[Editor's Note: This will be the last of the daily link posts. I was going to try for the year, but without a particular focus it's taking too much of the day to do and stopped being fun. Hope you've enjoyed it and be assured, if I'm still here, Christmas Links will be back in December.]
Radio 4 and Radio 3 explore the legacy of Modernism: BBC Media Centre: "Marking 100 years since the publication of Ulysses, Radio 4 and Radio 3 explore Modernism’s big bang - and its aftershocks - in a season of programmes."
EJ Dickson: "The ‘Yellowjackets’ star has gone from character actor to leading lady thanks to her singular ability to project simmering rage beneath a placid exterior."
Jay Rayner: "Give us over-50s a menu we can read, grownup waiters and the chance to hold a conversation. It’s not too much to ask – and it makes business sense too."
Dylan Moriarty and Joe Fox: "Politicians in all but a few states have something urgent to quarrel about these days: maps! Control of the U.S. House is on the line — or within the lines. Here’s the deal: The once-a-decade census determines how many people from each state go to Washington, D.C. And states get to fiddle with the boundaries of those congressional districts. How the maps are drawn can make a big difference in which party winds up on top."
John Hoare: "At the end of last year, we talked a little about how some sitcoms were shot far closer to transmission than I ever expected. But sometimes, such stories just seem a little too unbelievable. Take Are You Being Served? – or, specifically, Wikipedia’s episode guide for the show. If you scan your eyes down that list until you reach Series 5, you will come across something rather odd."
Meredith Jacobs: "Jeremy Sisto, now in his fourth season as Assist. Special Agent in Charge Jubal Valentine on FBI, was no stranger to Dick Wolf‘s (ever-growing) TV universe before he joined the CBS procedural. In fact, Law & Order, on which he played Detective Cyrus Lupo from 2008 to 2010, is coming back for its 21st (!) season on February 24 on NBC."
What happened to the Fox films Disney picked up? Simon Brew: "Disney inherited a slate of Fox movies when it bought the studio up in 2019 – here’s what happened to one that survived the initial cull of projects."
Emily Yahr: "Struggling to constantly promote herself online, she posted that she’d rather just be a musician and a performer. Artists everywhere told her they feel the same way."
Mia Mercado: "Actors will go to great lengths for their art. Take, for example, Neve Campbell, who, at 17, was attacked by a bear while shooting a movie."
Eli Grober: "Here at Time, we have made a number of changes over the last couple years. Now that 2022 is here, we’re announcing several major updates."
EJ Dickson: "On this week’s episode of ‘Don’t Let This Flop,’ we talk Adult Disney pranks, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings,” and the resurgence of 2014 Tumblr girlie style."
Jordan Maison: "The latest Disney+ Star Wars series went to great lengths to infuse its Tusken tribe with influences from real-world Indigenous cultures."
Abbey White: "Composer Ramin Djawadi explains his approach to crafting themes for an atypical MCU movie, setting up a major twist through music and working with director Chloé Zhao on the film, out on Disney+ this week."
Elle May Rice: "The festival celebrating the music and culture of Africa, the Caribbean and the diaspora will return after a two-year hiatus brought on by the coronavirus pandemic."
Thomas Bacon: "Doctor Who will continue the story of Jo Martin's Forgotten, Fugitive Doctor - but she's jumping into a completely different medium in April!"
Brendan Kergin: "The UBC library has been gifted a rare and important book: a first edition version of William Shakespeare’s Comedies Histories and Tragedies. Printed in 1623, there are only 235 left in the world; this one is only the second to come to Canada."
Adam Scovell: "With François Truffaut’s French New Wave classic The 400 Blows back in cinemas, we went in search of the locations, including the beach where that famous final freeze-frame takes place."
BBC Radio 4: "... four women from different parts of Britain share stories of street harassment. Woven through this feature is a new, specially commissioned poem by Hollie McNish."
Mark Harrison: "Three songs from Encanto have popped up in this week’s UK Official Singles Chart – with stats and waffle, here are some of Disney’s other chart hit crossovers."
Philip Kemp: "Director Will Sharpe proves himself to be one of the UK’s most individual filmmakers with a colourful biopic on Victorian cat artist Louis Wain, played by Benedict Cumberbatch."
[Editor's note: Features a few spoilers if you don't know the actual life of Louis Wain and a reveals couple of casting choices, the surprise of which are part of the film's charm.]
Henry K Miller: "Alfred Hitchcock described his third film, The Lodger, as the true beginning of his directorial career but it would prove a near fatal screen debut for its leading light June Tripp."
Alexandra Pollard: "As the voice of Maria in ‘West Side Story’ and Eliza Doolittle in ‘My Fair Lady’, Marni Nixon should have been one of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Instead, other actors got the credit and she became American cinema’s ‘most unsung singer’."
Damian Zane: "Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine has made it his mission to preserve and exhibit the work of the late Ugandan studio photographer Kibaate Aloysius Ssalongo, who recorded the lives of people from the rural town of Mbirizi."
VizSweet: "How many words did William Shakespeare invent? Probably around 1,000. Here are 400+ words Shakespeare invented or coined, a selection of the most interesting or notable." [via]
RSC Press: "An evening of programmes on Sunday 16 January, including a screening of 2014's Henry IV Part I, in which Sir Antony memorably played Falstaff."
Michael Billington: "Edmond Rostand’s great romantic has drawn actors including Ralph Richardson, Antony Sher and James McAvoy to its lead role. It is a tale of glorious theatricality, glittering poetry and heroic self-sacrifice."
Jennifer Maas: "Sharon Stone has joined HBO Max’s “The Flight Attendant” for Season 2, playing the mother of star Kaley Cuoco’s Cassie Bowden, Variety has learned."
Ivy Knight: "A production company chartered a party flight to Mexico, but when their antics ended up going viral, the rest of the world didn’t find it so amusing."
Jenny G. Zhang: "One of the U.K.’s largest energy suppliers has been forced to say sowwy for sending customers what were supposed to be helpful tips for keeping heating bills down this winter, including some endearingly twee ones like cuddling for warmth and having a nice bowl of porridge."
Apollo: "... There are many reasons for 1922 to be considered a milestone in the history of literary modernism, such as the publication of ‘The Waste Land’ by T.S. Eliot and Jacob’s Room by Virginia Woolf, but the publication of Joyce’s novel is the most compelling."
Star of Christmas film sets up online boutique: David Adamson: "Ellie Coldicutt, 24, starred as Beth in the festive favourite Nativity! back in 2009, charming viewers with the song Sparkle and Shine before going on to feature in the sequel as well as touring productions of The Sound of Music and the RSC’s Richard III."
Amy Zegart: "Espionage-themed entertainment is influencing policy makers, from soldiers fighting on the front lines to justices sitting on the nation’s highest court."
Ian Walker: "A Calgary-based programmer recently shared his work turning a rotary telephone into what may be the least effective video game controller of all time."
Laura Cappelle: "The Comédie-Française is celebrating the 17th-century dramatist by recreating Tartuffe, the play that outraged the Catholic church and almost ended his career."
Lisa Gitelman: "Anyone who remembers making the transition from typewriting to word processing has probably thrown away a fair number of floppy disks and jettisoned more than a few computers since then. Bad for the planet, yes. But it also poses particular challenges for the stewards and denizens of archives."
Mark Sinker: "Beano: The Art of Breaking the Rules (at Somerset House until 6 March 2022) consists of pages and tales from the comic’s eight decades, loosely organised into themes, along with work by some forty non-Beano artists that amplifies its characters, motifs and slapstick."
Dade Hayes: "TikTok’s grip on young audiences is a well-established fact, but the social network has just released a new report detailing how that defining trait has made it increasingly attractive to Hollywood."
Jacqui Wine: "I loved this novella, a striking portrayal of a determined young woman set in Weimar-era Cologne. First published in 1931, and subsequently banned by the Nazi authorities, Gilgi (One of Us), was Irmgard Keun’s debut novel, announcing its author as a powerful new voice in German literature."
Matt Singer: "This week’s episode of The Book of Boba Fett introduced two new characters to the series’ cast, a pair of corpulent alien crime lords from the race known as “The Hutts.” Cousins of the notorious Jabba the Hutt, they are carried along on a sagging throne by a legion of footmen."
Wendy Molyneux: "Hi, if you are reading this essay then congratulations, you are still alive. And if you are alive, then you have either gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, or you still have the opportunity to get the vaccine against COVID-19. And holy fuck, if you aren’t fucking vaccinated against COVID-19, then you need to get fucking vaccinated right now. I mean, what the fuck? Fuck you. Get vaccinated. Fuck."
Arts Industry News: "Curators and management staff at the Gladstone Museum, with its famously recognisable brick bottle kilns where Channel 4’s popular Great Pottery Throw Down is filmed, and the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery have been told that all their posts are to be deleted as the council seeks to cut £7.1m from its annual budget. Both were scheduled to re-open on January 18 after a Christmas closure lengthened by the Omicron Covid crisis."
Forget Sherlock Holmes and try these other Victorian detectives: Clare Clarke: "Rivals, clones and parodies of Baker Street’s finest sprang to life in the late 19th century. Clare Clarke walks you through the best of the bunch, from Loveday Brooke to Flaxman Low."
Gemma Chan: "The actor knew her father had served in the merchant navy, but it wasn’t until she read about Britain’s mistreatment of Chinese seamen in the 40s that she understood just how much his experiences had shaped her family."
Dan Hancox: "During the second world war, Chinese merchant seamen helped keep Britain fed, fuelled and safe – and many gave their lives doing so. But from late 1945, hundreds of them who had settled in Liverpool suddenly disappeared. Now their children are piecing together the truth."
Michael Cavna: "Luke McGarry began drawing a nude Pooh Bear as soon as he heard the news. The original, nearly 100-year-old “bear of very little brain” from the Hundred Acre Wood had rung in this new year by entering the public domain. Now quite humbly, McGarry’s creative appetite felt rumbly."
Karyn Starmer: "I love Christmas I really do. I love a good party and a thoughtful gift. As a child, I was fortunate to grow up with all the anticipation of Christmas Eve, then the early morning excitement to see what the man in red had delivered."
Alison Flood: "Independent sellers have battled lockdowns, supply-chains issues and Amazon to reclaim their place in the industry. We speak to the people who opened their own."
Mirna Abdulaal: "It is easy to see the buzz expressions “mental health” and “ways to cope with stress/anxiety” appear regularly on social media, but it’s even harder to directly interact with someone who struggles from anxiety."
Julian Mark: "Passengers on a Canadian charter flight danced, drank alcohol and vaped as they made their way from Montreal to Cancún, Mexico, the day before New Year’s Eve. Video footage of the rave-like atmosphere made its way onto social media, and the images of maskless travelers partying in the air amid surging coronavirus cases sparked broad condemnation."
News Desk (AFP): "A herd of goats grazing on a London city farm are getting their teeth into hundreds of unwanted Christmas trees donated by residents in a fundraising drive."
Sheelah Kolhatkar: "Since its installation, the sculpture, by Kristen Visbal, has been mired in legal disputes and claims of “fake corporate feminism.” New York City will soon decide its fate."
Laurian Clemence: "As we welcome in another year, and reflect on the turbulent one that’s passed, the existential words of Professor Stephen Hawking are as poignant as ever: “Remember to look up at the stars, and not down at your feet.”"
Nigel Andrews: "... revisits his interviews with Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen and Debbie Reynolds to tell the story of how they created Hollywood’s most enduring musical."
Aleksandar Brezar: "Mostar’s rich skyline, with mosques and Catholic church towers peeking out above buildings and set against an imposing mountain range, now once again features the towers of an elegant Orthodox church — perched on a hill above the city’s eastern side — after it was destroyed during the brutal war in the city almost 30 years ago."
Lee Grimsditch: "The shopping centre opened in 1989 and faced fierce opposition from conservationists who wanted to preserve the city's Georgian heritage."
How Jessica Simpson Almost Lost Her Name: Stephanie Clifford/Eliza Ronalds- Hannon: "The pop star’s billion-dollar fashion brand fell into the hands of the wrong company. After a two-year battle, she finally bought it back."
Simon Hattenstone: "The actor opens up about her queer years with Derek Jarman and her latest clutch of films, and reveals her plans for a career change. And all while taking her five spaniels for a walk."
Big Finish: "Brigadier Winifred Bambera returns to the UNIT front line in her own brand new series of full-cast audio dramas from Big Finish Productions."
Chris Peterson: "Back in February of 2021, we told you about Todd Spann, the Indianapolis-based science fiction super fan who created a Star Trek set in his basement. The project took more than three years to complete. Nearly a year later, Spann made use of his creation, releasing a new short film based on Star Trek and filmed entirely on location at his home in Indiana."
Elizabeth A. Harris: "Filippo Bernardini, an Italian citizen who worked in publishing, was charged with wire fraud and identity theft for a scheme that prosecutors said affected hundreds of people over five or more years."
Reeves Wiedeman/Lila Shapiro: "For years, a mysterious figure has been stealing books before their release. Is it espionage? Revenge? Or a complete waste of time?"
Diamond Geezer: "Just before Christmas I published a simple infographic summarising the sequence of lockdown restrictions over the last two years... a brief monthly snapshot of fluctuating curbs on freedom."
Chris Velazco/Tatum Hunter : "The consumer electronics trade show salutes 2022 with some of the strangest technologies we’ve seen in a while. Here are the highlights."
Rob Beschizza: "... this Sony demo video from 1990, then, is an uncanny thing: the technology and image detail we register as a 21st-century experience but with the lighting, style and vibe at least a decade older."
Gary Bainbridge: "I’m now selling some absolutely tremendous food-related greetings cards through the portal Thortful under the brand name Cheerful Sheep."
Errol Laborde: "True New Orleanians never have to worry about post-Christmas letdown. That’s because, to most of the world, the the day that is the twelfth and final day of Christmas is recognized locally as Twelfth Night, the first day of the Carnival season."
Daniel Victor: "The word game has gone from dozens of players to hundreds of thousands in a few months. It was created by a software engineer in Brooklyn for his partner."
Mona Khalifeh: "ET's Nischelle Turner spoke to Chastain ahead of the release of her new action film, The 355, where she ensured that her female co-stars -- Penélope Cruz, Lupita Nyong’o, Fan Bingbing and Diane Kruger -- were all compensated both equally and fairly, something she's done on previous projects."
"Survival — of books, and of the rare-book business itself — is a particular art. Grace Flynn: Alongside Monet paintings, rare books and manuscripts ranging from first edition religious texts to Leonardo da Vinci’s notes are considered some of the most prized collectibles in the world."
Public Domain Review: "On the chime of midnight last night, as many of us welcomed in — by booze-fuelled countdown or bliss of sleep — the start of a new year, the public domain had a special moment too, welcoming in many thousands more works into its ever-growing expanse, including Winnie The Pooh, poems by Dorothy Parker, and Franz Kafka’s The Castle."
Matt Haughey: "In early 2011, at the Webstock conference in Wellington, New Zealand, my new friend Jeremy Keith was on stage talking about the impermanence of the web and the ephemeral nature of our work and over drinks afterwards together we came up with a quick challenge for a Long Bet."
David Vetter: "Netflix’s Don’t Look Up, which released on Christmas Eve, is not a subtle movie. It is a brash, absurdist satire about the incapability of our political and media classes to respond appropriately to impending, world-ending disaster." [via]
Probably Charlie Brooker: "Philomena Cunk's latest landmark mockumentary series Cunk On Earth will see the long-awaited return of pioneering documentary-maker Philomena Cunk on her most ambitious quest to date; venturing right up humanity to find out who we are, how we got here and what was the point. Cunk on Earth will see the long-awaited return of pioneering documentary-maker Philomena Cunk on her most ambitious quest to date; venturing right up humanity to find out who we are, how we got here and what was the point."
Sharanya Hrishikesh: "... many women were not impressed. They saw it as a mere gimmick, and a deeply offensive one at that, claiming to break down the very thing it's built upon: the male gaze."
Claire Potter: "In 1900, ornithologist Frank Chapman proposed that Americans celebrate the Christmas season by counting birds instead of hunting them, and the Audubon Christmas Bird Count was born."
Darcel Rockett: "If it’s been said once, it’s been said many times. There’s just something about Chicago — you just have to see the number of former/native members of our community making moves in other cities and venues, including those helming some of the country’s notable archives at institutions in Washington, D.C."
BBC Media Centre: "The work sits on a BBC 100 website which also features an interactive year-by-year timeline covering key moments in the BBC’s first 100 years."
Michael Hogan: "The journalist behind those ‘explainer’ videos on seeing his No 10 Christmas party video go viral, being a drum’n’bass DJ and wearing ‘an awful lot’ of blue."
Brendon Connelly: "2021’s mystery TV run the gamut of tones, from cosy to caustic. Here’s a quick survey of some of the better mystery series that puzzled armchair detectives over 12 months, including one solid gold masterpiece and plenty of other gems that were sadly overlooked. That’s the magic of VOD – they don’t need to stay overlooked forever."
Odi O'Malley: "Welcome to '¡Elígeme! ”, The section of the website in which we pay tribute to those album tracks that had enough value to be singles, but were replaced by other releases, sometimes better, on other more debatable occasions."
[Editor's note: Translation of a really good article on a Spanish pop website.]
Waiyee Yip: ""Do I not deserve to be Chinese just because I have small eyes?" That is what Chinese model Cai Niangniang wrote in a recent impassioned social media post, after old pictures of her went viral for all the wrong reasons."
Juliet Elperin: "TONGASS NATIONAL FOREST, Alaska — The Sitka spruce soaring more than 180 feet skyward has stood on this spot on Prince of Wales Island for centuries. While fierce winds have contorted the towering trunks of its neighbors, the spruce’s trunk is ramrod straight. Standing apart from the rest of the canopy, it ascends to the height of a 17-story building."
Serina Sandhu: "The social historian also believes ‘we’re missing a real trick in the way we’re teaching history’, adding that is should focus more on human beings."
Kristin Thompson: "Our regular readers know that this annual series began as a simple salute to 1917, the year in which the basic norms of the classical Hollywood cinema definitively gelled. Starting in 2008, it became the “The 10 best films of …” list. It has stood in for the year-end ten-best lists which critics and reviewers feel obligated to concoct but which we avoid."
Naomi Fry: "The British socialite, who has been convicted of conspiring with her late partner, Jeffrey Epstein, to groom minors for sexual abuse, continues to act like she has nothing to be ashamed of."
Alex Moreland: "To mark the 15th anniversary of the first episode, the cast and crew of the Doctor Who spinoff reflect on their favourite moments, how to tell stories for children, and working with Elisabeth Sladen Partly because I very much wanted to mark the end of last year with some words and it wasn’t until June that I finally accepted that wasn’t going to happen."
Alan Holden: "A number of upgrades to the railway infrastructure have been completed by Network Rail over Christmas between Euston, the Midlands and the North West."
Nichola Daunton: "Chances are you’ve never heard of Eunice Foote, but she was the first person to document climate change. Five years before the man credited for discovering it."
Jeanine Farley: "People have done some bizarre things in this world, but one of the stranger was reportedly taken by a German immigrant and drug manufacturer named Eugene Schieffelin, said to be an eccentric Anglophile and Shakespeare buff."
Claire Hamilton: "Two years ago, Joanne Anderson was a newly-elected back-bench Labour councillor, wondering what difference she would make in Liverpool."
Eaglemoss: "Say hello to an old enemy of the doctor, the Doctor Who: Borad Figurine has become a part of our huge collection of Doctor Who Figurine Collection."
James Whitbrook: "As The Book of Boba Fett prepares to explore the bounty hunter's post-sarlacc adventures, a look back at how he cheated death in Star Wars' old EU."
"Epic Games Store gives you a free game every week. Come back often for the exclusive offers. Download a free game or join a free-to-play game community today."
2021: 50 reasons I was cheerful: "John Wyver writes: Herewith a selection of books, television, art, Twitter, journalism, films and just a little music that kept me going, kept me sane and kept me cheerful during what was too often an annus miserabilis."
"Microsoft is adding a new feature to Edge, but you're probably not going to like it. The Chromium-based browser now has a games button, because why not?"
"Around the world people are getting used to post-lockdown life with vaccines doing the heavy lifting against Covid-19 as restrictions are eased. In China however, a hard elimination policy remains where the pandemic first began."
"Chile has lots of lithium, which is essential to the world’s transition to green energy. But anger over powerful mining interests, a water crisis and inequality has driven Chile to rethink how it defines itself."
"2002 was a year of change for the British charts. From the genre-shifting Number 1 debut from Girls Aloud to hits by the likes of Eminem and Liberty X."
"To write one article about One Foot in the Grave recording dates which hinges on the items in the Meldrews’ kitchen cabinets may be regarded as a misfortune. To write two looks like carelessness."
