Culture and Couture Brief #2 - Mo Diggs
"No album captures the vibes of our times like this one. The discordant electrical squawking reminds us of the looming techpocalypse."
Welcome to the Culture and Couture Brief, a new feature at The Cultural Futurist.
We’re creating tastemakers for the new regime.
This is today’s Culture and Couture Brief. If you missed our first installment with Theresa Tallien here, now is your chance to make things right. Twice a month, I’ll feature someone who is leading the way on the cultural front. We’re influencing the influencers. It’s the creative counter elite in action, and today we have cultural critic Mo Diggs here to play.
What has been captivating Mo Diggs lately?
Mo Diggs: Since 2005 I was strictly a hoodie and beanie guy whenever possible. This past fall, I realized I’m 48 and this generic sloppiness didn’t sit with me. So now, during hoodie seasons, I wear a leather vest along with a brimmed beanie and sunglasses that I wear over my glasses. The brimmed beanie has ear flaps. So in honor of The Catcher in the Rye – and my age – I call the look “Olden Caulfield.”
What’s Mo’s media pick of the moment?
Mo Diggs: I wrote a piece recently on how we were going to start to see culture from this year and the remaining four that reflects the insanity of this decade. Already in the first month we have this haunting, nightmarish slowcore album. Ethel Cain’s Perverts might not become a number one hit, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets a cult following.
Like most people, I first heard of Cain from the news about how she defended the shooting of the UHC CEO without apologizing. So when AntiArt gave a good review of her latest album, I had to hear it. Funny, for a decade so obsessed with “vibes,” no album captures the vibes of our times like this one. Not just because much of it sounds like a funeral dirge; the discordant electrical squawking reminds us of the looming techpocalypse.
What has Mo being enjoying on Substack?
The Untethering by Ross Barkin - “It’s about how how politics and culture are bound to separate.”
Believe for Your Own Sake, Not for "the West" by Tara Isabella Burton - “When Cultural Christianity and Big Tech meet.”
Luigi and Me by Paul Skallas - “This is the best analysis of Gen Z I have seen from a mainstream publication.”
Post-Internet by Sean Monahan - “We can’t have an avant-garde in a climate of fear.”
Chaos at Trump’s Crypto Ball by Rina Nicolae
An Announcement from Mo
I just wrote a review for an upcoming magazine called The Metropolitan Review that will be run by Ross Barkan and Sam Kahn. Also, subscribe to my Substack, Cross Current. It’s a free blog (for now).
There you go. It’s my second installment of Culture and Couture. I plan to run more of these because they’re lots of fun. Also, let’s get real. Most people have horrible tastes and it’s time to show them something better.
If you’d like to become a tastemaker for the new regime, email me at theculturalfuturist@gmail.com. Whether it’s fashion, art, music, architecture, or a period in time that has inspired you, (maybe even all of these things) I’d love to hear from you about some of your favorite things.
Mo Diggs writes about tech, culture and legacy media. His Substack, Cross Current, looks at the intersection between the new media trends of today and the legacy media trends of yesterday.
If you like what at I’m doing here at The Cultural Futurist, don’t forget to buy me a coffee.
I'm going to breakout my old leather vest. Let's make it a thing