NeoBimbos : Recent Episodes

KC and Evie

NeoBimbos is a podcast designed to unpack cultural phenomena using sociology, psychology, philosophy, and our own personal ramblings and experiences.

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Hello and good morning, my beautiful bimbos! I hope all of you have had a lovely week. This week, Evie is going to take you through the intricacies and aesthetics of the “street” in street style photography. After a very short recap of KC and Evie’s graduation getaway to Paris, Evie breaks down the role of photographer, subject, and background with the help of the one and only Susan Sontag. Tune in to hear Evie talk to herself for a short teaser episode to get you lovely listeners through this week safe and sound. Whether you’re interested in photography, enjoy people watching, or are at all judgmental about people’s outfits around you, you’re going to like this episode. (And it won’t take as long as our usual ones). Have fun!

Reading List

Sontag, Susan. (2008). “On Photography,” Penguin Classics.

Luvaas, B. (2016). On ‘The Street’: A Conceptual History of Street Style Photography. In Street Style: An Ethnography of Fashion Blogging (pp. 21–68). London: Bloomsbury Academic. Retrieved June 22, 2023, from http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781474262910.ch-002

Portman, M. V. (1896). Photography for Anthropologists. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 25, 75–87. https://doi.org/10.2307/2842469

Cunningham, B., & Loite, T. (2019). Bill Cunningham: on the street: five decades of iconic photography. First edition. New York, Clarkson Potter Publishers

Berlinger, M., (2014). “What Happened to Street Style?” Business of Fashion, https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/news-analysis/op-ed-happened-street-style/

Hebdige, Dick. (1991). Subculture : the Meaning of Style. London ; New York :Routledge.

Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction. Routledge, 2010.

Sennett, Richard. (1994). Flesh and stone : the body and the city in Western civilization. New York : W.W. Norton.

Berman, Marshall. (1970). “The politics of authenticity.” Atheneum edition.

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Hello everyone! This week we have a very special and different episode. The Neobimbos brought on their first guest, Matt Miller, an investor specializing in digital art. He is part of Metaversal, a prominent NFT production studio and venture firm. With the help of Matt, we dive into the generative art space: its collecting and investing dynamics, its relationship to the traditional art world, exciting generative projects, and the implications of using AI as a tool for art production.

Stay tuned to hear how AI and performance art intersect, photography’s relevance to generative art, and which projects to look out for!

To stay up to date with Metaversal:

Website: https://www.metaversal.gg/

Metaversalist Newsletter: https://themetaversalist.substack.com/

Twitter: @HelloMetaversal

To stay up to date with Matt:

Twitter: @balon_art

Reading List:

History

  • Benjamin, Walter. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” 1936, Illuminations: Essays and Reflections Publisher: Schocken Books, New York, p.217-251
  • Kockelkoren, Petran. “Art and Technology Playing Leapfrog: A History and Philosophy of Technoèsis.” Inside the Politics of Technology: Agency and Normativity in the Co-Production of Technology and Society, edited by Hans Harbers, Amsterdam University Press, 2005, pp. 147–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt45kcv7.10.
  • Generative Art: A Practical Guide Using Processing by Matt Pearson
  • A collector’s guide to AI and generative art

Interview

  • Tyler Hobbes’ Essays
  • Fake it Till You Make it by Maya Man
  • Human Unreadable by Operator
  • Chromie Squiggles
  • Tezos
  • Lumen Prize
  • Tender.Art

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On this week’s episode, the Neobimbos return to the desert to unpack all things Coachella, with a specific focus on the OMG TBA set featuring Fred Again x Skrillex x Four Tet. However, don’t fear, because this episode isn’t just KC and Evie’s personal ramblings. We use philosophy, neuroscience, and sociology to explore the connections between music and emotions. Does music generate emotions or purely represent them? We also return to our favorite topic, DJs and House music. How does house music utilize boredom to overstimulate crowds and create emotional highs?

What does Andy Warhol have to do with Fred Again? Why does Four Tet embody the judicial branch of government? Tune in to find out - it’s a fun one.

Reading List:

Silverman, M., Davis, S. R., & Elliott, D. (2014). Praxial music education: A critical analysis of critical commentaries. International Journal of Music Education, 32(1), 53–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/0255761413488709

Hodges, D. G., & Wilkins, R. W. (2015). How and Why Does Music Move Us? Music Educators Journal, 101(4), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432115575755

Harrold, Marguerite L (2019). “Growing Up in Chicago House Music.” Chicago Review, vol. 62/63, no. 4/1/2, pp. 257–62. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27035089.

Langlois, T. (1992). Can you feel it? DJs and House Music culture in the UK. Popular Music, 11(2), 229–238. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0261143000005031

Bain, Katie (2023). Skrillex, Four Tet, & Fred again Deliver Historic Dance Music Moment

Flatley, Jonathan (2017). Like Andy Warhol, Allegories of Boredom

Bloustien, G. (2016). “God Is a DJ”: Girls, Music, Performance, and Negotiating Space. In C.

Mitchell & C. Rentschler (Eds.), Girlhood and the Politics of Place (pp. 228–243).

Berghahn Books. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt14jxn16.18

Madsen, C. (2020). Reflecting on Past, Present, Future: The Vision 2020 Report for Music Education.

Contributions to Music Education, 45, 21–30. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26974514

Dell’Antonio, A. (1999). [Review of Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and

Listening, by C. Small]. Notes, 55(4), 883–886. https://doi.org/10.2307/899585

Flaherty, M. G. (2001). [Review of How Emotions Work, by J. Katz]. Contemporary

Sociology, 30(1), 44–46. https://doi.org/10.2307/2654340

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What do Japanese tea gardens, jazz, and crying in public have in common? Find out on this week’s episode of Neobimbos! KC and Evie discuss the beauty of imperfection by examining the Japanese aesthetic theory of “wabi,” and of course, taking it to Freudian lengths. As is our style, we’ll start by analyzing rock gardens and Japanese food, move on to the ethos of punk rock, but somehow end up with a number of questions (and some answers this time) about how vulnerability and our flaws unite us and form unique bonds of love. Having a rough week? This is the episode for you; it really is a heartwarming journey.

Reading List:

General

  • David E. W. Fenner. “In Celebration of Imperfection.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 38, no. 2 (2004): 67–79. https://doi.org/10.2307/3527317.
  • Saito, Yuriko. “The Role of Imperfection in Everyday Aesthetics.” Contemporary Aesthetics 15 (2017), https://digitalcommons.risd.edu/liberalarts_contempaesthetics/vol15/iss1/15

Japanese Aesthetics

  • Wicks, Robert. “The Idealization of Contingency in Traditional Japanese Aesthetics.” Journal of Aesthetic Education 39, no. 3 (2005): 88–101. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3527434.
  • Saito, Yuriko. “The Moral Dimension of Japanese Aesthetics.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 65, no. 1 (2007): 85–97. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4622213.
  • Saito, Yuriko. “The Japanese Aesthetics of Imperfection and Insufficiency.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 55, no. 4 (1997): 377–85. https://doi.org/10.2307/430925.

Jazz

  • Gioia, Ted. “Jazz: The Aesthetics of Imperfection.” The Hudson Review 39, no. 4 (1987): 585–600. https://doi.org/10.2307/3851219.
  • Brown, Lee B. “‘Feeling My Way’: Jazz Improvisation and Its Vicissitudes-A Plea for Imperfection.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 58, no. 2 (2000): 113–23. https://doi.org/10.2307/432090.
  • Hamilton, Andy. “The Aesthetics of Imperfection Reconceived: Improvisations, Compositions, and Mistakes.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 78, no. 3 (2020): 289-300. https://doi.org/10.1111/jaac.12749.

Punk Rock

  • Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk Rock by Gillian McCain and Legs McNeil

Human Condition

  • Maybe Baby Newsletter by Haley Nahman
  • Art of Loving by Erich Fromm
  • Donna Harawy’s Cyborg Manifesto

Some Favorites:

  • Books
    • Bonjour Tristesse by François Sagan
    • Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
    • The Beautiful & The Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
    • The Book of Eels by Patrick Svensson
    • Superforecasting by Philip E. Tetlock & Dan Gardner
    • The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
    • Mythologies by Roland Barthes
  • Movies
    • Tin Drum, directed by Volker Schlondorff
    • Before trilogy, directed by Richard Linklater
    • A Summer’s Tale, directed by Éric Rohmer
    • Room with a View, directed by James Ivory
  • Music
    • Butterflies by Four Tet & Skrillbaby
    • Summer Wine by Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood

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Hello, hello, hello! You guessed it, the bimbos are back, and we’ve missed you <3 Where have we been, what have we been doing, but most importantly, what are we featuring on our comeback episode? All of these questions can be answered on Spotify or Apple Music when you stream our new episode. If you need even more incentive, here’s a little teaser: for Episode 7, KC and Evie tread the murky waters of poverty tourism, from trips to South African townships to guided tours of Brazilian favelas. We explore this exceedingly complex problem with a theoretical framework that leans on the gaze (Foucault’s back too), the use and power of photography, and the “cult of nostalgia.” I know, sounds like we really get into the weeds, but it’s all worth it by the end. I promise, this is one you’re not going to want to miss.

Reading List:

  • Bianchi, Raoul. “Tourism and the Globalisation of Fear: Analysing the Politics of Risk and (in)Security in Global Travel.” Tourism and Hospitality Research 7, no. 1 (2006): 64–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23745382.
  • Dürr, Eveline, and Rivke Jaffe. “Theorizing Slum Tourism: Performing, Negotiating and Transforming Inequality.” Revista Europea de Estudios Latinoamericanos y Del Caribe / European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, no. 93 (2012): 113–23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23294474.
  • Gordon, Neve. “On Visibility and Power: An Arendtian Corrective of Foucault.” Human Studies 25, no. 2 (2002): 125–45. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20010264.
  • Meschkank, Julia. “Investigations into Slum Tourism in Mumbai: Poverty Tourism and the Tensions between Different Constructions of Reality.” GeoJournal 76, no. 1 (2011): 47–62. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41148435.
  • Rajchman, John. “Foucault’s Art of Seeing.” October 44 (1988): 89–117. https://doi.org/10.2307/778976.
  • Rolfes, Manfred. “Poverty Tourism: Theoretical Reflections and Empirical Findings Regarding an Extraordinary Form of Tourism.” GeoJournal 75, no. 5 (2010): 421–42. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41148411.
  • Saarinen, Jarkko, and Haretsebe Manwa. “Tourism as a Socio-Cultural Encounter: Host-Guest Relations in Tourism Development in Botswana.” Botswana Notes and Records 39 (2008): 43–53. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41236632.
  • Selinger, Evan, and Kevin Outterson. “The Ethics of Poverty Tourism.” Environmental Philosophy 7, no. 2 (2010): 93–114. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26168044.
  • West, Stephen, host. “Susan Sontag - Do you speak the language of pictures and videos?” Philosophize This (podcast). March 21, 2022. https://open.spotify.com/episode/6LjJap75IyE3NfWhv4dZx7?si=bb129e498f7347bd.

Disclaimer: We attribute the case studies to Outterson and Selinger when they should be attributed to Manfred Rolfes and his paper “Poverty Tourism: Theoretical Reflections and Empirical Findings Regarding an Extraordinary Form of Tourism.” However, the description of the favela visit by law students is still correctly cited to Outterson.

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Hello goblins and gremlins! We apologize for the hiatus last week but the Neobimbos are back and better than ever. Episode 6 covers the art and theater of molecular gastronomy. Is food in its modernist moment? Is cooking an art or a science? What do Italian futurists, fascism, and cooking all have in common? We have something for everyone - the foodie, Ratatouille diehard, Baudrillardian scholar, and modernist art critic are all represented.

Reading List:

  • Culinary Pataphysics: Dining, Theatre, and the Historical Avant Garde
  • What is the avant-garde?
  • Resisting the Question: What is an avant garde?
  • 10 Worst Food Trends
  • Consuming Passions: Eating & the Stage at the Fin de Siecle
  • The Art in Gastronomy: Modernist Perspective
  • Can Food Be Art In Virtue of its Savour Alone?
  • Lessons from Molecular Gastronomy
  • Contexts of Creativity: Ferran Adria and elBulli
  • The Menu: Review
  • Potatoes as scallops and Magic Foam
  • Spherical Eats
  • Deconstructing Molecular Gastronomy

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Buckle in, bimbos! This week, KC and Evie are back and better than ever, bringing you full circle to where it all began: music, space, and time. In this episode, we dive into the particularities of house music from everything including its technological processes to its fate as a postmodern art form. Throughout our discussion of sampling practices and mixing techniques, we somehow manage to connect house music to the cyborg and an ultimately, posthuman sensibility. Still not hooked? Don’t worry, we also engage in a spirited discussion of playlist curation and the Pinterest-sought cover pictures we pick for our depression playlists. There’s something in here for everyone. (We briefly define and touch upon a general history of house music, but for a more in-depth understanding, listen to Episode 1 before pressing play.)

Reading List:

  • Chang, Vanessa. “Records That Play: The Present Past in Sampling Practice,” Popular Music 28, no. 2 (2009): 143-159.
  • Cox, Christoph. Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music. London: Continuum, 2004.
  • Loza, Susana. “Sampling (Hetero)Sexuality: Diva-Ness and Discipline in Electronic Dance Music,” Popular Music 20, no. 3 (2001): 349-357.
  • Rietveld, Hillegonda. This is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020.
  • Shapiro, Peter. Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound. 2000.
  • Gilbert, Jeremy. Discographies: Dance, Music, Culture and Politics of Sound. London: Routledge, 1999

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In Episode 4, KC and Evie expand the popular “nepo baby” concept to the art market, and explore the wealthy, scandal-ridden families that have cornered the art world for decades. We answer questions like: What do the largest art galleries and Nazi art thieves have in common? How did two wives bring down an entire family’s art empire? What is the psychology behind art heists? We also return with our infamous in-and-out list (in: christmas, out: valentine’s day).

Reading List:

Links!

  • https://www.nytimes.com/1998/04/20/arts/mighty-and-secretive-art-dynasty-goes-public-to-rebut-nazi-links.html
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/j.ctv1b0fw5b.15.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A7840f0a0788156691343376539b84cc7&ab_segments=0%2FSYC-6744_basic_search%2Fcontrol&origin=&acceptTC=1
  • https://www.lootedart.com/news.php?r=OSTKHA326811
  • https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/the-nepo-babies-of-art-1234651157/
  • https://news.artnet.com/art-world/stunning-reversal-frances-highest-court-commands-re-trial-wildenstein-family-dynasty-1935348
  • https://nymag.com/press/2022/12/extremely-overanalyzing-hollywoods-nepo-baby-boom.html#:~:text=On%20the%20Cover%20of%20New,Overanalyzing%20Hollywood's%20Nepo%2DBaby%20Boom&text=New%20York%20Magazine's%20December%2019,love%2Dhate%20obsession%20with%20them.
  • https://www.vulture.com/article/nyc-art-world-gallery-families.html
  • https://gw.geneanet.org/wikifrat?lang=en&n=wildenstein&oc=0&p=nathan
  • https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300256215-012/pdf
  • https://newcriterion.com/issues/2021/5/dirty-dealing
  • https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-wives-brought-down-the-wildenstein-art-empire
  • https://www.artmarketmonitor.com/2010/05/27/37911/
  • https://www.vanityfair.com/magazine/1998/03/wildenstein199803
  • https://cluboenologique.com/story/the-psychology-of-the-collector/
  • https://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/03/arts/panel-on-nazi-art-theft-fell-short-experts-say.html

Louise Lawler

  • https://www.moma.org/artists/7928

White Cube

  • https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/w/white-

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Welcome back to the bimboverse! This week on the pod, KC and Evie take wellness culture to the mat, unpacking everything from manifestation TikTok to the benefits of meditation. What does ‘health and wellness’ mean to us in the age of the algorithm? We take an in-depth look at Audre Lorde’s 1988 essay collection, A Burst of Light, as a jumping board for the self-care movement, landing right on the current trend of the ‘clean girl’ ‘five-to-nine’ routine. Stay tuned if you want to hear how Elon Musk starts his mornings and why you should probably not do the same.

Reading List:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-science-of-spiritual-narcissism/
https://qz.com/1307380/yoga-and-meditation-boost-your-ego-say-psychology- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-20299-z
https://aeon.co/essays/can-meditation-really-make-the-world-a-better-place
https://adamgrant.bulletin.com/meditating-probably-won-t-make-you-a-better-person/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/magazine/2021/03/29/qanon-new-age-spirituality/
https://www.vox.com/the-goods/22832827/manifesting-tiktok-astroworld-conspiracy-qanon-religion
https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/7kbg9x/tarot-tiktok-algorithm-trend
https://www.refinery29.com/en-gb/wellness-industry-issues-perfectionism
https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/25/health/helping-others-benefits-health-jamil-zaki-wellness/index.html
https://www.nylon.com/beauty/toxic-wellness-ideology-is-affecting-our-friendships
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/17/eva-wiseman-conspirituality-the-dark-side-of-wellness-how-it-all-got-so-toxic
https://www.dazeddigital.com/beauty/article/55907/1/when-did-isolating-ourselves-become-the-height-of-wellness-culture
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00131857.2022.2061948

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In this episode, KC and Evie unpack the romantic comedy genre from the 1930s to today, attempting to answer: “why are the romantic comedies of today so sterile?” We explore classic tropes like the meet-cute and the love-hate tango, Freudian theories of comedy (can the Neobimbos ever escape psychoanalysis?), and the fall of the female blockbuster.

Stay tuned to hear how She’s the Man summarizes Laura Mulvey’s entire theory of the male gaze in one line of dialogue!

You can find us on:

Instagram - @neo.bimbs

Twitter - @neobimbos

If you have any comments, questions, or concerns, email us at neobimbos@gmail.com

Please subscribe and give us a rating!

Reading List:

https://parade.com/1333321/jessicasager/why-dont-they-make-romcoms-anymore/

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/03/why-are-romantic-comedies-so-bad/309236/

John Mundy and Glyn White. Laughing matters: Understanding film, television and radio comedy. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2012.

Doherty, Thomas. “The Rom-Com Genre and the Shopping Gene.” OAH Magazine of History 24, no. 2 (2010): 25–28.

Martin, Adrian. “In the Mood For (Something Like) Love: The Situation of the Rom-Com Today.” Cinéaste 39, no. 1 (2013): 16–20.

Oria, Beatriz. “Love on the Margins: The American Indie Rom-Com of the 2010s.” Atlantis 40, no. 2 (2018): 145–68.

Henderson, Brian. “Romantic Comedy Today: Semi-Tough or Impossible?” Film Quarterly 31, no. 4 (1978): 11–23.

Freud, Sigmund. Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. Vienna: F. Deuticke, 1905.

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For the official launch of the Neo Bimbos, KC and Evie take to clubs, raves, and Foucault to explore the history and aestheticism of urban nightlife from the 18th-century ballroom to today. You’ll hear us chat about philosophy, subculture, house music, and why the Kardashians have made our 2023 “outs” list this year.

Reading List:

https://stuarte.co/2021/a-short-history-of-clubbing/

https://ra.co/features/1927

https://www.techno24seven.com/scene/music/inside-techno-the-difference-between-detroit-and-berlin-techno

https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/j5mxgk/a-comprehensive-video-history-of-rave-culture

https://tagg.org/others/Hawkins/HawkHouse.html

Shapiro, Peter. Modulations: A History of Electronic Music: Throbbing Words on Sound. 2000

Rietveld, Hillegonda. This is Our House: House Music, Cultural Spaces and Technologies. Abingdon: Routledge, 2020

Loza, Susana. “Sampling (Hetero)Sexuality: Diva-Ness and Discipline in Electronic Dance Music,” Popular Music 20, no. 3 (2001): 349-357

Tagg, Philip. “Refrain to Rave: The Decline of Figure and the Rise of Ground,” Popular Music 13, no. 2 (1994): 209-222

Gilbert, Jeremy. Discographies: Dance, Music, Culture and Politics of Sound. London: Routledge, 1999

Hobbs, et al. “Let the Good Times Roll: Liminality and the Night-time Economy” in Bouncers, Violence and Governance in the Night-Time Economy (2005): 13-51

Smizigin, et al. “Socio-spatial authenticity at co-created music festivals,” Annals of Tourism Research 63, (2017): 1-11

Gallan, Ben. “Night lives: Heterotopia, youth transitions and cultural infrastructure in the urban night,” Urban Studies 52, no. 3 (2013): 555-570

Chatterton, Paul. “Governing nightlife: Profit, fun and (dis)order in the contemporary city,” Entertainment Law 1, no. 2 (2010): 23-49

Chatterton and Hollands. “Theorizing Urban Playscapes: Producing, Regulating, and Consuming Youthful Nightlife City Spaces,” Urban Studies 39, no. 1 (2016): 95-116

Hae, Laam. “Dilemmas of the Nightlife Fix: Post-industrialisation and the Gentrification of Nightlife in New York City,” Urban Studies 48, no. 16 (2011): 3449-3465

Goulding, et al. “Marketplace Management of Illicit Pleasure,” Journal of Consumer Research 35, no. 5 (2009): 759-771