9. The Church Play Cinematic Universe
I.
I really love the video below. Every year, a Canadian church tells the Easter story using a well-known film. They really go all out for it. There are pop songs (sometimes with adapted lyrics), interactive sets and outdated memes.
Jenny Nicholson, a YouTuber with a room full of soft toys, goes through the musicals one by one with delightfully cynical commentary. The church performs, among others, Pirates of the Galilean, Rock Star Wars, Back from the Future and Joy Story.
Each time, a leading actor ends up on the cross. Batman, Iron Man and Jack Sparrow take on the role of Jesus. It’s unintentionally hilarious and largely harmless. The cast members give it their all.
The Church of the Rock has been performing these pieces for years and shows no sign of stopping any time soon. This year, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was up next. It’s not included in Nicholson’s overview, as the video is from last year, but she does share a few highlights on Twitter.
I’d definitely watch it if the EO and KRO-NCRV were to broadcast this in the Netherlands instead of The Passion.
---II.
Here’s an old-fashioned link dump because The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is here. The reviews don’t lie; this must be one of the best games ever made. Read the reviews from NRC, Gamer, IGN, Polygon, Eurogamer and The Guardian. With the podcasts Bonus Level and Spelkost, you can get yourself in the mood.
I’ve now landed in Hyrule myself. And it’s brilliant. What strikes me most after the first few hours is just how much more fun Link’s new abilities are compared to those in its predecessor, Breath of the Wild. I’m playing with a constant smile on my face, and even as I’m writing this, I’m already keen to carry on.
To prepare for the new game, I searched YouTube for videos to refresh my memory of Breath of the Wild. I found this comprehensive summary of the story so far, and watched a video of people recreating the entire map from Breath of the Wild in Minecraft (they’re already halfway there!), but also enjoyed the retrospective below. The creator not only explains in detail what made the game so good and why it offered players such unprecedented freedom, but it also becomes clear why titles like this can be more than ‘just a game’.
And then there’s this [brilliant Nintendo advert](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIJODMsYbkc). The ‘yes!’ really hits the spot.III.
I’ve been captivated by Lana del Rey’s album Did you know there’s a tunnel under Ocean Blvd for a month now. I bought it on vinyl, followed along on Genius and watched reaction videos on YouTube.
This is a rather heavy and dark album on which only the occasional ray of light shines through. With deeply personal and painful lyrics that you’d rather not fully grasp, but which slowly get under your skin. No matter how close you seem to get to Del Rey, she remains elusive. Perhaps the appeal lies precisely in this mystery.
She maintains this in the first music video for the album, which has only just been released. This short film for Candy Necklace lasts twice as long as the track on the record. Here, Del Rey portrays herself as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Short (the Black Dahlia). We see a making of.
“The idea behind the video – why everything takes place behind the scenes – is that all these women changed their names and hairstyles, just like me,” says Del Rey. “It’s as if they all fell into different snake pits. The point is: how do you learn from it so you don’t fall into one yourself?”
---IV.
The Libris Literature Prize has been won by Anjet Daanje. She wrote Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris (The Song of the Stork and the Dromedary). For a long time, I faithfully read the winners of the Libris Prize every year. And that’s how I discovered, for example, the work of Rob van Essen, who won in 2019 with his fantastic book De goede zoon.
In recent years, I’ve fallen behind. But I’m still curious about Het lied van ooievaar en dromedaris. The jury was deeply impressed by the voluminous work (656 pages).
What I liked best was Daanje’s reaction when she was asked if she was already working on a new book. She planned to sort out all the issues surrounding this work first, and then she’d get started. “Sunday or thereabouts.” Sounds like a lovely day for a new masterpiece.
PS.
The American monthly magazine QC asked game developers, directors, writers and streamers what their favourite games are and compiled a top 100 list based on their answers. It makes for a great list (and the nice thing about lists like this is, of course, that you can thoroughly disagree with them).
There’s a trailer for Christopher Nolan’s latest film: Oppenheimer.
---Screenwriters in Hollywood are on strike because they want to be paid more. They’re getting support from Snoop Dogg, who, as an artist, also has a bone to pick with the unfair pay in the streaming industry: “Can someone explain to me why you don’t earn a million dollars after a billion streams?”