Nº79: The White Pube
The White Pube talk transparent bags, Excalibur (1981) and art keyrings.
We’re back with Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente from The White Pube. Read on to find out what they’re into, and if you’re new here, hit subscribe for secret recommendations every week.
Zarina Muhammad and Gabrielle de la Puente write about culture. Their debut book POOR ARTISTS was published in 2024, and has been shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. It is available in all good bookshops.
A NOTE: This is a lucky dip pick n mix bag of the things we are interested in and engaged with atm. The bits n bobs in our cultural pockets, so 2 speak. If this is ur bag too, pls make recommendations back to us, we will eagerly and excitedly await any incoming joosy recco joy :) thanks! <3 <3 <3
GDLP:
☞ SUPER MATCHA BY BIRD & BLEND TEA: I have a heart condition that means if I have coffee, my whole body starts shaking like I’m on the last spin cycle. I know this because one time, when we were writing Poor Artists, I was so desperate to get the book finished that I had a large mocha in a beer stein in a cafe on the south coast of Ireland and thought I was going to die. I get away with matcha’s slow burn though. Matcha has done more for me than the NHS. Two separate friends got me the matcha selection box from Bird & Blend Tea for Christmas which features a flavour called Super Matcha. It tastes like blueberry and açai, and it makes me feel like I’m on 100% battery for approximately 25 minutes. I think I finally know what it’s like to have an espresso.
☞ THE TWIRL JUMPER — JOSEFINE DYRING: I’m about to hit two years knitting. I’ve knit a lot of shit I would never wear. It’s either jumpers with waistbands that just don’t fit right, sticking out like hoop skirts. Or knits that are too tight. Gross. Makes me feel like a small dog trapped in the stupid little outfit their owner has put them in. But I recently saw a pattern for the Twirl Jumper by Copenhagen-based designer Josefine Drying which features two slits down the sides instead of a joined-up waistband. The slits end with crocheted twirls that can be tied together. 9mm. Airy, light. I’m on my second one already. I am a free animal at last.
☞ TRANSPARENT BAGS OFF VINTED: I don’t remember how this started. Maybe it was the Atomic Purple edition of the Game Boy Colour, and being able to see the circuit boards through the plastic. Maybe it was growing up in a world where everything good and fair and stable was kept a secret by the rich. Maybe it was being a backpack girl for so long and getting sick of digging for that one thing inside. But I love searching for transparent bags on Vinted. Clear plastic, coloured plastic. I alternate between a Hello Kitty x Donsmoke handbag with a white border and a neon green nana-nana shoulder bag. I searched all the way to the end one day and then dreamt I went to Amsterdam to look for transparent bags in second-hand shops. I will only pay a few pounds. Nothing mad here. It’s just nice being able to see exactly what it is my bag at any given time, and also to confirm that I am honest. Like, I really am.
ZM:
☞ EXCALIBUR (1981): I love medieval times. I love camp cult classics and cinematic works that are just actually FLIGHTS OF FANCY. This is my favourite film. It’s just a juicy 80s retelling of the legend of King Arthur but the special effects are so garish and the costumes are so secretly anti-fashion fashion and there’s so much atmospheric mist. There are weird dream sequences every 10 minutes and Merlin shouts and yells — he is like a mysterious mischievous trickster rather than a sombre powerful wizard. also, randomly this film has a rly starstudded cast full of like Shakespearean classical gravitas: Helen Mirren, Patrick Stewart, e t c. They’re all ACTING (TM) and it’s ridiculous, so good. Beautiful, visually stunning, what a way to indulge my Medieval fascination.
☞ LOTE // SHOLA VON REINHOLD: I read this last year and haven’t stopped thinking about it. I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever read. I was genuinely sad when I finished it because I am a full on FAN of the actual world shola von Reinhold built within this book. Gorgeous, beautiful, clever, critical, and fucking FUNNY. i want to go to Dun on a pilgrimage, drink the bizarre whacky fizzy drinks, I want hermia to be real but I don’t want to google her to check because if she’s not I will be genuinely DEVASTATED. Transfixions is such a apt way of describing how artistic imagination works, how you can zone in on an area of interest and feel it take over your entire mind. Like a crush, like an obsession, and ultimately LOTE is a really beautiful and compelling TREATISE on the importance and centrality of beauty, imagination, opulence and extravagance — taste!!! This book is about, amongst so many other things, TASTE. I think it is a work of genius, and if you haven’t read LOTE yet, I cannot recommend it enough.
☞ BITS & BOBS IN MY BAG:
OYSTER CARD: I think TfL are thieves, whenever I use my contactless on tube I think they just deduct random amounts — whatever they think they can get away with. It’s demoralising. I have an actual old skl Oyster card and I top up at the machine like it’s the 2010s. If we all did this, we’d be a proper country again. Contactless payments are ruining society.
CLASSIC CARMEX IN THE LITTLE METAL POT: as a lip balm connoisseur, this is as good as it gets for lip moisture. You can fuck about with summer Fridays, glossier balm dot com, rhode, la neige, whatever. I always come back 2 Carmex. My ride or die. I will always love you xoxo
BRIGHT SPEARMINT VELO (2DOT): quit smoking last year (and I stg I think about how much I miss smoking every day since) but frankly my nicotine addiction is an immutable part of me. I am 30, I don’t have the brain plasticity to change. So I turn 2 snus. This is the best flavour and 2dots means it’s not too strong. Once tried a 4dot extra strength one and nearly shat myself in public, came out in full body sweats, felt like my skin was singing to me. 2dots it is then.
LOOP EARPLUGS: There is not a single quiet room in London. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t sleep if I’m not within earshot of a main road. But I am at an age where I just want some fucking peace and quiet. I bought these noise cancelling loop earphones off a tiktok ad and now I wear them EVERYWHERE. No one can chat 2 me. I am un-chat-to-able. I fucking love it hahahahaha
BLUSH BLINDNESS: literally 3 times already this year, someone has said to me ‘are you ok? You’re like, really pink in the face, is everything ok, dyou need a sit down?’ And it is only February. Hahahahaha. I am well, I just wear too much blush. AND I LOVE IT! I look so cute. Like a woodland creature. Like a Disney cartoon version of myself. Ha ha ha ha!
BYREDO YOUNG ROSE: recently swindled my bf into buying me this for xmas. New perfume!!! Wooooo! It smells so fizzy and citrusy, youthful and exuberant rather than old-lady-rose — I feel genuine joy every time I smell it on myself or on my clothes. I heartily recommend going into a department store and huffing a lungful of this, if that’s ur vibe.
ART KEYRINGS: I wish I had art-buying money, but I don’t. Some artists have little mini-art available to purchase, and doing these mini-transactions is satisfying for me because: a) I get to buy some art, b) I get to indulge my enjoyment of Bits and Bobs (nicknacks etc!) I recently bought a lucky fish keyring from Natasha Loydell. The original lucky wish fish is massive and natasha’s just shrunk it down so it’s keychainable and — it is so lovely to have it on my keys, to handle it every time I go in and out my front door, to interface with some actual art in such a casual way. I love it. That’d be my lucky fish wish: more art MERCH possibilities. If a painting is really good, I want it on a t-shirt, I want to wear it and carry it and embody my enjoyment of it on my literal person.
☞ CALL FOR RECOMMENDATIONS:
If you have recommendations for us based on our recommendations for you, we want 2 hear them. So, tl;dr.
Pls let us know if you have reccos for:
> fun knitting patterns
> good matcha places
> medieval films/media
> art merch
> j as special extra — ZM runs an instagram account called HORSE where she documents horses making appearances in art. Pls lmk if u have a fav horse painting to sling on there.
♪ LISTENING TO: Nymphet Alumni, a podcast about fashion and culture, brought to you by 3 ‘former nymphets’: Biz Sherbert, Sam Cummins, and Alexi Alario. They’re kinda fundamentally fashion people who chat through the semiotics and theory around fashion, trends and visual culture. Sometimes they interview interesting people, but honestly even just listening to them chat shit and riff through cultural bits and bobs with each other is FASCINATING to me — they are clever, interesting and cool. they blend hi and low, centre and periphery, the solid and the ephemeral or the abstract into an insane analysis that always feels surprising and insightful. I almost like this podcast against my will, despite myself. I tune in and always come away with an interesting new way to think about things because the magic is not in what they’re thinking about, but in HOW they are thinking about things. Culture! God, I actually love them!
☠ HATES:
ponytail headaches
people who randomly stop/stand in the middle of the pavement
tiktok shop ads
manspreaders
new balance
cyclists who run red lights when ur trying to CROSS THE ROAD
the government
landlords
art's inevitable part in the gentrification cycle
the feeling of having dry skin
when you buy a boxy/oversized tshirt and it's like weirdly long, like it comes down to ur mid thigh. why is this tshirt actually a TUNIC?
the military industrial complex
the smell of green vegetables when theyre cooking
crosswords
the king
when ur glasses make the bridge of ur nose all sweaty and red
leather leggings
those stupid rick owens shoes that look like converse but worse actually -- theyre soooooo dead
when you have too much stuff and your tote bag is so heavy and sliding down ur shoulder -- i would literally prefer death in that moment. i am literally dying.
white wine
accidentally biting the inside of ur cheek
slow internet
smelling someone else's fart on public transport
when you find a weird little scab in your hair -- WHERE DID YOU COME FROM???
now i think about it, i am literally annoyed/angry all the time. i hate most things it seems.
Thanks Zarina and Gabrielle! Follow The White Pube here! Check out their website here! Buy their book here!
Subscribe to our Spotify mixtape, a playlist comprised of the tunes our contributors have been listening to.