Issue #419: Paradox Newsletter Has T-Shirts for the Special People
After promising them nineteen issues ago, new Paradox Newsletter shirts are in hand.
These are special shirts for special people: paid subscribers. You can go back to issue #400 to get the backstory on the design.
The short version: it’s a riff on a shirt my dad made in a dispute with the mayor of Tallahassee.
I always thought this shirt and the story behind it was badass, so I’m happy to put my spin on it.
If you are a paid subscriber, you can email me, drop a comment, or message in the Discord channel for paid subscribers. The shirt comes in white or pink. I am charging $10 plus shipping for them. If you are in the United States, they will run you about $14 inclusive of shipping. I did not make many of these, so if you want one, act quickly. And, yes, if you are not a paid subscriber, you can subscribe for one month, buy the shirt, and then cancel. I won’t hold it against you. What I appreciate more than anything is the sustained, generous support from those of you who chose to provide it and make the newsletter feel like it is worth something. Thank you.
The Moment and Other Amusements
Charli xcx has been a musician since 2008 and a professionalized one since 2010. It took over a decade for her to be catapulted to the stratosphere of superstardom with 2025’s Brat. I didn’t really think too much about Charli’s1 career trajectory until her film, The Moment (2026). She had always been on my radar. 2016 and 2017 marked her greatest fame in my mind. During those years, she collaborated with artists I actually like: she did Vroom Vroom (2016) with Sophie and “Crazy Crazy” (2017) with Yasutaka Nakata. Her branding was always clever and moderately self-aware, she also released a mixtape called Pop 2 in 2017.
But what the frenzy around Brat brought to my attention is the most important feature of Charli xcx’s public life: she likes movies. Her cinephilia is a noticeably absent feature of the fictionalized version of herself she plays in The Moment. Aside from this film and her soundtrack work for Wuthering Heights (2026), Charli is working on a film with Takashi Miike. All signs point to her knowing ball.
The Moment is yet another signal in this direction. It may seem sacrilegious to compare the work of first-time director Aidan Zamiri to the venerated Christopher Guest, but the echoes are unmistakable. The Moment is a ridiculous farce, and a hilarious one. There are fewer memorable one-liners and spectacular performances than Guest’s films. This is very much the Charli xcx show, although Jamie Demetriou gives a standout performance as her manager. The film’s best scene includes Demetriou dealing with confusion over the meaning of “bird,” whether as slang for “woman” or as the literal animal. Alexander Skarsgård is fantastic, too, in a relatively understated performance.
At a minimum, The Moment has to be funny. And it is hilarious. It is also interesting, pelting the audience with strobing corporate logos of actual sponsors of the film: Beats Headphones, Aperol, Starface, and even SAG-AFTRA. These genuine corporate relations (each brand has obvious product placement) are denaturalized with this absurd front-and-center presentation. This is a film, above all else, about a girl turning into a commodity.
Through some profoundly amusing contrivances of the plot, Charli xcx’s “personal brand” becomes a part of the financial economy. The Moment’s portrayal of stardom may be farcical, but the mechanisms by which superstars lose artistic control and become themselves “fictionalized” are clearly laid out. The film’s version of Charli xcx is not overly attached to the “message” or artistic integrity of her work. Instead, the incentives to fit the narratives of corporate overloads are too enticing.
Weekly Reading List
This remix is pretty interesting, but it’s not even the best thing I heard on Yuzoboy’s youtube channel.
Steve Ballmer and Kawhi Leonard’s ostensible, alleged, fraud carried out in concert with Aspiration hasn’t made the proverbial pages of this newsletter yet. The fraud in question? Salary cap circumvention; Ballmer using a company called Aspiration to ply Leonard with endorsement deals that do not require Leonard to do any endorsing. Pablo Torre began publicly reporting this story last September, though its history goes back much further. Far enough for this to be the seventh sixty-plus minute episode on the topic. Back then, I figured I didn’t have much to add to the chorus of voices discussing what was front page sports news. Now, it is five months later and the NBA All-Star Game just concluded at Steve Ballmer’s Intuit Dome with Kawhi forced onto an All-Star team by the NBA commissioner Adam Silver.
That same commissioner is the one whom the public is supposed to trust to investigate Kawhi and Ballmer’s (alleged) wrongdoings without favoritism. Joe Vardon and Mike Vorkunov write in their reporting for The Athletic on the investigation:
Ballmer carries enormous influence in the NBA. His net worth is estimated at $134 billion, whereas the entire league has a valuation of $160 billion. He sits on one of the most important committees for the league’s Board of Governors. That’s serious firepower at Ballmer’s disposal to fight any ruling from the league. Ballmer is not only hosting the All-Star Game this month, but also Intuit is the site for the 2028 Olympic basketball tournament.
It seems almost inconceivable, then, that the notably permissive commissioner Silver would properly administer penalties to Ballmer and the Clippers. Salary cap circumvention is the NBA’s cardinal sin. It may not seem like it matters how much a billionaire is paying a millionaire. But it is critical to a competitive sport to maintain some level of balance and parity. The most egregious and unseemly way such a balance could be upset is through an imbalance in financial assets. If the richest team can buy the best players, the idea of fair competition in the NBA is a fantasy. Silver must either bring the hammer down on Ballmer or just abolish the salary cap.
When I posted that m-flo video last week, I had no idea they were doing promo for a new record. SUPERLIMINAL (2026) dropped as a surprise to me last week. But I have no excuse for not knowing. I have listened to all the singles leading up to the album drop including “ARIGATTO,” “tell me tell me,” and “HyperNova.”
The album takes liberal inspiration from m-flo’s past work, including outlining their various “eras” in one of the interludes. “ARIGATTO” reuses the sample of Sylvia Striplin’s “Give Me Your Love” from “The Love Bug.” “tell me tell me” interpellates the intro from “Come Again,” which m-flo also re-records for this album.
This is not m-flo’s best record, so it’s one for the fans. If you are new to the group, listen to Planet Shining (2000) or ASTROMANTIC (2004) instead.
https://yenpress.com/titles/9798855409949-about-a-place-in-the-kinki-region — Kōji Shiraishi adapted About a Place in the Kinki Region (2023) last year. The film is far from Noroi (2005), but I liked it a lot. Shiraishi continues to work over his anxiety regarding knowledge, suggesting uncovering secrets and assembling a complex nexus of urban legends and religious myths is rarely worth the cost. Truth is not what it’s cracked up to be.
Now, this year, Yen Press has brought the original novel to English speaking audiences. Reading it now, I have a much greater appreciation for the film. I might have had a better impression of Shiraishi’s adaptation knowing the source material, so this is a case where one should read the book first.
As a novel, it’s excellent. A formally interesting and unsettling work of horror fiction. Order from the publisher or check your local bookstores.
Event Calendar: Twin Peaks in Theaters
Later this month, the Brattle Theater will be screening the original Twin Peaks (1989) first season. From their website:
On the occasion of David Lynch’s 80th birthday, and with the current availability of the entire Twin Peaks series for theatrical screenings, we could not let the opportunity pass to properly play TWIN PEAKS SEASON 1 on “Twin Peaks Day”… And when we say “properly” we mean that we will time the start of the pilot episode so that when Agent Dale Cooper first enters the town of Twin Peaks at “11:30am, February 24”, it will be 11:30am on February 24.
The Tuesday showtime is a big ask, but it is the most dignified form of binge watching you could ask for.
Until next time.
I don’t mean to seem overly familiar, but ‘xcx’ is not a surname.