... wherein Peter posts a Weekly Media Update.
Books: Midnight in Chernobyl
Movies:
TV: The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage!
Courses: Decorate Like a Designer
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
This is the 2020 nonfiction chronicle of the Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown - the threads that led into it, the event itself, and the aftermath.
As you might expect, this book feels like "the TV show, only more so". The 562-page tome turns the harrowing disaster into something vast - honestly I could cite War and Peace for the way this story stretches all the way from peasants in the nearby countryside all the way up to Mikhail Gorbachev (the then-leader of the USSR), or the way that all of them, for all their talents and intentions, find themselves swept up in events far beyond their control. The Chernobyl meltdown cost the Soviet economy hundreds of billions of dollars and poisoned most of Europe - you can make a credible argument that it *ended* the USSR. Along the way, thousands of technocrats, politicians, engineers, and soldiers are each experiencing one little grid square of the story, doing their best with limited information.
Like the TV show, the book feels like a tale of "management horror": there are no moustache-twirling villains here, but you sense that management culture is so bad, so decayed, on every level, that it brings out the worst in people and leads to stunningly poor decisions. Of course they'd overestimate the safety of the RCBK reactors, cover up the possible catastrophic scenarios, and tell the higher-ups what they wanted to hear. Of course they'd push too hard to run an overdue test, and of course they'd follow conventional procedures when they saw it going wrong.
Eventually you have a manager sending technicians to certain death so that they can pour water on a reactor that is no longer around, and you recognize the sheer insanity of it, but you also see the government culture that led us to this surreal, terrifying point. You saw everything play out step by step, with crushing inevitability.
I'd call this a must-read for fans of the show, a should-read for infrastructure nerds, and a pass for everyone else. But for folks who are into this subject matter, what a dense, detailed, and fascinating story they have in store.
The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage!
This is the 2019 proshot of The SpongeBob Musical broadcast by Nickelodeon.
I remember the blowback against this musical more than the musical itself. In 2018 it got nominated for a dozen Tony Awards, and there was this eye-rolling reaction. Oh, god. Another *adaptation* - this one of a, ugh, *TV show* for *children*. Surely a few years down the line, we'll look back on this as an overly-optimistic artifact of its time. ¹
Looking back on this musical now, sure, it is indeed a musical adaptation of a children's show. It does not match any of our images of staid, high-cultural theatre. Instead, it does exactly what it sets out to do: to get at the feeling and the themes of the source material via a big-budget musical. It has the vibes of a bunch of eager, hypercaffeinated kids "playing SpongeBob": thus the ramshackle-looking sets seemingly made of whatever was lying around; thus the DisneyBounding-style costumes that pick up the color scheme of the original and generally feel like "what these characters *would* wear, as humans"; even the song selection, with entries by a dozen-odd different songwriters ², contributes to this "gleeful, chaotic children run amuck" feeling.
And then that creates an aesthetic distance that lets you tell a really direct story about a fascist using fear and scapegoating to take over a society, recklessly endangering the people in the process. The SpongeBob Musical ends up feeling - and I feel weird saying this - *more* relevant as time goes on. It's not just a story of a sponge who is wildly optimistic - it's about a sponge being wildly optimistic in the face of... [gestures at the world]. ³
It's a great musical, a freewheeling and fun children's story that emotionally sneaks up on you. I'm glad this document of it exists.
Decorate Like a Designer, with Jonathan Adler
This is the 2022 videocourse from the Great Courses where famed designer Jonathan Adler tells you about the basics of interior design.
As a videocourse, this is a neat podcast.
I think the game plan for putting together Decorate Like a Designer was:
The result is, again, a good podcast. Mr. Adler is a delighful personality and he's full of anecdotes about design and bursting with ideas. Each episode is like rifling through, say, an issue of Architectural Digest with a smart designer friend and scavenging it for ideas. He talks early on about working in "pop", "natural", or "luxe" styles, and keeps bringing the discussion back to how various aspects of design fit within those idioms.
It's worth comparing this to, say, Carol Gilman's "Principles of Interior Design" youtube playlist. That videocourse does simple things like "pose questions for the viewer" and "show how a sample room exemplifies the principle we're talking about" and "advise viewers on how they can study this aspect of design further on their own". It's all simple, basic pedagogical techniques that are perfect for newbies and are nowhere to be seen in the Teaching Company's passel of freewheeling chats.
So if you're like me and you know *nothing* about interior design, Mr. Adler's course is not a good overview of the subject. But it's pleasant, and it's short, and maybe it's a nice way to dip a toe into the pool, so to speak, without really thinking hard about the subject. But it's really geared more for someone conversant with design who'd like to hear a specific designer's outlook.
For next week: Nothing in the backlog! I'm currently reading a book about building good habits and the sequel/addendum to Fifty Years of Text Games. I'm listening to the Blank Check miniseries about David Lynch. I'm watching the second season of Twin Peaks, and goofing off with the third season of Um, Actually and the fifth (and final) season of Lower Decks.
____
¹ "... unlike my favorite musical, Hamilton."
² Including a 90s album track from David Bowie and Brian Eno, omitted from the TV production presumably to trim time and avoid clearance issues.
³ One thing I really enjoyed about the recent local production of the musical was how their lead actor brought a sort of Bugs Bunny, "ain't I a stinker?" energy to SpongeBob's optimism. It's like SpongeBob knows the optimism gets on people's (/sea creatures') nerves, but knows he can win people over, and also knows that there's an inherent glee to being yourself when everything around you is trying to get you to toe the line. And joy is itself an act of resistance when the society you live in is trying to bring you down.
Movies:
TV: The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage!
Courses: Decorate Like a Designer
Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham
This is the 2020 nonfiction chronicle of the Chernobyl nuclear plant meltdown - the threads that led into it, the event itself, and the aftermath.
As you might expect, this book feels like "the TV show, only more so". The 562-page tome turns the harrowing disaster into something vast - honestly I could cite War and Peace for the way this story stretches all the way from peasants in the nearby countryside all the way up to Mikhail Gorbachev (the then-leader of the USSR), or the way that all of them, for all their talents and intentions, find themselves swept up in events far beyond their control. The Chernobyl meltdown cost the Soviet economy hundreds of billions of dollars and poisoned most of Europe - you can make a credible argument that it *ended* the USSR. Along the way, thousands of technocrats, politicians, engineers, and soldiers are each experiencing one little grid square of the story, doing their best with limited information.
Like the TV show, the book feels like a tale of "management horror": there are no moustache-twirling villains here, but you sense that management culture is so bad, so decayed, on every level, that it brings out the worst in people and leads to stunningly poor decisions. Of course they'd overestimate the safety of the RCBK reactors, cover up the possible catastrophic scenarios, and tell the higher-ups what they wanted to hear. Of course they'd push too hard to run an overdue test, and of course they'd follow conventional procedures when they saw it going wrong.
Eventually you have a manager sending technicians to certain death so that they can pour water on a reactor that is no longer around, and you recognize the sheer insanity of it, but you also see the government culture that led us to this surreal, terrifying point. You saw everything play out step by step, with crushing inevitability.
I'd call this a must-read for fans of the show, a should-read for infrastructure nerds, and a pass for everyone else. But for folks who are into this subject matter, what a dense, detailed, and fascinating story they have in store.
The SpongeBob Musical: Live On Stage!
This is the 2019 proshot of The SpongeBob Musical broadcast by Nickelodeon.
I remember the blowback against this musical more than the musical itself. In 2018 it got nominated for a dozen Tony Awards, and there was this eye-rolling reaction. Oh, god. Another *adaptation* - this one of a, ugh, *TV show* for *children*. Surely a few years down the line, we'll look back on this as an overly-optimistic artifact of its time. ¹
Looking back on this musical now, sure, it is indeed a musical adaptation of a children's show. It does not match any of our images of staid, high-cultural theatre. Instead, it does exactly what it sets out to do: to get at the feeling and the themes of the source material via a big-budget musical. It has the vibes of a bunch of eager, hypercaffeinated kids "playing SpongeBob": thus the ramshackle-looking sets seemingly made of whatever was lying around; thus the DisneyBounding-style costumes that pick up the color scheme of the original and generally feel like "what these characters *would* wear, as humans"; even the song selection, with entries by a dozen-odd different songwriters ², contributes to this "gleeful, chaotic children run amuck" feeling.
And then that creates an aesthetic distance that lets you tell a really direct story about a fascist using fear and scapegoating to take over a society, recklessly endangering the people in the process. The SpongeBob Musical ends up feeling - and I feel weird saying this - *more* relevant as time goes on. It's not just a story of a sponge who is wildly optimistic - it's about a sponge being wildly optimistic in the face of... [gestures at the world]. ³
It's a great musical, a freewheeling and fun children's story that emotionally sneaks up on you. I'm glad this document of it exists.
Decorate Like a Designer, with Jonathan Adler
This is the 2022 videocourse from the Great Courses where famed designer Jonathan Adler tells you about the basics of interior design.
As a videocourse, this is a neat podcast.
I think the game plan for putting together Decorate Like a Designer was:
- Somehow convince Jonathan Adler to do this
- ???
The result is, again, a good podcast. Mr. Adler is a delighful personality and he's full of anecdotes about design and bursting with ideas. Each episode is like rifling through, say, an issue of Architectural Digest with a smart designer friend and scavenging it for ideas. He talks early on about working in "pop", "natural", or "luxe" styles, and keeps bringing the discussion back to how various aspects of design fit within those idioms.
It's worth comparing this to, say, Carol Gilman's "Principles of Interior Design" youtube playlist. That videocourse does simple things like "pose questions for the viewer" and "show how a sample room exemplifies the principle we're talking about" and "advise viewers on how they can study this aspect of design further on their own". It's all simple, basic pedagogical techniques that are perfect for newbies and are nowhere to be seen in the Teaching Company's passel of freewheeling chats.
So if you're like me and you know *nothing* about interior design, Mr. Adler's course is not a good overview of the subject. But it's pleasant, and it's short, and maybe it's a nice way to dip a toe into the pool, so to speak, without really thinking hard about the subject. But it's really geared more for someone conversant with design who'd like to hear a specific designer's outlook.
For next week: Nothing in the backlog! I'm currently reading a book about building good habits and the sequel/addendum to Fifty Years of Text Games. I'm listening to the Blank Check miniseries about David Lynch. I'm watching the second season of Twin Peaks, and goofing off with the third season of Um, Actually and the fifth (and final) season of Lower Decks.
____
¹ "... unlike my favorite musical, Hamilton."
² Including a 90s album track from David Bowie and Brian Eno, omitted from the TV production presumably to trim time and avoid clearance issues.
³ One thing I really enjoyed about the recent local production of the musical was how their lead actor brought a sort of Bugs Bunny, "ain't I a stinker?" energy to SpongeBob's optimism. It's like SpongeBob knows the optimism gets on people's (/sea creatures') nerves, but knows he can win people over, and also knows that there's an inherent glee to being yourself when everything around you is trying to get you to toe the line. And joy is itself an act of resistance when the society you live in is trying to bring you down.