Now Playing: September 2024

Our September 2024 edition of Now Playing features killer stories, dark ballet, strange bookstore finds, and music full of queer joy and messages of social change, all from our contributors!

Pegah Ouji

I’ve been listening to a song called “Yani Chi Nemishe” by the Iranian artist Hichkas. The song title roughly translates to “What do you mean, it’s not possible?” I love how many fundamental questions he raises in the song about what it means to work for social change with love and resilience but also a message that it’s ok if the direction you choose for your life is not understood by many people.

Max Pasakorn

After hearing it for the first time in a concert, I'm absolutely OBSESSED with the song "DILF" by Thai trans singer BADMIXY. BADMIXY sings to a potential sugar daddy, playing the perfect sugar baby wife, singing, "Even though you're old, you're still cute," and "My bank account is running low, can I get a top up?" Knowing Thailand's reputation for sex tourism and the exotification of trans women, seeing an over-the-top music video surrounding this concept made me indelibly happy as I celebrated the sugar baby status with BADMIXY. Oh, and when I saw it performed in concert it was sung by a very cute boyish male pop star, asking for a sugar daddy, so I was super invested. Not saying I have a type or anything, I promise.

Kasey Butcher Santana

Recently, I watched The Red Shoes (1948), which is on a list of movies that Greta Gerwig says influenced Barbie, which I'm working through. I love a good ballet movie and had been meaning to watch it for years. The central ballet, "The Red Shoes," is creepier and more fantastic than I even expected.

Caitie Karasik

Besides watching 90 Day Fiancé, a show I treat with religious reverence, I’ve been reading Claire Keegan's short stories. I picked up her triptych So Late in the Day and it’s masterful. Sparse but biting. Just a thrill to read and captures such a wordless feeling. I’m like one of her misogynistic male characters — I could kill her for being so good.

Mojtaba Taghvaei (aka “Moshtaba”)

Three days ago, I found an old book by Richard Brautigan, "Abortion: An Historical Romance 1966", in a small local bookstore. The first thing that caught my attention was the first page, which introduced Brautigan and used "is" to refer to the writer. The book was older than his death; it was a strange feeling.

The second thing was this part of the story, which describes a book and its author:

"A HISTORY OF NEBRASKA by Clinton York. The author was a gentleman of about forty-seven who said he had never been to Nebraska, but he had always been interested in the state."

It's been months since I started working on a project called "Wisconsin Lakes." Though I've never been to America, I've developed a passion for the over 15,000 lakes of Wisconsin, and I started painting them.

This part of the novella strengthened that passion in me. I felt as though something that happened decades ago in the mind of a great writer was now being experienced by me, decades later and oceans away.