#10 Culture Fix
Blasts from the past, Ireland on my mind, love in the age of AI, female-led Westerns, Argentinian series worth learning Spanish for, and surprising treats.
The Culture Fix is the place where I share the books, films, music, articles, interviews, plays, exhibitions, places, and even food, I’ve enjoyed recently.
Recommendations may refer to content in either English, Spanish, French or Italian and sometimes not available in English. But since this is a publication called Abroad written by a multilingual foreigner in London, and hopefully appealing to those curious to explore beyond their own borders, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
This is the 10th edition of The Culture Fix. I didn’t think I’d make it this far, to be honest, as consistency is not exactly a word people -or I for that matter- use to describe me. So to celebrate and make up for the delay in sending a new edition-this issue comes PACKED. As in "you may need to read this on Substack as your email may cut it and you’ll miss out half of it” packed.
Enjoy.
Can I just say that writing a newsletter is fun and stimulating but at the same time totally incompatible with living your best life?
The time left to write after fulfilling every other obligation that makes life worth living is little and we -or at least I- arrive to it more like someone who’s been run over by a ten-ton truck than a person full to bursting with original ideas that I can’t wait to put on paper or type on screen.
Some jobs, especially those of a creative nature, require full dedication as well as space to let the mind wander and passively observe, taking in and processing subsconscious inputs without other distracting demands that will later emerge in whatever creative expression one has chosen as their field.
But we all know the luxury to indulge in the dolce far niente that should be the bread and butter of any creative soul is exclusive to those who already dispose of the means that allow them to do nothing because words like rent, bills and oyster top-ups are as foreign to them as trust fund is to me.
This is to say that I may have taken my sweet time to prepare this issue, but in my defence since the last Culture Fix I’ve read over 1,300 pages on paper so I have proper book recommendations for you. But focusing on reading, watching films, listening to new music, going to see new plays, eating gelato, lying on the park now that the sun is out, napping, going for walks, putting together nice summer outfits for any of the previous activities -napping included because you just never know who you may dream about!- gets inevitably in the way of writing a regular piece on cultural recommendations. The same thing that fuels the writing I do is also getting in the way of doing the writing itself. Isn’t that an irony?
I compare this paradox to the recent Mira Murati’s declaration about the future of AI and how it’ll come to replace some creative jobs that should have never been there in first place. She forgot to add that the reason AI has evolved in this way that will make some creative jobs redundant is because, drum roll, AI models have been trained on works produced by photographers, graphic designers, writers, painters, musicians and every one who has ever produced creative work that can be fagocitated by an algorithm.
Murati may be slightly tone-deaf to the concerns of people working across creative industries or in any creative capacity, but luckily not everyone thinks like her. In fact, I think we can still have hope in the future as long as there’s people for whom an AI script just won’t be acceptable.
I am still of the opinion that AI has many potential uses for good but we haven’t yet untapped its full potential to make our lives better. I can’t wait for the day AI gets rid of tasks that shouldn’t have been there in first place (Murati dixit) and we finally achieve the kind of technological progress that gives us an AI that can cook from scratch three delicious meals a day, arrange medical appointments, and do laundry (from putting clothes in the washing machine to putting them away, nicely folded). That’s the innovation I expect.
Instead, what we’ve got is the CEO of Zoom excited about AI avatars going to meetings for us -meaning will have to work more, not less, as we’ll have to catch up not only with human colleagues but also with our own avatar- and AI-girlfriends on the rise that get your personal data, not to speak of how 99% of deepfake pornography is targeted at women. This is how you can tell AI is a field mostly dominated by men who lack any practical sense.
And it doesn’t get better. This past week I read about Rebind, an AI app that lets you interact with books as you read them and which has already enrolled Margaret Atwood, Roxane Gay and John Banville for its AI-bot.
I mentioned it on Friday to someone who works extensively with artificial intelligence as the two of us attended an AI and Creative Industries breakfast that I organised at work and was glad that he had the same reaction I did when I found out.
“But reading is such a personal experience” he said “and one that allows you to process your own thoughts and ideas in a way that you can make sense of them without distractions. I’m not sure I want to incorporate technology into one of the remaining areas of our cultural life where we can stimulate our critical thinking by challenging ourselves to understand and process the meaning of what we are reading. The whole thing looks like it’s designed to make people lazier, don’t you think?”
I guess you all know my answer to that already given that I write this newsletter to bring you a curated selection of books, films, series, music and cultural experiences that -hopefully- will expand your horizons. But one day, not far from now, I’m afraid that too will be a task for AI.
Until then, here are some human-chosen bits and bobs I have enjoyed lately, and there are lots so brace yourselves.
Short Reads
— How streaming -and tax breaks- fuelled the UK’s Brollywood sreen boom
— London set for up to £9.5bn investment boost from film and TV production over next five years
— Shirley Jackson, my mother and a story that rocked my world
— What to read if... you're suffering from sales fever
— The friendship challenge when living abroad
— The mysteries of Jan Potocki’s book 'The Manuscript Found in Saragossa'
— The quiet pain of 'ugly' men
— Read and let read. Is working in a secondhand bookshop the cure for book snobbery?
— Relatable. An annoying concept.
— You're going to have to give a shit about the trains
Books
— The Fraud by Zadie Smith
Currently flying through this entertaining and really well-crafted novel that sees Zadie Smith taking on historical fiction for the first time and hopefully not for the last as she seems to have a knack for it and critics agree. The Fraud flows easily bringing fact and fiction on the page as we follow the trial of the Tichborne Claimant and follow the characters that get involved in it either as first-hand witnesses, like Andrew Bogle, or spectators like the more mysterious Eliza Touchet, a relative of novelist William Harrison Ainsworth. The XIX century literary scene and Jamaica collide in this new novel by Smith and the mix, while unusual, couldn’t have produced better results.
— Say Nothing. A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
Early on my second rewatch of Derry Girls (you can’t watch Derry Girls just once, I dare you) I was already immersed in this thoroughly researched and nuanced book that brings to life the now defunct Belfast Project, an attempt to preserve the historical memory of the people who play a part in The Troubles and hosted by Boston University. With a highly engrossing narrative, Radden Keefe takes the disappearance of Jean McConville as the starting point around which he articulates a story where the causes and events that led up to the emergence of violence meet the key actors from the end of the 60s to the eventual ceasefire at the end of the 90s, like Dolours Price and her sister Marian, Brendan Hughes or Gerry Adams. But what makes this book stand out is the space it allows to people and stories that usually do not get portrayed in other accounts about The Troubles and which Radden Keefe weaves in the book with extraordinary ability to offer a better understanding of the high volatility of life in Northern Ireland. The book won the Orwell Prize for Political Writing in 2019 and it has been announced that a screen adaptation it’s on the making. This is by far one of the best books I’ve read this year and in a very long time and if you’re interested in the history of The Troubles, you’re in for a real treat.
— Au revoir là-haut by Pierre Lemaitre (The Great Swindle, English translation)
If I told you that a 600 plus novel about the aftermath of WWI that opens with a 40-page scene on the trenches is an absolute addictive read, I’m sure some of you would roll your eyes in disbelief. And yet, the prose of Pierre Lemaitre makes you keep on reading while holding your breath as if you were on the front hearing the obuses passing over your head.
However, this is a novel not about war, but about the aftermath of peace and the welcome those soldiers that came alive from the front received when they returned home. Lemaitre has crafted a story about swindlers mixing fact and fiction where he forces us to examine the past and ask ourselves whether those who profited from a situation were really the ones at fault or, as some of his characters show us, the ones being cheated on by the system.
The novel received the Prix Goncourt in France and was made into an equally successful movie that won 5 César awards including Best Direction, Adaptation and Cinematography. And if you need more reasons to read it, at a recent event I attended at the British Library Andrey Kurkov qualified it as the best novel about WWI.
Series
— Derry Girls
If you haven’t yet watched this show yet, I envy you because you’ll get to experience its greatness, characters and Northern Irish accent for the first time, not to speak of its craic soundtrack. Seriously, it really is that good. So good, in fact, that the show has inspired a whole analysis on why humour can be the best vehicle to heal from a violent past and why a group of teenagers in Derry coming of age at the end of The Troubles are the best people to tell this story.
— Big Boys
And from one group of teenagers in Derry to another group of barely out of their teens going to university in Brent and navigating mental health, sexuality, male friendship, grief, loss and finding yourself and those who love you along the way. This coming of age series created by Jack Rooked, and based on his own personal experience grieving the loss of his father while starting university, will have you laughing, occasionally tearing up but always cheering for all the characters when they stand up for themselves and each other. A third season has been confirmed and it seems just fair given the raving reviews of season 2.
— El hombre de tu vida (The man of your dreams)
My sister sent me a message to tell me she was watching this Argentinian series and I had to inform her that, as the older sister, I had already been there, done that. But it was a long time ago, so a rewatch of this comedy created by Juan Jose Campanella (Argentina cinema royalty) and Marcella Guerty, and centred around an agency that arranges dates with a potential partner for women looking for the man of their lives was in order. The series hasn’t lost an ounce of freshness in the 12 years since its release and it should be compulsory watching in the age of dating apps as it is a great exploration of the multiple faces of love, what people are willing to do, or not, to secure it and how little we know about the reasons behind everyone’s motivations to pursue a romantic life.
Besides, El hombre de tu vida is a masterclass on why Argentinians are superior beings at doing comedy as well as truly exceptional actors. Despite its many adaptations into other countries (Spain included), the original remains unmatched.
Luis Brandon in his role as Francisco, an unconventional priest, Mercedes Morán as Gloria, the founder of the dating agency “The Love of your Life”, and Guillermo Francella as Hugo, Gloria’s cousin and man of the hour for the women that contact the agency, are a delight to watch and each is superb in their role. The two seasons are available for free on Youtube through the Telefe channel but only in Spanish without subtitles. A good occasion to start practicing the language, I’d say.
Movies
— The Dead Don’t Hurt
In the last Culture Fix I shared an interview where Viggo Mortensen talked about his new film, which is his second as director. While Westerns have never been a genre I’ve felt inclined to, The Dead Don’t Hurt must be the exception that confirms the rule. And it’s due to the presence of Vicky Krieps and how when she’s not on screen something feels amiss, which seems to be a conscious choice by Mortensen, who wants us to direct our eyes to the strength of Kriep’s character in a inhospitable land in this story about strangers that find love and a home in a foreign territory. Watch this for the beautiful photography, score, intimate portrayal of a life in the nascent wild West and the endurance of love and the sacrifices we make in its name. Krieps seems to have convinced critics, who already speak of an Oscar nomination for her role.
— La Bête/The Beast
Léa Seydoux and George MacKay (whose role was originally written for the late Gaspard Ulliel, and that’s why the movie is shot in English and French) are a terrific duo leading the three interconnected love stories across time that articulate this sci-fi tale about love in a future where AI and the removal of memories and emotions for optimal performance and to erase suffering has taken over in this loose adaptation of a Henry James story by Bertand Bonello. Seydoux’s presence is absolutely mesmerising and the hypnotic close frames of her face alone are worth seeing this movie on the big screen. The chemistry between her and MacKay -one the best actors of his generation in the UK- works in each of the different scenarios where they keep meeting each other in previous lives until they are eventually reunited in the present they both live in and where their paths have converged once more. After 2.5 hours we are finally led to a climatic ending in which we are privy to how each inter-temporal lover has embraced this nightmarish brave new world where AI rules.
— The Bikeriders
An unexpected afternoon in Central London left me no choice but to go to the cinema. So while it wasn’t a wildly anticipated movie for me, I enjoyed this film more than I thought I would. Austin Butler exudes Old Hollywood charisma in it and Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy do their thing: great acting. And as a bonus Mike Faist (whom I discovered in Challengers and loved) has a small role as well. I would have perhaps liked to see the movie from his point of view a bit more, but I understand the choice of having the character of Jodie Comer describing the rise and fall of a bikers’s club origin story that spirals out of control the more it grows and attracts new members.
— Kinds of Kindness
On the poster of this film outside the cinema, one of the one-line reviews from a prestigious newspaper, said something about it being truly funny. English may not be my first-language, but I think I have a good grasp of in what contexts the word funny usually is thrown away. So, say that you’re having a bad day and you come across this review and think about watching this film to lift you up and have a laugh because it’s funny, right? What will happen is that 3 hours later you’ll emerge back into the world questioning your life and sanity.
In other words, this is a strange, bizarre, unsettling, at times completely surreal, and most definitely not funny film. As my second Yorgos Lanthimos’ movie I wasn't prepared for it but I didn’t dislike it completely either. I feel a weird pull towards disturbing narratives, let’s leave it at that. The acting is a delight with very strong performances by Jesse Plemons and I was glad to see Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe reunited after Poor Things. I’m aware Lanthimos is an acquired taste so I need to try him a bit more. If you’re more seasoned in his cinematic universe, you’ll probably enjoy Kinds of Kindness. You may even find it funny.
— Hitman
This is a film I was so looking forward to seeing that when I saw Michael Fassbender on screen I didn’t flinch. In fact, it took me 40 minutes to realise that, perhaps, the reason I was struggling to see how the new Richard Linklater movie had been described as a comedy was because I was watching another film. The Killer by David Fincher, to be precise, not Hitman by Richard Linklater.
Hitman, when I finally watched it, is exactly what I expected it would be and I particularly enjoyed the intersection with philosophy throughout the film and the exploration of how we can change who we are by acting as we’d like to be, which then plays nicely into the unfolding of the story. I had my reserves about Glen Powell and was suspicious of the effort that the powers that be seemed to be making to launch him as a new leading man at all costs (especially after that Anyone But You cringey PR stunt), but he is convincing, the best kind of miscast possible, and deserves the accolades both as an actor as well as co-writer of the script along with Linklater. Highly enjoyable film, kept me guessing at what would happen next and no, not all endings have to make logical sense. Do you see Yorgos Lathimos worried about making any sense? Exactly. Let’s not forget that what makes Hitman’s story believable, deep down, is the insane chemistry between Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. No need for a PR stunt here.
— Hozier
I’ve been obsessively listening to the bluesy rhythm of “Too Sweet” which has a The Black Keys vibe and which you must have surely heard by now as it has given Hozier his first UK No 1 (Take Me to Church unbelievably only reached No 2) and has topped Billboard’s Hot 100, something that an Irish act hadn’t done since Sinéad O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U” in 1990.
I was hooked by the first chorus line, but the subsequent 1,000 replays in the last couple of weeks have made me appreciate this song even more. It was about time someone wrote a hymn for the night owls of this world. We’re claiming Hozier as one of our own from now on (said she at 1:27 am)
I’ve also enjoyed watching this interview of him on occasion of the release of his third album discussing his songwriting and creative process. He’s definitely one of the purest creative souls alive and what a gift to have artists like him in an ever increasing digitalised and automated world.
— Two Door Cinema Club
You’ll never caught me attending a music festival. It looks like the ultimate nightmare to me: all that people, at all times, everywhere. But it’s been Glastonbury this weekend and Two Door Cinema Club, one of my favourite indie -do people still say indie?- rock bands have played this year. And yes, I know I talked about them in the last issue as well, but their Glastonbury set has been qualified as near-flawless. If you have a TV licence you can watch it on the BBC iPlayer. If not, I’ve found this video on YouTube from their performance this weekend. They’re great live, I can confirm.
— Los Bitchos
Los Bitchos, an all female instrumental group from London, have new tracks out and I’m loving their sound. I discovered them a couple of years ago as they were the supporting act for Franz Ferdinand (Alex Kapranos produced their first album Let The Festivities Begin!) and I loved their 70s psychedelic sound infused with cumbia beats. They have a great energy on stage, which you can check it by yourself at their upcoming gig at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town.
— Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter
Sabrina Carpenter has concocted a track that while reviving a musical style in vogue in the 80s ticks all the boxes of the classic summer song: simple lyrics, catchy tune, danceable, ideal length (between 3 and 4 minutes), perfect timing of release -April 2024- so people warm up to it and are ready to proclaim it a summer anthem by June, and ubiquitousness. The cherry on the top: a summer song videoclip comme il faut that features a body of water and people in swimsuits and whose retro aesthetic is reminiscent of La Dolce Vita, an Italian summer anthem by Fedez, Mara Sattai and Tananai. As a seasoned expert on summer songs - when you’re from Spain you become one whether you want it or not - Espresso has won a place in my summer playlist.
— Naomi in Fashion at V&A | Until 6th April 2025
— Annie Ernaux’s adaptation of The Years at Almeida Theatre | Sat 27 Jul - Sat 31 Aug 2024
— Jonathan Bailey in Richard II at the Bridge Theatre | 10th Feb - 10th May 2025
— Adrien Brody making his London stage debut with The Fear of 13 | 4th Oct - 30th Nov 2024
— I was given a ginger, curcuma and chocolate loaf that my local bakery sells and that looks and smells amazing but it is difficult to combine with other food. As I had pistachio spread at home and thought it could work well. It does and it feels extremely decadent on a toasted slice as the chocolate melts a bit and mixes with whatever you put on the bread (hence the challenge to eat it with my usual avocado in the mornings). Mandarin mermalade also works well and makes a nice breakfast. If for whatever reasons you are ever in possession of such a loaf, now you know two things you can pair it with.
Abroad is an independent publication about identity and belonging, living in between cultures and languages, the love of books, music, films, creativity, life in London, and being human in the age of artificial intelligence.