The Weekend List: No. 18

Clockwise from top left: Ariel Finch, Gareth from The Office, Posh and Sporty photograph via eBay memorabilia store.

Culture

• "One thing I did find hard to chronicle was the strange effect this all had on my sense of myself as a continuous subject. For many months, coming out and changing my name seemed like a major rupture: having people refer to me differently and treat me differently felt far more sudden than anything that later happened to my body." He to She by Juliet Jacques.

• "Within seconds, Mrs Banksy had gone full Costner on us, physically shielding her husband in the car. Then she realised who it was and quickly calmed down, and we stood for a moment sheepishly chatting about the sheep." Morwenna Ferrier's account of Banksy buying her house is really funny.

• "They thought they were building a classroom, and it turned into a bank." Net of Insecurity: the first in The Washington Post's series about the internet's vulnerable flaws and why they may never be fixed. Note: miraculously WP hasn't created a page for the series, so you'll have to root for yourself.

• "I read and try to follow politics because it gives me a different kind of courage. It’s the same courage I get from reading poetry or experiencing art: there is another way of existing outside of the safety that you know already... I don’t want to feel too safe." I went to see Jenny Hval perform this week. Having known very little about her, I am now fascinated, listening to her latest album over and over and seeking out interviews.

• “You need to prepare sneak attacks on society. Hairspray is the only really devious movie I ever made: the musical based on it is being performed in practically every high school in America, and nobody seems to notice it’s a show with two men singing a love song to each other, that also encourages white teenage girls to date black guys. Pink Flamingoes was preaching to the converted, but Hairspray is a Trojan horse.” A cut-out-and-keep: Life Lessons from John Waters.

Style

• From David Byrne to Gareth from The Office: Raven Smith's wonderful compilation of tailoring in pop culture.

• Ariel Finch, who has the coolest name, a taste for homoerotic cowboys and whose Tumblr is always leading me to press open link in new tab.

• Personal style and, specifically, vblogs that don't make me want to die from fashion stylist Sally Lyndley. I now realise Sally styled that Pop Magazine Drew Barrymore spread in 2008. It was all varsity-meets-grunge, cheerleading pom-poms, cigarettes and plaid and when I was 17 I thought it was everything, and tore it out (rare move for a fashion magazine collector) and stuck it onto my bedroom walls. 

Snacks

• Spice Girls memorabilia on eBay.

• Chuck's Miscellany.

• I voted for Guac + Roll as Best UK Food Blog in the Observer Food Awards. Here's how you can too.

>>Not done yet? You can peruse The Weekend List archive here.<<