Friendmendations 10.19.20

Hey guys/girls/gays/theys! I hope that everyone who’s eligible is voting and bullying everyone they know into voting. Also, get a flu shot.

If you do those things, you deserve some recs.

Over the Garden Wall, into the vintage postcard archive

It’s the time of year where I implore everyone to watch Over the Garden Wall, a gorgeous, autumnal, spooky miniseries available on Hulu. If you’re already a fan, you’ll love this analysis of vintage postcards’ influence on the show’s art style from the blog Weird Christmas. And as an exciting follow-up this year, the blog’s author spoke to Garden Wall creator Patrick McHale about his vintage inspirations!

From vintage postcards to vintage film

A few weeks ago, I saw a modern restoration of a charming film clip from 1896. Colorized and adjusted to today’s speed standards, the people laughing and enjoying a snowball fight seem so much less stuffy and more relatable than people in black-and-white photos or stilted videos from past eras usually do. That thread led me to Denis Shiryaev’s YouTube channel, where he uses neural network technology to create similar updates to old film, with added ambient noises to enhance the sense of reality and limit the detachment we might feel from the past. The above video of San Francisco is particularly gripping because it was shot just four days before the 1906 earthquake destroyed the area, and I also love this footage of 1911 New York since the city is now my home.

An EXTREMELY compelling theory

Did I have any feelings about Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg’s working relationship earlier this week? No, I did not. Am I now thoroughly convinced that a tragic unrequited love affair unfolded in front of the entire world? Yes, I am, thanks to Frankie Thomas’s persuasive piece for The Niche, “The Agony and the Ecstasy of the Social Network Press Tour.” I’m convinced, I’m invested, and I harbor very strong feelings toward Jesse Eisenberg. Andrew, he never deserved you!!!! 💔

Extremely good comedy

Oh boy, do I love the slightly surreal comedy of the Dress Up Gang. Every twist and turn of “Cute House” had me agog with delight. I don’t have cable, so I sadly can’t watch their show on the TBS app (co-starring Andie MacDowell as herself! For some reason!). But their YouTube channel has plenty of clips from when it was a web series called My Roommate, My Friend about an LA odd-couple pair of roommates performed and edited like Very Special Episodes of old sitcoms, so I can still enjoy gems like “The Bully” and “Donny’s Valentine.”

And now for a jam

I love this weirdly atmospheric bop, with its looped bird calls courtesy of Clams Casino and bars from Vince Staples.

Okay! That’s all for this week. Wish me luck, as I’m still working on breaking my Twitter addiction in the hopes that it will help me be not dumb. It’s definitely improving my mood already. That being said, I love that logged back on and saw this:

I leave you with that and my apologies for sharing it.

This week last year:

“Friendmendations 10.21.19” — the Justin Bieber quotes that I will never get out of my head, the surprisingly fascinating details behind one of the most memorable ad campaigns, nice things for your face, and my favorite comic about dogs

“I have a theory about the Killers” — just a dumb post about the bizarre lyrics of a band I’m obsessed with