The Arts Desk’s weekly picks for music, movies and more
By SAVANNAH ANNO — arts@theaggie.org
In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, enjoy these four picks created by Hispanic and Latinx artists!
Song: “Lejos de Ti” by The Marías (2024)
Referring to themselves as the “psychedelic-soul lovechild” of lead singer María Zardoya and band member Josh Conway, The Marías blend almost every genre under the sun: indie rock, funk, latin pop and even jazz. Simply put, listening to The Marías makes you feel cool.
“Lejos de Ti,” the eighth track on their most recent album “Submarine,” details the isolating aftermath of a breakup. With trance-inducing vocals, Zardoya promises to keep her ex-lover in her memories forever, despite how much it may hurt at first, and begs him to do the same.
While the lyrics seem simple on the surface, what may be most interesting is the possible backstory behind the breakup song. Along with tracks like “Sienna” and “Echo,” fans speculate “Lejos de Ti” was based on the real-life split between Zardoya and Conway who were in a relationship from 2016 to 2022. In “Lejos de Ti,” perhaps the two are promising to each other that despite the end of their romance, they’ll keep their memories intact in order to preserve their creative partnership.
Movie: “Pan’s Labyrinth” dir. by Guillermo del Toro (2006)
As Halloween begins to creep up on us, so do those childhood monsters we used to look for under beds or behind closet doors. For me, one of the scariest was del Toro’s Pale Man, a monster whose eyeballs were not kept in his head but on the palms of his hands. The story begins with Ofelia, a young girl living in 1944 Spain, who moves to the countryside with her pregnant mother and violent stepfather. As the stepfather, Captain Vidal, begins to hunt down Spanish rebels, Ofelia is whisked away into her own mission. Meeting a faun who leads Ofelia to believe she’s the reincarnation of a lost, otherworldly princess, she is given three tasks to complete through an ancient stone labyrinth. Faced with monsters in both the real world and underground, Ofelia’s fantastical journey works to represent the historical conflict of Francoist Spain, a period of dictatorship following the Spanish Civil War. With a meticulous eye, del Toro is able to perfectly balance horror, folklore and history in this perfect October watch.
Book: “Blackouts” by Justin Torres (2023)
I first heard of Torres last fall in a queer fiction course when we read and revered his debut work, “We the Animals” (2011). In his second novel, “Blackouts,” Torres grows into an even better writer as he weaves a story that feels unreliable and all too real at the same time. The book tackles the issue of queer erasure both literally and figuratively. Struggling with gaps in his consciousness, 27-year-old narrator Nene seeks out Juan Gay, an older man he met a decade prior at a mental hospital. Both institutionalized for being queer, Gay, who is now on his deathbed, bestows upon Nene his unfinished task of chronicling the research of Jan Gay, who interviewed queer folk and even published a book, “Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns” (1941).
Torres brilliantly blends real life history with his own fiction: Jan Gay was an actual researcher, and the book really was published in 1941. The title “Blackouts” references the copy of the Jan Gay book passed down to Nene that is selectively filled with scribbled-out words and paragraphs to form new messages and meanings. Similarly, the book was misconstrued in real life when it was used by other researchers to create stereotypes and criminalize the queer community. As Nene works to commit Juan Gay’s oral history to memory while immortalizing the stories that came before him, the pair recount their lives and experiences in an emotional whirlwind of a novel. Coupled with unimaginable prose, the story will leave you inspired, probably sobbing, but most importantly — hopeful.
TV Show: “Los Espookys” by Julio Torres, Ana Fabrega and Fred Armisen (2019)
By coincidence, another Torres! Switching out heartbreaking for hilarious, “Los Espookys” has proved Julio Torres to be a comedic visionary. Beginning as a writer for Saturday Night Live — which led to four different Emmy nominations — Torres left the show in 2019 to begin his own projects. With Fabrega and Armisen, “Los Espookys” marks the beginning of a universe all of Torres’ own: brightly colored, blunt and ultimately confusing with its out-of-this-world scenarios — literally.
Following a group of four odd and supernatural-obsessed friends, “Los Espookys” tells a classic tale as each character learns the importance of following their dreams and staying true to themselves. Unlike these classic tales, the characters’ dreams include success in the horror business. Each episode chronicles the team helping a different customer by faking the existence of aliens, sea monsters and other strange creatures. As the show progresses, the line between real and imaginary gets increasingly blurry as they become involved with strange politicians, cursed mirrors and psychic water spirits. Blending creepy and creative, “Los Espookys” serves as a love letter to the strange.
Written by: Savannah Anno — arts@theaggie.org
