117. It's Saturday
I.
The album Get Sunk by Matt Berninger has been playing a lot in my home office lately. Berninger is the lead singer of The National and, as far as Iâm concerned, a master at conveying emotion, especially when it comes to heartbreak. âFlew to Indiana to see a friend, she was already dust by then,â he sings on the opening track Inland Ocean.
Bonnet of Pins is the most The National-esque track on this solo album. âShe says she takes photos of tractor bones / And sells âem to model luxury homesâ, sings Berninger, who, led by a catchy little riff, keeps pressing the accelerator just a little further.
One of my favourites from the album is Nowhere Special, on which Berninger mumbles some delightful one-liners. âI found a new way to clear an old moodâ, for example. Or: âAnd down goes my career as a Catholicâ.
In an interview with Oor, Berninger talks about the recurring line in Frozen Oranges. âItâs Saturday,â he sings repeatedly. âOne day I was cycling along the coast and saw a bloke cycling with his headphones on,â he says in the interview. âHe was wobbling a bit. He seemed so lost in his own little world. At one point he had to weave through a group of cyclists and they shouted at him: take those headphones off! But he just kept looking straight ahead, shouted Itâs Saturday! and carried on.â
Berninger says heâs on that manâs side. âWe all want to enjoy the moment sometimes, even if others donât understand it. (âŠ) I stopped cycling and immediately typed that line into my phone: Itâs Saturday.â A lovely glimpse into Berningerâs writing process. You can try to describe a feeling, but you also have to recognise it when you see it and have the clarity of mind to write it down, so you can use it later.
II.
Iâve once again thoroughly revelled in Wes Andersonâs latest film The Phoenician Scheme. This time starring: Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, a shady businessman and arms dealer. Korda is at the centre of all sorts of intrigues surrounding a construction project and a broken family. I couldnât reproduce the dizzying plot even if I wanted to. Not that it matters, when the ride itself is as wild as this one.
Korda flies around the world with his daughter Liesl (Mia Threapleton as a nun) and the Swedish biology teacher Bjorn (Michael Cera). He survives one attempt on his life after another. âI heard that last time too,â he says after a strange noise during a flight in his private jet. âThen I crashed. But that hasnât happened yet. I feel completely safe.â He keeps insisting he feels completely safe. Just as he constantly tries to get his way by nagging, but never succeeds.
In Wes Anderson films, the funniest jokes take place at the edges of the frame. Itâs someone licking a spoon during a serious conversation or someone simply staring blankly into the camera. The humour lies in the brilliant scripts and in the little asides. It lies in Michael Cera wearing a fake moustache, which you see later in the film (just a darker moustache) without any further words being wasted on it. Sometimes itâs also in the lack of subtlety, such as in the hilarious basketball match in this film featuring Tom Hanks and Bryan Cranston versus Benicio del Toro and Riz Ahmed.
And itâs in the casting of Bill Murray as God.
- - -III.
Itâs simple: if The Flaming Lips are playing nearby, you go. The psychedelic indie rockers simply arenât averse to laser beams, big coloured balloons, giant inflatable figures and loads (really, lo-ads!) of confetti. This time, the band played their classic album Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and then followed it up with a virtually full set of hits for the fans, such as She Donât Use Jelly, Pompeii Am GötterdĂ€mmerung (a brilliant performance, by the way), The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and A Spoonful Weighs a Ton.
Amidst the chaotic madness, the band took a moment to slow things down with a beautiful cover of True Love Will Find You in the End. That song was originally by Daniel Johnston, the eccentric singer-songwriter from Texas who kept fighting for life right up until his death in 2019. He never made it big as a superstar, but counted Kurt Cobain, Lana del Rey, David Bowie and Tom Waits among his fans.
And The Flaming Lips, too. After the concert, I looked up some of Johnstonâs music again. True Love Will Find You in the End is one of his best-known songs, incidentally also covered by Wilco, my favourite band, who accompanied Johnston live during a performance in Chicago in 2017. As far as Iâm concerned, his finest song remains The Story of an Artist.
Itâs great that bands like Wilco and The Flaming Lips are keeping Daniel Johnstonâs music alive. If you fancy a deep dive into Johnstonâs world, do have a look at the documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston. In 2015, actor Gabe Sunday made a short film about the singer, Hi, How Are You Daniel Johnston, which is now also on YouTube. (And my name is in the Kickstarter credits!)
- - -PS.
Peter de Bie, journalist, presenter and widower of Dieuwertje Blok, died this week at the age of 75. He chose to end his own life. He gave a beautiful final interview to De Volkskrant that is full of life lessons. âOver the past few months, Iâve had to give myself a stern talking-to a few times to stop myself from slipping into depression. âThatâs absolutely out of the question,â I told myself, âweâre not going to the grave feeling depressed. Weâre going there whistling cheerfully, if at all possible.ââ
Talking Heads have made a video for their hit Psycho Killer. 48 years after the song was released. Actress Saoirse Ronan wasnât even born back then; now she plays the lead role.
- - -A fascinating Substack post by Amanda Guinzburg about ChatGPT, which she uses as an editor to help her think through her written essays. Gradually, it becomes clear that the chatbot is making things up. When she confronts ChatGPT about this, the conversation gets stranger and stranger.
A TV series set in the Alien universe is coming. The first trailer looks promising. Available on Disney+ from 12 August.
- - -Ever since the Picross game on the Nintendo DS, Iâve loved nonograms, Japanese picture puzzles where you have to fill in a number of squares per row based on numbers to create a picture. There are millions of them on this website, in a five-by-five grid, which you can solve in under a minute. Perfect for a quiet moment in the day.
Donald Trump uses his personal iPhone for both work and private matters. He loves making phone calls. He often answers calls from unknown numbers too, I read in a brilliant article in The Atlantic. âWhoâs calling?â, he asks. Trump has two other phones, and on one of them he has set his own face as the wallpaper.
You have just read weekly blog No. 117, written between 2 June and 8 June 2025. Subscribe to my free newsletter to receive this blog in your inbox every Sunday.