An Easter Sunday dozen
John Wyver writes: Readings and audio that have engaged me over the past week, shared here for the holiday weekend. The header image comes from a new Thames & Hudson ‘World of Art’ title, New Deal Art: Culture and Crisis in the Great Depression by John P. Murphy, which I have recently read and greatly appreciated: John Vachon, ‘Newsstand. Omaha, Nebraska’, 1938, courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.
• NASA’s Artemis 2 pilot Victor Glover listens to ‘Whitey on the Moon’ every Monday. This is why: a timely and delightful story, with an embedded link to the song, by Tariq Malik for Space.com.
• Frankenstein, 1910: Benjamín Schultz-Figueroa this week recommended on Bluesky J. Searle Dawley’s remarkable film, and I’m happy to do the same here:
• How I became a filmmaker: an absorbing tale by Lena Durham for The New Yorker [£; limited free access]
• Why do this spring’s blockbusters feel so smug?: a strong argument by Jesse Hassenger for the Guardian about recent Hollywood films; I’m particularly drawn to this as it sums up my feelings about Project Hail Mary:
There’s even arguably a gentler version of screenwriter comedy smarm on display in the feel-good mega-hit Project Hail Mary, where genius scientist Ryan Gosling communicates with an alien life form primarily through the medium of quippy adorability. Their banter is family-friendlier and more endearing, but the point is similar: to show off the filmmakers’ convention-flouting cleverness.
• How to create an alien: the writer of Project Hail Mary Andy Weir is interviewed by Julien Crockett for LA Review of Books.
• The Luton writer behind the original Airplane!: Paul Hayes with a surprising tale about Flight into Danger, a live drama for Canadian television in 1956 written by Arthur Hailey; then an unknown writer from Luton; this is a BBC News story, with a link to Paul’s complementary audio documentary.
• World of Telly Episode 18: Gangsters: a terrific exchange between Neil Perryman and John Williams about BBC Birmingham’s brilliant and ultimately bonkers late-1970s drama; I have a cameo role in the accompanying Newsletter (usually only available to Patreon subscribers)
• The Epstein marbles: terrific investigative work by Erin L Thompson for the LRB blog linking the paedophile with a Roman marble statue of Hercules and along the way revealing much about the workings of the international antiquaries market.
• Jacob Lawrence and the unfinished business of American equality: an exceptionally fine essay about the painter and contemporary resonances of his works by Michael Lobel for Artforum [£; limited free access], anchored to a recent retrospective in the Netherlands.
• Key Changes: hosted by Gillian Moore, this new BBC audio series is billed as ‘Radio 3’s Essential History of Classical Music’, and certainly it has got off to a great start; strongly recommended.
• The bestselling ‘Take Five’; Jean Seberg in love: Dave Haslam on his blog recounts a delicious tale of the actor and sax player Paul Desmond, stalwart of the Dave Brubeck Quartet.
• David Olusoga and Alan Lester – The Truth About the British Empire: an exceptional podcast conversation from the How to Academy, with the two historians reflecting on ‘on the importance of truth and ethics in the relentless and fraught culture war being fought over Britain’s imperial past’.
• What the university of the future will look like: focussed on the future of HE in the US, but with ideas here for this side of the pond as well; by Steven Mintz for The Chronicle of Higher Education [£; limited free access].
• What Tr*mp is doing to the English language (I added the asterisk): a fascinating close reading of his rhetoric by Sarah Kaufman for The New York Times [gift link].
• And finally…: Joan Baez sings ‘500 Miles’, just because:
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