Weekend Reads (Dec 31): Farewell Pikachu, Barnes & Noble, Mastodon, Public Domain Day
Recommended weekend reading material for December 31, 2022.
Every week, I compile a list of interesting and thought-provoking articles to offer you some enjoyable weekend reading material.
One of the most legendary duos of all time is coming to an end. I am, of course, referring to Pokémon’s Ash Ketchum and Pikachu, who are retiring after 25 years of monster training.
While it is probably a good thing for the Pokémon anime to shake things up after over two decades of following Ash and Pikachu around the world, man, this hurts. Having these two characters be a long-time fixture in Pokémon has made them a touchstone for every fan, young and old. We even saw how much people cared about Ash’s rise to champion when it happened, as fans who had long stopped watching the anime were posting congratulatory statements about how proud they were of the never-aging 10-year-old. But now that he’s a Pokémon master, there’s not much left to do with his story. So maybe now the Pokémon anime can set its sights on new stories that help it explore the world in a new context.
Related: Sarah Natochenny has been the English voice of Ash Ketchum for nearly 17 years. In this interview, she discusses her reaction to the news of Ash’s retirement, her fan interactions, and Pokémon’s legacy.
The popularity of whodunits like Glass Onion, the sequel to 2019’s Knives Out, says something about our cultural views of justice and society.
[T]he murder must take place in a “closed society,” as Auden said: “so that the possibility of an outside murderer (and hence of the society being totally innocent) is excluded.” A literally foreign or personally unknown assassin is a fun story for a high-trust, self-confident cultural moment, particularly in a relatively homogenous or at least harmonious society. But in a time of declining institutional and personal trust, deepening negative partisanship, fear of traitors and invaders lurking among us, golden-age mysteries suit better.
We watched Glass Onion on Christmas Day. The original Knives Out is a classic here at Opus HQ. The sequel… not so much.
The Polygon staff’s epic 2022 recap continues, including this assessment of the year’s best action and fight scenes.
With Hollywood productions reviving old ways of storytelling in new and exciting ways (Top Gun: Maverick, Ambulance), stunning adrenaline-filled projects from around the world (RRR, Thallumaala, Lost Bullet 2), and under-the-radar gems (Accident Man: Hitman’s Holiday, Baby Assassins), there was something for every kind of action fan in 2022.
For what it’s worth, no movie scene that I saw in 2022 made me smile as much as Bheem and Ram’s meeting in RRR.
There was a time when Barnes & Noble’s demise was all but certain. After all, how can a brick-and-mortar chain hope to compete with the likes of Amazon? But since 2019, B&N has experienced a surprising turnaround.
All the cool and up-to-date technologies are in financial trouble. Tesla share price has collapsed. Crypto is in decline. Netflix stock has dropped more than 50% in the last year. Facebook is in freefall. Even TikTok might be in trouble.
But Barnes & Noble is flourishing. After a long decline, the company is profitable and growing again — and last week announced plans to open 30 new stores. In some instances, they are taking over locations where Amazon tried (and failed) to operate bookstores.
Amazon seems invincible. So the idea that Barnes & Noble can succeed where its much larger competitor failed is hard to believe. But the turnaround at B&N is real. In many instances they have already re-opened in locations where they previously shut down.
In the days following Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, Mastodon was floated as a viable alternative, if not the viable alternative. But M.G. Siegler tried out Mastodon and found it wanting.
For now, I’ll just say that while I fully understand why everyone wants Mastodon to be the new Twitter. Or the better Twitter. The more ideal Twitter. Or whatever. It’s just not going to happen. Mastodon brought a protocol to a product fight. Maybe Ivory or another client can iron out some of the product jank, but the protocol element — the power that so many want to believe in — is what is going to keep holding the product element back, would be my prediction.
Via Robert Rackley.
I’m glad to see so many Twitter alternatives sprouting up and making waves. But Siegler hits on an issue that often seems to plague these types of platforms: they feel like engineering solutions that were designed for other engineers. As such, they may be impressive technically, but they often feel brittle and unpolished in terms of UI and UX.
These things, however, aren’t optional or nice-to-haves. Creating a good user experience can’t be an afterthought; it needs to be as much a focus as anything. Touting the superiority of your protocol or platform means nothing if it’s a struggle for people to access, understand, and actually use.
In addition to being the start of the new year, January 1 is also Public Domain Day. That’s when copyrighted works enter the US public domain, meaning they’re free to copy, share, and reuse.
This time around, books, movies, and songs from 1927 will become public domain, including: the final collection of Sherlock Holmes stories, the first Hardy Boys book, and Agatha Christie’s The Big Four; Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, F.W. Murnau’s Sunrise, and William A. Wellman’s Wings (the first movie to win a “Best Picture” Academy Award); and Irving Berlin’s “Puttin’ on the Ritz” and “I Scream, You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream” by Howard Johnson, Billy Moll, and Robert A. King.
By the way, if you’re wondering why there’s a Winnie-the-Pooh horror movie coming out in 2023, it’s because A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain in 2022. Disney no longer holds the exclusive film rights to the character.
From the Blog
The latest edition of my monthly playlist and podcast are now available for paying subscribers. This month, I’m paying tribute to one of my favorite bands of all time — Low — and honoring the memory of Mimi Parker, who lost her battle with ovarian cancer back in November.
Ever since discovering them back in 1995, Low’s music has been a sort of platonic ideal for me; their minimalist, atmospheric songs a constant source of beauty and grace in my life. This month’s playlist — titled “Close and Sacred” — features 25 songs taken from throughout Low’s decades-long discography, from their early “slowcore” roots to the breathtaking experimental arrangements of their last two albums.
This post is available to everyone (so feel free to share it). However, paying subscribers also get access to exclusives including playlists, podcasts, and sneak previews. If you’d like to receive those exclusives — and support my writing on Opus — then become a paid subscriber today for just $5/month or $50/year.