Welcome to Top Shelf, Low Brow

Top Shelf, Low Brow is newsletter that celebrates the spectrum of pop culture—Arthouse to Housewives—from me, Coleman Spilde, a former staff critic at The Daily Beast whose work as appeared in Vulture, Slate, Taste, and all over the web.

So what is Top Shelf, Low Brow?

I’ve always had a remarkable head for tucking away facts and happenings that others have brushed past or forgotten. So, as I work on filling in the infinite puzzle of pop culture, I simply must share the best (and the best of the worst) with you while mining my endless archives to bring you things that maybe you don’t know about, forgot about, or may want to see in a different light. From the Top Shelf art to the Low-Brow culture, I want to experience all the beautiful, stupid, insane, and inexplicable things we love together through essays, reviews, lists, recommendations, curation, featured guests, absurd fancams, and maybe even a podcast if I’m feeling particularly unstable.

This is where you’ll get a three-part retrospective of Fergie’s most bonkers career moments; a ranking of Lady Gaga’s most Italian moments throughout her career on a scale of 1-10 meatballs; a comprehensive timeline of Dua Lipa’s pandemic travels; speculative essays on things like the night Lady Gaga, Lindsay Lohan, and Ellen Von Unwerth all partied together in a room at the Chateau Marmont; a retrospective gallery of Serena’s worst outfits on Gossip Girl and a collection of the show’s five most bonkers product placement moments; A defense of the critically-reviled flop I Know Who Killed Me; A revisit to Jennifer Lopez’s abandoned alter ego, Lola, who somehow managed to spawn a #1 single, and so, so much more. 

How it works:

In its 2024 relaunch, Top Shelf, Low Brow is expanding into four different verticals. There’s “The Review,” a closer look at movies, music, and television. I’m extremely passionate about media reviews, which are of grave importance in the realm of culture, and are being hindered by critics whose bite has been dulled in fear of angering stans and/or studios, as well as influencers who are paid to promote whatever they’re hocking. You won’t find anything but honest, reasoned, and sharp opinions in “The Review,” and I hope you’ll enjoy diving deeper into things you love, hate, or think you may not have a taste for either way. Reading criticism you don’t agree with is one of the best ways to tune your perspective when approaching culture, so I hope you’ll read even when our views might not align.

There’s also “The Blog,” and “The Journal.” The former will be a casual smattering of humor and takes on something in pop culture, while the latter will be an update from me about what’s going on in my life, the media and journalism industries, eBay obsessions, recipes I’ve become fixated on, musings off a 10mg edible, etc. It’ll be a little scrapbook (and a good excuse for us to stay acquainted even in months like August, when the zeitgeist slows down to a low hum). And, of course, there’s the titular edition that readers fell in love with, where the past week’s pop culture is rated from “Top Shelf” to “Low Brow.” These editions appear less frequently, but they’re long and a ton of fun—perfect for your weekend reading.

Why subscribe?

You’ll warm my heart? Lift my spirit? Isn’t that enough? Well, if not, I am confident that you will love the criticism and laugh at the pop culture breakdowns. Plus, each post will be sent directly to your inbox with no extra effort (although I am not responsible for the YouTube holes you fall into from external links).

I love you 💖

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