🫒✨The Nexialist #0197

euterpians | melancholic blue | after image | naked attraction | piss in amsterdam | pinchó | disease | they want to be me

Oct 31, 2024

welcome to another fresh batch of fermented internet tidbits, the nexialist

hey, you! i hope this e-mail finds you well! last thursday, i felt so accomplished and had such a beautiful day that i need to share it here. on top of tn#196 and the good place podcast, i also had my second participation at

floatvibes

newsletter, one of my favorites: i wrote (in portuguese) about anti-woke, corp-core and penis aesthetics (all topics seen here before, but there i took a deeper dive). for the past months, i’ve also been working on the flaccid manifesto, and last week, the focus was on (re)naturalizing nudity. there were so many things being published on the same day where i talk about things close to my heart, so i think i was feeling quite vulnerable and couragerous at the same time, and the support makes me feel like it’s worth it. to top it off, we had a relaxing poly outing to sauna deco with juan and andrea, a beautiful art deco sauna in amsterdam. everything just falling into place.

for today, expect lots of videos and music, with a dance piece, a naked dating show, a melancholic drag queen and pissing the night away in amsterdam. enjoy! 🫀✨

—Rodrigo Turra

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🪈euterpians

last weekend, i went to see leineroebana’s euterpians at the international theatre in amsterdam as they are touring in the netherlands. full disclosure: my boyfriend andrea is one of the dancers in this piece.

euterpe “was one of the muses in greek mythology, presiding over music. in late classical times, she was named muse of lyric poetry. she has been called "giver of delight" by ancient poets.” leineroebana took that feminine energy of art music and deconstructed/translated into music and performance.

An ode to women
EUTERPIANS takes the feminine in art and life as its starting point.
In EUTERPIANS by LeineRoebana, Andrea Leine and Harijono Roebana take the joyful creativity of Euterpe, the irresistibility of the Sirens and the martial nature of the Amazons as their starting point. Together with dancers and musicians, they make the feminine power and energy tangible.
Self-confident, with passion, doubt, lightness and irony, women take charge. Every moment on stage is an invitation to feel, to reflect and to experience the beauty that arises when the poetry of the (female) soul reveals itself in the language of the body.

i loved the way they went beyond the obvious, taking references from different centuries and incorporating elements not traditionally assigned to feminine stereotypes, like chaos and control. my brain is used to following a linear narrative, and with this piece, i felt challenged to disconnect from that and enjoy the feelings it evoked.

brainsparks: antigone in the amazon (tn#122)

🔵melancholic blue

last weekend, the clocks went back an hour, and now it’s getting dark before 6pm (by the winter solstice the sun sets at 4:30pm in amsterdam). needless to say, for my brazilian blood, this is the worst part of this season, as it can get quite gloomy. this is a perfect soundtrack for that, reminding us that there can still be beauty in melancholy and sadness.

ivana wonder made me cry with this tune and this video (thank you

Dimas Henkes

for sharing). i saw ivana live, maybe 7-8 years ago in a bar in são paulo, and i got chills back then, as she manages to condense the atmosphere around her. now the world gets to see her, and this visual deserves full screen and attention. i don’t get why such incredible artistry doesn’t even have 1k views even after a month of lauching, maybe it’s because it’s about sadness.

i’m sorry, my love | me desculpa, meu amor
these days i’ve been sad | esses dias eu ando triste
don’t forget that i love you | não esqueça que eu te amo
i’ve been melancholic blue | eu ando melancholic blue
i’m just hoping for a good day | só espero por um dia bom
and i’m going to sing, smiling | e eu vou sorrir cantando
but in this deep blue | mas nesse azul profundo
i just want to cry | eu só quero chorar

👁️after image

thank you, juan, for this one! this question has been in my mind since my childhood. sometimes i would be lying in bed looking at my bedroom ceiling, blinking, and wondering how those effects happen (and if everyone had it like me). it turns out even scientists are still not quite sure, but this video has some interesting findings. also, it’s fascinating how the positive and negative after images are usually the swapped opposite colors in the color wheel. the animations are also a joy to watch.

brainsparks: pupil diversity (tn#134), thid eye(lid), eye floaters (tn#26)

🍑naked attraction

since naked attraction came out in 2016 i was obsessed with it (but only got to see a couple of pirated episodes). i talked about it in my first newsletter ever which was all about nudity (nusleder) — it got deleted without notice by tinyletter because of nudity.

now there are a few seasons available on hbo plus (and surprisingly on youtube) and i’m catching up. i’ve been noticing i always watch it with a smile on my face, so i need to write about it. despite the inherent cruelty of dating shows (competition, eliminations and just the whole tackyness of it), there is so much to love about it, and here are my takes:

invitation to get naked: in most of western societies we don’t get to see nudity in our communities or online with prude algorithmic censorship. this leaves our nakedness references to porn and hollywood/streaming, which we know are not the most inclusive (and leaves our references of reality distorted and self-confidence on the floor). i’m feeling this show might be the second best option to experiencing nudity (the first would be getting yourself naked in an appropriate place, like nude beaches, spas or campings).
body diversity: young, mature, fat, skinny, muscled, cis, trans, disabled, hairy, hairless, pierced, tattooed… the list of bodies represented goes on, and i love it so much. as a gay man, i had never seen so many female bodies naked, and i honestly did not know the diversity of vaginas. also for the male nudity, it’s nice to see different shapes and sizes, and feeling represented. also, it was interesting to see that more often than not, the one who gets chosen for the date is not who you would expect based on the societal norms (bigger penis/boobs or more skinny/muscular).
rejection: imagine going on national (uk) television, getting yourself naked, to then get rejected. it’s such a confidence boost to see people happy to having done that, even if they didn’t get chosen. it got me thinking a lot about dealing with rejection.
sex-ed for adults: it’s impressive how the host, anna richardson, is able to break the taboo and ask all the questions, keeping it honest and transparent. in every episode they bring a few short animations with some data about sex. i feel like the questions she asks also help viewers assess their preferences and normalize their desires.

brainsparks: how to feel better naked (tn#79), getting over rejection (tn#146), naked by marina abramovic (tn#167), bff nude portraits (tn#79), classic nudes (tn#30)

❌piss in amsterdam

i’ve talked about the plaskrul (tn#90) before, but hoog made a whole video about these charming (but stinking) public urinals of amsterdam. it’s amazing how such a simple urban feature exposes the sexism in city planning (once a woman got fined for using the urinals, and not only did not pay but sued the city for not providing public toilets for women). the video shows the old version with its unique golden ration design and history, but also includes the new fascinating retractable designs.

brainsparks: heterotopia, plaskrul (tn#90)

🚬pinchó

thank you françois for this one. such a delicious tune from argentina. for some reason it transported me to early 2000s, to a snowboarding game i used to play on playstation, ssx. it also made me think of chumbawamba’s tubthumping, connecting perfectly with the “pissing the night away” from the dutch pissoars above.

brainspark: artist imperfection (tn#38)

🦠disease

mother monster has returned with her freaky shtick and we love it. of course, people online are already trying to find meaning in her video: is each different gaga a different era? she knows how to work symbologies and her monsters.

🫒they want to be me

as myss keta’s unofficial ambassador i need to share her new release. it’s the first time i see her mouth (assuming it’s her on the video), since she’s always wearing couture masks. what also caught my attention is the making fun of fast fashion, or a “shein bitch.” fast-fashion shaming, i guess.

see you next week, euterpians 🫀✨

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