Rehash

Once upon a time, there was a place you could go on the internet to buy all the strangest fruits that fashion’s best and brightest had to offer. Now, you’re more likely to hit it when you decide to become the billionth person in the world to own a pair of sambas. That place is SSENSE - the luxury e-commerce mega retailer based out of Montreal, which houses every fashion brand from Canada Goose to Issey Miyake, and employs just about the entire 20-something anglo population of Montreal. SSENSE has become an undeniable powerhouse in the world of luxury e-commerce, carving a name for itself with an unorthodox business model that fuses fashion and technology. But can a company which has been called “the Amazon of high fashion” really be the bastion of the arts that it proclaims to be? In this extra special Patreon bonus episode, Maia and Hannah, with the help of a series of interviews from former SSENSE employees and small business owners, discuss SSENSE’S impact on fashion as an art form. As SSENSE gobbles up all the fish in the e-commerce pond, is it actually supporting emerging artists, or snuffing them out? 

FULL EPISODE AVAILABLE ON PATREON:

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When “selfie” was deemed the word of the year in 2013, people freaked it. How had society become so vapid? Were we all narcissists? Did this mean young people would spend all the precious time they COULD be building a Forbes empire… taking pictures of themselves? But did selfies really make Narcissuses of us all, or have human beings always been fascinated by their own self-image? The selfie as we know it today may have been invented by a clumsy Australian man. But from its origins in the days of Renaissance courtships, to 19th century “cartes-de-visite”, to the self-portraits of Cindy Sherman, it may be that the selfie has been with us all along. Moreover, can selfies be… art? In this bonus episode, Hannah and Maia breakdown the history, and question its future. Tangents include: Maia and Hannah moving countries, the importance of the word “gullet”, and why we’re so afraid of Victorian ghosts. 

Listen now on Patreon:

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If you’ve ever vacantly nodded along while someone rants to you about NFTs, then this finale episode is for you. Welcome to Blockchain for Bimbos. From a genuine effort to put agency over the sale of their work back into the hands of artists was born a Frankenstein’s monster: the NFT. It’s the internet version of owning a star… if you could resell that star for millions of dollars to a crypto millionaire. Even stranger, the successful marriage of NFTs and legacy art institutions made strange bed fellows out of affluent old art collectors and dweeby tech bros. And while the era of 2021-2022 was a gold rush for those who could wrap their heads around this intentionally confounding technology, it also exposed something we always knew about the world of art, but never wanted to admit…

Ernst De Geer’s THE HYPNOSIS is now streaming on MUBI in many countries as part of their Millennial Meltdown series. 

You can try MUBI free for 30 days at mubi.com/rehash.

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES

Kevin Roose, “What are NFTs?” The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/nft-guide.html 

Valentina Di Liscia, “Artists Say Plagiarized NFTs are Plaguing Their Community” Hyperallergic (2021) https://hyperallergic.com/702309/artists-say-plagiarized-nfts-are-plaguing-their-community/

“10 things to know about CryptoPunks, the original NFTs” Christie’s (2021) https://www.christies.com/en/stories/10-things-to-know-about-cryptopunks-94347afeea234209a7739c240149f769#FID-11569 

Scott Reyburn, “Will Cryptocurrencies Be the Art Market’s Next Big Thing?” The New York Times (2018) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/arts/cryptocurrency-art-market.html/ 
“Art Term: Readymade” Tate https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/r/readymade
Cynthia Goodman, “The Digital Revolution: Art in the Computer Age” Art Journal (1990) https://www.jstor.org/stable/777115 

David Joselit, “NFTs, or The Readymade Reversed” October Magazine (2021) https://doi.org/10.1162/octo_a_00419 

Josie Thaddeus-Johns “Beeple Bring Crypto to Christie’s” The New York Times (2021) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/arts/design/christies-beeple-nft.html

Anthony Cuthbertson, “NFT millionaire Beeple says crypto art is bubble and will ‘absolutely go to zero’ The Independent (2021) https://www.independent.co.uk/tech/nft-beeple-cryptocurrency-art-b1821314.html

Zachary Small, “The Night That Sotheby’s Was Crypto Punked” The New York Times (2024) https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/18/business/sothebys-crypto-nfts-auction.html

Adam Maida, “What Critics Don’t Understand About NFTs” The Atlantic (2021) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-show-value-owning-unownable/618525/ 

Anil Dash, “NFTs Weren’t Supposed to End Like This” The Atlantic (2021) https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/nfts-werent-supposed-end-like/618488/ 

Blake Gopnik, “One Year After Beeple, the NFT has changed Artists. Has It Changed Art?” The New York Times (2022) https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/03/arts/design/nft-art-beeple.html 

Nathaniel Popper, “What is the Blockchain? Explaining the Tech behind Cryptocurrencies” The New York Times (2018) https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/27/business/dealbook/blockchains-guide-information.html

Considering every broad and her mother owns a pair of ballet flats these days, it’s safe to say ballet has successfully re-infiltrated popular culture. But that might not be a good thing. In this episode, Hannah and Maia, along with movement artist Susanna Haight, trace the evolution of dance in the Western zeitgeist - from the days of George Balanchine, to the introduction of camera phones into the training space. If we’re living in a time of girlhood, and girlhood is all about ballet, and ballet is all about hyper femininity, and femininity is all about self-regulation, and self-regulation is the prevailing force of our social media surveillance society… then we may just be trapped in a dance panopticon. But what does this mean for dancers? Tangents include: Maia being hit on by her pre-recorded, virtual Peloton instructor.

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

Sources:

Sarah Crompton, “‘Ballet has the same appeal as Princess culture’: Alice Robb on how would-be ballerinas are taught to be thin, silent and submissive” Independent (2023).

Elizabeth Kiem, “George Balanchine: the Human Cost of an Artistic Legacy” Huffington Post (2014).

Cecily Parks, “The arts are slowly diversifying but ballet needs to catch up” New School Free Press (2023).

Irene E. Schultz, “What is a Ballet Body?” Medium (2020).

Frances Sola-Santiago, “Balletcore Is Still Huge In 2023 — Here’s Why It’s More Exciting Than Ever Before” Refinery 29 (2023).

Avery Trufelman, “On Pointe” Articles of Interest (2023).

If you're enjoying the Parker Posey-aissance, then Party Girl is the film for you. This little freak of a movie, about a Manhattan club-goer who experiences an existential crisis after reading the Myth of Sisyphus (yes, that's the plot) was, believe it or not, the first feature film to premiere both in theatres and online. And thus it occupies a very odd space in popular culture. Predicting many things to come: the streaming era, Brat, downtown edgelords. And remaining an artifact of a time where weirdo, shoestring budget flicks still had an audience. In this episode, Hannah and Maia chat about the history of Party Girl and what it says about our world today. Tangents include: Trump getting shot, Hannah becoming Shakespeare, and the tyranny of niche meme accounts that come for literally everyone… even those who read Camus and drink black coffee.

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES

Taylor Ghrist, “The secret history of Party Girl” Dazed (2015) https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/24991/1/the-secret-history-of-party-girl 

Soraya Roberts, “How 1995’s ‘Party Girl’ Became The First Movie To Premiere Online” Defector (2023) https://defector.com/how-1995s-party-girl-became-the-first-movie-to-premier-online 

The Deuce Film Series, “The Deuce Notebook: ‘Party Girl’ Is Back in Town!” Mubi Notebook (2023) https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/the-deuce-notebook-party-girl-is-back-in-town 

Ari Saperstein, “How the First Popular Movie Ever to Stream Online Was Made” WSJ Magazine (2020) https://archive.ph/20200608135245/https://www.wsj.com/articles/party-girl-oral-history-parker-posey-11591621366 

Gemma Gracewood, “Reading is Sexy: Party Girl’s filmmakers share production memories while reading Letterboxd reviews.” Letterboxd (2023) https://letterboxd.com/journal/party-girl-letterboxd-reviews-Daisy-von-Scherler-Mayer/

Rich Juzwiak, “The Everlasting Appeal of ‘Party Girl’” Jezebel (2023) https://www.jezebel.com/party-girl-rerelease-1850382585 

Victoria Wiet, “The Library is Open: On Party Girl, Budget Cuts, and the Future of Women’s Work” Literary Hub (2023) https://lithub.com/the-library-is-open-on-party-girl-budget-cuts-and-the-future-of-womens-work/

“Party Girl: Groove is in the Heart” The Frida Cinema (2023) https://thefridacinema.org/film-criticism/party-girl-groove-is-in-the-heart

Peter Rainer, “This ‘Party Girl’ Knows How to Have Fun” The LA Times (1995) https://web.archive.org/web/20160306062736/http://articles.latimes.com/1995-06-09/entertainment/ca-11122_1_party-girl

Judy Berman, “The Streaming Void” The Baffler, no. 38 (March 2018) https://thebaffler.com/salvos/the-streaming-void-berman

Alissa Wilkinson, “Netflix vs. Cannes: why they’re fighting, what it means for cinema, and who really loses” Vox (2018) https://www.vox.com/culture/2018/4/13/17229476/netflix-versus-cannes-ted-sarandos-thierry-fremaux-okja-meyerowitz-orson-welles-streaming-theater

Meaghan Garvey, “Brat” Pitchfork (2024) https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/charli-xcx-brat/ 

Hamilton: the musical that launched a thousand lip-biting memes. Almost a decade ago, Lin Manuel Miranda’s race-bending rap-sical took broadway by storm and rose to unprecedented levels of success, amassing a dedicated, almost fanatical global fanbase. Yet with ticket prices starting at $400 a pop, the vast majority of these fans had never actually seen the show. Even stranger, in 2016 you could throw a rock and hit about three Hamilton fans, but today it seems like a title no one wants to claim. In this episode, Hannah, Maia, and their friend and long-time collaborator Sara Harvey, go mask-off to discuss Hamilton as it relates to their love of theatre. Is Hamilton a transgressive emulation or veneration of the founding fathers? How much of the show’s backlash is about its real historical flaws, and how much is a symptom of our irony-poisoning? And how much does theatre lose when it’s spliced up and broadcasted on the internet? Tangents include: the “boys and girls can’t share a room law”, Hannah playing the lottery, and a never-before-seen look at the inception of The Crucible: The Musical. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

Sources:

Claire Bond Potter, “Safe in the Nation We’ve Made” Staging Hamilton on Social Media” in Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical Is Restaging America's Past, Rutgers (2018).

H. W. Brands, “Founders Chic” The Atlantic (2003).

EJ Dickson, “Why Gen Z Turned on Lin-Manuel Miranda” Rolling Stone (2020).

Elissa Harbert, “Hamilton and History Musicals” American Music, Vol. 36 (4) Hamilton (2018).

Andy Lavender, “The Internet, Theatre and Time: transmediating the theatron” Contemporary Theatre Review (2017).

Marvin McAllister, “Toward a More Perfect Hamilton” Journal of the Early Republic, Vol. 3 (2) (2017).

Erika Milvy, “Hamilton's teenage superfans: 'This is, like, crazy cool'” The Guardian (2016).

Aja Romano, “Hamilton is fanfic, and its historical critics are totally missing the point” Vox (2016).

When The Beatles came out with Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it seemed like music had changed forever. Out with the days of 78s and random singles compiled into LPs. Now the act of listening to music was an art in itself! Until it wasn’t. In this episode, Hannah and Maia look past their musical differences to take you on a journey through music history as it collides with technology. As major innovations in music - disco, punk, MTV, pirating, the predetermination of music streaming - slowly erode the art of the concept album, it’s hard not to wonder what, if anything, has been lost. Technology pushes music forward, but can music push back? Tangents include: hating on Shoppers Drug Mart; The Beatles originating the “rodent boyfriend” trend; and Maia putting a nickel into the “Don’t Talk About Youtube” jar. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

It’s hard to tell what killed photography… whether it was the advent of the camera phone, the “pocket gallery” that is social media, or the thousands of men taking softcore images of hot women in lingerie and calling it art. These horsemen of the photography apocalypse were all put to trial when Emily Ratajkowski went up against acclaimed artist and professional troll, Richard Prince, after he featured one of her Instagram photos in an art exhibition in New York. An image she went on to purchase for $80,000. While Prince’s “Instagram Paintings” series seems at best lazy and at worst sleazy, it raises fascinating questions about the state of photography as an art form. Photography has always had problems with authorship, but social media has thrown that into crisis. Once a photograph reaches the internet, is it yours any longer? Is it even a photograph at all? Hannah and Maia are joined by photographer and friend Stefan Johnson to discuss all this and more in this episode, embarking on tangents such as: what comprises a “Brat summer”, and Maia being too optimistic about Love Island UK.

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES:

Walter Benjamin, “'The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility” (1935).

Liz Linden, “Reframing Pictures: Reading the Art of Appropriation” Art Journal, vol. 75, No. 4 (2016).

W. J. T. Mitchell, “The Pictorial Turn” Artforum (1992).

Sabine Niederer, “Networked Images: Visual methodologies for the digital age”, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (2018).

Lizzie Plaugic, “The story of Richard Prince and his $100,000 Instagram art” The Verge (2015).

Emily Ratajkowski, “Buying Myself Back: When does a model own her own image?” Vulture (2020).

David Robbins, “Richard Prince: An Interview by David Robbins” Aperture , FALL 1985, No. 100, The Edge of Illusion (FALL 1985).

Peter Schjeldahl, “Richard Prince’s Instagrams” The New Yorker (2014).

Giulia Turbiglio, “A Brief History of Richard Prince’s Instagram” Artuner.

Wattpad: a literary oasis of the Web 2.0, or a cash cow monopolizing on the infernal musings of a thousand Club Chalamets? In this episode, Hannah and Maia are joined by Youtube superstar Princess Weekes, to ponder the eponymous literary platform; from its gaming origins, to its heyday as a fertile space for burgeoning writers, to what it is now which is… bizarre. Is Wattpad f-cking up our relationship to literature, or should we just be happy that we’re literate at all? How do we critique an institution like Wattpad without punching down at its readers? And how much has the internet affected the kinds of books that are sold to us? These questions and more answered here. Tangents include: Hannah and Maia buying each other “sad broad” snacks, and an extra special shoutout to Regina, Saskatchewan. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

⁠https://www.patreon.com/rehashpodcast⁠

Princess Weekes's video:

https://youtu.be/54v0KJZJuyw?si=_AT1SGUzJ_KRnbx7

Intro and outro song by Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

SOURCES

“Wattpad: Building the world’s biggest reader and writer community” The Literary Platform (2012) https://theliteraryplatform.com/news/2012/10/wattpad-building-the-worlds-biggest-reader-and-writer-community/

Margaret Atwood “Why Wattpad Works” The Guardian (2012)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/jul/06/margaret-atwood-wattpad-online-writing

Andrew Liptak “Wattpad is launching a publishing imprint called Wattpad Books” The Verge (2019) https://www.theverge.com/2019/1/24/18195753/wattpad-books-launching-publishing-imprint-self

Bianca Bosker, “The One Direction Fan-Fiction Novel That Became a Literary Sensation” The Atlantic (2018) https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/12/crowdsourcing-the-novel/573907/

“The Master Plan” Wattpad https://company.wattpad.com/blog/2016/11/30/the-master-plan

Chelsea Humphries, “Is an Algorithm the Answer? Wattpad Books’s Challenge to Publishing Infastructure” The iJournal (2019) https://theijournal.ca/index.php/ijournal/article/view/33469/25726

David Steitfeld, “Web Fiction, Serialized and Social” The New York Times (2014) https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/24/technology/web-fiction-serialized-and-social.html

Hazal Kirci, “The tales teens tell: what Wattpad did for girls” The Guardian (2014) https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/aug/16/teen-writing-reading-wattpad-young-adults 

Abigail De Kosnik, “Should Fan Fiction Be Free?” Cinema Journal (2009) https://www.jstor.org/stable/25619734 

Oscar Wilde once said, “All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling. To be natural is to be obvious, and to be obvious is to be inartistic.” But if that's the case, how do we explain Rupi Kaur? Ever since she came on the scene a decade ago, Rupi has seen equal measures of praise and scrutiny. And, youth and gender considered, it’s hard not to feel that the backlash to her work is yet another instance of people hating anything that’s popular. However, in this episode, Hannah and Maia are joined by special guest, poet Phoebe VanDusen, to peer behind the veil of Rupi's persona and ask some pressing questions. What exactly irks people about her work? Does all art need to be democratized? What is the line between anti-elitism and anti-intellectualism? And perhaps the most puzzling of all: is poetry something anyone can do? Tangent includes: Maia’s shameless love of Nickelback. 

Support us on Patreon and get juicy bonus content:

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Intro and outro song by our talented friend Ian Mills:

⁠https://linktr.ee/ianmillsmusic

Poets mentioned by Phoebe:

Tommy Pico

Kim Hyesoon

Etel Adnan

Timmy Straw

Frank O'Hara

Alice Notley

Ocean Vuong - "Aubade with Burning City":

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/56769/aubade-with-burning-city

SOURCES:

Javon Johnson, Killing Poetry: Blackness and the Making of Slam and Spoken Word Communities, Rutgers (2017).

Maria Manning, “Crafting Authenticity: Reality, Storytelling, and Female Self-Representation through Instapoetry” Storytelling, Self, Society,  Vol. 16, No. 2 (2020).

Audre Lorde, “Poetry Is Not a Luxury” (1985).

Miski Omar, “Whether voice of a generation or queen of cringe, Rupi Kaur was a gateway to the world of poetry” The Guardian (2024).

Soraya Roberts, “No Filter” The Baffler (2018).

Rebecca Watts, “The Cult of the Noble Amateur” PN Review, vol.44 (3) (2018).