A re-watch for me. Love this film. One of my favorites. I love how understated everything is: the acting, the cinematography, the colors, the score, the story. It makes the last line of the film hit with powerful force. (I won’t share it here so I don’t spoil it – it’s worth watching).
I think the score is perfect. Rachel Portman was the best choice for this film. Her tender, non-flashy style was just what was needed and she made the correct choice in every scene.
A documentary of the life and work of Jane Goodall, the woman who lived with Chimpanzees in order to understand them (and us) better. I watched this doc with my son. He was glued the whole time, as was I. Extraordinary woman, extraordinary life. I’m always amazed at people who do extreme things not for the acclaim or even probability of success but for the pure passion of it. Those are the world-changers. Free to watch on YouTube:
It’s no secret that the way streaming is set up is fundamentally flawed. It robs artists to pay shareholders (i.e. legacy labels), it incentivizes the production of crap, and it creates a shallow and deeply unsatisfying listening experience for users. When you add in how easy it is to fraud the system, how devastatingly rampant such fraud is, and how legitimate artists are getting swept up in the dragnet with no recourse (my time is coming), the picture is very bleak.
And what’s worse than all of this (and not reported in this video), is that Spotify itself is engaging in this same fraudulent activity, only it’s not fraud because it’s their platform. But real artists are still paying the price.
One of my favorite composers, Keith Kenniff, aka Goldmund, wrote an article about how to record great felt piano sounds. Super practical.
A book-reading Substack I follow recently asked what we’ve been reading this first quarter of the year. I was kind of blown away at how many I’ve read so far. A few duds, but a lot of really good ones too. Here are the top 9 of the year so far (in no particular order):
Let me know in the comments what you’ve read so far this year. And if you have any recommendations for what I read next.
Cory Doctorow’s latest lecture on enshittification (the term he coined). You can listen to it on his page or in your podcast player.
