Recommended Reading #5: Delusions, Delight, and the Death of Punk
Recommendations, musings, and your next weekend's recommended reading, lovingly curated by Aida Baghernejad.
Hallo and Hello dear reader,
I don’t know why, but today I suddenly started wondering if a newsletter is just a very lazy version of a zine. It’s got very little of the diy-charm of a zine, yet all of the self-righteousness of self-publishing, fuelled with the belief that the world needs to hear my takes.
Well, talking about minor (or major) delusion segues well into the topics of this week’s newsletter, as we’re taking a look at one of the most iconic filoms of all time, a meditation on how delulu the human mind can be, and one of my forever favourites (which you probably always intended to watch but never did) and I’ll also share the new insane personal essay of the hour, a work of sublime cuckoo-ness.
But before we dive in, I’d like to say hello to all the new readers, welcome to the inner workings of my mind, and welcome back to all of you who’ve been along on this ride for a while!
My third week at the Thomas Mann House in Pacific Palisades comes to an end, and I’m slowly getting the hang of things over here – I’m even driving again after well over ten years of being too terrified to sit behind the wheel! But there’s plenty of other stuff to be terrified of here, such as actual rattle snakes on our daily hiking route, or the first wildfires of the season. Well, I suppose that’s the price to pay to live in paradise, isn’t it? My first event is coming up today (more about that later), and we’re planning lots of other exciting things that I can’t wait to tell you more about soon hopefully!
But back to this newsletter: for those who are new, we’ve got some ground rules: don’t feel bad about not catching up on all the stuff I’m posting here. You have my *explicit permission* to simply skim this email until you find something that speaks to you. Having a bad conscience is the only taboo we do in this newsletter. Okay? Cool!
Report: Spreadsheets, but make it competitive
Did you know that some people have turned Excel, yes, the Microsoft programme you and I and everyone else really hates, but also absolutely cannot live without, into a competitive sport? Yes, I couldn’t believe it either, until I read David Pierce’s report on competitive spreadsheet-ing over at The Verge: Spreadsheet Superstars. I love how the Pierce’s writing also mimics the tension and frantic energy of a tournament – even though it may or may not have given me major anxiety, just thinking about all the spreadsheets I’ve dealt with in my life…
I wouldn’t do right by you if I didn’t share the unhinged personal essay of the moment with you, this time published by GQ: I Finally Befriended My Idol Tavi Gevinson. Would It Fall Apart Over Taylor Swift? I can’t even tell you what it’s about, but it’s truly bizarre, and I feel sorry for Gevinson – but at least this essay alerted me of her new zine Fan Fiction. I guess that’s something?
“New article by Xochitl” – that’s a text message I’m excited to wake up to. Thank you, Elina! Xochitl Gonzalez, author of the novel book “Olga Dies Dreaming” I recommended in the first issue of Recommended Reading, has written a new essay for The Atlantic: The Schools That Are No Longer Teaching Kids to Read Books.
An investigation into the fate of John Lennon’s watch at The New Yorker? May sound boring – but it’s actually quite the true crime story, involving broken (and mended) hearts, grief, betrayal, luxury watchmaking, and dodgy German start-ups trying to skirt the law: The Strange Journey of John Lennon’s Stolen Patek Philippe Watch.
Art: Heroes, villains, and what makes us human
I’m so glad I caught the Paul Pfeiffer exhibition Prologue to the Story of the Birth of Freedom at LA’s Museum of Contemporary Art on its last day. I wasn’t familiar with Pfeiffer’s work before, and now have a lot to catch up! Using various techniques and disciplines from sculpture to video art, photography, or performance, he interrogates contemporary celebrity culture, our need for spectacle, questions of identity, belonging, and what makes us human within it all. I mean, obviously I would be really into it. The video won’t do the exhibition any justice, of course, but give you a little glimpse into his work – and I promise you: it’s worth it.
Film: I’m ready for my close-up
“I am big. It’s the pictures that got small” – has there ever been a better line in a film than this one? I’m not sure. A few days ago I suggested to my housemates to watch Billy Wilder’s Sunset Boulevard together as they hadn’t seen it yet. We’re living just above this legendary street, after all, and Billy Wilder and Thomas Mann were part of the same circles here in Los Angeles. And while there is no proof that Wilder was a guest at the Mann residence, I’d like to imagine that he might have sat in the very same living room I’m currently sitting in, writing to you.
But the film! Sunset Boulevard is probably on your forever to-watch-list, and maybe you haven’t got around watching it yet. I feel you – so little time, so much to see. But this one should shoot all the way up on top of your list right now (also, you may find it very easily to watch for free on the internet, just saying)! It’s one of the most iconic film noirs, but also so much more than that: it’s very funny, it’s famously one of the best films about filmmaking, a commentary on Hollywood, its stars and sycophants, and its treatment of artists as expendable products with an expiration date.
Joe Gillis, an unsuccessful screen writer, ends up dead in Norma Desmond’s swimming pool. She was a great star of the silent movie era and now lives in a sprawling mansion, almost forgotten, her only company her butler Max. What led Gillis to his untimely demise, and what was his relationship to Desmond? Well, that’s the mystery that’s slowly unravelling over two hours but as I’ve written above – there’s so much more to it than you’d expect. And it’s just so well done – the layered narrative, the disturbing, yet laugh-out-funny script, the killer dialogue that’s unparalleled to this day, the meticulous camera work and editing. It’s everything last year’s Babylon wanted, but failed to be.
It was a joy to see my housemates being fully encaptured by the suspense of it all! Despite being made 75 years ago (!), it’ll still suck you into its world. And while I normally would tell you that no film should run over 90 minutes, this one is one of the few exceptions to my rule with a total runtime of 115 minutes. I mean, who am I to disagree with Billy Wilder, right?
Music: Punk’s finally dead
Listen, I’ve never much listened to NOFX, but I’ve still looked into getting tickets for their last show ever at the end of August in LA. I mean, it’s sort of a historical moment in music history, I guess? But with tickets for 225$ and VIP packages, maybe it’s time for punk to die for good. Or at least: this iteration of punk. But still, I’ve enjoyed reading this profile of the band and their decision to end their career for good in the NYT: Can You Retire if You Never Had a Job? NOFX Will Try (Giftlink). They promise they won’t pull a Kiss, Grateful Dead or Genesis/Phil Collins, and will really, really retire. I’ll believe it when I see it – and listen to my favourite NOFX song in the meantime:
The thing about punk is: it’s always dying, yet never really dead. Case in point: the new record of one of my favourite current punk bands, Die Verlierer, Notausgang. Simple, chaotic, angry fun (and the occasional pensive moment like Stacheldraht). All I need, honestly.
I haven’t listened to a lot of new music in the past two weeks – partly because I didn’t want to listen to much besides Charli xcx’s brat (and, ok, the Challengers soundtrack – I just can’t stop!), partly because I’m really enjoying driving across Los Angeles and listening to the greatest of all radio stations, KCRW, and partly because I was preparing my event later today Music of Exile: Memory and Transformation in the Work of German and Iranian Composers and listened to a lot of Hanns Eisler for it. But there was one song that cut through all the noise: Sensibel by the German rap crew K.I.Z. If you’re German and haven’t listened to it yet, what are you waiting for? And if you don’t speak German, let me tell you: it’s worth to turn to your favourite translation service for this one. Also, the album Görlitzer Park is out in the wild today, and while I was kind of over their shtick, this one may bring me back into their fold.
Can I ever resist a press picture that’s shot at my favourite place on Earth, the Barbican? No. Can I ever resist Kit Sebastian? Also no. The London-based Anadolu rock/Tropicalia/60s Pop-duo was the first band we saw at out first trip to the wonderful Enjoy Jazz festival in Heidelberg. And we fell in love immediately. They’ve recently signed with Brainfeeder, an LA-based label with impeccable taste (which tends to correspond with mine, or rather: has shaped my taste tremendously over the years), and released the song Faust, unsurprisingly, a Faustian story about ambition, greed, and its pitfalls. It’s delightful!
Some current work by Yours Truly:
Electronic Beats recently asked me to write an essay on the Sugababes – how could I possibly have said no? I clearly remember when Overload, their first single was released, and how the song gripped me then. And I kind of never stopped listening to it? It’s aged so well over the more than two decades since its initial release. After a very turbulent decade with constantly changing personnel, they broke up – but now they’ve reformed, and fought for the right to use their original name. Writing this essay was not only a trip down memory lane for me, but also a look into some of the particularly toxic depths of the music industry’s treatment of (very) young women: The triumphant return – how the Sugababes reclaim their legacy
My new column over at Musikexpress deals with Thomas Mann (ofc) and how he didn’t want to return to Germany, what we’ll lose if and when the extreme right wins, and why it’s important to feel community with fellow humans – and not let ourselves be frozen from fear facing the challenges ahead: HearMEOut:Don’t let these fools freeze you up (GER)
This is it for this week’s Recommended Reading! Send me some feedback, if you feel like it, leave a like on Substack, let me know if you ended up reading or watching anything I posted here, and feel free to send the newsletter to friends and foes who might enjoy it, ok? Cool! If you really, really liked this newsletter, you can also buy me a coffee here (or IRL!).
Speak soon
Aida