Photograph courtesy of The Lucid Octave / Shor Bazaar / Nam Leisure (left) and LiFE DESiGN / Instagram (proper)
This month felt like we have been all aimlessly scrolling by one endless Instagram story. Then once more, each month type of seems like that in an consideration financial system that spews out viral information with simply sufficient post-meta irony to make us faux it’s all very profound.
Zohran Mamdani—the New York mayoral candidate who as soon as made a rap for his naani—gained large within the Democratic major this month. It felt like a communal victory for South Asians all over the place, celebrated with the identical type of group chat hysteria reserved in your overachiever cousin’s examination outcomes. Then there’s the curious case of the Labubus, which have now turn out to be so viral that you may wear them as grillz. Additionally, the events have gotten wilder. Not as a result of the power’s any totally different, however as a result of actually something may be labeled as a celebration now. And in that very same unhinged spirit, apparently everybody may also be a DJ now. Welcome to The Rodeo. Let’s dive into it.
The Samosa Rave Is Actual, and So Is Our Indigestion
If the mere point out of a samosa raves gave you on the spot acid reflux disease of the soul, you’re not alone. Simply after we thought we’d hit peak absurdity with espresso raves, burger raves, run membership raves, and even dosa raves, the deep-fried triangle determined to crash the social gathering. It was a kind of hard-to-digest items of knowledge that despatched the collective on-line consciousness spiraling over what even qualifies as a rave anymore. Name it blasphemy or genius advertising, it’s a kind of moments that leaves a everlasting “SMH” bubble floating above you.
Faux Weddings Are All The Rage
As if The Materialists turning matchmaking right into a painfully white-gazed efficiency piece wasn’t already a cultural crime (#JusticeForSimaFromMumbai), issues have gotten so bleak on the trendy relationship entrance that we’re now throwing marriage ceremony events with out the bride or groom. Faux marriage ceremony events, full with thumping dhols, mandap-style phases, and even chaat counters have made their technique to the bingo card of weird theme events. Possibly it’s our Bollywood nostalgia flaring up, or possibly it’s the collective burnout of dating in 2025, however one way or the other, this deeply unhinged development simply…is smart.
The Viral Tarp Takeover
If you happen to haven’t stumbled throughout a kind of badly photoshopped tarpaulin posters congratulating Taylor Swift for owning her masters or Travis Scott for changing into the chief visionary at Oakley but, we remorse to tell you that your algorithm would possibly nonetheless be working on a dial-up modem. The brainchild of Filipino designers Xylk and Fleasayo—who name themselves “life designers”—these viral masterpieces have made the leap from Poblacion to Paris, utilizing nothing however Comedian Sans, movie star cutouts, and the janky capitalization of “PHiLiPPiNES iS PROUD OF UUUU.” Low-res, low-brow, however excessive on vibes. And if it feels acquainted, that’s in all probability as a result of it shares the identical design DNA as each Indian barbershop shutter that’s ever featured Zayn Malik.
The Former President of Colombia Is Now…A DJ?
Colombia’s controversial former president Iván Duque is swapping cupboard conferences for membership tracks in his affair rebrand as…DJ DUQ. Duque is best known for working Colombia from 2018 to 2022 underneath the conservative Democratic Centre Occasion and confronted widespread criticism over violent crackdowns on protesters and human rights defenders, significantly in the course of the 2021 national strike. Seems, the one factor he’s spinning now’s badly combined afrobeats. It’s a pivot so weird that it will be humorous if it weren’t coming from a man whose administration was mired in brutal repression and linked to the deaths of over 900 activists.
New Apple Characteristic For Playlist DJs
And since everybody thinks they’re a DJ now, Apple determined to launch a brand new function that totally feeds into the fantasy (or delusion?). Tailored for that one buddy who insists they’re a selector as a result of they as soon as made a nostalgia playlist that slapped on the pre-game, the brand new AutoMix feature in iOS 26 claims to “use intelligence to transition from one track to the following like a DJ, utilizing time stretching and beat matching to seamlessly transfer from one track to the following.” And whereas it’d sound slick on paper, it’s already tapping into our deeper existential dread. What’s subsequent: expertise that texts you saying “U up?” at 3 AM?
That Cool New Band You Found May Be a Deepfake
Feeding additional into these anxieties is the mysterious rise of a brand new band known as The Velvet Sunset, which has racked up over 400,000 monthly Spotify listeners regardless of seemingly materializing out of skinny air a month in the past. Their sudden rise has Reddit sleuths in overdrive, after listeners stumbled onto their tracks by Uncover Weekly and rapidly observed that that they had no interviews, no gigs and no digital footprint. Then got here the Instagram account, filled with eerily hyperreal band member portraits that look extra like NPCs in a cyberpunk fever dream. And whereas AI experiments in music are nothing new, it’s the suspiciously manufactured vibe of this band that has everybody doing a double-take.