Half the buyers of vinyl records do not have a record player
3 May 2023
Image courtesy of SanderSmit.
I was pleased to see the back of my (admittedly modest) collection of vinyl records a decade or two ago. I was not a fan of the format. The records (and their covers) needed to be handled with great care, the vinyl seemed to scratch all too easily, and, like a large number of paper books, were an imposition when it came to moving house.
Such concerns are of little importance to others though. Last year, sales of vinyl records surged by twenty percent, compared to the year before. 2022 was indeed a good year for vinyl, with sales at their highest since 1988. Despite the resurgence vinyl records are enjoying though, sales today remain a shadow of what they were during the 1970’s.
But here’s the thing, even though sales of vinyl are skyrocketing, fifty percent of buyers do not have a turntable, or a record player. This according to research conducted by Luminate, a company analysing music sales data, says Abby Jones, writing for Consequence:
Luminate’s “Top Entertainment Trends for 2023” report found that of the 3,900 US-based respondents surveyed, “50% of consumers who have bought vinyl in the past 12 months own a record player, compared to 15% among music listeners overall.” So — feel free to double-check our math here — that would indicate that 50% of vinyl buyers over the past year have no way to play those records at home.
So what goes here then? Record players are still available. So why not buy one to enjoy the music you’ve bought? Are some buyers of vinyl treating the format like a tradable commodity, and attempting to speculate on their value?
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Iranian film director Jafar Panahi has travel ban lifted
3 May 2023
Here’s a coincidence, just days after I saw Taxi, also known as Tehran Taxi, a film made in 2015 by Jafar Panahi, news comes through that a travel ban placed on the Iranian filmmaker fourteen years ago has been lifted.
His travel ban was first imposed in 2009, after his attendance at the funeral of a student killed in the Green Revolution. Panahi then attempted to shoot a film using the uprising as a backdrop. The following year, he was given a six-year suspended prison sentence and 20 year ban on travel and film-making for “making propaganda against the system”.
It is said Panahi — who has frequently clashed with the Iranian government — has since left the country, and is in France, where it has been speculated he will be attending this year’s Cannes Film Festival as a juror.
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The Galactic Menagerie, a Wes Anderson like Star Wars story
2 May 2023
Earlier this year we saw what might have happened had Star Wars creator George Lucas made 2001: A Space Odyssey. But instead of asking what might have happened had Stanley Kubrick made a Star Wars film, what about imagining Wes Anderson doing so instead?
Well, imagine no more. Sort of. The Galactic Menagerie, is a Star Wars story with all the pastel coloured eccentric whimsy of a Wes Anderson film:
Journey to a galaxy far, far away and experience a unique adventure featuring Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, and other fan favorites. Watch as they navigate the Galactic Menagerie, a universe filled with eccentric creatures, charming droids, and peculiar locations reminiscent of Anderson’s beloved films such as “Moonrise Kingdom” and “The Grand Budapest Hotel.”
And all the usual Wes Anderson suspects are here as well. Scarlett Johansson stars as Princess Leia, Edward Norton as Han Solo, Bill Murray as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jeff Goldblum as the emperor, Owen Wilson as Darth Vader, and Timothée Chalamet as Luke Skywalker.
The trailer was crafted by Shelby and Caleb Ward of Curious Refuge, using a variety of AI tools. Something like this had to happen sooner or later. I wonder if Anderson’s soon to be released sci-fi feature, Asteroid City, had anything to do with it?
As for the Galactic Menagerie, too bad it’s not an actual film, hey?
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film, George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, video, Wes Anderson
Los lobos, AKA The Wolves, by Samuel Kishi film review
30 April 2023
America is the land of hope and glory. According to legend, it’s the place to make a new start in life. And, more importantly perhaps, is also home to Disneyworld. The prospect of visiting the entertainment complex is an enticement Lucia (Martha Reyes Arias) has offered her young school age sons, Max (Maximiliano Nájar Márquez), and Leo (Leonardo Nájar Márquez), as they immigrate to the United States.
Unknown circumstances have forced the family to leave their native Mexico. But Lucia knows the life waiting them on the other side of the border will be anything but the stuff of dreams. She’ll be working long hours in menial jobs, despite being capable of bigger things. They’ll be calling a barely habitable apartment their home. But Lucia hopes the lure of one day going to Disneyworld will help Max and Leo see passed these hardships.
Unable to yet place the boys in a school, Lucia leaves them at home, alone, when she goes to work. Sometimes she does not return until late in the evening. Max and Leo are subject to a number of rules, including never leaving the apartment, unless it is on fire. To pass the long days with only each other for company, the boys retreat into a fantasy realm, and imagine themselves to be Ninja Turtles.
Max and Leo also speculate about their absent father. All they have of him is a photo on an old identity card, from his days as a police officer. What became of him, they don’t know. All Lucia will say is he “went away by lightbulb”. Unsurprisingly, the boys are often transfixed by a broken lightbulb in the apartment, and seemingly will their father to return to their lives through it.
But boredom begins to get the better of Max and Leo. The apartment is too confining. All they have to amuse themselves is an old cassette recorder. Too much is going on around the apartment complex. A group of slightly older boys, who also don’t seem to be at school, play football in the courtyard. Max and Leo yearn to join them. But their desire for companionship comes with unfortunate consequences.
Los lobos (trailer), also known as The Wolves, is partly based on the experiences of Mexican filmmaker Samuel Kishi, who also co-wrote the screenplay. For reasons I cannot fathom though, Kishi’s second feature, made in 2019, seems to have been overlooked by most film-goers. Certainly, no fault lies in the scene framing or cinematography, which is exceptional.
Nor the slow-burning, sometimes evasive, storytelling. We learn little about the life Lucia and her sons had in Mexico, and remain equally in the dark as to their fate come the credit roll, though the aforementioned lightbulb allegory is eloquently resolved. Los lobos is a slice of life gem not to miss.
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Are you a movie buff, or a Buzzfeed movie buff?
30 April 2023
According to Buzzfeed, if you’ve seen the following fourteen movies, you’re a movie buff:
- Alice in Wonderland directed by Tim Burton
- Beetlejuice directed by Tim Burton
- Burlesque directed by Steve Antin
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial directed by Steven Spielberg
- Footloose directed by Herbert Ross (I think they mean the 1984 film)
- Heathers directed by Michael Lehmann
- Jennifer’s Body directed by Karyn Kusama
- Mean Girls directed by Mark Waters
- Suicide Squad directed by David Ayer
- The Bye Bye Man directed by Stacy Title
- The Harry Potter films directed by various
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower directed by Stephen Chbosky
- The Texas Chainsaw Massacre directed by Tobe Hooper
- Up directed by Pete Docter and Bob Peterson
Methinks a number of movies, one in particular, have been omitted from this list…
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Do you share your birthday with a famous author?
30 April 2023
Australian writer and book reviewer Sheree Strange has put together a list of the birthdays of well-known authors. If you’re stuck for a birthday gift idea for a friend or relative, maybe you could get them a book written by the writer who they share their birthday with.
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The Jaguar by Sarah Holland-Batt wins 2023 Stella Prize
27 April 2023
It’s been a good couple of years for poetry at the Stella Prize. And for the University of Queensland Press (UQP). This evening Queensland born Australian author Sarah Holland-Batt was named winner of the 2023 award, with her collection of poetry, The Jaguar, published by UQP, in May 2022. Holland-Batt follows Evelyn Araluen, winner of the 2022 Stella with her collection of poetry, Dropbear, also published by UQP.
The Jaguar is Holland-Batt’s third book, and was written in the wake of her father being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and his later death in 2020:
With electrifying boldness, Sarah Holland-Batt confronts what it means to be mortal in an astonishing and deeply humane portrait of a father’s Parkinson’s Disease, and a daughter forged by grief. Opening and closing with startling elegies set in the charged moments before and after a death, and fearlessly probing the body’s animal endurance, appetites and metamorphoses, The Jaguar is marked by Holland-Batt’s lyric intensity and linguistic mastery, along with a stark new clarity of voice.
Alice Pung, chair of this year’s judging panel, describes Holland-Batt’s prose as “unexpected and unforgettable“:
In The Jaguar, Sarah Holland-Batt writes about death as tenderly as we’ve ever read about birth. She focuses on the pedestrian details of hospitals and aged care facilities, enabling us to see these institutions as distinct universes teeming with life and love. Her imagery is unexpected and unforgettable, and often blended with humour. This is a book that cuts through to the core of what it means to descend into frailty, old age, and death. It unflinchingly observes the complex emotions of caring for loved ones, contending with our own mortality and above all – continuing to live.
The Stella Prize is not the only accolade The Jaguar has garnered. It was named The Australian’s, 2022 Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize, which is part of the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards.
Update: see Holland-Batt’s Stella Prize acceptance speech here.
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Andrea Huelin named winner of 2023 Archibald Packing Room Prize
27 April 2023
Cairns, Queensland, based Australian artist Andrea Huelin, has been named winner of the 2023 Archibald Packing Room Prize, with her portrait of New Zealand comedian Cal Wilson, titled Clown Jewels.
In addition, fifty-seven works were selected as finalists for the 2023 Archibald Prize, the winner of which will be announced on Friday 5 May 2023. This year over nine hundred entries were received for the annual art award honouring Australian portrait painting.
Finalists were also announced for the Wynne Prize for Australian landscape painting, the Sulman Prize for genre or mural painting, and the Young Archies, for artists aged five to eighteen.
The winners of these prizes will also be named next Friday, ahead of the opening of the exhibition of the works of the winners and finalists, on Saturday 6 May 2023, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, in Sydney.
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American libraries report increase in book challenges
26 April 2023
The American Library Association (ALA) has published a list of the top ten books subject to some sort of challenge, based on their content, or subject matter, in the last twelve months. While the majority of challenges related to books written by, or about, people of colour, and LGBTQIA+ community members, the ALA also noted a sharp overall increase in objections over the last year:
Libraries in every state faced another year of unprecedented attempts to ban books. In 2022, ALA tracked the highest number of censorship reports since the association began compiling data about library censorship more than 20 years ago. ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom tracked 2,571 unique titles targeted for censorship, a 38% increase from the 1,858 unique titles targeted in 2021. Most of the targeted books were written by or about members of the LGBTQIA+ community and people of color.
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First time authors report negative publishing experiences
26 April 2023
A recent survey conducted by British book industry magazine The Bookseller, found a little over half of first time authors did not finding the publishing experience positive:
Among the majority who said they had a negative experience of debut publication, anxiety, stress, depression and “lowered” self-esteem were cited, with lack of support, guidance or clear and professional communication from their publisher among the factors that contributed.
There seemed to be little difference between independent and “big four” publishers, according to survey participants. Making for a smoother experience for first time authors seems to be something all publishers need to focus on.
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