Simon van Teutem - The Bermuda Triangle of Talent
Summary
In this book, (Dutch at the moment) Simon van Teutem shows how big companies recruit the smartest people – and what social consequences this has.
When Morgan Stanley intern Simon van Teutem’s hair falls onto his keyboard at the end of a long working day, he asks himself: what am I doing here? Like many other ambitious students, he wants to change the world. And yet he works late into the night for a bank. No world peace, cultured meat and climate breakthroughs, but Excel sheets, conference calls and business class flights. How did he end up here? In conversations with dozens of fellow students, bankers, lawyers and consultants, Simon van Teutem reconstructs how idealistic young people swim into the trap of big capital. The result is a candid insight into the world of big money, a mirror for everyone who is looking for meaning in work, and an urgent call to education, NGOs and the government to prevent the waste of talent.
'Like many other ambitious students, he wants to change the world. And yet he works late into the night for a bank.
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Timothy Snyder - On Tyranny
On Tyranny
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “bracing” (Vox) guide for surviving and resisting America’s turn towards authoritarianism, from “a rising public intellectual unafraid to make bold connections between past and present” (The New York Times)“Timothy Snyder reasons with unparalleled clarity, throwing the past and future into sharp relief. He has written the rare kind of book that can be read in one sitting but will keep you coming back to help regain your bearings.”—Masha Gessen
The Founding Fathers tried to protect us from the threat they knew, the tyranny that overcame ancient democracy. Today, our political order faces new threats, not unlike the totalitarianism of the twentieth century. We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience.
On Tyranny is a call to arms and a guide to resistance, with invaluable ideas for how we can preserve our freedoms in the uncertain years to come.
''Fascists rejected reason in the name of will, denying objective truth in favor of a glorious myth articulated by leaders who claimed to give voice to the people. '
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On Tyranny - Timothy Snyder
About the book and discussions about the presented issues:
All rights belong to the owners of the works presented.
Fac 1, Factory Communications 1979-1992
Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus.
The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Durutti Column, Happy Mondays, Northside, and (briefly) Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and James. Factory also ran The Haçienda nightclub, in partnership with New Order.
Factory Records used a creative team (most notably record producer Martin Hannett and graphic designer Peter Saville) which gave the label and the artists recording for it a particular sound and image. The label employed a unique cataloguing system that gave a number not just to its musical releases, but also to various other related miscellany, including artwork, films, living beings, and even Wilson’s own casket and tombstone.
Two short clips about Factory artefacts
“I am not a piece of hash. I’m in charge of Factory Records. I think.”
Tony Wilson
Fac 51, The Hacienda or How Not To Run A Club by Peter Hook - #update
The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club by Peter Hook
The Haçienda was, as Hook says, in many ways the perfect example of how not to run a club – if you view a nightclub as a money-making business. But if, like the baggy trousered philanthropists Factory, you see it as an altruistic gift to your hometown and a breeding ground for the next generation of youth culture, it was, accidentally, purposefully, shambolically, anarchically, thrillingly, scarily, inspirationally, perfect.
Peter Hook is a founding member of Joy Division and New Order
See him talk about it.
See this short documentary about The Hacienda.
Hans Schnitzler - We Nihilists
Wij Nihilisten
An elite of tech entrepreneurs has succeeded in dominating people and society in a very short time. Since the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, services such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat or the cloud have become indispensable. In fifteen years, a collective digital conversion has taken place that has radically changed our lives.
In Wij nihilisten, Hans Schnitzler poses a question that is hardly ever asked: how did this virtual class manage to do this? Inspired by, among other things, Friedrich Nietzsche’s writings on nihilism, he goes in search of the cultural roots of this success. His quest immerses the reader in the wonderful world of the archetype of the internet age: the nerd. At the same time, he presents a mirror to us: in fact we are all nerds.
The data revolution threatens to eat its own children. With this book, Schnitzler urges us to face our own part in this. Because only when we are aware of this change is possible.
You can buy the book here (Dutch only):
https://www.debezigebij.nl/boek/wij-nihilisten/
'The one who sees it all, sees nothing'
C.S. Lewis
Videos about the book and discussions about the presented issues:
All rights belong to the owners of the works presented.
Alessandro Baricco - The Game
Alessandro Baricco presents a theory to the world why we live in the world we live in today.
He calls it The Game
Fascinating on many different levels.
Johnny Marr - Guitar Genius
Johnny Marr (born John Martin Maher; 31 October 1963) is an English musician, songwriter and singer, best known as the guitarist and – with Morrissey – co-songwriter of the Smiths, who were active from 1982 to 1987.
Some appetizers on this page, but you should read the biography to hear it all
from the man himself, no ghostwriters involved.
Johnny Marr: Set the Boy Free: The Autobiography
'Try to be the master of your craft'
Johnny Marr
See him talk about it…and many other subjects
On writing his biography:
“I didn’t want to use a ghostwriter, I was there, I had to write it, so I learned how to write and be good at it.”
Jan Böhmermann 'recipe' for a corporate pop hit
Jan Böhmermann shows us how it’s done in Germany. A hit written in 30 minutes and a clip using some original footage of Jim Pandzko (an alter ego of Jan Böhmermann) and a lot of stock images and video. The lyrics have been selected by chimps and are derived from calendars, tweets and other ‘found footage”. It also contains (fake) product placements. The hit is called Menschen, Leben, Tanzen, Welt. (People, Life, Dancing, World)
Nathan Barley - In 2005 light years ahead
Nathan Barley is a British Channel 4 television sitcom written by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris, starring Nicholas Burns, Julian Barratt, Claire Keelan, Richard Ayoade, Ben Whishaw, Rhys Thomas and Charlie Condou. The series of six weekly episodes began broadcasting on 11 February 2005 on Channel 4.
"I'm a self-facilitating media node"
Nathan Barley
According to Digital Spy, Nathan Barley was “a flop when it originally aired, but a cult hit on DVD”. It pulled in 700,000 viewers and a 3% share.[4]
The series features a (nowadays) famous cast such as:
- Nicholas Burns – Nathan Barley
- Julian Barratt – Dan Ashcroft
- Claire Keelan – Claire Ashcroft
- Richard Ayoade – Ned Smanks
- Ben Whishaw – Pingu
- Rhys Thomas – Toby
- Noel Fielding – Jones
- Spencer Brown – Rufus Onslatt
- Charlie Condou – Jonatton Yeah?
- David Hoyle – Doug Rocket
- Nina Sosanya – Sasha
- Kevin Eldon – Nikolai the Barber
- Julia Davis – Honda Poppet
- Benedict Cumberbatch – Robin
Nathan Barley, played by Nicholas Burns, is a webmaster, guerrilla filmmaker, screenwriter, DJ and in his own words, a “self-facilitating media node”. Whilst desperate to convince himself and others that he is the epitome of urban cool, Nathan is secretly terrified he might not be, which is why he reads Sugar Ape magazine, his bible of cool.
The website (trashbat.co.ck) consists of stupid pranks caught on camera, photos of him with attractive women and famous figures (some of them digitally edited to insert himself), and photos of him standing on street corners in major cities around the world.
The humour derives from the rapid rise of both the Internet and digital media, and the assumption by publishers and broadcasters that almost any such work is worthy of attention. Barley and his peers are often hired ahead of actual journalists and talented writers trying to make intelligent points, such as the earnest documentary film maker Claire Ashcroft, and her brother Dan Ashcroft, a jaded, opinionated and apathetic hack who, having written an article for Sugar Ape entitled “The Rise of the Idiots”, is appalled to find that “the idiots” in question – Nathan and his contemporaries – have adopted him as their spiritual leader, failing to see that they are the very people he was criticising.
Trespassing Bergman - Film makers about the influence of Ingmar Bergman
Trespassing Bergman (re-edit from IMDB)
The idea of famous film makers on a pilgrimage to Ingmar Bergman’s Faro Island home is interesting.
Famous directors and actors who like to talk about the influences that shaped their own work and for whom Bergman represented one of the high achievers of their craft. The interviews Woody Allen playing it straight, Lars Von Trier getting laughs, Robert De Niro, who is notoriously awkward in interviews, at ease and making valid comment. To name but a few. Some music by The Radio Dept. one of Sofia Coppola’s (and my) favourite bands.
Check out the trailer and see the film if you’re interested in making a film yourself. Learn from the best in the industry.