Make it a nostalgia summer
Two years since Barbenheimer, 16 since the Gallaghers were together on stage, and a week since Coldplay released four new singles.
Welcome to a new edition of mostly cool stuff, a space dedicated to the the random news and 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.
It’s been two years since the cinematic event of the XXI century took us by surprise: Barbenheimer, a pairing as unlikely as it was successful when both Barbie and Oppeinheimer were released on July 21st 2023. Contrary to what it may have been expected, the alliance of pink power and apocalyptic nuclear disaster drove audiences back to the cinema very willing to enjoy a double bill which gave the box office a much needed boost after the pandemic.
What a great summer that was I am hardly part of the cultural zeitgeist, mostly because I like to mind my own business, so I’m glad Barbenheimer didn’t pass me by and I was one of those people who took great pleasure in watching both films on the weekend they were released. The ensuing PR was equally satisfying and gave us a great interview between Margot Robbie and Cillian Murphy, not to mention the absolute cherry on the top: Ryan Gosling performing I’m Just Ken at the Oscars, which I wrote about back in the day.
To mark the anniversary, another Barbie movie is in the making, although this will be an animated version. Hopefully it’ll include the new Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes, which Mattel has recently released, in a nod to the inclusivity the first Barbie movie championed. Also, Oppenheimer is now available on Netflix so I may go in for thirds but only after watching Ryan Gosling’s epic Oscar performance a few more times.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you have surely come across the story of the week: Astronomer CEO and his Chief of People being caught live on the kiss camera during a Colplay concert. They could have been just two people enjoying the moment but the sudden terror in their faces paired with the jolt to disentangle from each other led Chris Martin to correctly guess these might be two people having an affair. As you can imagine, everyone has taken to social media to comment on the morality of the pair and the alleged complicity of colleagues, but also to bet on when they’d be announcing their divorces. Honestly, the lack of privacy in today’s internet age is really concerning. To think that one cannot even cheat in peace at a gig after having gone through ginormous efforts not to be caught is disturbing to say the least. More importantly, we don’t know the reality of the people involved in this story. Whatever the behind the scenes reality may be, the incident has prompted Chris Martin to warn the crowd at the next Coldplay concert that the kiss cam was about to make the rounds. When we come back to this moment in time, I’m sure we will be referring to it as the summer Coldplay released four singles in one night and the memes that followed right afterwards.
Oasis is having a blast with their sold-out reunion tour, which kicked off on 4th July and has brought back together Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage for the first time in 16 years. To mark the occasion, German supermarket Lidl has released a Lidl by Lidl limited edition jacket inspired by the Berghaus model sported by Liam. Genius marketing.
Now you too can look like a Lidl shelf stocker Another iconic Britpop act that is also back this year is Pulp, which have released a new album More, their first in almost 24 years.
The band were at Glastonbury this year and before that they were also at Later with Jools Holland, where Jarvis Cocker discussed the creative process for their comeback album and performed Spike Island, their new single. I only discovered Pulp recently as they weren’t as big in Spain as Oasis or Blur (my favourite Britpop act) but this new album seems to be very much up my musical street.
Transport for London (TfL) has announced they are looking for a sponsor for the Waterloo & City line, which in case you’re not familiar with it does exactly what it says on the tin as it goes from Waterloo station to the City of London, making it the shortest line in the tube network. Considering the end-to-end journey, a potential sponsor could be found in the likes of a legal firm, insurance or financial services companies. But I wouldn’t rule out OpenAI takes over the carriages with ads especially as the company has announced a deal with the UK government for the use of artificial intelligence in public services to drive economic growth.
Coming shortly to a Waterloo & City line carriage near you
We need to agree on whether summer 2025 is the end of the clean girl aesthetic or not. Vogue claimed back in February that this is a trend that refuses to die and I can see why as clean girl is basically about minimalism and that is always a win. However, 2024 Brat summer seemed to slowly introduce messy beauty, which may be finally taking off this year and expand to home decor. I’m keeping an eye out for which of the two eventually sticks so I can upgrade my routine to can’t be bothered (aka messy beauty) or must pretend I care (clean girl) when leaving the house.
2025 will surely be remembered by many things and I sincerely hope that Blaise Metreweli being appointed the new Chief of MI6 and the first woman ever to occupy the role is one of them. It’s funny how it took less for Judi Dench to secure that position on screen than it’s taken a woman to do the same in real life. Hopefully Denis Villeneuve will honour the path initiated by Dench and will keep Bond boss female in his anticipated 007 franchise directorial debut, given that at last M is also a woman off-screen.
Highgrove, we have a problem! 11 out of 12 full-time gardeners working at the King Charles’ Highgrove estate have resigned this year due to low pay and a toxic working environment. It would appear His Majesty is a demanding micromanager. On the other hand, the King seems to be highly resourceful as when the war in Ukraine broke, he suggested employing refugees to respond to staff shortages. This is what true democracy is all about: terrible bosses with outlandish ideas are no longer the privilege of a few.
Chanel has launched Arts & Culture Magazine to commemorate the brand’s centenary in the UK. The first issue of the magazine, an 250-page edition featuring personal items of Gabrielle Chanel on the cover and focusing on the collaboration of the brand with artists for the past five years, is now available in selected bookshops worldwide.
Since we live in the age of the remake and this issue seems to have 90s nostalgia written all over it, a new reboot of I Knew What You Did Last Summer has premiered in the UK with Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jonathan Prize reprising their roles from the original movie. This is a film that confirmed horror wasn’t my cup of tea. It scared me for life when I saw it at a friend’s house as a teenager because all my friends were dying to see it (no pun) and then had to walk back home on my own afterwards. If only this remake had been released next year, Chris Martin could have made great jokes at the 2026 Coldplay gigs.
“Guess how many singles we released last summer” Did you follow Wimbledon? I have not as I am not a sports fan, to the point that when a friend recently suggested we should go one year I couldn’t help but to say “over my dead fucking body,” which apparently was a bit of an overreaction and may be the reason why I haven’t heard from her ever since. Do you know who does love Wimbledon? Influencer Mia Zelu, who went viral with her highly curated posts of the event. Don’t worry if the name doesn’t ring any bells because Zelu is actually an AI influencer made of ether and code so she won’t take it personally. Because AI has reached new levels of sophistication, the images posted on Zelu’s Instagram account fooled many into believing she was a real person despite her profile bio states “Digital Storyteller and AI-Influencer”, which has sparked a debate on the need to regulate the use of AI influencers even in situations that seem harmless.
And from someone who went viral for never being at Wimbledon to someone who went viral for being and dozing off: Hugh Grant. The man doesn’t stop impressing me. This week I’ve come across an old Grant interview where he admitted that for a about four years he didn’t have an agent and so he decided to create one himself, James Howe Ealy, who Grant envisioned as someone with a Scottish accent, which he then had to fake on calls. If I ever get famous, I could definitely see myself doing this.
GenZ phone anxiety isn’t new (and I say it expands to many of us millennials) but apparently it has reached the point where some expect the caller to initiate the conversation while they listen in silence without even saying the customary “hello?” Personally, I don’t see why anyone should call when they can text and avoid the whole awkwardness of it.
On the other hand, GenZ may be behind a slow BlackBerry revival as they’re inclined to ditch their smartphones (presumably to avoid calls) for a more nostalgic device. This is a sort of poetic justice moment as BlackBerry dominated the market right until Apple got rid of the keyboard and introduced the touch screen, which marked the beginning of the end for the Canadian company. On this note, I highly encourage you to watch BlackBerry, a brilliant film that explores the rise and fall of the original smartphone and its founders. It is now available on Netflix, like Oppenheimer, so this may be the summer of nostalgia watching for me.
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How did we go from talking for hours on the shared house-phone to preferring a text?!
That Lidl jacket is kinda cool looking. It's like right at the border between fashion and delivery person.