Living A Double Life

I should have better things to do—but I have to admit to splurging an excessive amount of time and attention last week on an Italian confection strangely titled Baby. It's about a bunch of kids in Rome who deal with domestic strife and school bullies by selling drugs, getting really wasted and "seducing" older men with their youthful beauty.

Baby gives you the perpetual, skin-crawling reminder that you're sitting and staring at young women's bodies, enjoying the way you can set foot into their lives and then turn away when the scenes do not interest you any longer. Oh my god. Chiara. Chiara is so hot.

The series has a contagious misery, and may remind you of your younger, brasher, more energetic self. Here's another fact: It was inspired by the real-life Baby Squillo (Baby Prostitute) scandal, in which a group of young girls became involved in a prostitution ring. In many of the episodes, sex and teenage romance get mixed up without much effort and I never stop to examine what it is exactly about these narratives I find so satisfying.

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Enigmatic Shapes and Psychedelic Patterns

To say that I love Sanagi 's work is an understatement. Looking at her art feels sort of therapeutic, and I find her drawings refreshingly intricate. They're trippy, psychedelic, and resemble something that you might see under a microscope. Not much is Googleable about Sanagi, but that's fine. There aren't many artists these days that still pull off the whole mysterious vibe, so I commend her for that. By the way... they're all hand-drawn with pen and ink.

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