This week, Daysia dishes on her ongoing love affair with Little Mix and Hannah comes to the realization that Twilight is the root of her obsession with learning about how movies are made. Plus, Lorde celebrates a milestone! Happy reads!

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Daysia and Hannah

This Week's Fixations

What’s taking up our brain space this week?

Daysia: I think one of the biggest revelations I’ve had in the past six months is that I just love Little Mix! Call me a Mixer!

Back in December, I wrote a “Breakups that Broke Us” column on Zayn Malik and Perrie Edwards’ relationship and subsequent split. It instilled a very specific sense of nostalgia for my 2012-2014 Tumblr days, of which Little Mix played an important part (“Wings,” anyone?). That nostalgia brought me to Little Mix’s latest album Confetti, which I absolutely love, then to the rest of Little Mix’s recent catalogue that I, unfortunately, have slept on for far too long (“Wasabi”… “Touch”... “Woman’s World:… the BRITNEY influence in “If You Want My Love”... iconic). Of course, I started my Little Mix revival kick right as Jesy Nelson left the group, kicking off a new era of LM as a trio. It’s been really strange to hear their iconic harmonies sans-Nelson, but they sound as wonderful as ever.

It seems like Little Mix is having a bit of a moment right now despite Nelson’s departure. They just became the first-ever female group to win “Best British Group” at the BRIT awards on Tuesday, gave a shout out to Nelson, and dedicated it to all the girl groups who were robbed of the award before (including the SPICE GIRLS?!). It was a beautiful moment, not to mention Edwards and Leigh-Anne Pinnock debuting their baby bumps on the red carpet!!! These pop girlies are so so special, and I don’t think they’ll be stopping any time soon (at least I hope!).

It’s even better, despite rumors that Nelson and the rest of LM are on bad terms, that Nelson celebrated Edwards, Pinnock, and Jade Thirlwall’s win on her Instagram story. I found it very touching, and I’m honestly intrigued with what Nelson’s next project will be.

In other BRITs-related news, did Rina Sawayama give us some intel on the Chromatica remix album??? She may or may not be on the Free Woman remix:

AND THEN Charli XCX, in addition to obsessing over Sawayama’s gorgeous BRITS look, spilled that the two of them are possibly making their own song together??? And that Charli is working on the 911 remix??? We are going to have a blessed summer if this is all TRUE.

Hannah: This week I’m thinking about how Twilight (the movie) might be responsible for how much I care about movies and how they get made. Like millions of other people, I was swept up in the hysteria of Twilight (proud member of Team Jacob, pre-imprinting on Renesmee, of course). Not only did I read and watch Twilight multiple times, but I also had the soundtrack which I listened to repeatedly on my iPod Nano. You can say a lot about Twilight but objectively the soundtrack is filled with bangers. I still listen to it all the time.

In addition to owning all the books, I also am the proud owner of Twilight: Director’s Notebook by Catherine Hardwicke, the director of the 2008 film. It’s a great behind-the-scenes look at how Twilight was made from start to finish. Since it’s meant to replicate Harwicke’s actual notebook, it includes replicas of notes and sketches. This book was the basis of me discovering what a lot of the job titles in the credits entailed (for a hot minute, I really wanted to be a location scout). Reading about how Twilight was made gave me a greater appreciation for the film and how much work goes into making movies. I think a lot of people forget or don’t realize that Twilight was made with a pretty modest budget (around $37 million—compare that to the roughly $125 million budget for the first Harry Potter film) and Hardwicke spends time in the book discussing how decisions are made based on the budget. Also, I would like to point out that after Hardwicke there were no other female directors for the following films, and to me personally, that’s interesting since I feel like Twilight is the best film. Really makes you think!

Has Lorde Dropped a new album?

No… but “Royals” has officially surpassed 1 billion streams!

In the meantime, listen to Olivia Rodrigo’s angsty guitar-heavy breakup anthem, “good 4 u.”

Too Many Tabs

InStyle’s Peyton Dix talked to Ziwe about her new show and how its evolved since her infamous Instagram Live sessions last year.

Rebecca Alter wrote about online video as the editor’s medium for Vulture’s “Editing Made The Video Star” series.

Jamie Fisher spoke to Nicholas Britell about his work as a composer, his process, and his career journey for the New York Times Magazine.

For Passion of the Weiss, Donald Morrison examined 1,300 pages of documents in an attempt to figure out legendary Bay Area rapper Mac Dre’s unsolved murder.

Plus… a conversation with Alison Bechdel, Bennifer vacation, Seth Rogen finally dumped James Franco, Mj Rodriguez is gonna be in a Maya Rudolph comedy!, Renée Elise Goldsberry on Girls5eva, there’s going to be a US version of Eurovision, and the “good 4 u” music video is an homage to some iconic pop culture.