5AM StoryTalk Coffee Reading: Issue 2
A compilation of arts-related articles (and podcasts) you might've missed
Good morning, fellow art and coffee lovers!
5AM StoryTalk is about art and trying to inspire readers to think about what they’re creating, what other people are creating, or the artworks they thought they understood in new ways. Not necessarily my way or better ways — but new ways, different ways.
Today, that means sharing with you a list of arts articles and podcasts I’ve recently read that I think you might find interesting/informative/challenging/inspiring, too. We’ll start off with some coverage of the current WGA/SAG-AFTRA strikes before moving on to less depressing and/or infuriating topics. At the end of the newsletter, you’ll find some recommendations about publications on Substack that I wager are worth subscribing to if the arts is your jam.
If you react to anything you read here, please feel free to start a discussion about it in the comments section. I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks for being part of this conversation!
Cole
WGA/SAG-AFTRA STRIKE
How SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP Talks Broke Down After Calls to CEOs, a Strike Delay Demand and Rebuffed Offers
By Cynthia Littleton; Variety
The Studios thought they could handle a strike. They might end up sparking a revolution
By Mary McNamara; Los Angeles Times
Hollywood’s Slo-Mo Self-Sabotage
By
; The New YorkerSince the streaming era, movies and television feel less special, labor conditions have plummeted, and turbulent mergers and layoffs call into question which legendary institutions will still stand in another ten or twenty years.
‘Idiots’: Wall Street Analysts Unload on Hollywood
By
;Sympathy is in short supply for the town's CEOs as earnings season kicks off
You can read my own WGA/SAG-AFTRA strike coverage here
OTHER ARTS READING/LISTENING
The Conversation--Kurosawa and Garcia Marquez
By Akira Kurosowa and Gabriel García Márquez; LA Times
Author Gabriel Garcia Marquez spoke with 81-year-old Japanese director Akira Kurosawa in Tokyo [in October 1990] when the filmmaker was shooting his latest movie, “Rhapsody in August.”
(This is a thirty-two-year-old interview between one of the greatest filmmakers ever and one of the greatest authors ever. I can’t believe it took me that long to find it.)
Black Women Executives Are Exiting Studio Leadership Posts and Hollywood’s Doing Nothing About It
By
; VarietyJoyce Carol Oates Figured Out the Secret to Immortality
By David Marchese; New York Times Magazine
How to Break Up Disney
By
; PoliticoRon DeSantis and the Hollywood strikers need to unite.
‘I Didn’t Kill My Wife!’ — An Oral History of ‘The Fugitive’
By Andy Greene; Rolling Stone
There was no finished script or even an ending and a key cast member became fatally ill during the production. Three decades after the release of the landmark Hollywood thriller, the cast and crew look back at the film's chaotic creation and reflect on the legacy of the instant classic that almost fell apart.
Sarah Silverman is suing OpenAI and Meta for copyright infringement
By Wes Davis; The Verge
The lawsuits allege the companies trained their AI models on books without permission.
Shekhar Kapur: Hollywood's diversity push is guilt driven
By Sima Kotecha and Tim Dodd; BBC Newsnight
Director Shekhar Kapur has said Hollywood's push for more diverse casts has come from its guilt over "all the actors who are not getting work".
The Screenwriting Life Podcast Episode 148: Jodie Foster on Building Truthful Characters
(My friend screenwriter Meg LeFauve and her co-host Lorien McKenna interview Meg’s former employer, mentor, and friend - Jodie Foster.)
Bo Goldman, Oscar-Winning Screenwriter, Dies at 90
By Neil Genzlinger; New York Times
He was a struggling writer when he won an Academy Award for “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” He won another for “Melvin and Howard.”
(Variety posted an incredibly insulting obituary for Goldman featuring lines such as this one: “Despite the success he achieved, Goldman had six children and sometimes took assignments for the money.” Read this obit, in the NYT, instead; it does great honor to a great screenwriter’s life.)
A Life: Moving, Change, Insecurity
By Bo Goldman; New York Times
(Written in 1981 by screenwriter Bo Goldman after winning two Oscars. It’s a powerful, moving essay on poverty, the artist’s journey, and fatherhood.)
The Actor Who Documented His Grief — and Shared It with the World
By Sophie Gilbert; The Atlantic
After his wife died two years ago, Richard E. Grant began to film himself talking about his bereavement, creating a remarkable record of life after loss.
‘Our book is Barbie meets Oppenheimer’: why we wrote about nostalgia in an era of crisis
By Helen Macdonald and Sin Blaché; The Guardian
H Is for Hawk author Helen Macdonald and her co-writer Sin Blaché on Barbenheimer, the power of the past and how late capitalism is eating itself.
‘In a world that is going to hell, there is still so much joy’: Ann Patchett on finding happiness
By Lisa Allardice; The Guardian
The Nashville author’s essay, These Precious Days, prompted a global outpouring of love, and her new book celebrates the wonder of ordinary life. She talks about running a bookshop, resisting censorship and taking inspiration from Madonna.
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATIONS
I enjoy reading the following Substack newsletters about art. Maybe you will, too.
Chuck Palahniuk's Plot Spoiler from Chuck Palahniuk
Story Club with George Saunders from George Saunders
In the Writing Burrow fromMargaret Atwood
LegalDispatch from Marc Guggenheim
Thin Ice from Christopher Derrick
The CavletterCavan Scott
Inkygirl fromDebbie Ridpath Ohi
Re:Writing fromBen Blacker
The Audacity. fromRoxane Gay
The Extant Storytech R&D Report fromMickey Fisher
If this article added anything to your life but you’re not up for a paid subscription, please consider buying me a “coffee” so I can keep as much of this newsletter free as possible for the dreamers who couldn’t afford it otherwise.
PSALMS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD is out now from Headline Books, Hachette Australia, and more. You can order it here wherever you are in the world:
