50 Reasons to love 2020
A list of discoveries I made while tethered to my screen. It wasn’t all bad…
CULTURE
Exceptional profile of I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel by E Alex Jung. It's been a while since I have been so attuned to an interviewee – their personality, their struggle, their very being. I'll be reading this again. PS Here’s a great tip from Michaela on how to make others accountable and expose their BS. “She is eager, almost giddy, to say she doesn’t know something (even if she may have an inkling) because of the way it forces someone else to explain it to her. She has discovered that the explanation is where people begin to falter and the fissures of conventional wisdom crack wider. It may be business as usual, but is it right, is it good?
"The proliferation of 'curating' speaks of a generation anxious for authority and authorship, and also for meaning." The irony is that the more we use that word, the less meaning it holds. More in the New York Times.
“My heart – my actual physical heart, nothing figurative here – is running away from me, has become its own separate thing, beating too fast, it’s rhythms at odds with mine. This is an affliction not merely of the spirit but of the body.” Several people have written about grief with startling acuity. Didion, CS Lewis… Now here's Chimamanda Ngozi Achidie in the New Yorker. I mean, the irony of this passage… I couldn't stop nodding. But it's the way she describes her relationship with "daddy" that made me most envious.
The personal accounts in this GQ piece by Ciaran Thapar… Mum took a lot of s@£! in the corner shop in the 80s/90s. The p-word was a weapon. My experiences have been tame in comparison. I was lucky. But why should you have to be lucky to avoid racist abuse in the 21st Century?
The price of "secret diaries" on eBay just went through the roof. A fascinating and touching story by Amelia Tait about the thrill of reading strangers' stories.
A lovely essay on the ritual of writing by Patricia Lockwood, whose Priestdaddy was one of my favourites books this year. This paragraph, mmm. “The feeling you get after hours of scrolling that all your thoughts have been replaced with cotton candy — or something even nastier, like Runts or circus peanuts — as opposed to the feeling of being open to poetry, to being inside the poem, which is the feeling of being honey in the hive.”
Gwyneth Paltrow’s piece about her separation – sorry, “conscious uncoupling”– is a fine and brave piece of writing. I feel wiser and a little better equipped now.
"If we see Big Brother as the dark side of the Noughties, emblematic of the vacuousness and voyeurism, Faking It is born of the optimism and naivety…" How Time Lords Tara Joshi and Simran Hans can flit so effortlessly between 2000 and 2020, I don’t know. Twenty Twenty is a highly recommended podcast.
I gobbled up this conversation between the Guardian’s deputy music editor Laura Snapes and Empire editor Terri White on the craft of profile writing. Shoehorning it into this section because it’s as much about popular culture as it is about the nuts and bolts of written interviews. The prospect of an awkward interview still puts me on edge. Laura’s advice? "Be true to the encounter. Ask what grace or elegance can you bring to the situation?" A writer will come off a lot better if you can show compassion/understanding.
You have to read this WTF piece. Journalist, inheritance beneficiary and wife of venture capitalist gets paid to describe how comfortable her life is despite a recession-inducing global pandemic. Sorry, shares “awkward lessons”. Tone-deaf to the nation, but this is FT Wealth so perhaps she met the brief.
From 18th-century slave rebellion to overcoming the trauma of childhood abuse, uprisings in Brixton and "creating the depictions of nuanced black heroism he was denied as a child", this is a fascinating and uplifting interview with author Alex Wheatle. His life story was the subject of part four of Steve McQueen’s seminal Small Axe film series on the BBC.
I often ponder the notion of home. A word that means different things to different people at different points in life. Meditate on this timely conversation between Riz Ahmed, Nikesh Shukla, Rupi Kaur and Fatima Bhutto and you might find a new perspective on it.
A candid piece by Luke Turner on masculinity and how society moves forward. In the absence of open conversation and acceptance of difference, too many men default to lumpen stereotypes and binary thinking. Talk, we must. And open up.
MUSIC
This brilliant feature by Jenn Pelly in Pitchfork really took me down the Enya rabbit hole, reappraising a singular sound once dismissed as "doctor's office music". In Pelly’s hands, we now hear "each note like a new horizon coming into focus". Here’s the thing about Enya: she composed, performed and played everything herself, working only with the Ryans for decades, selling more than 70m albums with no touring, no celebrity, only mystery. Wow. I'm a believer.
This story about National Institute of Design students in Ahmedabad using the Moog synthesiser to break new ground in 60’s electronic music is brilliant. Follow up with the BBC Radio 3 documentary itself, with musician Paul Purgas on the trail.
Who gets to tell a story says much about the integrity and veracity of what follows. That applies to dance music and club culture just as much as news and politics. Excellent piece by Matt Anniss that practises what it preaches by setting the record straight.
I was enthralled by Toyin Agbetu's story, which takes in everything from his early UK street soul bedroom productions to running his own label, making house and garage under different guises, experiences with the majors, and later becoming a community educator and Pan-Africanist leading Ligali Foundation. More often than not, he has done what's right, even though it may not have been the most popular, shrewd, or financially rewarding choice. Although fiercely independent, Toyin is about his community, helping them survive and thrive in a perilous world. Respect that. This soon to be "UCL-certified madman" talks a lot of sense. And the tunes are still tremendous.
Dick Fontaine's 1967 documentary Who Is Sonny Rollins? feels like a nature programme. Such a tranquil mood, with very few talking heads and Sonny's horn for birdsong. We see him emerging from the wilderness after his famous Williamsburg Bridge sabbatical. The kids' practice scene is a favourite. Seeing elders school the next generation is a beautiful sight to behold. I need to watch Fontaine's 'expanded edition', Beyond The Notes.
Prepare to be wowed by this selection of composers making extraordinary black classical music and exploring what it means, or could mean, to be American. From Thomas Wiggins and Ornette Coleman to Matana Roberts and Nathalie Joachim. The article is written by George E Lewis, Professor of American Music, Composition & Historical Musicology at the University of Columbia so you know it’s certified.
Contentment, fulfillment, life, the afterlife… It's been a while since I've read a Q&A as profound as this. Props to David Marchese and the wise one Sonny Rollins. It was a privilege. “It’s ridiculous to feel, oh gee, I shouldn’t die. My body is going to turn to dust. But my soul will live forever.”
This six-part podcast about the lengthy gestation of Sign O the Times – recently rereleased in gargantuan format – is sheer ecstasy. I thought I'd heard all the stories but … nah … it's Prince, right. I love how Suzannah describes the moment when he first spots the chandelier in his Galpin Boulevard place. I can see those eyes right now.
The fascinating story of bossa nova innovator and nearly man Johnny Alf, to whom big names such as Jobim and Gilberto owe a great deal.
More Prince, this time a riveting oral history of his Superbowl performance in 2007. My pulse was racing as it reached showtime. My favourite bit is where he glides past bewildered producers on blinking skates in his suite at the Beverly Wilshire. And when that monsoon freaks out everyone except His Royal Badness. Prince is like, "Don't change nothing.” I have run out of superlatives.
I really enjoyed this rallying cry for music journalism from Marina Timothy. "Don't follow trends. Follow the sound. Write about music nobody cares about and make us care because you do."
Excellent audible deep dive with 33 1/3 Books author Faith A Pennick on D'Angelo's Voodoo. How it reflected D's evolution as a songwriter (with the help of Angie Stone) and challenged perceptions of black men in the late 90s. An intriguing conclusion also: how would Voodoo have fared if released in 2020? "I don't think people today have the patience to catch up with a record [like that]." Agree?
Some things are sure things. Like Patrice Rushen talking insightfully about the Minnie Riperton masterpiece Come To My Garden and the genius of Charles Stepney on the Heat Rocks podcast with scribe Oliver Wang and music supervisor Morgan Rhodes. “His orchestration never fought the pulse of any song he wrote on,” Rushen tells them. “His use of space, what instruments were going to best complement the songs. Lines, harmony… It was always enhancement, never a fight. Like look at me, look at me… Hearing that orchestral mastery in the context of the black vernacular was a gamechanger for me."
FILM
Daniel Riley’s GQ profile of Timothee Chalamet helped me reach new levels of empathy for the actor of the moment. Chalamet is an old soul clearly burdened by the expectation and attention of ravenous fans. Who wouldn't be? As long as he focuses on the work, he'll be fine.
I learned so much while engrossed in Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s masterful profile of Val Kilmer in NYT Magazine. For instance, Kilmer no longer sounds like Val Kilmer after a long battle with throat cancer that he denies he ever had. He’s made at least three films about Mark Twain. His faith is so resolute that he doesn’t believe in death, that his deceased brother exists just beyond our senses. Oh … and “his jaw is still the main event”. Brodesser-Akner is able to channel a fan-like adulation and obsession in a star encounter and mesh it with a detached survey of their place in the wider culture.
This Origins five-part podcast hosted by James Andrew Miller covers the conception, production and enduring appeal of Almost Famous, the much-loved rock and road movie from 2000. The level of trivia and depth of insight here is so addictive. You get lashings of Cameron Crowe, Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand and many others who were there. Discover who almost made it into Almost Famous, what went down at Rock School, how key scenes came together and why this movie still means as much to the cast and crew as it does the fans.
Last month I finally listened to A24’s Don’t Be A Stranger podcast, and I had to start with my guys Michael Cera and Jonah Hill. Warm and hilarious catch-up. The bit about the jealous psycho, especially. "Hey Mike, How are you, man?"
ART
Everyone should watch Love Is The Message, the Message Is Death on the biggest screen you can find. This Arthur Jafa film, which screened on the Tate’s website earlier in the year, is rhapsodic in how it depicts the full depth and breadth of the Black experience in little over seven exhilarating minutes, using a combination of found and original footage, and deftly cut to Kanye West’s gospel-drenched song ‘Ultralight Beam’. What we see amplifies what we hear and vice versa, a rare feat in audio-visual art. So many incredible images stitched together in a stream of higher consciousness, each one acquiring new symbolism and significance when placed beside the next. Anything from accidental hero Charles Ramsey to Serena Williams crip walking at London 2012, Birth of a Nation propaganda and Odell Beckham Jr defying gravity. Arthur’s shot-by-shot commentary on Vimeo (in conversation with Greg Tate is also an essential companion piece. As he says in the video, time and again we have seen black people make something out of nothing and make it fresh too. “Our shit is on an epic level.”
Learning about intrepid correspondent and photographer Eliza Skidmore put me in a very good mood. National Geographic owes her a lot – their reputation for outstanding photography began with her. Skidmore travelled from Alaska to Indonesia into the 1900s, documenting life in motion. One of the first women to do so. She lived on and off in Japan, even serving as an ambassador of goodwill for the US. She was so taken with the cherry blossom there that she lobbied for nearly three decades to have it planted along Washington’s waterfront in her home state of Wisconsin. It’s now a major attraction.
POLITICS
In April, Arundhati Roy wrote in the FT about the potentially devastating impact of Coronavirus on narcissist Modi's India. But her conclusion will resonate far beyond those borders. “Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.“
An important Reuters article here, drawing on comments from NERVTAG/SAGE science experts plus official government statements. Read it and tell me that Johnson & co weren't negligent in ignoring what was happening elsewhere from the end of January, brushing off COVID-19 as slightly worse than flu, failing to plan ahead in managing NHS resources and not implementing lockdown soon enough. Throughout this pandemic, we have seen the UK government consistently equivocate behind the curve. For further evidence, pair with this viral piece by The Times: “Coronavirus: 38 days when Britain sleepwalked into a disaster.”
Channel 4’s Putin documentary series was gripping, particularly part one, unravelling like a great thriller. We got a clearer sense of how this diminutive figure and Stierlitz wannabe rose to power through dark manoeuvres and kompromat. That footage of Yeltsin waiting by the phone…
“She was Saint Christopher in a polyester uniform and rubber-soled shoes," wrote Sirin Kale in the Guardian. She was Belly Mujinga – the precious soul behind the tragedy. And this is the piece she deserves. The assault claim is disputed but the bigger charge is negligence. She shouldn't have been on that concourse at London Victoria.
Great reporting here by Kieran Yates on family-run Nour Cash & Carry and the fight to protect a community hub from avaricious developers circling. Remember, not everything that counts can be counted and not everything that can be counted counts. Landlords should keep that in mind when their decisions disrupt communities and jeopardise livelihoods.
In 2009, a Department of Homeland Security intelligence study, written in coordination with the FBI, warned of the “resurgence” of right-wing extremism [in the police and military]. Then … nothing. Focus switched to Islamophobia. Here's why.
TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS
WeWork is not a real estate company, apparently. It's a "tech-enabled physical social network". Ok. Goal? "To elevate the world's consciousness." No, all former CEO Adam Neumann elevated was debt with delusions of grandeur and growth-at-all-costs strategy. Author Reeves Weideman explains why in this Intelligence2 podcast from the Economist.
In 2019, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting crunched Facebook group data to reveal an alarming number of US police officers spouting hate speech, extremism and conspiracy theories online. In the aftermath of the public execution of George Floyd, many of us want to know just how deep the rot goes. Well, surprise surprise, this bigotry is systemic and often covert.
Some of you may remember Trump trying to discredit his presidential rival by tweeting “#Bidencrimefamiliiy”. Dufus can’t spell, right. Maybe. But in this case, wrong. “Typosquatting” is a tactic often used by trolls and media manipulators to get around the rules of social media platforms. After reading the article, my first thought was why not de-index a few variations of these trending hashtags to counter disinformation?
YouTube is like having your own time machine, isn’t it? But there's another Google property that allows us to revisit places and faces from our past – if we're lucky. A slightly eerie Slate piece about people using Street View to reconnect with departed loved ones.
Beauty Stack is a business built for these times. It makes sense for the beauty professional and the client. The numbers don't lie. But it's a struggle to launch a challenger business and carve a new lane, as founder Sharmadean Reid explains in her brilliant blog.
HISTORY
Biscuit factories, Bollywood soundtracks, Dale Winton and the "beginning of the golden age of radio" in 70's Britain. A fantastic article about station UBN.
The fascinating story of early 20th-century cook Mary Mellon, aka Typhoid Mary, a symptom-free carrier who caused the death of more than 50 people and wouldn't accept the threat she posed to others. Thankfully, civil engineer and detective George Soper was on the case.
Andrew O'Hagan's reflection on Soho is delightful. "The need for it to be something it never was is the interesting story."
SCIENCE
I have read this Aeon article three times now, as if analysing my own suitability for the job! It investigates the link between hormones in the body (oxytocin, testosterone, dopamine), a man’s urge to mate vs parent and to what extent he might become a good father. Not conclusive by any means – hey, this is science – but thought-provoking nonetheless.
This one connected deeply while in the throes of the first lockdown, starved of hugs and kisses (a little more than usual anyway). Sirin Kale explains our biological yearning for human touch – what is known as “skin hunger”. “It’s why babies in neonatal intensive care units are placed on their parent’s naked chests. It’s the reason that prisoners in solitary confinement often report craving human contact as ferociously as they desire their liberty.”
To the climate change deniers: "Last year, people aged over 65 endured a combined extra 2.9 billion days of extreme heat compared with a 1986-2005 baseline (160 million more than 2016 peak)." That’s an estimated 54% rise in heat-related deaths among the elderly (between 2000 and 2018). More in the Economist.
"Already the science' has been blamed for the government’s mistakes [during this pandemic],” wrote Alexis Paton in The Independent. “However, science, and the policy it informs, is not neutral. How we value what science tells us is linked to what we value in our society." You can't just "follow the science" – ethics are important.” Yes, Prime Minister?