Hello! Today, cyber-utopians and populist politics, ambient music, Nora Ephron and an anthology about relationships. What have *you* been watching and reading? Tell me what you loved.

Article: What Happens When Techno-Utopians Actually Run a Country by Darren Loucaides, published by Wired in February 2019
I'm not sure if this article qualifies as non-stressful escapism given that it's about politics, but it is interesting and relevant (even though it's over a year old) and that's all that counts: it explores the cyber-utopian roots of the Italian Five Star Movement, the populist party that became the largest political party and entered government after the 2018 general election. Darren Loucaides is particularly interested in the tech roots of founder Gianroberto Casaleggio and the digital tools M5S has used both to build an audience, shape online consensus and achieve the illusion of basic democracy among its members – tools that inspired both UKIP and Steve Bannon. I'm interested in the (digital) message control that parties, political movements and seemingly everyone else is trying to exert; M5S is just one example. Everything is branding and everything hurts.
Note: If you scroll past the first few paragraphs, you can listen to an audio recording of this article (54:39 minutes).

Film: Sleepless in Seattle, directed by Nora Ephron (1993)
We had few VHS tapes when I was growing up. Sleepless in Seattle – dubbed in German, of course – was one of them. My brothers and I know large parts of it by heart. The bowl cut that the stylish, monosyllabic babysitter wears inspired my own teenage bowl cut. In what is to me the strangest of Nora Ephron's romantic comedies, Annie falls in love with Sam after hearing him talk on a radio show. Neither of them know each other (or even know of each other), but somehow they both end up on top of the Empire State Building, on Valentine's Day, anyway. Does this make sense? Absolutely not, but that doesn't matter. This is less a love story than a film about family, friendship, loneliness and feeling stuck in your own life – which is probably why I like it so much. I re-watched it last week when I needed a pick-me-up and boy, does that dialogue sparkle. Even in the original English. 

Book: On Relationships. An Anthology (3 of Cups Press, 2019)
This anthology collects essays, short stories, poetry and a comic strip about relationships: between family, lovers, friends and strangers, but also to places and things. Zahrah Nesbitt-Ahmed writes about finding braiders who she can trust with her hair; Anna Kahn writes about her flatmate (which made me miss my old flatmate a lot); Kasim Mohammed writes about a first kiss; and Isha Karki writes about sex. Anya Rompas and Mikael Johani translate a poem each from Indonesian to English ("you no longer thought of your body as a home you thought of it as a cell that followed you wherever you went"). Oh, and my friend Jen Calleja writes about meeting and working with an author who she translated. I read the whole book in one go a couple of months ago and really enjoyed the breadth of topics and styles. 
Note: The anthology is currently on sale on the 3 of Cups website (print and ebook).

Other: Flow State
Flow State is a daily email recommending music "that's perfect for working". The fact that these are great background soundscapes that make it easier to focus is not necessarily the main attraction to me; far be it from me to value art based on what it does for my productivity! I find it pretty hard to discover new music that isn't built around the song (I don't even know where I would start looking), but this newsletter exposes me to new genres daily. Mostly – but not always – the artists featured make electronic, ambient or contemporary classical music, but it has also led me to discover a great mid-century harpist. The short descriptions are interesting, and the range is impressive. You can read past emails here.

That's it for now. Tell me what you loved. Take care!