Sunday 22 October 2017

Links 22/10/17

Politics

I have not mentioned the Austrian Parliamentary elections, mainly because this is no longer my home and I spent enough years struggling with that particular misery, but for the record, it looks like the People's Party will once again govern the country - which I believe makes it 29.01 out of 30.10 years of my life, in a stunning display of how to successfully never be held accountable for your own actions. It also looks like the Freedom Party will make a return to the governing coalition after the crash and burn of 2000-2007. 

All of this is insane: 
“I know for a fact that every single day at the White House, it’s a situation of trying to contain him,” Corker said, adding later that most GOP lawmakers “understand the volatility that we’re dealing with and the tremendous amount of work that it takes by people around him to keep him in the middle of the road.” 
The Washington Post: Inside the ‘adult day-care center’: How aides try to control and coerce Trump, October 16, 2017

All of the personal stories emerging concerning Harvey Weinstein's frequent assaults on women are horrifying to read, as are all the other reports of other high profile figures abusing their positions of power (like Björk's about Lars von Trier).  

Pop Culture: 

Music - a long portrait of techno culture in Detroit (and gentrification) at Roads & Kingdoms. 


Halt and Catch Fire, perhaps the best television show this year, ended magnificently after turning itself inside out, and refocusing entirely after its first season (after realising that two of its minor characters were the most interesting people on the show, and should be at its moral and emotional centre). 

Some book recommendations: Annalee Newitz' Autonomous, Paolo Bacigalupi's The Water Knife, Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere

Runaways will premier on November 21st and here is a final trailer (also highly recommended, Rainbow Rowell's writing for the returned comics). 

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