Hey all!
Joked with my therapist this week that given our brains tend to compress similar memories, perhaps we’ll all just completely forget what happened in lockdown afterwards. He suggested that all we’d remember would be its ‘emotional signature’. What’s the emotional signature of lockdown for you?
What's happening?
We’re sick of it now. Everyone I know is quite convinced the government lifting the lockdown it at this point is a mistake, that those protesting are complete fools — and yet I’ve noticed a large fraction of those same people are now breaking the rules, albeit tentatively. How long can the cognitive dissonance last? My bet: 2 weeks.
Also: is that woman holding the "my body my choice" sign Kristen Stewart? My eyes say yes, but my brain is forcing me not to google it lest my eyes retort "ahahaha oh my god, you ACTUALLY believed me??"
Does all this mean you'll start washing your hair again? Unilever claims in this extremely flimsy article that since deodorant and shampoo sales are down, hygiene standards have slipped. All women in the tech industry have now discovered that men only shave to impress the staff at Pret, and at least one person I know has indeed stopped washing their hair — myth confirmed?
And yet, Unilever probably has a multinational team trying to shape consumer behaviour here. Would building a climate of personal hygiene terror not be in their interests? What will the world look like when we all emerge blinking into the sunlight with our crooked fringes and eight inch long fingernails? Will it usher in some big overcompensating fad? I've been working on a tan so seemingly anything is possible.
Should we really be treating music like charity? Shawn Reynaldo, has written more on emerging music industry politics, here's a clip:
Take the response to Spotify’s announcement last week that artists could now start fundraising through the platform. A few months ago, such a move likely would have been widely hailed (at least in the mainstream music press) as a thoughtful gesture by a company that truly cares about artists. Instead, we’re starting to see responses like this Guardian article, in which music editor Ben Beaumont-Thomas essentially calls bullshit on the idea, labeling the virtual “tip jar” model as a “slap in the face” and advocating for Spotify to simply pay artists more. It’s an argument that’s been echoed across social media in recent days, and it’s encouraging to see musicians and fans alike increasingly holding these multibillion-dollar companies to account.
Music business models have been on my mind in the past week or two. Buy Music Club looks like a particularly interesting idea. And yet, buying records as a consumer doesn't feel super-compelling on its own and I mostly do it purely to 'pay' for music I already listen to.
Another idea: some sort of app that tracks what you listen to on Spotify and automatically funnels a certain amount to the artists directly, like a rights organisation but better. Coil does this for writing. Or something like Substack for music where you get some free but pay to subscribe to premium content? One of my fave bands Stars is currently doing something like this on Patreon (to which I am a loyal subscriber).
Relatedly: I've started seeing instagram ads for Beats To Relax/Study To. Who out there is benefitting from me listening to chill beats and is willing to pay for it? Mysteries abound.
What's on my mind?
Why does it take so long to develop vaccines when our immune system can do it within a week? In the words of Mark Corrigan: "I don't know Alan, thousands of reasons... but also, kind of... none!"
Here are some answers at three levels of complexity, which include some discussion of the prospects of shortening the process:
A simple-ish article from the strange 'Henry Ford Health System' website.
A pretty readable article from the New York Times including some sweet interactive graphs
An Real Article from the New England Journal of Medicine I just about managed to follow.
I initially suspected, tech scum that I am, that it's probably possible to come up with a working vaccine quickly, but there is a lot of bureaucracy involved. I was sort of right — there something like 17 promising vaccines out there which have been developed for COVID19 in the last few months. On the other hand, most of that research already existed and we're just lucky it was applicable. Plus, a lot of those just won't work.
But I was right in the fact that a large fraction of the delays are basically avoidable if you spend enough. Mass manufacture of vaccines takes a long time, and if you can kick off the process for anything that looks promising before you make it through trials, you can cut down the timeframe by a lot. Of course, the costs of this are really, really high.
Plus, though it sounds bizarre, it turns out vaccines can actually make things worse. They can give you the disease they're trying to prevent, or they can make contracting the disease worse instead of better. Needless to say, if this happened it would put the anti-anti-vax cause back by a generation.
All this said, I do wonder how much society would be willing to pay for a significantly faster vaccination process across a wide range of diseases.
What's telling?
"Don't buy a barrel of oil, it'll kill you." — a worthy reminder. And if you're hankering to know more about what kind of shit was fucked up by oil futures going negative the other week, this article contains more than wish you knew. Or if you just want to see big boats doing social distancing from a helicopter you can see that too.
A text message from a colleague in mainland China flashed across the screen of one of our cell phones on New Year’s Eve, 2019, notifying us of an emerging cluster of cases of atypical pneumonia in Wuhan. Amid flashbacks to the fearsome severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic in 2002–2003, we immediately reached out to our network of collaborators for further leads. An uncomfortable silence followed over the next few weeks.
So begins an insider's tale of the early efforts to respond to the spread of COVID19 in Hong Kong.
What's on?
Benjamin, a feature film by Simon Amstell. I can think of all kinds of cheap jokes about this one, but I did enjoy it. OK fine here goes: did you like Queer As Folk but you felt it would be better if every character was Simon Amstell? Then this is the film for you. The most cutting-edge part is that Simon himself doesn't appear, though you could be fooled into thinking otherwise.
Plus, a lot of it is set in my house. Stick around for the bit where his ex confronts him over dinner.
Here's a nice list of films that take place mostly over one day. A little dubious in places (The End of the World? Really?) but does bring home how much can happen in a day, in a film, and sometimes in real life.
Love Is the Key to the City by Jockstrap. I figured I'd check out what Warp Records are up to and discovered this properly nice EP. It kicks off with the sound of someone in the shower (I think).
What's cool?
Here's an interesting if slightly uncanny COVID19 virtual patient simulation (again, from NEJM) giving you another perspective on what doctors have to deal with at the moment. It's probably more interesting as an example of online learning resources for training judgement in the medical profession.
Relatedly, Pink Trombone never gets old.
What's next?
I spoke to my Dad recently and he seemed pretty convinced masks were inevitable in London. I still find this one a real shock but can't help feeling happy for my fellow trans girls who are still on the laser/electro stage. It's going to be a good few months for you!
Prediction: Face masks compulsory on the tube by June 15th.
That's it! I hope your weeks have had pleasant emotional signatures.
K
this was a really nice balance of news and entertainment! and I like how you keep the tone light.
your humour is wonderful too. not too many links in different genres to follow up. and i love the summaries/extracts you include so i can be lazy
looking forward to the next one, thank you.