Nights, Fights & Visual Delights
Of night-time contemplation, magazines, bravado, chalk fights and inertia.
A shorter missive today, but first, a request.
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Yet, for some of you this might have meant that you are not receiving this in your email inbox at all! The horror!
So:
If you are reading this as an email, excellent; all good, as you were, please.
If you are not getting this in your inbox but would prefer to, its a pesky little setting in your Substack account. Login to the app or via desktop, and:
Tap your profile icon > Select 'Settings' > Tap 'Notifications' > Choose either 'In email and app' or 'Only in email' to receive emails. That’s all really, but you can read more about it here if you wish.
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And so, on to a few hits of culture and delight.
Milestones.
The Youtube Zoo
Almost twenty years to the day- on April 23, 2005, the first ever video was uploaded to Youtube. It was a riveting 19 second clip of co-founder Jawed Karim's visit to the San Diego Zoo, which included this absolute gem on elephants, “they have really, really long trunks”.
Approximately a year on, the site had in the region of 100 million videos. Two decades have now passed, most humans now over the age of two know Youtube, it has over 5 billion videos, 500+ hours are uploaded every minute, it is incredibly powerful for masses of humanity on every continent, and elephants still have long trunks.
~ · ~
The New Yorker 100.
The New Yorker Magazine celebrated 100 years in February. For many, maybe more so for those not immediately in the zeitgeist of New York/ the USA, the most iconic part of the magazine has been its illustrated covers. Even from a distance, they often manage to be both visually arresting and editorially weighty. This has been a century of aesthetic consistency- and resilience; every cover has been just the single, textless illustration, with no words besides the magazine name, issue date and price.
I even have a New Yorker jigsaw puzzle, which offered some distant summery vibes during the pandemic.
The magazine just released a spot, ‘Everything, Covered’ that takes a brisk stroll through some of the most iconic covers. They chose about 700 from the more than 5000 covers there have been, bringing them together with animation while leaving all otherwise untouched.
More here if you are inclined, and a piece with editor David Remnick about the ‘dedication to literate, conversation-provoking and veracious reportage’.
~ · ~
Inertia Creeps.
In another “This Week That Year’, April 1998 saw Massive Attack release “Mezzanine”. About two years later, I was being mesmerised by the beats in Inertia Creeps and the slightly more optimistic lilt of Teardrop ( with vocals from Elizabeth Fraser of Scottish band Cocteau Twins).
Darker than their previous work, Mezzanine received plenty of critical and popular success. Often named in best albums of the 1990s lists, it remains the group's most commercially successful album.
Inertia Creeps stayed on my (then analog) playlists, was used in video work as a soundtrack, was often referenced, and its title lurked as my personal tag line for a year, or ten.
Friday Finds:
The Brown Dog.
A short film about isolation and the search for human connection. Commissioned by the consistently creative WeTransfer team, and starring Michael K. Williams in his final role, The Brown Dog was executive produced by Steve Buscemi, Idris Elba and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Its sparse but soulful animation draws you in to Nobody’s world, a night time desolation of streets and doors and roads, and a security booth. The words are evocative- indulgent even- and searching for meaning. Yet, it is Michael K William’s voice that really owns this; that texture of understanding with an edge, holding you to the last moment.
Williams, of course, was best known for his portrayal of Omar Little in The Wire. That performance was “so intense, and so specific, that many people imagined that he was an actual Baltimore desperado who had somehow wandered onto the set of a great television show. In fact, Williams was a Brooklyn native.” His death by overdose in 2021 was mourned; his voice was left behind in an old recording of this story, to bring to life thus.
· Directors: Nadia Hallgren & Jamie-James Medina ·
· Design & Animation: Fons Schiedon · Score: Tyshawn Sorey · Writer: Willis Earl Beal ·
for WeTransfer· Holly Fraser ·
~ · ~
Everyone Loves a Fight.
Chalk Fight!!! Please report to class and answer the question, are you having any fun? If not, why not?
Where are all the teachers? Are they playing Wordle? Do you care?
An ad for Battlegrounds Mobile India (hmmm, I have featured them a couple of times now) ; with not a single shot of screens or devices or gameplay. Me like.
The song is ‘Are you having any fun’ by Elaine Stritch, from way back in 1956. Clearly the question of having fun is always relevant.
· Good morning films · Akanksha Seda · Enormous ·
Teenage Bravado
You will invariably find me cheering a bit for a debutant in sport. A bit more, when they’re young. A whole lot more when they are fourteen years old, playing against and with those double their age, icons and dashers.
But nothing prepared me for when Vaibhav Suryavanshi, who barely turned 14 last month, smashed the first ball he faced in the IPL, sending it soaring into the stands to the absolute dazzlement of fans and commentators alike.
For those who have no idea what I’m on about, very quickly- a young teenager made his debut in the biggest, most flashy T20 cricket league, in front of a packed stadium. For his first delivery, he faced someone who has shone for the Indian national side. What did he do for this first moment in the spotlight? Respectfully say hello? Nah!
Sure, the talent is precocious. The innate ability is beyond impressive. But my incredulity came from witnessing the sheer confidence of the boy. Because let’s face it, boy he still is.
The bloody audacity- brilliant.
Masala Peanuts
(where I share stories or tidbits I find interesting).
Read: A fine (and short) perspective on the success of confidence versus competence.
Know: I really enjoyed The Anarchy from William Dalrymple, and often thought how dramatic it was. So I have tried to keep track of how the book adaptation is going. Now, Oscar-nominated director Stephen Frears has been brought on board to direct and executive produce.
Read: Meenakshi Amma is widely thought to be the oldest woman in the world to practise the martial art Kalaripayattu. At 82, she still trains and performs.
"Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome."
_Samuel Johnson