Into the Spider(web)verse:

Dear Readers,

It’s us again. Isn’t that wonderful?!

We’re surviving all the extreme and manufactured cruelty the only way we know how —by flinging art into the void and hoping it hits you like a warm hug.

From buried ledes inside the Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb to A24’s suspiciously chill “association” with Adam Curtis’ new series - our takeaway is this: artistry remains the last functioning branch of reason and humanity. And frankly, our global disaster divas in chief could never touch the sheer myth-making genius of the modern folk heroes we’re spotlighting in this here newsletty.

So scroll on, stay weird, and remember: doom is temporary. Great storytelling is forever.

Thanks for reading !(◕‿◕)♡

Krista + Zoe

As soon as we saw reports that the perpetrators behind Ukraine’s extremely sick Operation Spiderweb were a young artist couple: experimental sound DJ Artem Timofeev (37) and his tattoo-artist/stylist/erotic novelist/“witch” wife Ekaterina ‘Katya’ Timofeeva (34), we were like … noiiice.

Katya wiped her socials, but IHTEFYW believes Soundcloud mixes associated with Artem -and a social media profile for the dissident Russian record label where he worked- provide a window to the Timofeyev’s elite instinct for art, music (and espionage).

As it turns out, this Ukrainian couple’s deep cover as two unassuming St. Petersburg creatives (something straight out of Tony Gilroy’s Andor) was *critical* in positioning the trucks that delivered a stunning blow to the enemy’s military capabilities across five Russian time zones.

Last week, BBC’s YouTube posted an official trailer for SHIFTY — a new series from Adam Curtis, the UK filmmaker-journalist-artist who’s this newsletter’s own seer for making documentaries that unlock the mediated mysteries of our modern chaotic universe.

SHIFTY, which debuts on BBC iPlayer this weekend, will pinpoint the exact moments of excessive 1980s individualism (in BRITAIN!) that precipitated the liberal crashout we’re now marinating in.

"Yay" wrote one YouTube commenter "I can't wait to make this my whole personality for the next 3-4 years”

We’re mildly curious about “A24 UK”’s association with SHIFTY, but if it helps proselytize more followers into our Curtis cult, i guess we’re good (us to A24, “hold our beer”).

The Cure’s first new album in a decade, Songs of a Lost World, fell somewhere in the Overhyped & Underwhelming™ cultural quadrant for us. But since last fall, frontman Robert Smith has been in his dance music revival era (same, girl, same), and we’re feeling better about this week’s release of the album’s electro-remix counterpart:"Mixes of a Lost World".

Smith has collaborated with a gladiatorial roster of electronic artists and producers — Orbital, Four Tet, Paul Oakenfold, to name a few — on 24 remixes of the original eight tracks. The rework feels set to replot The Cure’s latest effort onto a more respectable quadrant of the cultural matrix.

Bless up for a blissed out Summer union between the post-punk goths and the apocalyptic technostans.

Evidentiary disclosures for The People’s Prince™ barely pierce through these days, but we’re keeping tabs on the case for Luigi Mangione’s brutal focus on challenging public opinion.

His newly disclosed journal pages allegedly reveal a meticulous targeting of a single individual, and therefore appear to undermine his terrorism charges which require proof of his intent to instill mass fear among civilians or politicians.

We’ve got another six months until His Royal Fine-ness’ next appearance on Dec 8 (fongool!) but Madonne, we’re back on track!

Speaking of deranged Italians—our obsessive attention has turned to M: Son of the Century, Joe Wright's adaptation of Antonio Scurati’s novel about Mussolini’s charisma and chaos (familiar, much?). After premiering in the UK and Italy this January, we worried that American distributors might shy away from its politically-charged narrative but last month, Mubi -the international distributor and streaming platform known for The Substance- acquired the global distribution rights, and the series will stream on Mubi US this fall.

Until then, we’ll be over here just disassociating to its techno-heavy soundtrack by Tom Rowlands of The Chemical Brothers.