Weekend Reads (Jan 29): “Fight Club,” Neil Young, Super Bowl LVI, Prayer Apps, Studio Ghibli’s Theme Park
Recommended weekend reading material for January 29, 2022.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
Fight Club was released way back in 1999 but it just received a new ending courtesy of Chinese censors leery of the original ending’s anarchistic tone.
It is not clear if the censorship was done by Disney — who currently owns the rights to the film — or by Tencent Video itself, though a source told Vice that the film was edited by the copyright owner before the government approved it. Screenshots of the ending started circulating on Chinese social media over the weekend. China’s censorship policy regularly retools foreign imports to reflect the views of the Communist Party, while Chinese-made films are specifically designed to avoid censorship.
Related: My review of Fight Club, in which I called it “one of the few movies in recent memory where I was forced to look at the concepts and ideas behind the dialog and images.” It’s probably been close to two decades since I last watched the film; I wonder how much I’d still agree with that assessment.
Marvel has mastered the art of the post-credits scene, using them to expand their cinematic universe and tease upcoming projects.
Every Marvel project — especially in its credits scenes — includes references, ranging from subtle to purposely heavy-handed, to the original comic books. It might be a logo (see: the aforementioned Captain Marvel credits scene), or a mysterious object (see: Eternals’ post-credits scene featuring the Ebony Blade), or some unexplained character (see: the Harry Styles cameo). These references come from a six-decade-old archive that’s still being written today. Given the extensive and sometimes loopy nature of comic books, audiences not picking up these references, especially on the first viewing, is a feature, not a bug.
I finally watched Eternals this week, and it might be the most underwhelming MCU movie to date. Which is a shame, because I liked the fact that Marvel was diving even deeper into the cosmic realm with the Celestials. But I was more excited by the Ebony Blade’s post-credits reveal than anything that actually happened with the Eternals themselves.
Rachel Cabitt on the artwork that adorns releases by shoegaze artists like My Bloody Valentine and Slowdive:
This may be an unpopular opinion, and go hand-in-hand with why so many bands hate to be defined within the realm of Dream Pop, but as a genre, Shoegaze might be the most cohesive, sonically and visually. Flip through any bin at a record store, and come across a fuzzy, soft, abstract color bleed of a cover, and the band has most likely pulled inspiration from a combination of psychedelia and ambient rock. But what’s not to like about that? The genre has succesfully created a world for its fans to recognize and get lost in.
There really is a delightful aesthetic cohesion between the abstract visuals on the covers of, say, My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless and Slowdive’s Just For a Day and the swirling, ethereal sounds contained within those same releases.
Warp Records is reissuing several recordings culled from the archives of Broadcast, an electronic pop duo that disbanded in 2011 after lead singer Trish Keenan died from complications with pneumonia.
Due out in March, the material featured on the three releases was originally recorded between 1996 and 2009, and all of it has been remastered for the reissues, which will be available in CD, vinyl and digital editions.
Related: My review of Broadcast’s excellent 2003 album, Haha Sound.
Bandcamp recently announced that their “Bandcamp Friday” program will return on February 4.
It will likely be several months before live performance revenue returns in full. So we’re going to continue doing Bandcamp Fridays in 2022, on February 4th, March 4th, April 1st, and May 6th. As always, isitbandcampfriday.com has the details.
Bandcamp Fridays are a great way to support your favorite artists. Bandcamp waves their usual platform fees on those days, so artists receive 100% of the money spent on their music.
Related: As part of Christ and Pop Culture’s 2020 recap, I explained why Bandcamp Fridays are so special.
Bob Dylan sold his entire recorded music catalog to Sony Entertainment for over $150 million.
“Columbia Records has had a special relationship with Bob Dylan from the beginning of his career and we are tremendously proud and excited to be continuing to grow and evolve our ongoing 60-year partnership,” said Rob Stringer, chair of Sony Music Group, in a statement. “Bob is one of music’s greatest icons and an artist of unrivaled genius.”
Via 1440. Dylan is definitely sitting pretty right now. Back in 2020, he sold his songwriting rights to Universal Music for $300 million.
Dylan isn’t the only artist who’s made a deal like this. Last December, Bruce Springsteen sold his catalog to Sony for a rumored $500 million.
Related: Rolling Stone explains why so many artists are selling rights to their catalogs. Turns out, it’s a mix of tax benefits, personal circumstances, and the impact of streaming.
Neil Young is removing his music from Spotify in protest of Joe Rogan’s podcast, which is hosted by Spotify and has been accused by numerous doctors and scientists of spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
Earlier this week, Neil Young posted an open letter to his website urging his record label and management to scrub his music from Spotify, accusing the platform of “spreading fake information about vaccines” by hosting The Joe Rogan Experience. Now, Spotify has agreed to pull Young’s work from streaming, according to a statement from a Spotify spokesperson.
Though I respect Young’s decision, I frankly didn’t see Spotify siding with him given Rogan’s popularity and the amount of money they’ve invested in his podcast ($100+ million).
Not surprisingly, the news led to widespread announcements on social media from people who were deleting their Spotify accounts. And Young won’t be alone: Joni Mitchell’s removing her music from Spotify, too.
This year’s Super Bowl halftime show promises to be a hip hop extravaganza with performances from Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, and Snoop Dogg — and hundreds of unpaid extras.
Field cast participants — aspiring dancers, actors, singers and musicians recruited from local drill teams as well as theatrical, community and athletic groups — are expected to be grateful for the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, but the situation is causing a stir in the dance community after dance artist and activist Taja Riley posted about it to her 110,000 followers on Instagram. Other performers, including dancer Alyson Stoner and Heather Morris (“Glee”), have since spoken out about it on social media.
Super Bowl LVI will occur on February 13 at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California.
As COVID has reduced in-person church attendance, more and more people are turning to prayer apps for spiritual community and support. And those same apps, and the venture capitalists funding them, are gathering up massive amounts of deeply private information.
It is common for free apps to profit from sharing their users’ data and to be vague about exactly how and with whom they share it, but users feel like Pray.com’s data practices are at odds with the deeply personal nature of prayer itself. Jenny, a recent college graduate who prayed about the infidelity of a romantic partner in the app, said “there is an expectation of privacy” among Christians sharing prayers. Sarah, a mother of three who shared prayers about eviction and divorce, said she would consider it “exploitative,” “manipulative,” and “predatory” if the company used people’s prayers to sell them products.
Never underestimate the human drive to commodify the most private and intimate aspects of existence in order to make a quick buck.
Apple is famous for their classic and innovative product design, but even they make design mistakes every now and then.
[E]very once in a while even Apple gets it wrong, and a tech company's coherent rationale for the way a product should be designed can translate into end-user irritation, or even a customer's personal hell. Here we take a look back at a handful of Apple's most questionable design decisions in recent memory. See if you agree, and let us know in the comments of any other Apple products that you think didn't live up to their billing.
Via The Loop. I have a special hatred for the Apple TV Siri remote. I’ve had my Apple TV for years now, and yet whenever I pick up the remote, I still end up holding it backwards most of the time. It’s easily the most un-intuitive product I’ve ever owned.
And it’s a shame about the 2013 Mac Pro. The current Mac Pro’s “cheese grater” design might be better and make more sense, but it’s just not as cool-looking as that black cylinder.
Finally, let’s end on a more uplifting and delightful note. This November, the official Studio Ghibli theme park will open in Japan’s Aichi prefecture. This promo video highlights some of the park’s attractions (like the Kusakabe house from My Neighbor Totoro) as well as Aichi’s natural beauty.
Via Crunchyroll. Back in 2009, our family spent several weeks in Japan, during which we visited the Ghibli Museum in Tokyo. It was absolutely delightful, as you might expect from Studio Ghibli. But if the above video is any indication, the theme park could be even more so.
We’ve been wanting to return to Japan for years now, and if we ever do, Studio Ghibli’s theme park will be at the top of our “must see” list.
From the Blog
I don’t get to play video games as often I’d like to, but I finally got a chance to play Children of Morta (2019, Dead Mage), a delightful retro-styled RPG.
There’s definitely a nostalgic aspect to Children of Morta thanks to its pixellated design and old school-feeling gameplay. If you’re of a certain age, it might even be tempting to forget that you’re playing on a modern game system in the year of our Lord 2022, and instead, are making your way through the game’s many dungeons on your trusty ol’ Sega Genesis or Super Nintendo.
To its credit, though, Children of Morta doesn’t rely on mere nostalgia to draw you in. It doesn’t have to, not with its rich narrative, fantastical world-building, and most importantly, a colorful cast of characters in the Bergson family.
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