14. Werner Herzog doesn't hate chickens, but he loves to eat them
I.
Long live Werner Herzog! The work of the German filmmaker is being celebrated over the coming months at EYE with an exhibition. Even better, this means several of his films are being shown again in cinemas.
Iâm looking forward to seeing Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes on the big screen. Although Iâm more of an admirer of his documentaries than his fiction films. Unfortunately those are being shown less widely across the country. Still, a few unmissable recommendations: Grizzly Man, Lessons of Darkness, Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Cave of Forgotten Dreams (in 3D!) and Into the Abyss.
On the occasion, the Filmkrant made this brilliant portrait of Herzog, based around his aversion to chickens.
II.
Another unhinged filmmaker who ventured into the territory of Zorn Gottes, or the Wrath of God: Phil Tippett. This legendary stop-motion animator made Jabba the Hutt, animated how an AT-AT goes down on its knees in The Empire Strikes Back, and brought dinosaurs to life in Jurassic Park. In the meantime, he spent thirty years on Mad God, a film that came out last year.
After a wrathful God has swept through the earth, it lies shrouded in darkness. Everywhere is rank and slimy. Organs pulse, giant machines pump and thunder. Humanoid creatures toil as slaves, are crushed flat, explode into pieces. There are gigantic meat grinders, excavators hauling corpses. There is pus, there is excrement. Everything is held together with wire and stitching. A doctor tears open a ribcage and a bloody operation follows that lasts for minutes.
Still feel like watching it?
The first time I heard about Mad God was seven years ago. I was working at Bright and got to interview Tippett about his work. Mad God was at that time still a virtual reality project and consisted of several short films. That must have been extraordinary â those versions I never saw. But what Tippett explained back then about his VR films still applies to some degree to this version: âIn Mad God something is happening everywhere, and even if the story isnât directly followable, it feels like you are part of it.â
So if youâre ever in an experimental mood, track this down*. You can be absolutely certain youâve never seen anything like it. (And if you want to follow it up with another bizarre animated film, you can continue with The Wolf House. Completely unhinged in its own way.)
** Take tips from me at your own risk.*
III.
A new song is coming from The Beatles. Yes really, this year still. With the help of artificial intelligence, an old, crackling demo featuring John Lennonâs voice can be cleaned up.
It is most likely Now And Then, a composition by Lennon from 1978 in which he sings about love. The remaining band members had tried to record the song years after Lennonâs death, until George Harrison pulled out. He felt the quality of Lennonâs voice was too poor.
But now, thanks to AI, thatâs no longer a problem. The same technology is being used here as for the audio in Get Back, the fantastic Beatles documentary by Peter Jackson.
Iâm a little uneasy about this, in some sense. Weâve seen before how the dead are brought back to life with AI, and we know that McCartney finds it hard to let go of Lennon. The good news is that this audio is based on an existing demo that was actually recorded by Lennon. But thinking it through further: to what extent is the voice on the demo being supplemented with sound waves that simply donât exist? And to what extent is this still John Lennonâs voice?
IV.
Here now follows a brief summary of the soap opera that Reddit was this past week (and at the time of writing is still not over):
Independent Reddit app developers suddenly have to pay bizarrely high fees from July onwards to keep running. The developer of the app Apollo said he couldnât come up with millions of dollars and would have to shut his app down at the end of the month.
Thousands of subreddits with millions of members went into protest against Redditâs policy change. The forums went dark. The plan was to do this for two days, but many subreddits have extended their strike.
Thatâs because Reddit CEO Steve Huffman has no plans to change anything. According to him, app developers have profited financially from Reddit long enough and itâs only fair that they now start paying. Fair enough, but according to the developers, the prices are unreasonably high.
Although Huffman initially told his staff that the strike would blow over, threatening letters (Reddit itself wonât call them that) have now been sent to moderators of blacked-out subreddits. Moderators of closed subreddits who disagree with the protests can approach management, so that Reddit can remove the other mods and reopen the subreddit. Because moderators must be able to do their job, says Reddit. Sounds to me like inciting mutiny.
PS.
The internet is full of misinformation, which is why a journalist at Ars Technica bought a complete encyclopedia set from World Book. The publisher has been putting out these books since 1917. There is still demand for them. I understand that: the worldâs most important information fits into 22 volumes. Neutrally described, no online arguments. Sounds like a breath of fresh air.
Arts presenter Jellie Brouwer is in the final phase of her life. Her mind wants to press on, but her body is completely spent. Despite many setbacks, Brouwerâs life has also known extreme moments of happiness. Those moments seem to have the upper hand when you read the beautiful interview in Volkskrant Magazine.
This closing quote, directed at interviewer Sara Berkeljon, grabs you by the throat: âAnd at the same time I can think, while we sit here now: suppose it were the other way around. That it would be so much worse if you⊠with your two small children. Iâm really not going to sit here full of rage because this is happening to me.â
Weâre barely a year and a half into Mark Zuckerbergâs ten-year plan for his Metaverse, but his idea for a virtual world where anything is possible hasnât really gotten off the ground yet. With the arrival of Appleâs Vision Pro, sales of Metaâs VR headsets could get a new boost, I wrote on NU.nl. (That blasted free login wall again!)
Max Park solved a Rubikâs Cube in 3.13 seconds, setting a new world record. The previous record was set six years ago and belonged to Yusheng Du. Everyone goes wild in this video.
The New York Times has a new game. Following in the footsteps of Wordle, there is now Digits. Youâre given six numbers per level that you must add, subtract, divide, or multiply to arrive at a predetermined number.
Iâm enjoying Marcel van Roosmalen and Gijs Groenteman on SBS 6. Theyâve had a talk show every weekday this month. Two weeks ago it started cautiously; last Friday names were being chanted, confetti cannons fired, and Donnie did the conga while Van Roosmalen read from his book. Extraordinary cult television. I hope it escalates a little further each day for the next two weeks.
The videos on this YouTube channel are now my go-to way to fall asleep. Delightful drifting off with Zelda lore.
I was at Beyoncé in the Johan Cruijff ArenA. What a world-class star. This was two and a half hours of madness choreographed down to the second. On Parool, Trouw, the AD and Volkskrant there are reviews, for the enthusiast.
During the first song, Beyoncé was wearing a dress by Dutch designer Iris van Herpen.
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