Level Two Linky

Lockdown is over but I thought I’d do one last Friday Linky. It’s been fun bringing it back! I hope your Fridays have been suitably enriched, including this one, thanks to this collection of treats:

1. Naomi Klein on big tech companies using shock doctrine tactics, using the pandemic as an excuse to push through huge changes https://www.theguardian.com/news/2020/may/13/naomi-klein-how-big-tech-plans-to-profit-from-coronavirus-pandemic

2. My wonderful friend Helen won an award for her new poetry collection at the NZ Book Awards, and I am so stoked. Here is an absolutely breathtaking poem from that collection, Notes on the Unsilent Woman http://turbinekapohau.org.nz/archive-issues/2018-contents/poetry-helen-rickerby/

3. This person has collected in one place every Peel Session recording he could find. They are listed in alphabetical order by band name. So many! Just phenomenal: https://davestrickson.blogspot.com/2020/05/john-peel-sessions.html

4. Duncan Greive at the Spinoff does a very insightful deep dive into one of the biggest stories of the pandemic in NZ: the comms https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/11-05-2020/a-masterclass-in-mass-communication-and-control/

5. Crowded House lockdown performance: Something So Strong https://youtu.be/mwljB3S3LvI

6. These TV industry people paid a farm to zoom with a sheep, then pitched it a TV show https://twitter.com/jennyjaffe/status/1258805382446645248?s=21

7. Paul Scheer talks with Gillian Jacobs about Power Pack and Ms. Marvel and this is a Venn diagram I am into https://youtu.be/hK-4llPrBnY

8. Variety finally gets the true story of the much-rumoured Famous Person D&D Group. (It is exactly like every other D&D group, except more miniature figurines.) https://variety.com/2020/biz/features/joe-manganiello-dungeons-and-dragons-campaign-1234585006/

9. Speaking of: how about Sue Perkins from Bake-Off playing D&D with Ed Gamble, Sara Pascoe and Nish Kumar? https://www.twitch.tv/videos/614992541

10. Goofy and pleasant interview with the men who have portrayed 80s horror icon Jason Voorhees. https://www.theringer.com/movies/2020/5/7/21249688/friday-the-13th-jason-voorhees-actors-stunt-stories

11. Steve Albinis pitch letter about how he wanted to work with Nirvana is a great read. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/steve-albini-letter-to-nirvana/amp/

12. Legendary Canadian sketch show Kids in the Hall is free to watch in NZ via TVNZ online! Never seen it available in NZ before. Can’t work out how to link to it directly, so here’s the tweet from Sam Brooks that tipped me off: https://twitter.com/sbrookbrooks/status/1260796234459037701?s=21

13. The (free!) Essential Services zine contains new writing from some great people cut loose during the great media purges of the pandemic era. https://essentialserviceszine.com

14. The NYT does an oral history of Mad Max Fury Road to mark its 5th anniversary: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/movies/mad-max-fury-road-oral-history.html

15. The Atlantic continues its excellent pandemic coverage with a discussion of how calls to reopen the US embody a slaveholder mentality, cutting to the heart of what freedom means: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/what-freedom-means-trump/611083/

16. Little Yellow Digger meets Bigger Digger https://twitter.com/dan_mckenney/status/1260675430614532103?s=21

17. And finally… Robert Pattinson’s GQ profile went viral for a Kaufmanesque pasta gag. It’s all very weird. Pattinson is a delight, never stop fucking with us Robert. https://www.gq.com/story/robert-pattinson-on-batman-tenet-isolation-june-cover

That’s it for the linky for now and maybe forever! Stay safe everyone!