A David Dobrik Doco?
Mōrena lil shits!!
I'm not gonna lie, I woke up feeling like I'd been hit by a truck - for some reason I could NOT PRY MY EYES OPEN! But here I am, semi-functioning, with another banger edish for you!
And, since I've been slacking in the recommendations department lately, here's what I'm consuming (or endeavouring to consume) atm:
Alanis Morissette & Avril Lavigne (Music)
Good Trouble (TV)
Starstruck szn 2 (TV)
Jeen-Yuhs (Ye doco)
It Ends With Us (Book)
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In today’s newsletter:
Casey Neistat is making a documentary about David Dobrik’s drama
The story Russians are told through their media
A Russia/ Ukraine update
Huge floods in Australia
After Burning for Days, a Ship Carrying Thousands of Luxury Cars Sinks
Are romcoms dead?
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Casey Neistat is making a documentary about David Dobrik’s drama
Am I late to the party on this? Did everyone know there was a doco being made?? You all might remember that Liv and I recorded a HUUUUGE podcast episode explaining all the David Dobrik drama (which you should go and listen to for some background), AND lately, Jeff Wittek (his now ex-friend who was nearly killed while being flung around by an excavator operated by David) has been saying a lot of things about how they’re not mates anymore - but that’s all beside the point.
The point, if there must be one, is that Casey Neistat has made a doco about all the drama, called “Under The Influence”, and it’s premiering at South By South West on March 12th.
According to Dexterto:
“The hour and forty-minute doc aims to “capture one of the most precipitous rise-and-falls in the history of the internet… in real-time.”
As stated in the film’s description, it covers topics including the allegations surrounding the Vlog Squad, as well as the near-death accident in which Vlog Squad member Jeff Wittek incurred serious eye damage while dangling off of an excavator in the middle of a lake.
“In the real world, these kinds of actions have life-changing consequences, but in the gold rush ecosystem of social media influence, the audience decides who succeeds, and who gets banished forever,” the doc’s description says.
I’m actually so keen to watch this - I know that David and Casey are mates, but also Casey seems to be a pretty respectable film/doco maker, so hopefully it’s pretty balanced!
We Need To Talk About David Dobrik - The Shit Show — open.spotify.com
Today’s episode is all about David Dobrik and the recent and very serious rape allegations against the Vlog Squad. We explain who and what the Vlog Squad is, why influencers and creators keep fucking up, yet their platforms HARDLY EVER suffer, why everyone has been so scared to talk about Youtube’s “Golden Boy,” the way audiences are groomed into thinking content that definitely isn’t okay, is, and whether it’s the job of the creator to predict what is or isn’t going to be okay in the future.
Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Explained
Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Explained - The Shit Show — open.spotify.com
Everything you've been wondering about what's going on in Russia/Ukraine right now, in words you ACTUALLY understand.
Your daily lesson from... Luce 👩🏫
Yesterday Squish taught us about sanctions - today, let’s talk about my fave thing… the media.
I want to start off by talking to you about the Press Freedom Index which ranks each country in the world based on how free their press is. ‘Free’ here doesn’t mean that it costs nothing to consume - it means you are able to report/ comment/ post without government censorship, and there can be both state-owned and operated media outlets and independent ones. The ranking also looks at the safety of journalists in countries where the press… isn’t free, and how many have been jailed, killed, or punished.
Russia is currently at number 150 out of 180 countries, meaning that their press is not free (sorry for stating the obvious.) For context, New Zealand is number 8 on the index, meaning that our press is… pretty free.
Look at some of these rules for the Russian press:
In 2019 Russia introduced new regulation commonly called "fake news law" which criminalizes publications containing "unreliable" information as well as opinions that show "disrespect for society, government, state symbols, the constitution and government institutions.” As you can imagine (and see by the vague as hell wording) this law can be used for anything the state doesn’t like/agree with, like idk… political opposition?? An example of this in action was in 2020 during Novaya Gazeta was fined 60'000 rubles for disputing the officially declared Covid-19 death statistics (so the government can really just say whatever they want.)
In 2021 a new law was proposed to regulate "educational activities," which would require a government license for any kind of educational activity, including public or private lectures, podcasts, video lectures etc. Hopefully, you can see why this is bad.
Oh, and just today:
There is so much more to talk about on that, but this is a light and fun morning newsy, so why would I do that to you!
Let’s look at this in context now tho:
The level of press freedom (or lack of) in Russia, means that Russian people are seeing different things to the rest of the world when it comes to the war. I think a really good indication of how to know what people in Russia are seeing vs what people in Ukraine are seeing is the speech that Zenlenskyy, the president of Ukraine made, right after the invasion began, where he spoke to the Russian people, in Russian, knowing that it wouldn’t be broadcast to them and hoping that Russian’s would find it themselves.
“I know that Russian TV won't show my speech. But citizens of Russia need to see it. They need to see the truth. The truth is you need to stop before it's too late.”
In the speech he spoke to ordinary Russians to “activists, journalists, musicians, actors, athletes, scientists, doctors, bloggers, stand-up comedians, TikTokers, and many others”—and stressed their common humanity with Ukrainians. “They try to convince you otherwise,” he said.
What Russian people had been shown, and we touched on this the other day in The Shit Show, is pure propaganda, where Putin is trying to give reasoning or a ‘pre-text' to the invasion. First, there were reports of a graphic fake video that officials we’re creating, to show scenes of a fake Ukrainian attack, then, Putin had been saying that Zelenskyy’s forces have been perpetrating a “genocide” against the residents of the separatist regions, and that Russia had to get involved as the ‘saviours,’ and the icing on the cake? On a weekly show called “Moscow. Kremlin. Putin,” the president’s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, reinforced the notion that while war may be coming, it would not be Russia’s choice.
“Let me remind you that Russia throughout all its history never attacked anyone,” Mr. Peskov said.
.... ok.
And now, an update on the situation:
Here’s your daily summary from the BBC:
Talks between Ukraine and Russia are expected to resume as negotiators travel to Belarus for another meeting
The United Nations says more than 800,000 people have now fled Ukraine
Russia intensifies its attacks on key Ukrainian cities - with fighting raging for a seventh day in the north, east and south
Hundreds of people are feared dead in the southern port of Mariupol following hours of sustained shelling, city's deputy mayor says
Also in the south, Russia has been battling for control of Kherson but its mayor says the city is still held by Ukrainian forces
There have been reports of more rocket fire and air strikes in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, where Russian paratroops landed overnight
And here’s the latest from The Kyiv Independent:
After Burning for Days, a Ship Carrying Thousands of Luxury Cars Sinks
HOLY SHIP! A huuuuge boat called the Felicity Ace car carrier has sunk in the Atlantic ocean, almost two weeks after a fire broke out in its cargo area. The boat was reportedly carrying about 4,000 luxury vehicles like Porsches, Bentleys, and Lamborghinis, along with VW and Audis - all of which were valued at over $400m USD.
Don’t worry - all crew members had been evacuated.
Do worry - as you can probably assume, this isn’t great for the environment. Not only is the boat carrying a ship tonne of fuel & oil, but has also sunk near the unique ecosystem of the Azores, the Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic, where the seabed is covered with coral reefs, coral forests and sponges.
The upside? Spongebob & Patrick are gonna be whippin' around in Lambos & Porches from now on.
Australia is seeing its worst floods in decades
This story is brought to you by Squish!!!
The poor Aussies can’t catch a break - if it's not bushfires its 1000 year floods. The states of New South Wales and Queensland are getting a hammering with unprecedented rainfall causing widespread flooding around the two states.
More than 15,000 homes are estimated to have been flooded in Brisbane, with water levels reaching the top of petrol stations, houseboats hitting piers and sinking - rheres even a photo of a quad bike hanging from a powerline (I have a lot of questions about this photo.)
Rainfall totals have been as high as 1.5 metres in a week.
“Some of the rainfall totals that we’ve seen over the course of this event have been approaching rainfall totals that we would normally expect over the course of a year,” said Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Diana Eden.
By Tuesday, tens of thousands of people were ordered to evacuate their homes and hundreds of thousands more were told to prepare to evacuate, so our thoughts really are with our neighbours across the ditch.
Are romcoms dead?
After we spoke about it here I brought the poll to the people and
44% said yes
56% said no
Listen to the episode below to hear what Liv & I reckon!
Lizzo, Britney & the death of the RomCom? - Culture Vulture — open.spotify.com
Listen to this episode from Culture Vulture on Spotify. Lizzo's got a new reality TV show, Britney's got a new book and... WE NEED SOME NEW ROM COMS! Are romcoms dying? Or have they always been dying? OR, are they just optimised for streaming rather than cinemas these days? All your questions answered on this week's episode!!
Lizzo, Britney & the death of the RomCom? (Culture Vulture)
Russia's Invasion of Ukraine: Explained (The Shit Show)
How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Is Playing Out on English, Ukrainian, and Russian Wikipedia (Slate)
Airbnb to Provide Housing for 100,000 Ukrainian Refugees (Bloomberg)
TikTok is experimenting with 10-minute uploads (The Verge)
Why are we all so obsessed with early web nostalgia? (Dazed)
GET A 14 DAY FREE TRIAL TO WATCH EUPHORIA OR YELLOWJACKETS! (Neon)
You can listen to us talk about all things pop culture on Culture Vulture, about THE WORLD on The Shit Show or watch us explain the internet on Extremely Online.
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LOVE YOU THE MOST, LUCE XX
