The Sunday dozen
John Wyver writes: As usual on a Sunday, here is a selection of media that has engaged and informed me, and enriched my life in small ways, from the past seven days. The header image is a remarkable painting by Ugo Egonu, Piccadilly Circus, 1969, an artist whose work I didn’t know, but which I was very taken by in the Nigerian Modernism exhibition (until 10 May) at Tate Modern. And to kick off the selection…
• Bruce speaks truth to power: ‘This is happening now’ at The Forum in Los Angeles, 7 April.
• Object of the week: Modernist brochure for the Film Society revealing its historic first 100 screenings: the BFI’s Bryony Dixon on the beautiful brochure designed in 1938 by celebrated graphic artist Edward McKnight Kauffer to commemorate the 100th screening of the influential Film Society.
• In Cinematic Immunity the greatest drama is off-screen: Richard Brody is one of my favourite writers on film, and indeed on books about film, as here for The New Yorker [£; limited free access], in a response to Michael Lee Nirenberg’s oral history of classic New York filmmaking.
• Will the real Jia Zhangke please stand up?: for LA Review of Books, Michael Berry tries to make sense of the perplexing video below; as Berry writes:
There is a certain perversity about a director whose films have consistently interrogated themes like labor rights and environmental devastation seemingly going all in on AI. For those primarily familiar with Jia Zhangke as a well-known art-house auteur, the video may simply scan as a stunt. But considered within the arc of Jia’s multifaceted career, these contradictions begin to come into focus, revealing their own uncanny logic.
• ‘I’m so glad they kept my acne in’: how a sparse, electrifying drama is reimagining a classic love story: Zoe Williams’ Guardian feature will really make you want to watch Mint, premiering on 20 April on BBC1 and iPlayer.
• The Pitt vs its fandom: so interesting from Nina Watches Everything, including this quote from cast member and ER veteran Noah Wyle:
I think audiences have become sophisticated in a whole new way when they watch a show. They’re watching the show that we’re making, and then they have another show that they’re making. And when that show doesn’t align with the show you are making, they don’t like it as much because they thought you were taking it where they’re taking it. So they have their own fictions and offshoots and relationships that they are narrating in real time with the one we’re doing. It’s fascinating to watch.
• My 5 favourite places for art in London: for The New York Times [gift link], Jason Farago shares
• Origin Story: The General Strike of 1926 – The Revolution That Wasn’t: ahead of the imminent centenary, an immensely entertaining and informative edition of the Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey podcast.
• ‘To share is our duty’: I really enjoyed the elegance of Hermione Lee’s writing for New York Review of Books [£; limited free access] on the recent publication of some 1,400 previously uncollected missives by the peerless letter-writer Virginia Woolf.
• How Artemis II’s Earthset photo compares with the iconic Earthrise image from 1968: very good for The Conversation from Robert Poole, Professor of History, University of Lancashire.
• When virality is the message: the new age of AI propaganda: thoughtful and insightful from Renée DiResta for Time:
As propaganda theorist Jacques Ellul argued in the early 1960s, propaganda evolves with the communication systems that carry it. In a social media environment shaped by algorithms, virality, and now generative AI, propaganda increasingly takes the form not of doctrine, nor even of messaging optimized to persuade, but as content made to travel.
• Sam Altman may control our future – can he be trusted?: absolutely remarkable reporting by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz for The New Yorker [£; limited free access].
• The road signs that teach travellers about France: I’ve noticed these signposts so often when driving through France, and so it was delight to read about their background.
• And finally…: an oldie but goodie – John Cage, 4′ 33” Death Metal Cover by Dead Territory:
Wrong link for ‘The Pitt Vs Its Fandom’.
Thanks, Billy – corrected now, and it is such an interesting piece.