#16 Culture Fix

The randomness of virality, low-budget sexy Greek films and more-budget sexy British spy thrillers, remakes and retellings galore, and the freedom to create on your own terms.

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 or be an obstacle to widen your cultural horizons.

Anyone who spends more than 30 minutes on Substack has probably come across the following scenarios:

• A note from someone introducing themselves as they’ve just joined and which is currently at 10,000 likes, 500 new subscribers and counting.

• A viral note showing A) Pets, B) A beautiful landscape/picture taken out in nature, C) A quote from someone famous.

• A note from someone who is frustrated at the virality of the previous kind of notes who despite lacking any intentionality on the part of their creator, or effort, they are favoured by the Substack algorithm and receive significant engagement that translates into new subscribers and therefore more visibility.

Focusing on understanding the rules by which online worlds function instead of on creating what you like without getting too attached to the result —or what others are doing- can only lead to frustration. I speak from experience as I’ve recently had a brush with virality for a picture I took at an event I attended at BAFTA and which happened thanks to a pure stroke of luck.

For context, I received the invitation to that event by chance and I decided to join because I had a clear afternoon with no external client calls or meetings, which isn’t always the case. Once at the venue, I sat on the first row where there were enough seats available for me and the colleagues I was with to seat together. Before leaving, when the lights went back up, I happened to notice there were tiny golden plaques in every seat and I took the time to read a couple of them, which led me to the discovery of the one sponsored by Hugh Grant. I took a picture because I’m a big Hugh Grant fan and this discovery made me smile. I decided to post it because I found it amusing, but I could have not.

All of the above may not had happened had I made a different decision at every stage, but the fact that it did happen and turned into the most popular thing I’ve ever shared online when there was zero effort on my part -and I can’t certainly give myself any credit for it-, has provided me with the opportunity to reflect on the futility of attaching too much importance to any creative output.

During the past year and a half in which I’ve written almost every week, I’ve learned the importance of enjoying the creative process, which is the only thing we can have any vague control over, and even then it’s not wise to intelectualise it too much. It’s very tempting to care deeply for something we put into the world and expect it to be received in a certain way on account of how much time and effort we have spent creating it (and then feel a bit resentful when it’s mostly ignored while pets and landscapes and already famous people are gathering thousands of likes), when the truth is once our work is out there in the wild we can’t predict how people would react or engage with it, if at all.

As a colleague who reads this newsletter put it, “people don’t care anyway about what you write, they just don’t have the time for it,” he mentioned matter of factly as I was complaining about how a note that was a product of sheer luck was making the rounds while the posts I had spent a lot of time writing were not receiving the same attention. “Don’t take it personally. Most of us just scroll, scroll, scroll, too long, next, scroll, scroll, like something we don’t have to spend a lot of time on, and that’s it.” Which is mostly true so I took no offence and thanked him for his insight.

Instead of making me feel defeatist and ditch my dream of achieving a life of riches through the power of my writing, the words of my colleague were a reminder of something that I have found great pleasure in when I decided to embrace writing wholeheartedly: the freedom to experiment and create as I please for the sake of it because I’m not being watched and therefore there is no pressure to produce life-altering work every time I hit publish.

On this note, I’d like to mention Chappell Roan’s recent BRIT Awards speech on the importance of making bad art as a way to self-discovery and finding your creative voice. As she said, “I don’t believe in bad art, but I write a lot of bad songs to get to the good ones and artist deserve that freedom to write bad songs and to explore horrible concepts.” Perfectionism and the belief that only that which is flawless is worthy is the enemy of creativity.

I spent my teenage years reading the kind of novels that transcend time and shed light on human nature (think Stendhal, Kafka, Hesse, Pasternak, Homer, Dumas, D.H. Lawrence, Marias, Flaubert, Tomasi di Lampedusa), I was convinced one could only be a writer if they were intent on producing the kind of work that is as perfect as those novels were to me. However, the more I read, the more I realised I didn’t have those stories in me, so I convinced myself it was pointless to pursue any writing ambitions.

Until one day someone put a David Sedaris book in my hands. A book where he talked both about his upbringing in North Carolina and his struggles with the French language and which I read at a time when I was myself living in North Carolina and struggling with French. What were the odds that a book that had nothing in common with the larger-than-life novels of my adolescence could still be deeply relatable and, in hindsight, life-altering indeed. I realised Sedaris was not only an incredibly sharp observer of human nature and its flaws, but he also possessed a savage sense of humour that he wasn’t afraid to use and which had me crying with laughter so badly that I couldn’t read him in public for fear people thought I was having a seizure.

A whole new world opened up from that moment onwards as I discovered that writing encompassed so much more than I had imagined growing up because I had only been exposed to a very specific sample, that of the great novelists and works of literature. As grateful as I was for having used my peak intellectual power to absorb them, I was equally delighted to have discovered there was so much more one could create and write about and still leave a mark in the reader.

The unexpected popularity of a picture that may as well not have happened has taught me that creating something you enjoy and sharing it with others -regardless of what it is, its perceived or real value, and least of all how it’s received- is worth it in itself, and that our own creative process, and what it eventually leads to, is a journey of self-discovery and therefore it can never be a competition with anyone else.

I’m sure Hugh Grant didn’t concern himself when sponsoring this plaque with how many people would notice it or whether he was contributing to the advancement of humanity with his little gesture. He just went for it because he thought it’d be fun to troll poor Colin Firth (he was right). I’m also sure that David Sedaris didn’t care one bit about picturing his French teacher as a psychopath sadist or whether that could prevent anyone from ever approaching a French class, or citizen, in the foreseeable future. I’m willing to bet he found that thought rather thrilling.

What’s the morale of all this, you wonder?

Just create whatever you want, have fun doing it, experiment, make mistakes, don’t worry too much about how it’s received and most importantly don’t obsess over anyone else’s success because hardly anyone has control over how people will react to their work.

Besides, the fact that you haven’t found your audience yet doesn’t mean it isn’t out there waiting for you. It took me a very long time to discover David Sedaris and realise my true calling was obsessively analyse, complain, and write about other people’s obnoxious habits as well as the unnecessary cruelty of the French grammar. If this leads to my writing producing a nervous laughter reaction in others, I’d be satisfied.

But if you are done waiting for your audience to find you among pictures of cute pets, breathtaking exotic landscapes, wise things said once by already famous people, and hordes of newcomers joining the ranks of the unescapable online void we’re all floating into these days, just post something involving Hugh Grant and you’ll see immediate results.

Trust me on this.

On Substack/News/Articles

— How the world’s most creative people are using AI
— The Centre George Pompidou will be closing for renovations for the next five years
— Could a UK tourist tax support arts and culture?
— While The Atlantic was the fastest-growing magazine in the US last year, this side of the pond there isn’t any UK daily newspaper with a print circulation greater than 20,000
— World's largest call center is using AI to 'neutralize' Indian employees' accents
— DNA finally proves Jack the Ripper's true identity
— Amazon tests AI dubbing for select movies and TV series on Prime Video
— The UK streaming market has topped £1bn for the first time
— Did speaking English as a second language impact Zelensky in that meeting with Trump?

Books

— James by Percival Everett
Oftentimes when a new cultural product appears on the horizon that turns out to be a regurgitation of a previous cultural product (read franchises, read remakes, read the series adaptation of a film adaptation, read why are we doing this again?) the question of whether we may have run out of ideas is not only unavoidable but also necessary. However, there are exceptions and James is one of them. Yes, this novel is a retelling of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, a story you could argue has already been told, or has it?

Percival Everett takes us back to the Mississippi valley, to the roots of slavery, but this time we witness events unfold from Jim’s perspective, the runaway slave that must hide his natural intelligence in a desert of white ignorance in order to make it quietly to another day. Written in the characteristic clever, fluid and original prose of Everett, which oozes humour in every sentence while sheding a light on the cruelty of slavery but also the shared moments of humanity between Jim and Huck. The novel won the National Book Award in the USA and it truly deserved to have won the Booker Prize as well.

Series

— The Leopard
The much-anticipated new adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s eponymous novel is finally available on Netflix. Drawing inspiration both from the novel and the Luchino Visconti film adaptation from 1963, this sultry limited series captures a radiant Sicily in all its splendour before it exales its last breath with the arrival of Garibaldi and his army to the island, which will kickstart the process to the unification of Italy.

Italian critics have been divided as to whether this adaptation was necessary -so high-regarded is Visconti’s-, with even national broadcaster RAI dissing Netflix by reminding the public that there’s only one Leopard, of which they happen to have the broadcasting rights. However, the series has been on Netflix Italy Top 10 since it premiered, and English-speaking critics have also received it favourably. And while this new adaptation may be skewed more towards style than substance, the cast packs a decent punch to bring to life this beloved classic on the unavoidability of change.

Kim Rossi Stuart makes a convincing Don Fabrizio, Prince of Salina, the Leopard of the title and head of a respectable and very powerful aristocratic family that now is witnessing his world collapse with the arrival of a new world order that his nephew Tancredi (Saul Nanni) seems ready to embrace, as do an emerging class of business men ready to do anything for a taste of power, and who is embodied perfectly in Don Calogero Sedara (a superb Francesco Colella). And because classics are timeless and speak to us no matter when we read them (or watch them), this new adaptation has given a bigger role to Concetta (portrayed by a wonderful Benedetta Porcaroli), the favourite daughter of Don Fabrizio, who like this new Sicily is keen to to find her own path towards freedom.

Films

— Renfield
In the last Culture Fix I talked about my adoration for Nosferatu, which left me craving vampire films and Nicholas Hoult in equal parts. Luckily Renfield came to the rescue, a film that focuses on the toxic relationship between Renfield (Hoult showing his extraordinary talent at deapand, absurb comedy), who finds himself unexpectedly in therapy discussing his narcisistic boss Dracula as he tries to find a way to free himself up from his hold. I can’t put into words how hilarious this film is (and a bit gory, you’ve been warned) and how much I loved Nicholas Cage as a power-hungry Dracula obsessed with world domination. He was made to play that role.

— Mickey 17
From the trailer, Mickey 17 had everything to be an intriguing film: What would happen in a future where human beings can be cloned with a 3-D printer after they die to study the effects of death on the body? Unfortunately, the film loses grip as it progresses until it eventually deflates unceremoniously in a very chaotic third act that could have been chopped altogether. I had high expectations for Bong Joon Ho’s new sci-fiction satire as I adored Parasite, but despite having two Robert Pattinsons for the price of one in it, this is a bit of a flop no matter what Rotten Tomatoes says. No need to reboot it in a few years, thanks (especially because it’s already an adaptation of the novel Mickey7 by Edward Ashton)

— Black Bag
This edition seems to be an ode to remakes of sorts. So here’s one more: Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh’s latest film that has echoes of Ocean’s 11 and other films which are very aesthetically satifsfying to watch even though nothing much happens in them when in theory it should (The Man from U.N.C.L.E. comes to mind as a fitting example).

Listen, if you give me Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchet as a power spy couple who aren’t out of place on a Gucci campaign, I’m going to love them regardless. The problem is this isn’t a Gucci campaign, it’s a spy thriller with zero thrills. None whatsoever¹, and I’m not exagerating as the second time I went to see it, a few people were laughing (not giggling, laughing!) during peak tension scenes. To be fair, it’s not the worst film I’ve watched this year and it doesn’t hurt that everyone looks fantastic in their tailored clothes and gradient sunglassess - too good to be credible as unremarkable spies to be honest.

Besides, there may even be a sequel as the audience has reacted positively, so what’s not to like about a not so thrilling spy thriller with great photography and infested with well-dressed good-looking actors? Oh, and the main soundtrack theme is very sexy even if that too sounds like something that has been made before.

— The Summer with Carmen
Tuquoise waters in dreamy and sunny Mediterranean country? Check. Summer vibes via shorts and colourful shirts? Check. Male frontal nudity and actors that seem live action versions of classic Greek sculptures? Yes, please, you’re welcome.

Don’t be fooled by all the meat and sex on screen. The Summer with Carmen is Zacharias Mavroeidis’s clever and witty metafilm about two friends, Demosthenes and Nikitas, who onced shared the passion for acting but have now followed diverging paths. One day while on holiday at a nudist beach, Nikitas, who is now a director, has to hand in a script and starts discussing the producer’s requirements (fun, sexy, Greek, queer, low budget) with Demosthenes, who has long abandoned acting in favour of a stable job as a civil servant.

As the two talk about potential ideas -with Demosthenes pitching the summer he broke up with his boyfriend and met Carmen, a stray dog, as the main plot line for the film Nikita is writing,- the script starts taking shape and we embark on ride into their friendship through flashbacks that show us their strong bond and their respective flaws as human beings as well as the contagious nature and healing power of the creative process.

Interviews/Podcasts

— Apple Music has launched The King’s Music Room, a podcast where King Charles picks his favourite music across The Commonwealth.

— Coming to a streaming platform near you is also Confessions of a Female Founder with Meghan Markle, who has closed a deal with Lemonada Media to launch a new podcast in April.

— Michelle Obama and her brother Craig Robinson have lauched a weekly podcast. I really enjoyed their conversation -and sibling dynamic- about friendship where they are joined by actor Issa Rae.

— I have a soft spot for Amelia Dimoldenberg so I’ve enjoyed the special Chicken Shop Date episodes she’s done for the Oscars with Jesse Eissenberg, Mikey Maddison and Yura Borisov. I’ve also loved that she was doing the red carpet interviews one more year. And for those of you who have been following the gossip, she’s also spoken with Monica Barbaro, who is rumoured to be dating Andrew Garfield, who was rumoured to be romantically interested in Amelia after his playful non-stop flirting during his Chicken Shop Date episode. Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed it was all for the audience.

Music

— Master Peace
Indie music is having a revival and I’m here for it. One of its latest exponents is Master Peace, aka Peace Okezie, a London-born and raised singer whose debut album How to Make a Master Peace (which won him an Ivor Novello Award for Rising Star in 2024) exudes early 2000s influences and brings back the playfulness and freshness of the early indie artists.

Okezie has talked about how he struggled to be taken seriously as a Black indie musician and how his music has often been miscategorised, but how pursuing his creative vision and the sound he wanted to make has been deeply rewarding. In this he joins the ranks of his contemporaries Doechii and Chappelle Roan, who have also fought for making music on their own terms, defying trends and expectations, a very refreshing approach at a time when the industry seems to be more interested on TikTok hits than on artists experimenting with their music.

I was very lucky to see Master Peace live recently as he opened for Franz Ferdinand at their London shows in early March and I was immediately captivated by his energy on stage and his sound.

— The Cartier exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum opens on 12th April and I can’t wait to be blinded by the lights of those jewels.

— I’m going to see Jonathan Bailey in Richard II at the Bridge Theatre in early April. Reviews are mixed but I’m very excited for my first ever Shakespeare play. I know, I can’t believe it either after all these years in London.

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Abroad is an independent publication about London, living in between cultures, languages, books, music, films, creativity, and being human in the age of artificial intelligence.

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1. Ok, fine, there is ONE moment where everyone went “ouch!” but it comes early on and that’s about it until the end when there’s another “wow!” moment but it comes minutes before the end credits and therefore doesn’t have the impact it should.