3. Wim de Bie has left us
I.
Wim de Bie has passed away. There has been, rightly and naturally, a great deal of praise for Van Kooten en De Bie. For me he was an example and an inspiration as a writer on the internet. I don’t mean that lightly. De Bie quickly saw opportunities to continue his work online after ‘Koot en Bie’.
From 2002 to 2008 he made Bieslog for the VPRO. The archive is still online. Later he continued on his own WordPress page. He could give free rein to his satirical talent there without a problem.
De Bie became the National Mental Coach in 2010 (“The NMC is with you every step of the way!”). And in that self-appointed role he spoke out against brushing snow off your doorstep. This appeal was the first thing I thought of when reading his In Memoriam.
II.
The New Yorker has a long interview with Nick Cave, who has emerged in recent years as an expert and counselor on the subjects of grief, processing loss, and faith. Cave always delivers. “I understand where atheists are coming from,” he says. “But excluding the divine is simply bad for my songwriting business.”
Cave is soon going on tour with bassist Colin Greenwood. As a fan of both Nick Cave and Radiohead, the thought of both worlds crossing is extraordinary. It’s not out of the question that we’ll hear Greenwood on the new Bad Seeds album, says Cave.
I’m rather worried we won’t be hearing from Radiohead for a while. Colin Greenwood is touring with Nick Cave, Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood are busy with The Smile (a tour and a new album), Philip Selway is working on solo material. Radiohead is dormant. The last album came out in 2016. That’s seven years ago.
A top 5 Radiohead albums according to ChatGPT (numbered, but according to the bot in no particular order).
PS.
The new Wes Anderson film is called Asteroid City. It’s about a gathering of young space enthusiasts that is thrown into disarray by something extraterrestrial. The film is set in 1955 and nostalgia drips from its Kodak colors.
Another jar of Hollywood stars has been opened. You’ll spot regular Anderson cast members Ed Norton, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, and Jason Schwartzman, but also Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Steve Carrell, Jeff Goldblum and I could go on. This is the trailer:
The Utrecht Boekenbar is the nicest bookshop in Utrecht. And soon those likeable folks are putting out their own book (or zine?). The title is based on the most frequently asked question in the store: Loopt het een beetje? With contributions from Pepijn Lanen, Lisa Weeda and Maartje Wortel.
“It has been five months since Elon Musk overpaid for a relatively small microblogging platform called Twitter,” writes TechCrunch. The article is called Twitter is Dying.
Elon Musk has a new luminous idea to save Twitter (read: to run it further into the ground). Soon you’ll have to pay to vote in polls. And on the For You page, you’ll only see people with paid checkmarks or people you already follow. Meanwhile you can no longer see who is replying to whom. It remains extraordinary to watch a billionaire steadily destroy what was once a beloved social network.
Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus, and Julien Baker prove that indie supergroups exist. Under the name Boygenius, here now is the album the record. Actress Kristen Stewart made a short film to go with it, called the film. Conveniently clear.
I had ChatGPT draw up a training schedule to get me running 10 kilometers in eight weeks. It took some effort, but there’s a schedule. No idea whether it’s sensible, but I’m sacrificing my body for the sake of the experiment. My findings in two months.
There’s going to be an anime series based on Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Based on the graphic novels, with the cast from the live-action film. Netflix will broadcast it, but when is not yet known.
Arc is my favorite web browser. And the first browser that knows what to do with my compulsive tab-hoarding. And now Arc is available for iPhone too. Though, is it really a browser? The Verge clarifies.
I really can’t help myself, Midjourney is too addictive.
On NU.nl I wrote an article about the Pope in a puffer jacket. The image was everywhere last week. If you look carefully, you can usually (still) spot AI-generated images. (You’ll need to log in to read it, unfortunately.)