Culture Hound: October 2017

Welcome to Culture Hound, InsideHook’s deep dive into the month’s most important cultural happenings, pop and otherwise.

WATCH: The Snowman
It’s a cold case, literally. A serial killer with a snowman fetish returns to the bleak wintery streets of Oslo, as (*cough* porn name) detective Harry Hole (Michael Fassbender) hunts for clues. Based on a best seller and directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). (Oct. 20)

ENJOY (NSFW): Nude
Steve Shaw — the photographer/owner behind Treats!, a quarterly magazine that devotes the bulk of its pages to models shot au naturel — partnered with French photographer David Bellemere to shoot a calendar for a concept called NU Muses, which was billed as fine art at Basel in Miami. And now Starz has the behind-the-scenes documentary on it, which should be … eye-opening. (Oct. 29)

LEARN: Leonardo da Vinci
Walter Isaacson canonized Steve Jobs. Here, he tackles another genius, a man of both art and science who was also a social misfit (“Illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical.”). Devour this before the DiCaprio adaptation that no one asked for. (Oct. 17)

SUBSCRIBE: Quartz Obsession
From one of our favorite online publishers, Quartz Obsession is a new email that takes a deep dive into a single newsy topic every weekday, timed for your evening commute (unless you’re driving … then, um, don’t look at your phone). You’ll get history, stats, quotes, charts and interactive elements, all dedicated to one fascinating topic (recently, it was tulips).

SPEND THE EVENING WITH: Steve Earle
The now-grizzled master is headlining the Hardly Strictly bluegrass festival this year — which is reason number 1 to go. Number 2? That’d be returning star Gillian Welch. (And while you’re at it, stop by the set from the artist we listen to the most: Brandi Carlile.) (10/6-10/8)

SETTLE IN FOR: Loving Vincent
If you feel yawn-y about the work of this iconic painter, Loving Vincent might be the visually innovative owrk to break you out of it: Constructed entirely from images of Van Gogh’s work, it’s a radically new way of talking about visual art. (From 10/6)

CONCENTRATE TO: Celeste Ng
If you don’t know the work of Celeste Ng, you should — she’s about to be as name-droppable as Jennifer Egan. Swing by Booksmith to see the writer read from her award-winning, notice-grabbing book, Little Fires Everywhere. (10/4)

LISTEN: Our Spotify playlist
A slightly revamped version of our former monthly playlist, still devoted to the best in new music but now an on-going, living, breathing entity called Put This in Your Ear. We’ll be adding and archiving songs as we go, but still curating great new tunes along the way, including songs from Wolf Alice, Wu-Tang Clan, Phoebe Bridgers, CHVRCHES (covering Tegan & Sara) and, somehow, Bill Murray.

BINGE: Mindhunter
The ‘70s, David Fincher and the hunt for serial killers? Count us in. Netflix’s latest drama is based on the work of the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, which interviewed imprisoned serial killers to understand how they think (a bit o’ Silence of the Lambs there, but real). (Oct. 13)

And don’t forget … Marc Maron shares his learnings from his WTF podcast in Waiting For the Punch (Oct. 10) … Personal tragedy can’t keep down comedian Patton Oswalt, who debuts this stand-up special Annihilation on Netflix (Oct. 17) … Film buffs: Be sure to check out our 2017 Fall Movie Guide … Book buffs: Be sure to check out our 2017 Fall Book Guide (unreleased Vonnegut!) … Finally, welcome back Mr. Robot (Oct. 11), Riverdale (Oct. 11), The Walking Dead (Oct. 22) and Stranger Things (Oct. 27).