Jurassic Park Turns 30, Bourdain's Favorite Spots to Dine, the French Open, The Shining, Steve Albini, etc.
In which I got caught up with tennis and forgot how much I still had to write today.
🎾 Got very distracted this morning watching the French Open. Djokovic will never be, and probably shouldn’t be, as beloved as Nadal or Federer, but today he stands above both. Now alone as the all-time leader in Grand Slam tournaments, he also became the only player to win all four tournaments three times each and extended his record to 388 weeks as the world’s number one player.
🍺 One of baseball’s most infamous/awesome evenings recounted. “It is amazing, to be honest, that Stroh’s provided enough beer to sustain such a drinking escapade for so long.”
🦖 Hold on to your butts. Jurassic Park turns thirty today. You should watch it again (maybe even in black and white).
👀 In The Shining, Jack Nicholson is consistently and intentionally breaking the fourth wall. “Throughout the whole book, Jack [the character] feels like he's being watched and judged, and that's why he feels so much pressure to keep up appearances.
If Jack is the only one in the movie to consistently break the fourth wall, where it's always just passing glances, that's a pretty effective way to show the character's fear of being watched or judged. Especially if we don't notice it at first.”
📺 Apparently I should start watching The Simpsons again? “After 34 seasons, 750 episodes, and a decades-long funk, the show innovated its way back to popularity and relevance.”
🤖 A new season of Black Mirror drops this week on Netflix. Creator Charlie Brooker tried letting AI write an episode. “I’ve toyed around with ChatGPT a bit,” Brooker told Empire. “The first thing I did was type ‘generate Black Mirror episode’ and it comes up with something that, at first glance, reads plausibly, but on second glance, is shit.”
📏 The history of the peck, smidgen, dollop and pinch. Nothing on the bushel.
🍱 Anthony Bourdain passed five years ago this past week. On my summer reading list is World Travel: An Irreverent Guide, the posthumous book that “gives readers an atlas to the places he considered the most culinarily important.
📚 “Each volume has nothing to distract you from reading. No pop-ups, no requests for donations, no ads. It’s just you and the information.” Benj Edwards buys the 2023 World Book Encyclopedia and regrets nothing. “In a nod to our present digital age, World Book also offers its encyclopedia as a subscription service through the web. Yet it's the print version that mystifies and attracts my fascination. Why does it still exist.
‘Because there is still a demand!’ Tom Evans, World Book's editor-in-chief, told Ars.”
🖼 Both The Met and the Art Institute of Chicago have Van Gogh exhibits this summer.
🔊 From Wired, a video on the evolution of concert sounds, and why festivals sound better than ever.
🐟 The Juan Deriba killifish is a new specifies of fish found in Bolivia that jumps out of water to evade threats.
🎧 Just picked up two past Record Store Day releases. The first, the Pixies’ Live at Coachella, 2004 is especially sentimental, given I had the fortune to be at the show, attend the press release and talk to Frank Black afterwards. The other, Nirvana’s In Utereo (2013 Mix), remixed and remastered at Abbey Road by the album’s original producer Steve Albini.
Albini was brought in at Kurt’s suggestion in 1993, as he had thought Nevermind was far too polished and wanted the raw, clear, powerful, loud sounds Albini had become known for capturing, including his work with the Pixies. From a letter Albini wrote to Nirvana shortly after they initially reached out:
“I think the very best thing you could do at this point is exactly what you are talking about doing: bang a record out in a couple of days, with high quality but minimal ‘production’ and no interference from the front office bulletheads. If that is indeed what you want to do, I would love to be involved.
I consider the band the most important thing, as the creative entity that spawned both the band's personality and style and as the social entity that exists 24 hours out of each day. I do not consider it my place to tell you what to do or how to play. I'm quite willing to let my opinions be heard (if I think the band is making beautiful progress or a heaving mistake, I consider it part of my job to tell them) but if the band decides to pursue something, I'll see that it gets done.
I like to leave room for accidents or chaos. Making a seamless record, where every note and syllable is in place and every bass drum is identical, is no trick. Any idiot with the patience and the budget to allow such foolishness can do it. I prefer to work on records that aspire to greater things, like originality, personality and enthusiasm. If every element of the music and dynamics of a band is controlled by click tracks, computers, automated mixes, gates, samplers and sequencers, then the record may not be incompetent, but it certainly won't be exceptional. It will also bear very little relationship to the live band, which is what all this hooey is supposed to be about.”
Also love how he talks about getting paid “like a plumber,” eschewing royalties. Albini was also recently on Life of the Record, discussing the Pixies’ debut album, Surfer Rosa. No Kim Deal or Frank Black, but the rest of the band and Albini offer a lot of interesting tidbits. I never noticed how much “Something Against You” sounded like Iggy’s “The Passenger,” the little nod to Prince’s “Kiss” (which was a new hit at the time) on “Bone Machine,” or that Kim Deal sounds like she’s smiling when she sings (she does!). If I were you, I’d give the podcast a listen.
But maybe listen to Surfer Rosa and In Utero after.
✌️Thanks for reading. Have a great rest of your day, week, and remember to Keep the Hoping Machine running.
