocacy, to the Taliban’s assassination attempt, to the Nobel Peace Prize she was awarded last year. It might not reveal more about the feminist hero than her eponymous memoir did, but we’re in favor of getting her message out through every medium possible.
‘The Good Wife’ Season 7 Premiere
Season 6 of The Good Wife left much to be desired. But we have all our hopes pinned on this Sunday’s season 7 premiere, certain that Alicia Florrick, et al., will be back on our televisions with storylines that are sharper than ever. With the state’s attorney’s race behind us, hopefully the series will get back to what it does best—explore women’s modern existence personally and professionally in a way that actually feels authentic…with some top-notch courtroom drama thrown in.
‘My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life’ by Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl was 61 years old when Gourmet magazine, of which she was the editor in chief, up and closed, leaving her unemployed and unmoored. So the food critic turned to the kitchen, and cooked her way out of oblivion. The result is a memoir/cookbook with recipes organized not only by season, but also by taste memory. If you follow her poetic Twitter feed you know that reading these recipes is just as delicious as the dishes themselves.
Shawn Colvin—‘Uncovered’
It’s been 21 years since singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin put out a covers album, and you can tell that this new collection of tracks was two decades in the making. Colvin puts her acoustic spin on classics including Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest” as well as tunes from John Fogerty, Tom Waits, and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Her take on these male rock icons is music to our ears.
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