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SO THIS IS WHY TVL'S EPISODES ARE NAMED AFTER CITIES??? OH ROLIN YOU GENIUS

Ok ok OK you guys probably do not have any idea who Italo Calvino was (best Italian writer of the last 100 years) who wrote this masterpiece (my favourite book) and watching Lestat throwing it at Daniel??? Rolin I'm at your doorstep. Lemme introduce you to:

"Le Città Invisibili"

The book is framed as a conversation between the Mongol emperor Kublai Khan, and Marco Polo. Now, Marco's name was as famous as a ROCK STAR of his era, his travel book (IL MILIONE) written while in prison a best seller. Italo wrote brief prose poems describing 55 fictitious cities that are narrated by Polo, many of which can be read as commentary on culture, language, time, MEMORY, DEATH, or THE ODYSSEY OF RECOLLECTION. Cities made of spiderwebs, sounds, abandoned cities, cities that look completely different when you enter its walls - you should read it. Short dialogues between Kublai and Polo (ALMOST LIKE AN INTERVIEW YOU MIGHT SAY) are interspersed every five to ten cities discussing the same topics. These interludes between the two characters are no less poetically constructed than the cities, and form a framing device that plays with the natural complexity of language, stories and LIES. Kublai also asks about a city Polo never mentioned, his hometown of Venice. Polo replies, "Every time I describe a city I am saying something about Venice." Now, we are listening to the voice of Lestat in his "failures" collection, which are like the chapters of his autobiography. As this wave from memories flows in, the city soaks it up like a sponge and expands. The episodes have been so far extremely hectic, hard to focus on, full of little lies and exaggerated scenes - seen through the main character's imaginative eyes. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else.

The ending is a warning against despairing:

"The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together."

Stuff like this always makes me remember how sensationalized the ​“hide your kids, hide your wife” video was, also known as the “bedroom intruder meme” 🗿.

SHUNGA collection by Lucy Liu

Liu’s figurative paintings — inspired by shunga, Japanese erotic art popularized in the 17th century — are ruminations on her upbringing in a family where sex and nudity were taboo. When she first began to show these works, a dealer suggested she recut the canvases to eliminate the exaggerated genitals (the work in this article is a relatively tame example). “I can’t do that,” she said. “They were like, ‘Well, do you want to sell? Do you want to create this career?’ I found that so outrageous. [I was] being censored once again. As a child I was not allowed to ask questions but now I can’t even show …” she trails off. “I know it’s aggressive, maybe it’s not your taste, but that’s not the point of the piece.” 

“Hanging on the wall of Liu’s studio are three large paintings of nudes. In one, two females crouch head-to-head as if sharing a kiss — or a secret. Get close enough to the canvas and you can see a window ornamented with a flower box; you realize that there is another painting underneath: The original works are paintings of old family photographs.”

SHEILA ATIM as Akasha

armand as that one norman rockwell painting

Assad Zaman as Armand