Recommended Reading #2: From Curb to Chaos
Recommendations, musings, and your next weekend's recommended reading, lovingly curated by Aida Baghernejad.
Hi and Hallo dear reader,
not gonna lie, I had an emotional one after I received feedback from so many of you. You seem to have really liked the first issue?? I couldn’t be more grateful, honestly. And hello and welcome to everyone who’s signed up since! Take a seat, have a cup of tea, good to have you here.
This week, I’m diving into a few rather depressing topics (the destruction of Britain in general and my alma mater in particular, the use of AI in war, the emptiness of contemporary pop music), but also into the beauty that was Curb Your Enthusiasm, great new music (some by friends of ours!), a film that brought me joy, the political force of friendship, and more.
I feel like I should issue a warning, or rather, a user manual: don’t feel bad about not catching up on all the stuff I’m posting here. I’m giving you the gist and/or my take on it, so you don’t necessarily have to read it, and I give you the *explicit permission* to simply skim this email until you find something that speaks to you. We don’t do a bad conscience over here, alright? And now, let’s go!
TV: Goodbye Larry
After twelve seasons and 24 years, Curb Your Enthusiasm (Lass es, Larry in German, ugh) has come to its end on April 7th. I’m going to be honest with you: at first, I hated it. The tv show created and starred by Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld, was just too cringe for me to bear when I tried watching it for the first time about ten years ago. But the older I got, the more I grew fond of the follies of Larry. Maybe because at the heart of it, it’s a show about morality, honesty, and loving your neighbour despite their (and your own) shortcomings. Also, it’s just extremely funny, in an utterly unique way. It’s probably the most unique show that has ever existed? Anyway, read (or listen to!) this heartfelt homage to Curb Your Enthusiasm in the NYT by the great Wesley Morris. Morris really captures the essence of the show as a meditation on manners and the human condition, and yes, also writes about the show’s legendary score. I have also really enjoyed listening to this supercut of interviews with the ensemble on NPR’s legendary radio show Fresh Air. If you prefer to read something in German (and considerably shorter), then run, don’t walk, to Marie Serah Ebcinoglu’s love letter to Curb for the FAS (GER).
Music: Killing sacred cows
I honestly don’t quite know what to tell you about the essay Dance Dance Revolution? Shilling utopia at the rave, except for: do read it if you find the time. Published by the literary magazine The Baffler, this essay by Hubert Adjei-Kontoh is a part anti-capitalist, part anti identity politics takedown of some of the current music discourse’s most central discussions. While there is certainly a lot I agree with, particularly his anti-capitalist critique of Beyoncé or Jeff Mills for example, I do mostly disagree with his quite bleak and fundamentally nihilistic view on attempts to create a more equitable music scape. Either way, it’s an exhilarating read, and if you care about music in general and rave culture in particular, or if you’re simply into clever, provocative contemporary cultural critique, this is for you.
More Music (actually, quite a lot):
Our friend Jane Penny, singer of the great band Tops, has released her solo debut EP Surfacing last Friday! Jane is an exceptional vocalist and songwriter, and her solo work marries lightness, mystery and melancholy to irresistible pop tunes – I’m also obsessed with the music videos:
Nichtseattle’s last record Kommunistenlibido was a crowd favourite, deservedly. Its follow-up Haus is released today, and having written about it for tipBerlin, I may like it even more? Even if you don’t speak German, I urge you to listen to her minimalist, yet expansive songs with nods to Patti Smith, Grunge and PJ Harvey. And if you do speak German, let’s cry to Krümel noch da (Tagescafé) together.
The Canadian punks Metz have for long been a band I appreciated, but listened to way too little. But their new record Up On Gravity Hill, out today, feels apt for these times with its sheer rawness and beautiful harmonies buried in noise. And do I detect a tiny bit of hope amongst the ruins of distortion?
In the last newsletter I forgot to tell you about Empress Of’s new, fourth record For Your Consideration! If you’re into clever, glittery pop that doesn’t just imitate the 2000s Golden Age of Pop, but builds upon it, listen to all the songs (I’m quite partial to the rave-y yet sensual Lorelei)
Ever wanted to see superstar artist Ólafur Elíasson dancing? Peggy Gou’s single 1+1=11 is your chance. It’s basically Berlin catnip: two of the city’s most well-known expat artists – belonging to a bubble that’s seemingly removed from the realities of the city – collaborate. But while Gou’s previous release, a feature with Lenny Kravitz, was a mess, this one simply interpolates familiar 80’s and 90’s rave harmonies which never hurts
I watched Remi Wolf earlier today in a particularly unhinged episode of my fav insta/tiktok series Subway Takes, which reminded me of the utterly joyful music video for Cinderella she released a few days ago
Lastly: music has become more simple, more repetitive, more angry and more self-obsessed – what? Yeah, those are the results of a research project that’s been published widely recently. It’s linked to a change in listening habits, but also music production – and come on, the past few decades have been mostly infuriating, haven’t they? Thanks Lena for suggesting this one!
Essay: How to self-destruct as a country
As those of you who know me personally know, I spent a formative part of my twenties in London, and I still have a huge soft spot for the UK. So obviously, I had to read Sam Wright’s recent New Yorker piece What Have Fourteen Years of Conservative Rule Done to Britain? Beware, it’s a long one, but it’s definitely a very recommended read: Wright’s analysis of how these fourteen years shaped the country hints to similar developments all over the world.
One of the early key sentences really stuck with me: “[…] the Conservatives have not survived by default. Their party has excelled at diminishing Britain’s political landscape and shrinking the sense of what is possible.” Reactionary and illiberal forces all over the world seek to shrink the space for envisioning a country, society, or world that could be better than any status quo. Might protecting our ability to dream up utopian futurescapes be an elemental political act? It sure seems so to me.
I also recently read this piece by my dear friend Angela McRobbie (who once upon a time supervised my MA thesis!) for Verso on how about 130 full time academic positions are to be cut at Goldsmiths College. It made me think about how arts, humanities and social sciences are often described as “worthless” in contrast to STEM (MINT in Germany) degrees, across all countries they often suffer the worst cuts in schools, and prospective uni students are discouraged from pursuing them due to supposedly bad job prospects. Yet, particularly in Britain, leaders themselves still have mostly “read” (in Oxford & Cambridge, you don’t “study”, you “read”…) Classics or PPE (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics). Arts, humanities, and social sciences teach critical thinking first and foremost, and well, who likes critical thinkers, right? Btw, look at this critically thinking little nerd aka me a decade ago at my graduation ceremony:
Oh, on a related note: attacking postcolonial studies is the most recent trend in the culture wars – it’s become a chiffre for, well, everything wrong with the academy and the youth (as per usual), which makes this defence of the discipline by Stefan Ouma from the university of Bayreuth all the more urgent: Kulturkampf gegen „Postkolonialismus“ (GER)
Film: Stepping into the identity trap
Shame upon me: I somehow completely missed American Fiction last year. But well, it’s 2024, so the Oscar nominated (plural) and winning (singular) directorial debut of Cord Jefferson immediately hit the streaming services, and sometime in the last weeks, down from a cold, and feeling like watching something funny without insulting our brains (which honestly I turn to usually…), we got around to it. Based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett, American Fiction tells the story of celebrated yet scarcely read author and academic Thelonious “Monk” Ellison. Frustrated by the success of other Black authors whom he perceives as pandering to a white gaze, Monk writes a satirical, cliché-ridden take on what the mainstream publishing industry sees as “Black literature”. As you can guess, it immediately becomes a smash hit against his will – and the absurdity just accumulates from there.
Unfortunately, despite all its great accolades, American Fiction still suffers from a malaise many a debut suffers from: there is just too much plot stuffed into one single film. It’s a satire of the publishing industry alright, but it also includes what feels like a dozen side plots about the main character’s tumultuous love life, his broken family, each family member’s individual struggle, and ends with a convoluted and confusing twist. If you ask me: what works in a novel doesn’t necessarily all belong in a film adaptation. Others seem to disagree: American Fiction won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (good for you, Cord Jefferson!).
But despite these shortcomings, it’s still a real joy to watch. Jeffrey Wright (who received an Academy Award nomination for his role as the title character) and Issa Rae are superb, and I also really enjoyed the (equally Academy Award nominated) score. But I mean it’s jazz, obviously I’d love it, duh.
Book: Love, rage, and Hollywood
In the past two weeks, I mostly read for work, so I wasn’t sure what to recommend to you this week, dear reader. But then friends kept asking me about my move to LA in a few weeks (OMG), and I kept referencing this one book I read years ago in every one of these conversations: Nathanael West’s Day of the Locust. It’s not a really deep cut, but not as much of an internationally popular classic as, say, Gatsby. Which is a shame! It’s truly, to this very day, one of the best novels ever written about the seedy, sketchy, underbelly of Los Angeles.
It’s the prototypical LA plot: a young, brilliant artist moves to Hollywood, and all his dreams turn into nightmares. Well, I suppose you could tell the same story about Berlin, just replace Hollywood with the club scene, but I digress. Having been written in 1939, it’s not necessarily an easy read per se for us today, but its use of B-movie archetypes as characters, grotesque imagery, and surrealism is truly *hypnotic*. Basically, Day of the Locust is precisely what last year’s film Babylon strived to be and failed at. Fun fact: one of its side characters, a nice, but repressed and socially awkward man from Iowa, inspired Homer Simpson. The more you know!
More Literature:
I’m currently half-way through this massive takedown of (once Berlin-based? Still Berlin-based?) Lauren Oyler’s new essay volume No Judgement in the literature magazine Bookforum, and it’s become a minor scandal in the literary world? Basically, it’s the literature equivalent of the bonkers tradwife article in The Cut I wrote about in the last issue. I quite enjoyed Oyler’s 2021 debut novel Fake Accounts, actually. After this review, I’m even more keen to read the essays, too, if only to compare them to the scathing review (the author even sort of copied Oyler’s abrasive style, kudos)
Investigation: The future we face?
You have probably seen tweets and memes like this around aplenty in the past year or so. Now it’s getting even worse: AI is also taking over the decision to kill. You may have already heard about journalist and filmmaker Yuval Abraham’s investigation ‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza for +972mag, and it’s just as much a harrowing read as you’d expect. There is plenty to say about it and many a smarter person has already commented it. So instead I’m focusing on the question of responsibility, as I believe it transcends the use of such technologies during this particular conflict. If AI makes the decision to kill, who’s bearing the responsibility then? The institution that bought and used the AI? The programmers? Military leaders or Sam Altman at his home in the Silicon Valley? Or the soldier who followed an AI-generated directive? What if there won’t be any humans in the decision making chain at all anymore, eventually?
Some current work by Yours Truly:
In this week’s column for Musikexpress, I wrote about friendship as a political act. What do you think, will friendship save us all? I sure hope so. Which reminds me: this beautiful LA Times piece tells the story of a Palestinian-Israeli friendship between two teenage girls amidst the current war.
I also wrote a review of Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter for Musikexpress. I mean, of course I did, could I possibly call myself a music journo if I didn’t?
This is it for this week’s Recommended Reading! Let me know how you liked it, what you’d like to read in the future, feel free to send hints and recommendations my way, and, if you feel like it, tell your friends and foes about Recommended Reading, maybe?
Speak soon!
Aida