Culture Corner: March 2025

Reading, Watching, Listening, Playing, Doing.

This is the second* instalment of what I’m hoping becomes a regular feature where I show my human face and share what I’ve been enjoying when not watching, reading about, or thinking about footy.

*It should be the third, I didn’t get around to doing this in February. In fairness, I was smack-bang in the middle of churning out season previews.

Reading

Books

The Books of Jacob (Olga Tokarczuk, 2014) – Full disclosure: I’ve not actually finished this book. In fact, I’m only about a quarter of the way through. I don’t feel like reading a 900+ page potboiler about the adventures of a time-travelling Jewish seer in old Poland every day (and I’m pretty much the exact target demographic). But when I am in the mood, I just luxuriate in the beauty and lushness of the sentences, and marvel at the depth and magic of the world that author Olga Tokarczuk built. It’s a beast of a book – and well worth her Nobel.

Essays/blogs

Greening the Solar System (Asterisk Magazine, March 2025) – Can one be a fan of “space”? Not sure. But I like lots of things related to space: video games (Surviving Mars, Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds), books (The Expanse, The Three-Body Problem), ideas (the Fermi paradox, extra-planetary colonisation, contemplating the puniness of humanity). By providing what I presume is a realistic summary of the challenges and opportunities when it comes to making the solar system viable for human life, this piece scratches that exact itch.

Inside the hot girl economy (Steph, March 2025) – This might be a surprise coming from the author of a mildly successful footy newsletter, but I don’t know much about being a hot girl. That’s why I really liked this glimpse into the “hot girl economy”, the shadowy interplay of social media, nightclub promoters, and attractive young women who use (and are used) their attractiveness as currency and commodity. This piece is about certain kind of women, and certain kinds of privilege, but it’s also about certain kinds of men – the kind of men who think nothing of spending tens of thousands of dollars on exorbitantly-priced alcohol, and the kind of men who view surrounding themselves with beautiful women in dimly-lit nightspots as a form of getting one over their rivals. It’s like the jungle, but much more expensive.

Making the World Safe for Criminals (Persuasion, March 2025) – The dismal current state of international affairs means I’ve reduced my news consumption. US politics is one area I’ve really tried to cut down on – I simply don’t see much point in getting mad or sad about the latest nefarious deeds committed by the White House. But I still think this is the single most clarifying piece I’ve read about the second Trump administration. According to political scientist Francis Fukuyama (yes, the End of History guy), debates about whether Trump is an authoritarian or a fascist miss the mark. What he’s actually doing is “repatrimonializing” – it’s not a catchy term, Fukuyama admits – the US state: reducing the influence of rule of law, and increasing the influence of patronage, favours and grudges. It’s a step back in time to a more monarchic state – the kind of state that the American colonists revolted against back in the 18th century.

How to like everything more (Sasha’s Newsletter, Dec 2024) – I’m by no means a positive psychology guy – closer to the opposite, in fact – but I am always trying, with varying levels of effort, to lead a more mindful life. That’s exactly why I really liked this 17-point manifesto for improving the important skill of liking stuff (it’s easier and more enjoyable to read than that sounds – it’s not like Luther’s 95 Theses). In a world of limitless, on-demand “content”, it’s very easy to superficially engage with art and texts and ideas. It’s much harder – but ultimately much more rewarding – to engage with our hearts and our minds.

A Book for Ants: Bite-Sized Reviews of Snack-Sized Books– Want recommendations about good books without reading tedious, padded review essays? Subscribe to this newsletter and you can read a review and add the book to your wish-list while you’re waiting for your morning coffee.

Watching

Severance – My wife and I watched the season two finale of Severance. Beyond telling you that it’s a good show and that, if you haven’t watched it, you should, and if you’ve struggled with it, you ought to persist, I’ll spare you the tedium of being yet another person sharing their theories about the show. However, now that we’ve finished it, we don’t have anything in the queue. So, reader, if you have recommendations to share – please share them with me.

Listening

69 Love Songs (The Magnetic Fields) – There are so many different subgenres of ‘90s American lo-fi indie music – the bleak irony of the Silver Jews, the mesmerising melodies of the Elephant 6 group, the propulsive rhythms of Pavement, to name just a few. But I’ve always had a soft spot for the humour and pathos of The Magnetic Fields. Inspired by a tweet which referenced the song ‘The Book of Love’, I’ve gone back and re-discovered their magnum opus, 69 Love Songs. It’s exactly what it says on the tin: three sides, 23 songs each, all of them about possibly the one thing more important than footy. These songs are yearning, wistful, earnest, ironic, maudlin, randy. But they’re almost always funny (especially those delivered in Stephin Merritt’s deadpan baritone; “I Don’t Want to Get Over You” is a highlight) – and they’re always catchy.

Playing

dotAGE – I’ve not been gaming much over the past month or so, which is almost certainly a good thing. But when I was, I really enjoyed this turn-based village builder/resource management game (if you read the previous edition of Culture Corner, you might be noticing a pattern here) with a unique hook: avoiding the baleful effects of “omens” which wreak different kinds of havoc on your village. The recent Folkways DLC apparently adds about 50 percent more content. (In case you’re wondering, no, I’ve not played Civ VII yet. Perhaps I’m finally learning to respect my time a little better.)

Doing

Replacing the spool in our line trimmer. Perhaps the crowning achievement of practical masculinity of my (relatively) young life to date.

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What have you been enjoying, or at least trying to enjoy, lately? Let me know!