Kim, Pete, & Alex Jones 👀
Today we’re starting with a BIG shout out to the 14 new ✨SYSCA SUPPORTERS✨ who’ve joined us in the last week!
PS!! If you aren't in the position to pay for the media you love (that's so fine!!), another way you can support us is by forwarding this newsy onto your family/ friends/ workmates and getting them to join the party too!! Shit like that helps us soooo much and means the world to me 🥺🥺🥺 xxx
My angels! How are you?? I feel like I’m back firing on all cylinders after a blissful three days (which you’ll hear all about soon) but first I wanted to say thank you for all the love on Liv’s Culture Vulture newsy (PS, if you’re a monthly or annual supporter you get access to all the previous editions of this, as well as the new ones every Saturday morning!)
It’s just so 🥺 that you all get behind our new endeavours and even more 🥺 that you’re all supporting the media you love (and keeping us employed.) I just wanted to reiterate that I take none of this (and none of you) for granted, and I hope you feel that with every word I type in this cute lil newsy.
Now, what I know you’ve all been waiting for - my weekend! I’m down south in Wānaka with my cute flatmates right now, and for those of you who don’t know (why would you??) down south is my home/ where I feel most me. I was born in Timaru, and spent every summer growing up at the lakes (my lakes being Aviemore and Benmore) - so I’m not talking about the cities that feel like home (although Wānaka and Queenstown are beautiful) I’m talking about the cute lil spots that I’ve camped at my whole life!! Anyway, now that we’ve got some context about why I love it down here so much, here’s what we actually did.
On Friday we biked the Lake Dunstan trail from Cromwell to Clyde (I now legit want to move to Clyde) and it was the SICKEST THING EVER. The views were immaculate, there was a COFFEE BOAT ON THE LAKE that you stop at halfway, and it was made all the more vibey because Flo and I were on e-bikes (it was 42kms and ya girl wanted to enjoy it ok?) Hayden was a king and did the whole thing on a manual bike, so he got MVP for the day. We also narrowly avoided getting blown off the hill a few times as the wind picked up MASSIVELY (for me and Hayd, this made it more fun, for Flo… not so much.)
Then we refuelled with a beer or two in a cute pub in Clyde where I spotted this old-school newsy:
They had so much old archived media that the nerd in me was like 🤯
Saturday was spent geocaching (which we documented here - flatmate reveal!) and if you’ve never heard of this, it’s basically a BIG SCAVENGER HUNT in the real world, where people hide little boxes with trinkets and a little log book for you to sign, and it’s honestly the cutest/ most magic feeling thing ever. It’s also a gorg way to explore places you may have otherwise not found (you just gotta download the geocaching app to locate them all!) Another magic thing about geocaching is that you can’t let people see you finding the treasures. The people around you are called ‘muggles’ and you have to be careful to make sure none of them see you playing. Geocaching took us along Lake Hāwea (a place I haven’t been to since I was a kid!) and I’ve decided it’s one of my fave views in NZ (pics below do not do it justice.)
On Saturday night we all went for a drink, and then Flo left Hayd and I to fend for ourselves which meant we popped to the supo, bought some beers (mine were Simpsons themed and Hayden’s crypto-themed) before heading down to the park (lol) which was freezing, so we turned on the public BBQ to warm ourselves up a lil (double lol) and had some deep chats before turning the BBQ off (Hayd insisted I told you all that this was very safe), recycled our cans (he also wanted me to let you all know that we didn’t litter) and headed back into town with a nice warm buzz.
In town we met some locals: a gorgeous french pastry chef, a dude Hayden made plans to go skiing with, and another dude who at various times of the night told Hayden that “he won’t understand this until he’s older” but in his job he’s just a “cog in the machine” (to which Hayd said that he was proud of/ loved his job) and that I was “so lucky I got started with SYSCA in 2018” because the market is super saturated now (to which I explained to him that we all work/ worked incredibly hard to make this happen, actually.) Just a little bit of causal underestimation to get ya real fired up on ya Saturday night!
Then we lined up for another bar where we met a few people (hi to the manager of Hunting and Fishing Kaikōura, and also the dude with the stuffed parrot named Pete on his shoulder), but after about 15 minutes of the line not moving we decided to call it a night. A great night of bants and content for the newsy tho!
Now it’s Sunday and I’m sitting at the table with a coffee, Hayd has made croissants for brekky (he’s made every other meal since we arrived too), and it's started snowing!!!! I'm also thinking about how cool it is that I get to have all these experiences, and then I get to come home and write about/ share them with you! Feeling #gratfeul that we got lucky with SYSCA back in 2018 tbh!
A BIG REC FROM ME!!! Thirteen Lives!!!
Brittney Griner has been sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has to pay $49.3m for saying Sandy Hook was a 'hoax'
Kim and Pete broke up
Great Barrier Reef areas show the highest coral cover in 36 years
Do you like f1?
A BIG REC FROM ME!!! Thirteen Lives!!!
This section is brought to you by our mates at Prime Video, and the new film Thirteen Lives.
When I first watched Thirteen Lives I'm not gonna lie to you - I was super apprehensive, (as I am about most films that are adapted from very true and very distressing events.) As you all know (because I've talked about it before) I not only followed the news story about the thirteen boys stuck in the Tham Luang caves in Thailand as it was happening, but I have also ADORED learning more and more about the wonderful rescuers involved in saving them. I was worried that watching a movie of a situation I felt I knew pretty well was going to make it feel overly dramatic and take away from the heroic acts of the real divers, volunteers, and kids.
Thankfully, I LOVED the film. It re-told the story in an incredibly considered way and it didn't over-emphasize or dramatise anything (how could it when the true story was so heart-wrenching?) It didn’t feel like Hollywood had touched it - which is a credit to Ron Howard (who directed it), his team of writers, and the Thai actors whose connection to this story couldn’t have been more clear.
I also loved that the aspects of ‘Hollywood’ that were present (like the inclusion of Colin Farrell, Viggo Mortensen, and Joel Edgerton who played the British and Australian divers who helped in the rescue) didn’t take away from the authenticity of the story. You could almost forget that you’d seen their faces before and simply believe that they were the real divers trying to make timely and life-threatening decisions about how to save the boys.
I honestly couldn’t recommend this film more, it really does show humanity at its absolute best - and gives us a close-up look at one of the oldest conflicts known to humans (one that needs no fictional villain to push it along) - us vs the elements. (Also, it’s a happy ending, which we love.)
Brittney Griner has been sentenced to nine years in Russian prison
Brittney Griner, the WNBA star who we've been keeping you updated on in here, has been sentenced to 9 years in a Russian prison for bringing cannabis oil into the country - something she says was an 'honest mistake.' Griner, who is considered one of the best WNBA players in the world, had been playing basketball for Russia during the US off-season but was detained when she was trying to enter the country back in February because she had vape cartridges containing traces of cannabis oil.
We don't know how long Brittney will actually spend behind bars, because Biden and the Russians have been chatting about a potench 'prisoner swap' (still hate that language, still can't think of a better synonym), but I'll keep you informed (obv) as we find out more.
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has to pay $49.3m for saying Sandy Hook was a 'hoax'
Content warning: gun violence, death.
Fuck I love it when people who spew misinformation actually face some consequences. That's what we saw when known conspiracy theorist Alex Jones stood in a Texas courtroom and was told he had to pay $49.3m in damages because of his disgusting claims that Sandy Hook (the 2012 school shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead) was a hoax.
The lawsuit against Jones was filed by Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, the separated parents who lost their six-year-old daughter Jesse Lewis in the shooting. They had originally sought $150m in damages for emotional distress, as Jones has said for years that they were just "crisis actors in a “false flag” operation plotted by the government."
Honestly, as much as I'm sooooo for stopping the monetisation of misinformation, I don't expect this lawsuit to change everything/very much of anything. I guess I'm glad that a dent has been made in this dude's personal riches at the very least, but that's kinda not enough when you see the type of pull these people have on politics. I feel like this could be a whole other newsy, so for now let me leave you with this, as some parting food for thought:
"You can see and hear Mr. Jones’s influence on Capitol Hill, where attention-seeking Republican politicians often sound like they’re auditioning for slots on Infowars. When Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, suggests that a mass shooting could have been orchestrated to persuade Republicans to support gun-control measures, as she did in a Facebook post about the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Ill., she’s playing hits from Mr. Jones’s back catalog. Mr. Jones also played a role in fueling the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, in ways we are still learning about. (The House panel investigating the insurrection has asked for a copy of the text messages from Mr. Jones’s phone that were mistakenly sent to the lawyers representing the plaintiffs in his defamation case.)"
Kim and Pete broke up
Kris Jenner has had a huge weekend. First of all, she excellently executed the timing of Kim and Pete's break-up to overshadow the birth of Khloe and Tristan's second child (via surrogate.) I know everything is PR, and everything is calculated, but I choose to believe that for a time Kim and Pete truly were in love.
Great Barrier Reef areas show the highest coral cover in 36 years
Just a quick moment for the Great Barrier Reef, who is really living up to its name rn!!! It's just shown the highest amount of coral in 36 years!!! This still doesn't mean we're all #good (other areas are still suffering from the effects of climate change and mass bleaching) but I felt we should give a wee welcome to the lovely coral now gracing the reef with its presence again 🥺🥺🥺
A very disappointing poll result
And one that I believe we can change. I asked you (a few beers deep tbh) if you liked Formula 1.
32% yes
68% said no
Will check in on this poll in a few months to see how this has changed (a lot of you tell me you got on the harry bandwagon via SYSCA's constant exposure 👀)
Rec!! You HAVE to go and watch Thirteen Lives - the incredible story of the boys who were rescued from the Tham Luang caves in Thailand! (Our partnership with Prime Video)
Period Dramas & Mental Health in Music (Culture Vulture)
Taylor’s Swift Jets & F1’s Silly Season (The Shit Show)
Our Love Island Debrief (Culture Vulture)
SYSCA playlist (✨Supporters only✨)
Our HUGE SYSCA reading list! (✨Supporters only✨)
