Andor. I was ready to love Andor from the moment I heard about it. Tony Gilroy, world-historical bard of unhappy people arguing expertly? In the world of Star Wars??? And while I found the first few episodes interesting enough, Andor really got its hooks into me when it got to space prison. The show follows the story of Diego Luna‘s Cassian Andor, who grows from scrappy, low-stakes criminal to revolutionary true believer. This progression is supercharged by a stint inside one of the creepiest prisons ever committed to film: the floors are electrified, the prisoners are barefoot, and the work is endless. Learning that the prisoners are building tiny pieces of what will eventually become … well, a rather significant part of Star Wars lore, only confirms how interestingly the show approaches its world. There are no space wizards, no laser swords, no mind games. Only an electrified-floor-level look at life in a world ruled by such things. —Sam Schube
Motomami, by Rosalía. In 2022, Rosalía was the queen of the global nightclub, but she was also the queen of my solo train commutes, my dinners cooked at home, and my weird little walks around the city. I’d found it difficult to listen to much new music over these past few years, but then Rosalía’s EP Motomami arrived to vrooooom its way through the mud. At last, music that felt restless in a good way! Early favorites emerged, including a naughty, ethereal track called “Hentai” and the lurching, wispy dance song “Diablo.” Seeing Rosalía perform it at Radio City this fall was a welcome communion: She’s a star, and it feIt nice to move, to have my brain bent a bit, to be an honorary motomami alongside all the other honorary motomamis (a gender neutral term) who had also been bumping the hell out of this album. —Eileen Cartter
Design books by Herbert H. Wise. I don’t know who Herbert H. Wise is or where he came from, but in the 1970s he wrote and co-wrote a series of rich, earnest books about interior design that include the essential volumes Rooms With a View, Living Places, and Good Lives. These books are basically moodboards—light on text, heavy on lush, carefully styled imagery. But, as Wise writes in the intro to Rooms (the best of the bunch), what they’re really about is people: “People with imagination and daring,” as he puts it. If Wise is still alive (reader, if you know anything about him or how I might reach him, please get in touch), he might be tickled to see how his cataloging of “good taste”—through thoughtfully arranged images of cobalt bath tile, cast-iron wood stoves, and built-in shelves—has hit the big time. Entire social-media empires have been built on his shoulders. But he wouldn’t likely find much of that imaginative and daring, would he? Fortunately, it is well-documented on these pages, and used copies of most of Wise’s books can be found for a few bucks online. —Noah Johnson
The Editors of GQ
Source link