Link Salad, the Cool Kids Edition
Some of what I've been reading
— Battle of the Cool Kids: Inside the A24, Neon and Mubi Turf War - Mia Galuppo, Scott Roxborough, The Hollywood Reporter, Jun. 12, 2025
“The company is now closing the gap between itself and A24 and Neon, with the three going head-to-head at more film festivals. But even if they are occasionally bidding for the same titles in Park City and Cannes (see Eva Victor’s Sundance standout Sorry, Baby), Neon, Mubi and A24 represent three different futures of indie cinema. Even if they are increasingly getting lumped together by both the industry and consumers, their businesses are incredibly different, according to a dozen insiders working in the global independent market that talked to The Hollywood Reporter.”
— A Portrait of Ming Smith as an Artist in the Making - Janet Hill Talbert, Aperture, Mar. 28, 2025
“I had an older cousin, Eugenia, who I was very close to. She was brilliant. She had a pharmacy degree and a doctorate of psychology. She was so good to me. Eugenia’s style reminded me of Lorraine Hansberry. One day when I was about twelve, we were riding in her car from Detroit up to Ann Arbor, where she lived, and a song came on the radio. When I asked her, “What’s that?” she said, “That’s jazz.” And later another song came on and I said, “What’s that?” and she said, “The blues.” Then she asked me, “Which do you like better, jazz or blues?” And I said, “The bluuues!” drawing out the word. And she just laughed, but it was also a way of affirming me, like, “This girl is smart, she’s hip, she knows! She knows what’s going on.” But it was true! I really love the blues.”
— “When are we going to stop with this Pink Floyd stuff and start playing some metal?”: The story of the most ambitious song in death metal history - Matt Mills, Louder, Jun. 11, 2025
“It all started with one riff. In a recent interview, former Edge Of Sanity mainman Dan Swanö said that the sessions for his band’s fifth album, Crimson, began with him wanting to get more out of a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it guitar part he’d used in his goth rock project Nightingale. From those humble origins came a masterpiece: a 40-minute, one-song labyrinth that remains a benchmark for progressive death metal – even if it never quite found the mass adulation it deserved.”
— The life and death of Hideo Kojima - Sam White, GQ UK, Jun. 10, 2025
“Every day, if I tweet something that I like, a director or an actor or a musician contacts me. They say, “I’m a creator because of your games.” But they didn’t receive the baton of Hideo Kojima. They received my small fire. They’re not copying me. They’re not trying to be me. They have this fire, and they light up their own. And they’ll probably give that to someone else. There were legendary comic book artists when I was a boy. I didn’t become a comic book artist – I was inspired by them, I was influenced.”
Currently reading: The Parisian - Isabella Hammad
Currently listening: Not For Me - The cost