Interesting trinkets: books, music, other

I'm glad I heard Rian Treanor's sample track off his coming—this Friday—album. That's a hyperkinetic track if I ever heard one. Reminds me of Blixa, my beloved kitty, when she was at her most hyper.

I recently heard HBO's The Chernobyl Podcast, which was really interesting. The series creator, Craig Mazin, has researched the fuck out of things, and it was really interesting to hear what was fictionalised and not, even though most wasn't. The always-affable Masha Gessen has written That HBO's "Chernobyl" Got Right, And What It Got Terribly Wrong, which is a highly interesting article for all who've seen the series.

The only thing I didn't really like about the podcast was the generalisations, like 'Nobody in the UK or US would do X'. Also, spotlighting the Soviet Union for constantly lying is interesting while it should, in fairness, have been OK to cast shade on other political criminals as well, mainly including the USA. Check out this example of what's said about this in the podcast, and compare the results with, I don't know, the current US president's latest misgivings.

I spent this weekend reading Climate Crisis and the Global Green New Deal: The Political Economy of Saving the Planet by Noam Chomsky and Robert Pollin, interviewed by C. J. Polychroniou.

I just recalled the following two quoted paragraphs, both by Noam Chomsky:

Even more malignant than the denialism is practice. ExxonMobil is in the lead in expanding fossil fuel production. Unlike some other oil majors, it does not want to waste even small sums on sustainable energy: “In a March [2014] report on carbon risk to shareholders,” the business press reports, “ExxonMobil (XOM) argued that its laserlike focus on fossil fuels is a sound strategy, regardless of climate change, because the world needs vastly more energy and the likelihood of significant carbon reductions is ‘highly unlikely.’ ”

In extenuation, it can be argued that ExxonMobil is only being more honest than its competitors in following capitalist logic. The same article reports the decision of Chevron to close its small and profitable sustainable energy projects because destroying the environment is more profitable. Others are not all that different. Royal Dutch Shell right now is celebrating the establishment of a huge plant to produce non-biodegradable plastic, in the certain knowledge that it will destroy the oceans.

Speaking of books and climate crisis, I read Alex Ross' The Hidden Costs of Streaming Music, which is about how streaming music doesn't mean the climate takes a lesser beating than with vinyl, CD, etc.

The article deals with Kyle Devine's coming Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music, which sounds fascinating.

From Alex Ross' article:

Devine writes, “The environmental cost of music is now greater than at any time during recorded music’s previous eras.” He supports that claim with a chart of his own devising, using data culled from various sources, which suggests that, in 2016, streaming and downloading music generated around a hundred and ninety-four million kilograms of greenhouse-gas emissions—some forty million more than the emissions associated with all music formats in 2000. Given the unprecedented reliance on streaming media during the coronavirus pandemic, the figure for 2020 will probably be even greater.

I'm reading Tone Schunnesson's Dagarna, Dagarna, Dagarna, which is a ride. Mix Marguerite Duras with Virginie Despentes and here you go; that's not really a fair comment as you have to experience Schunnesson's prose to get it. Also, she's funny as fuck on Instagram.