Sidetracks - May 22, 2025

[helloladies]

Sidetracks is a collaborative project featuring various essays, videos, reviews, or other Internet content that we want to share with each other. All past and current links for the Sidetracks project can be found in our Sidetracks tag. You can also support Sidetracks and our other work on Patreon.

Anna

1. I’m currently obsessed with the Chinese reality TV show The Truth featuring pretty people in pretty clothing playing an elaborate cross between an escape room and a murder mystery dinner party. Please admire these pirate outfits from the 3rd case in the currently airing season.

2. On a different costuming note, this video of making a 1930’s qipao is so cool!

Renay

3. After the horrific tornado in STL, there's a place to support the residents and volunteer if you live in the area. I know of this one because I have STL pals, but if there are other legit ones for Kentucky, let me know about them in the comments.

4. Via kaytaylorrea on BlueSky, a handy way to get a free trial of Apple TV if you otherwise aren't eligible. I'm using my trial to watch a few things and finally catch up with Culture!

5. I recently read The Girl That My Mother Is Leaving Me For by Cameron Reed and it's a quiet queer love story set in a corporate dystopia, with some very neat world building re: technology.

6. Gurathin is SecUnit's "Bitch eating crackers."

7. Jamelle Bouie did a video about the party switch, which I knew a lot about but I learned some new things. Bouie has such a depth of knowledge about U.S. history that I appreciate.

8. I don't live in NYC. Did that stop me from taking this quiz to show me which candidates I would vote for? It did not. According to this quiz, I should rank the following candidates in this order: Zohran Mamdani, Jessica Ramos, Michael Blake, Scott Stringer, and Adrienne Adams. I don't trust the bottom three because there were a lot of questions I simply didn't have the context to answer. I'm curious how this election will go given *gestures to world* but as always, it depends on turnout and voter education.