About Apple planning to enter the video services and challenge Netflix: I have never been a great fan of Netflix so I was rather pleased to see that there is a new competition entering the game. Because, let's face, you need to have a name and resources to even attempt to weaken Netflix's position. And that is what Apple has. So we will see how that will go... Article here.
Do we still need the Nobel Prize in Literature?: I just found out about the scandal surrounding the Nobel Prize in Literature from year 2017 and a photographer who was accused of 20 years of sexual assaults. This article reflects on the overall importance of the Nobel Prize in the upcoming years, bringing forwards some interesting arguments! Have a look here.
The history of the trench coat: I mean, why should you be interested in the history of the trench coat? Well, to me this was just an interesting-facts-read kind of article, especially being surprised that the trench coat has been here much longer than I originally thought (no, it did not start with the WWI). If you want to get yourself fashion-cultured, click here.
Interview with Lydia Davis: I only recently discovered this literary gem and cannot get enough of Davis's short stories (luckily for me, I have the collection of more than eighty of them starting in the end of the 20th century and going all the way until 2013, so I have enough text to read right now). Here is an interview with her, where she also explains that 'just because a story uses material from the writer's life, I don't think you can say that it's her life, or that the narrator is her'. Find out more here.
Podcast episode with... Samantha Barry ... on 'An Irishman Abroad' Episode 268 (here) or a shorter episode on 'Skimm'd from the Couch' from December 12, 2018 (here). I have been fascinated by Samantha Barry and her carrier for quite some time now. She had worked for BBC before going to CNN where she grew CNN's social media strategy. And now she is the editor-in-chief of Glamour Magazine, where she has decided to ditch monthly print editions and go online only. As a student of new media and digital culture at the University of Amsterdam, I am interested in everything that has something to do with the digital. And that is exactly what Barry represents.
Video about ... the Magic Hour by the Hollywood Reporter (here). If you want to 'learn' something new, then have a look on these videos produced by the Hollywood Reporter. They have about ten minutes each, introducing interesting people from the fashion, film and music industry. My favourite ones are with the director Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi on her documentary 'Free Solo', and the costume designer Mary Zophres.
People I have just discovered... Saul Bellow - Based on his Wikipedia page, he is regarded as one of the 20th century's greatest authors, winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976 as well as the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction at the same year. Although I had studied the American literature at my previous university, I did not hear about this writer till two weeks ago when I saw a guy reading his book at my work, titled The Adventures of Augie March.