Hey y’all, or should I say, hey, how y’all doin’?
I’d like to start by expressing my gratitude for the wonderful community that has gathered around my writing. You all have helped to push me creatively and supported over 35 pieces throughout this year. In August we will be coming up to the one-year anniversary of Low Hanging Fruit, a writing passion project of mine that has grown to become so much more.
In looking back on this year, and ahead to what I hope for this to become, I’ve decided to create a slight shift in my content schedule. I realize many of you subscribed because of my longer-form writing, or because you connect with my personal essays—don’t worry I will still be sharing more of that writing here as well, and I believe this next chapter actually provides something for everyone.
This is change is born out of the realization that many of my interests vary widely— and that not every one of them warrants a full piece. Those who know me, know just how often my obsessions shift, from music to art to pop culture, and often some swirling mixture of everything in between. I have always loved sharing these passions with people around me and keeping my friends up to date on whatever a Benson Boone is— and as such, I am happy to announce my new series that compiles a few of these topics of interest, fondly called: CHERRYPICKING.
Here’s what to expect:
Short-form musings on topics ranging from music, to culture, to interesting people who I believe you need to know about. The list will change every week, which will also allow me to share other sides of my creative journey like my poetry, photography, painting, and maybe even audio.
Here’s what it isn’t:
CHERRYPICKING is not a replacement to my longer-form writing. I am making that promise to myself as much as it is to you. It is simply another facet for my creativity—something more akin to morning pages in that it will hopefully help me channel my energies into other places.
I’m not setting out to be some great tastemaker. I’m not trying to impress you with my high-brow artistry or niche interests. I’m not even trying to discover undercovered gems, or put you on to something you’ve never heard of before. I am simply cherry-picking the particular nuggets of art and culture from my week that I think have particular potency.
Now that I have harvested the things I love, it’s time to share it with y’all!
💿 BIRDS OF A FEATHER - Billie Eilish HIT ME HARD AND SOFT
The genre of music I have famously gravitated towards always sounds a bit like having crush. Not full-out romantic love, that’s entirely too trite. I prefer music that soundtracks doodling in a spiral-bound notebook, looking over your shoulder in class to catch even a glimpse of the boy behind you, writing his name out in sparklers on the night of the big school cookout…crush culture, is abundantly important to me and Billie has written the perfect track to encompass those feelings. Even for a man like me, who is deeply in his twenties, this song hits.
There’s something magic about its outro, with its pigeon-like cooing, or the way you can hear a blush on Billie’s face as she builds to the pre-chorus “I don’t think I could love you more. It might not be long, but baby, I, I’ll love you ’til the day that I die.” It’s wide-eyed romanticism bordering on saccharine, and it works. Cut to me shouting these words to the heavens as I skip with open arms like a pre-AMC but post-divorce Nicole Kidman. There’s a reason this song was used in the trailers for Heartstopper, it’s gooey and schmaltzy, but it reminds us that sometimes that kind of crush can feel really really good.
💿 Miss Me Too - Griff ver2igo vol.2
Self-love anthems have been in woeful short supply now that Lady Gaga is a full-time pharmacist and y’all ran Katy Perry out of town and straight to the judging panel at American Idol. Griff is filling that god-shaped hole for me, in no small part with this spectacular track. I have a nasty little habit of looping this song 4-5 times before I even realize it has played, and the song’s production is structured in such a way to support just that. (I see you Lostboy, get your bag girl.)
In the music video when Griff and her fellow Urban Outfitters dancers break from the track and let out a primal scream…like, yeah dude, I felt that. That’s that type of shit I do like. Makes me want to put on some Sambas and work on my choreography in an abandoned shipping facility real bad.
👶🏻 The Case of the Sentient Baby
It seems like nobody wants to go to the Four Seasons Orlando anymore. That is, until Kate, the Four Seasons Baby, broke her silence. If this video came out in 2013 and Ellen Degeneres had not already been thwarted by Madame Web herself, Dakota Johnson, this baby would probably have her own talk show by now.
The viral TikTok video features Kate responding to her mother with an eerie autonomy one may not expect from a child her age. This is revealing, I think, and says a lot more about the ways in which we as a society view young people.
The joke here, plainly, is that babies are simply balls of goo who have no conceptualization of the world around them—and isn’t it so funny how this child seems to respond as if she has sentience? The response to this video feels a bit like how we view art made by elephants or caring relationships between gorillas. It exists in the uncanny valley, almost human in its recognizable features, but just off-kilter enough that it makes us uncomfortable.
And I believe that reveals more about the viewer than the subject.
Of course babies have sentience, have we entirely forgotten those Mozart for babies CDs, or the film Baby Geniuses, or its fabulous sequel Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, which was the only film I ever rented from my local Blockbuster? Can a baby lead a TED talk or change the oil in their car, no maybe not, and neither can I for what it’s worth—but we need to stop acting like children spring into existence the day they turn 18. We need to stop acting like children are inherently less human than we are simply because they don’t pay bills or have an appointment book.
When we speak down to children and insult their intelligence, we create a culture that perpetuates this belief. We create movies without emotional stakes and storylines that merely rely on easter eggs and whatever newest visual-crack CGI can create. When we see children merely as nuisances to be placated by an iPad or just something to help create our own online content, we are simply continuing the same cycles of abuse that has lead many of us to trauma-informed therapy.
I find it funny (not like ha ha funny, but like hmm interesting) how as an adult we can recognize the ways in which the world affected us as children, and how those after tremors have lasting effects in our adult lives, but we seem unwilling to apply that same logic to children today.
Who else got messed up as a child?
“Me!”
🐆 Cheetah Girls (2003)
There comes a time in every not-so-young gay man’s life when they begin to identify more closely with the parents in a Disney movie than they do with the spunky young ingenues. DCOMS are rife for this sort of realization. They gotta figure out a German word for this phenomena stat!
A sudden cold shiver ran down my spine when Galleria (Raven Symoné) fought with her mother for not letting her and her fellow pre-teen bandmates go to the record label unsupervised. What struck me as most odd was how Raven shirked off her mothers help with the legal side of their music career, how she nearly slapped her contract out of her mother’s manicured hands at the mere mention of lawyers.
First of all, imagine having lawyers? That’s so baller. And second of all, imagine someone offering to do your legal advice pro bono and not taking up the offer? That’s how I knew I was old. My wish fulfillment fantasy peaked at the mere idea of someone doing my taxes for me. That and being more attracted to the hot Italian father than the court-sanctioned Tiger Beat teen heartthrob Disney bandied out in hopes of finding their next Chad Michael Murray.
It’s been recently brought to my attention that children don’t really know anything about Cheetah Girls anymore, and to me, that is a step too far. We need to reopen the schools, we are forgetting the old magic of choreographing a step-touch on the black-top at recess or coming up with tween-friendly idioms like “growl power!” Do the children even know how to accessorize with a skinny scarf and four different layered tops anymore?
I personally love a out of left field third act conflict that has nothing to do with the character arcs or pre-determined stakes. Give me a random dog stuck in a well to artificially inflate the drama any day! No amount of revisions from Syd Field could ever dream to improve this script. Cheetah Girls is the perfect movie, you could never make me hate this masterpiece.
Parting thoughts: Why did Manhattan Magnet use real porcelain dishes in their cafeteria, and also what enby audio director chose the pottery smash sound effect for that moment? Are Galleria’s parents looking for a third, because I need them both, and I wouldn’t forget to bring home the capers. (Somehow not a euphemism, unless you are Lynn Whitfield or Juan Choiran, in which case let’s talk) And finally, was Drinka Champagne a drag queen, because with that name she needs a shake-n-go and a 3-minute megamix of I Will Survive featuring quotes from Survivor pronto.
🧆 Falafel Salad
Part of me was terrified to include a food section in this newsletter, especially since what I’ve been going gaga for this week has been—well I’ll just come out and say it, it’s a salad. I feel like when it comes to eating salads there’s this multi-layered trifle of shame that comes along with it all ever since, “go eat a salad” became the go-to phrase for diet culture and Almond Moms everywhere. So no, I am not trying to pass this off as some get-thin quick scheme, we already have ozempic for that. Nor am I trying to impact the ways you already eat—because chances are it’s been working just fine for you. That being said, the recipe I’m obsessed over is a Falafel Salad with Hot Honey Feta.
What I’m always looking for out of a meal (and a man—hello!) is cold, wet, and crisp. Which this salad is. Also, the falafels I used fully came from a roommate’s catering gig, so no, I can not supply the recipe for those necessarily, but like, idk get scrappy! Basically, the secret here is drizzling your feta with a hot chili honey sauce and then tossing it in with the rest of your veggies.
If you liked my article on the Cheetah Girls check out more of my thoughts on the Disney Channel Industrial Complex with my piece: Elsa, PLEASE I know you’re in there.
If you liked my thoughts on the importance of viewing children as their own people, check out my article: Who do I want to be?
If you liked my song reviews check out my most recent album review for Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine.
Thanks for reading the first ever issue of CHERRYPICKING! I can’t wait to continue this journey with all of you and share even more of my favorite things. 🍒
I’m so excited to see where this goes!!!
GRIFFFFFFFF