Paula’s Pop Week: Another day in paradise

In the dime novel I’m currently reading, the protagonist sits at a beach bar in Crete and works on her computer. Her job is Excel, she keeps saying Excel, Excel, Excel, something about taxes. At some point Niko, the man from Beach Bar, comes and tells her that she should stop working, after all she is on vacation here. The sea and the beautiful nature are in front of her, she should enjoy it. I also sit at my computer at a beach bar in Crete because my job is Docs, Docs, Docs, Docs. It’s the first real beach vacation of my life, but I’ll be columning here until the woman from the beach bar comes and says stop it (but in Greek).

Albums of the week: Sufjan Stevens, Burna Boy and Cherry Glazerr

I had already suggested in the previous episode that this was the summer of great albums, but the flow hasn’t stopped since then. There’s something about 2023. Good new album arrivals include Slow Pulp, Blonde Redhead, Jorja Smith… But my favorites right now are the new ones by Sufjan Stevens (JAVELIN, melancholic, sweet), Burna Boy (I TOLD THEM…, 90s -chill – okay, this album is a few weeks old, but I haven’t heard it yet) and by Cherry Glazerr (in love and defiant). These three albums should be the pillars that hold up my hammock and gradually throw me into autumn. Is it actually still coming now?

Radio play of the week: “Slayers: A Buffyverse Story”

It comes out TODAY, but on USA time, so I haven’t been able to hear it yet and the Internet has rarely been so sparse with information regarding a pop culture product. There wasn’t even an audio sample and no spoilers from blatant hackers either. No, you really have to wait in the old school way for “Slayers: A Buffyverse Story,” which comes out on Audible. Of course, the “Buffyverse” already tells those who are particularly skeptical that the whole thing apparently takes place without Buffy. But it is still a continuation of the series that ended 20 years ago. And Sarah Michelle Gellar is actually missing from the list of those involved. But you’ll get over it, after all Giles is there, Cordelia, Spike, Anya, Jonathan, Drusilla and Tara are there. Tara, Amber Benson, also wrote the thing, together with Christopher Golden. So Joss Whedon, the actual creator of “Buffy”, is missing, but the actors in the series subsequently accused him of aggressiveness, harassment and misogyny. It’s all the cooler that a few of them are adopting the thing and making their own spin-off out of it. You already know a little bit: Spike probably survived and Cordelia is now the huntress in a parallel universe… I’m counting the hours until the release.

Text recommendation of the week: “The Punk-Rock Predator”

The American Rolling Stone researched the case of Justin Sane, the singer of the left-wing feminist band Anti-Flag, who was recently accused of rape, found many other affected people and let them have their say. These affected people have now networked and launched a website to help other survivors. Click here for the website.

Tweet of the Week: More on Swift’s Dating Life

Whether you like it or not, you’ve noticed that Taylor Swift is dating someone again. This time it’s some athlete, I’m not going to google him now because all the online channels on my devices will be full of conspiracy theories about Swift’s dating life for weeks… In any case, Swifities bought jerseys from this guy and generally how they do it always do, busy with his person and profession. Well, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that one day it will “hit” a stable communist.

But this suggestion is also very good:

Non-recommendation of the week: “Beckham”

Suddenly I kept seeing memes and shorts about the Beckhams, what was going on? It went beyond the normal, currently popular glorification of turn-of-the-millennium stars, so there must have been a documentary released somewhere. And sure enough, there it was on Netflix, “Beckham.” At first I really fell for the down-to-earth Schluffibeckham, who is so in love with his Victoria and was bullied so much by the English football fans because he messed up something. But then it is repeatedly pointed out that he was unfocused because of the woman, always the woman, the woman, the woman. As if no football player before him had ever been in a relationship or even been in love. In one scene, Victoria is asked whether she thought it was a good idea to tell her husband before a big game that he was going to be a father, is that still okay? It’s a perfectly normal and good idea. But the woman with her giving birth and all that – distraction! A fate that befalls the man with whom he should have nothing to do. Then now and then mental health is mentioned and depression, which of course comes from the threats that Beckham has suffered, and then you think for a moment that the stupid chauvinism, the male violence, the blunt nationalism are being criticized, but no, it resolves itself in that on the fact that Beckham played back again, coughed, that the ridicule ultimately motivated him. Well, then everything can stay that way. Gradually it becomes an advertising film for the Beckham brand anyway, behind which stands a man who urgently needs image maintenance because he is the very well-paid sports ambassador of which great football nation? Qatar.

Movie of the week: “A Wet Dog”

It’s been on Prime for a few weeks now, and it really couldn’t be more relevant. “A Wet Dog”, a film by Damir Lukačević from 2021. It is about a young person, Soheil, who moves from Göttingen to Wedding with his parents of Iranian origin. There he looks for connection with his peers and in communities, but after anti-Semitic statements and actions he realizes that he has to hide his Jewishness. At first he tries to adapt, clashing with his parents and school, until he finally finds out what his true origins are. And in fact he is rejected by the clique, ends up in danger, becomes defiant and begins to come to terms with his Jewishness. The film unvarnishedly depicts conflicts and projections, shows the desires for identification and connection of migrant and racialized young people with all their extremes, is uncompromising and does not deceive you into believing anything. The anti-Semitism depicted is as great and as insurmountable as reality has shown us in its most cruel way these days. There is nothing forgiving about it. Overcoming anti-Semitism and racism requires more than the self-presentation-statement war on Instagram that many are indulging in these days, but rather real, real political and lengthy work.

Okay, I’ll stop now. Because the plane is coming soon, because the loungers will soon be cleared away and the beach bar is closing anyway. There’s enough to do anyway.

What happened until now? Here is an overview of all the pop column texts.