Keep calm and read Jean Austen

She is always a good idea no matter the situation plus it's her 250th anniversary.

Welcome to mostly cool stuff, a space dedicated to the the random things I come across online and offline that get my attention as per the dozens of screenshots, pictures and links in my phone to remind me about them.

Happy reading!

Coolness is like energy: it never dies, it just transforms

• I need to start with a mea culpa for skipping last week’s edition so shortly after having bit AWOL. There was a cause of force majeure preventing me from sending you these rambles: I didn’t have wifi at home, which lasted over the weekend. What could have been a reason for panic and hyperventilation because how is one supposed to get their daily dosis of brain rot in these circumstances turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Free from the temptations of scrolling I was lured into the pleasures of page turning. I read a few books (reviews coming shortly in the next Culture Fix issue) including Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen, which I particularly enjoyed. I had forgotten how entertaining she is and how her writing really moves you from page to page without realising. In fact, I finished the novel in two days! I must confess this is only my second Austen, the first being Pride & Prejudice, however after this reconnection with her wit, I’ll endevour to read the rest of her novels within the next year(ish) as a way to join in and mark the celebrations of the 250th anniversary of her birth.

  

  Jane Austen, our cool and collected queen

  Published posthumously, Austen was about 20-21 when she completed Northanger Abbey, which makes it one of her earlier works as die-hard fans surely know. While she would refine her style in future novels, her genius is already obvious in this parody of gothic literature where she takes the piss (gently and respectfully, this is Austen after all) of the clichés novels such as The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe had introduced in the young female imagination of the day with its damsels in distress, descriptions of ruined castles, impending menace, and mysterious heroes. It is in fact a delight to read this novel with that context in mind as it makes it all the funnier. I wonder what current literary trend Jane Austen would mock if she were alive today. Maybe newsletter writing?

• I was today years old when I discovered that the smiley emoji (this one to be precise 🙂) is seen by Gen Z as passive-aggressive. Can we please stop adscribing random new meanings to perfectly innocous symbols, please 🙂?

• Podcast is dead, long live the podcast! Whoever thought there were too many people speaking in front of a microphone in their rooms was wrong. The podcast industry isn’t showing signs of slowing down and in fact the sector has doubled in size and generated over $7bn in revenue in 2024. And because a podcast these days can also be watched, YouTube has launched a podcast category. Imagine if Austen lived today and had a podcast. Her take on Chicken Shop Date would be Come Dance with Me. That’d be a cool one to watch on repeat as she admonishes her clueless guests for suggesting the quadrille as appropriate for courting when everyone knows is a group dance that leaves little room for questioning a prospective romantic partner.

  

  That’s why waltzers are for: assessing a potential husband’s wealth.

• The Prince Charles Cinema in London has been listed as an asset of community value after having been at risk of being closed down earlier in the year, which would have been a great loss as this is a favourite independent cinema in central London with a great community vibe. Unfortunately over the past decade many cultural outlets in the city have been forced to shut down, notably independent bookshops, and have been replaced by a string of candy shops and food chains, which has transformed some areas of central London into a souless thematic park for tourists. That’s why a British Council report is calling for cultural infrastructures to be recognised as essential for economic growth and social inclusion.

• On that note about the importance of inclusive cultural spaces, philantropist Frédéric Jousset has launched a project through which he would fund 100,000 museum visits for children around the UK as a way to reduce the gap in the shortage of means of smaller UK museums that often prevent them from funding these trips.

• Do you remember how last week I jokingly hinted at how electing a North American Pope may have been a clever strategy to appease Dollar Trump? Well, it turns out Pope Leo XVI has sent MAGA supporters on a fury on account of a couple of retweets on US immigration policies prior to his election that led to accusations of anti-Americanism. The White House has raised a white flag in the form of an invitation to meet with the pontiff directly delivered from JD Vance himself during a visit to the Vatican. If last week I asked for a sequel of Conclave so we could see Ralph Fiennes on a red cassock again, this week I demand a Netflix show in the style of The Office (US version, of course) with Steve Carrell in the role of a newly elected North American Pope fighting against the contradictions of the same system that exulted when he landed the role.

Of course you are, Michael.

• A recent interview of Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, for the Financial Times had as headline that he has “the coolest, most important job in history.” The headline has been now changed on the digital edition to a generic “OpenAI chief Sam Altman: ‘This is genius-level intelligence.’”

  

  The evidence, your justice

  I suspect Altman, the FT, or maybe both received some backlash on the first headline considering the disruption AI is causing across many industries and decided to amend it, only for the second headline to backfire even more disastrously as the Chicago Sun Times is making headlines for having published what seems an AI-generated list of summer books that don’t even exist. Imagine the disappointment of someone looking forward to reading Tidewater Dreams by Isabel Allende only to find out is totally made up. You would never have that problem reading Jane Austen, mostly because she has been dead for a wee bit and therefore done writing.

• No wonder that a recent survey published by KPMG on global attitudes towards AI conducted across 47 countries and which asked 48,000 people how they felt about using AI in a number of settings has revealed that over half of the respondents distrust the technology.

• And now on to someone with an actual freaking awesome way of making a living and who is spreading joy with it. Cue to Nguyen Vu Minh Tuan, in art MT Pop, a Vietnamese popping dancer who has emerged as the winner of the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final 2024 hosted in Mumbai last November. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched his winning performance, which popped (he he) out of nowhere in my Instagram feed to bring a ray of light to my doom scrolling and confirmed that music makes the people come together as Madonna would sing. Just have a look at how happy and genuinely excited everyone is during his routine and how much fun they’ve all having sharing that moment. That is what a truly cool guy looks like and even Jane Austen would agree with this even though his dancing style is rather peculiar and not conducive to the amiable conversation one hopes to engage in when attending a ball.

• One for the audiobooklovers among you as Audible is ready to use AI voice to narrate audiobooks. Imagine if Jane Austen… Ok, ok, I’ll stop now. But do imagine what she’d have to say about this. Or in any case an AI impersonating her voice.

• Daniel Day-Lewis fans rejoice for he’s announced his return to the big screen after a seven year break. He’s been summoned back to acting in order to star on his son’s directorial debut. I can already see some of you judging and pointing a finger at the reverse nepotism going on here, but the man has won 3 Oscars so I’d say he’s earned the right to be cherry-picked for a role, even more so when we’re talking about the fruit of his loins who perhaps wouldn’t be directing a film in first place if he weren’t Daniel Day-Lewis’ son. Case closed.

• The new Dolce & Gabanna Light Blue 25th anniversary campaign has been revealed and I’m delighted to report it’s an ode to the best ambassadors a fragrance could ever have: Bianca Balti and David Gandy, the couple who became the iconic image of the Light Blue campaign, clad in white swimwear that adhered seamlessly to their perfectly toned and taned bodies. Their sighting, whether on a print ad or on TV, signaled summer season had officially started and the moment I heard the soundtrack of the TV ad I longed for a three-month holiday in Southern Italy.

  

  Dolce & Gabbana, aware of how Balti’s and Gandy’s image contributed to their most iconic campaign and produced a Pavlovian effect in the collective imagination, has found a new Italo-British duo to pay homage to the work of their former ambassadors and make us swoon just as Balti and Gandy did at the height of their sunkissed reign: Vittoria Ceretti (international model and current Leonardo Di Caprio associate) and Theo James (actor and potential candidate to land the next James Bond role). As expected they both look very fine and uber cool under the Capri sun as a new version of “Parlami d'amore Mariù,” the already classic soundtrack to this campaign, sets the tone for steamy summer romance and daydreaming. I wonder what Jane Austen would make of such an open and unchaperoned courtship in such revealing clothes and to such an strange dance…

Thanks for reading mostly cool stuff!

If you enjoyed reading this issue and aren’t subscribed yet, pop your email in the box below for more cool updates delivered straight into your inbox.

If you’re already part of the mostly cool gang, why not share this post with others so they can be too?