Greetings, Wanderer.
Welcome back to Ley Lines, a regular series of miscellaneous things that I come across that interest, inspire, or intrigue me. Writing these posts is part of an active of being a more conscious consumer of what I read or observe, and is also just ongoing practice of writing and sharing.
Normally these posts are a mix of articles and links, and even photographs. But this week I’m focusing on Instagram.
Why Instagram? I’m not totally sure. It’s an increasingly awful place full of political polarization, gambling ads disguised as content, content disguised as soft-core pornography, and content disguised as ads.
I don’t know if I necessarily want it go all the way back to tilt-shifted photos of lattes, but somewhere between then and where we are now would be great.
There’s still some interesting stuff there. Artists doing their thing.
Anyways, here are some of the best things that I’ve seen there over the last few months. May you find as much joy in these accounts as I have.
Cultural Criticism Will Never Be As Good As Salt Lacroix
Everything about her videos is perfect: the dry delivery, the references, the meme-d flat lays.
She has a point of view on the world, what’s wrong with it, and who is to blame. She’s right, and she blends it perfectly with absurdist humour.
Her commentary on the Pantone’s colour of the year in The Guardian is also a great read:
“We’ve clocked cloud dancer as a white supremacist dog-whistle, and none of these descriptors do anything to help their case. Every justification has sounded more loaded than the next. If anything, I was a bit surprised by the name and how flippant it sounds. The concept of ‘cloud dancing’ is very unserious, but I suppose it reflects how we’re more comfortable dancing around pressing societal issues and ‘isms’ or ignoring them, rather than facing them head-on.
“It reminds me of two-ply toilet paper – three-ply if we’re being generous. It’s the uncanny veneers of a Fox News broadcaster. It’s the threatening silence of a suburb that has driven out anyone with a skin tone deeper than beige.
“Curiously, Pantone’s positioning of cloud dancer also reads as a nod to generative AI. They’ve called it a blank slate, and a shade that ‘opens the door to increased imagination and innovation’. This is eerily similar to language used to persuade us to buy into AI tools that actually chip away at our creativity and critical thinking. In that way, cloud dancer reminds me of out of touch big tech executives ready to wipe their own slate clean of pesky human employees and the burden of paying them.”
Highlights:
“Avoidance Is In The Big Beige” - Her review of Twisters, in which she says “This should have simply been a YouTube compilation of Twisters”
“Spook Sun Latex Moon Goblin Rising” - Another aesthetic to look out for: “Like Spirit Halloween you never know where she is going to turn up smelling like latex and Reece’s Peanut Butter”
“Another Men’s Aesthetic To Look Out For” - “Despite the Bernie bumper sticker he is yearning for a simpler time when men could compare calluses”
The Movie Will Never Be As Good As A TV Hed Pe Review
I think one of the most interesting things about social media is the formats that they impose on the creator. In general, the tighter the format the better the content. Early websites of a certain era are signifiantly better than new, modern websites simply because . There
And similarly, there is a beauty in creators who have embraced some of the limitations of Instagram and made it their own.
TV Hed Pe doesn’t rely on glossy photos, long captions, or videos to tell his story. He treats his carousels as an essay. Each frame is an exquisitely crafted pice of writing, and so layered that you need multiple re-reads to appreciate how good it is.
Some of these movies are ones that I hadn’t seen before, but will watch for the sole purpose of appreciating these write-ups. Others are movies I have seen, and enjoy more for TV Hed Pe’s take on them. And the third category of his reviews are ones that are so good I know the movie won’t hold up, and so won’t bother watching.
Want a slice? These some of my faves:
Newspaper Comics Were Never As Consistently Good As Beetle Moses
Instagram works incredibly well as a medium for comics. And even better for shorter, punchier comics.
I’m not going to try and sell you on Beetle Moses any more than that…except to to tell you that if you like (liked??) Perry Bible Foundation you’ll very likely enjoy these.
Real Television Will Never Be As Good As The Dress-Up Gang
I might be cheating my Insagram-specific approach to this post with The Dress-Up Gang, since they are mostly on YouTube. I discovered them on Instagram, though. And their style of humor feels like it was made for the Instagram era.
The show is about a group of friends who live in a complex in LA, and it’s shot and acted like a 90s sitcom. The premises are significantly more ridiculous, but no less sincere.
For some reason Andie Mcdowell is also in it.
The Dress-Up Gang Full episodes playlist
Real Galleries Will Never Be As Good As Paintings Analyzed.
Actually they totally will, and are. They’re better than this Instagram account. But this account is pretty good, and has got me looking at and paying attention to a lot more paintings than I would have otherwise.
The analysis ranges from fairly deep and complex, to something that is just slightly more shallow than the experience I have of pointing out where Goldbug or Mortimer Mouse are a Richard Scarry book to my 2.5 year old son.
PS: I this post actually inspired me to visit the Vancouver Art Gallery today.
None of these are super strategy/advertising/marketing related. That’s a good thing: Get out there and enjoy life and art. Not everything needs to be a case study or lesson or insight.
Some good Instagram accounts to follow, if you like dry delivery of absurd humour.