Sacred Musings: June 2024
Vampires and bankers and DJs, oh my...
Bonjour à tous et à toutes,
As I write this, the solstice has just passed, a lovely full moon having joined it. We stand à cheval between the first and second half of 2024: not quite on the approach to 2025, but with enough time past to ponder the changes and stagnancies experienced in the past six months. If you are anything like myself, you may feel both like too much and not enough has happened; I often remind myself the importance of seeing both the forest and the trees.
Over the last few months, I’ve had the pleasure to have some conversations with various press outlets about SACRED MONSTER. In particular, though, I’d like to highlight a pair of incredibly flattering profiles, one published in Noah Becker’s Whitehot Magazine and another in Contemporary Art Issue. I had a blast speaking to Carlota and Jonathan about my roots working at the Roxy at the peak of the indie sleaze moment; what it’s like to ping-pong between Los Angeles and Paris; and my experiences working in the world of sex education.
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As mentioned in “The Golden Ring”, I had the misfortune of getting Covid-19 on my return travel to Los Angeles. I didn’t leave my house for about 10 days, and was rather unable to do much by way of productivity, which was frustrating, however it did give me ample time to catch up on T.V. during the moments where I was not sleeping it off.
I cannot speak highly enough of the adaptation of Anne Rice’s classic Interview with the Vampire currently airing in the U.S. via AMC (and coming soon to Netflix.) The original books and 1994 film are pieces of culture that I hold incredibly near and dear to my heart — so much so that I christened my dachshund in part after the sensitive vamp Louis de Pointe du Lac. The T.V. show, which premiered its first season in 2022 and is currently wrapping its second, is an astonishing yet faithful update. The cast is outstanding, in particular Sam Reid, who plays the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt in a fashion perfectly attuned to the qualities that make him, in my opinion, one of the greatest characters of all time: seductive, artistic, insane, erotic, bratty and very, very, French.
I also revisited another favorite of mine, Industry on HBO, which will be airing its third season this upcoming August. Imagine Skins set in the world of banking; the show is sexy, sleazy, well-acted, funny, thrilling and will make you simultaneously crave a line of cocaine and a life of sobriety. The soundtrack is fantastic.
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We have been spoiled in the last six or so weeks by an influx of new music releases from female pop musicians. I’ve really enjoyed Peggy Gou’s debut LP I Hear You. I grew up listening to a lot of what was categorized as “world music”, thanks to my mother, so I have fond memories of the genre, which Gou reminds me of. She has made a name for herself by blending influences from the techno clubs of Berlin, where she is based, South Korea, where she is from, and 1990s Eurodisco. I have no doubt that I Hear You will be on constant rotation chez moi this summer.
On a final note, much of time I discuss Cocteau I touch on the idea that the relative lack of acceptance he faced in his lifetime came from the fact that he was so ahead of his era, and that those who are truly breaking new ground are rarely understood until much later. A recent example of this phenomenon is the producer SOPHIE, pioneer of the hyperpop genre, whose music was transgressive and broke every boundary. SOPHIE’s life ended too soon when she suffered an accident in January of 2021. A posthumous, self-titled album was just announced for September, and a melancholic single, “Reason Why”, released. To listen to it is to be grateful we have more SOPHIE coming, and sad to ponder the tragedy of the potential we lost when she crossed from this realm to the next.
À la prochaine,
Chloë Helen America Cassens