Depressed Cakes, Trigger Warnings, American Girl
A lot of ambiguity (and t-shirts) early in the newsletter but loveliness at the end
If this enterprise can’t raise enough money from listeners/readers, I swear to God, I’ll turn this show around. And we’ll never get to Grandma’s. If you’ve already donated, thank you. If not, go here, pick a level that works for you, then select DEPRESH MODE from the list of shows. And thank you.
Bleak treats available at the Depressed Cake Shop
When our producer, Gabe, brought up the idea of doing something for the podcast about the Depressed Cake Shop, I thought it was hilarious. I am on the record, of course, in finding some parts of depression really funny and I think it’s empowering to laugh at monsters.
And I was even more on board when I saw some of the items for sale in the Depressed Cake Shop
But I thought this would be a short chat about a cute idea someone had about selling bleak-yet-cute treats in pop-up shops as a fundraiser for mental health causes.
It went deeper. I spoke with Valerie Van Galder, the CEO of Depressed Cake Shop, and a lot of the discussion ended up being about the sense of community and strength that emerges from embarking on a project together. Then I spoke with Sascha Biesi of the Skull and Cakebones bakery outside Austin, which sponsors a Depressed Cake Shop every May for Mental Health Awareness Month. This led into a talk about mental illness and perseverance that went a lot deeper than I expected.
By the way, Sascha was an actor before she was a baker and here she is doing some voice work in a Sonic the Hedgehog cartoon:
Triggers on The Menu
My wife and I went to see the movie The Menu. It was playing at our local neighborhood cinema. It was… okay. It had been advertised as a comedy-horror film, which could mean a lot of things, especially the horror part. I mean, Jordan Peele makes horror films that are smart and fun and where the horrific parts feel somehow earned and like they make sense.
The Menu was just a movie that became increasingly horrific due to reasons that weren’t really explained all that much beyond, “Oh no, these weirdos are going to do something horrible!” Anya Taylor-Joy was in it, doing the whole staring at people thing she keeps doing.
I want you to know that there is suicide in this movie. Vividly and rather suddenly depicted. There is no warning for this in the advertising or opening credits or anything. It just comes out of nowhere. Like many people, I have lost someone close to me to suicide and in the exact method shown in the film, so the film was all fucked up for me from that moment on. I checked out. I may be more down on the film as a whole because of this.
Should movies come with trigger warnings built in? I don’t know. Feels like a lot of things do that. Hell, the Rick & Morty episode I watched last night had one about suicide and it helped.
I wouldn’t want to stand in the way of an artist’s vision, regardless of my perception of how successfully they executed that vision. But still, it seems like we can let Ralph Fiennes chew the scenery AND not fuck people up.
Here’s an article about where to find trigger warnings, which is kind of helpful.
We got stuff for you to get
Our Depresh Mode merch shop is up and running so stop on by! In CYBERSPACE. On your computer. Arguably, you’re in the shop right now.
VR is not therapy, kind of acts like therapy
Technology is always racing far ahead of our ability to manage it or adequately evaluate it. Such is the case with Innerworld, a virtual reality experience…
which offers peer-led mental health support through its app. The idea is to bring the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, into the metaverse and enable users to interact with others as anonymous avatars through voice- and text-based chat.
…
Innerworld, however, gives everyday users the opportunity to deliver support to one another. Its founder, Noah Robinson, emphasizes that the service should not replace professional treatment. Upon registering, Innerworld users must acknowledge that they understand the app is not therapy.
“It’s not therapy and we can’t provide crisis intervention,” Robinson said. “Our goal with Innerworld is to be a longer-term place that people can come to help them prevent themselves from getting to the point of being in crisis. Or we have people who are hospitalized who come out and are looking for additional support.”
There has been no testing, none, in evaluating whether Innerworld really helps someone’s mental health. So maybe it’s just a hangout space for people to help each other? Which seems good too?
I don’t know. I mean, our show runs the Preshies group on Facebook, which is all peer-to-peer, people talking about their own mental health issues and then supporting each other. It’s great. But it’s very clear that this is a standard social media group. Does the use of virtual reality lend a sheen of professional credibility to Innerworld whether its founder disclaims that or not?
Man, between this and what to do about over-the-top acty movies like The Menu, I got more questions than answers today.
Well this is just lovely
Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performing a song from 46 years ago and making it sound brand new.