Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Year: 2019

  • Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now

    That’s the title of a book by Jaron Lanier. He poses the question:

    How can you remain autonomous in a world where you are under constant surveillance and are constantly prodded by algorithms run by some of the richest corporations in history, which have no way of making money except by being paid to manipulate your behavior?

    He wrote the book during the final months of 2017 – before the explosive events of the Cambridge Analytica scandal proved his thesis that we are the product of platforms such as Facebook and Google – not the customers – and that the real customers include bad actors who certainly do not have your, or society’s, best interests at heart.

    As the title suggests, he presents ten (very persuasive) arguments as to why you should stop using these platforms. And as he says:

    …being able to quit is a privilege; many genuinely can’t. But if you have the latitude to quit and don’t, you are not supporting the less fortunate; you are only reinforcing the system in which many people are trapped. I am living proof that you can have a public life in media without social media accounts. Those of us with options must explore those options or they will remain only theoretical. Business follows money, so we who have options have power and responsibility.

    I have long loathed and detested Facebook, so when the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke, it provided the impetus to delete my Facebook account, and I’ve never regretted it for an instant. I confess that I still have a WhatsApp account (WhatsApp is owned by Facebook), but this is only because our neighbourhood and community council have  group accounts. I would much prefer to stick to SMS, but alas, that ship has sailed.

    I read (and have monetary subscriptions to) newspaper websites directly instead of getting news through personalised feeds – Lanier writes that when “Facebook announced that it will deemphasize news in its feed: the journalism world celebrated, for the most part, because now it might become freer to connect to audiences on its own terms”.

    I use Pi-hole as our home network-wide Ad blocker, which has the added advantage of preventing Ad services from spying on us.

    I avoid using Google services as much as I can (for example I use DuckDuckGo as my search provider, and refuse to use Gmail). Nonetheless, my smartphone runs Android – thanks to Microsoft not having the guts to persevere with Windows Phone, so Google probably know more about me and my habits than I do myself.

    Instagram and Twitter have never appealed to me; I have never used them.

    Here’s an interview with Lanier on the subject of his book. I heartily recommend that you read Lanier’s book for yourself – it is likely to be an eye-opener. Hopefully it may also help some social media addicts to kick their habit.

  • Last Night of the Proms 2019

    So, it’s over for another year – we will have to wait until the 17th July 2020 for the next season of the BBC Proms to start.

    Meanwhile, I’ll remember the Last Night of the Proms for 2019 (last night…) with joy and affection. Some stunning music: the world premiere of a new piece, Woke, by Daniel Kidane, an arrangement of Laura Mvula’s Sing to the Moon, Elisabeth Maconchy’s Proud Thames, and all the old favourites.

    And we all fell instantly in love with the mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton. What a woman, what a voice! And when she produced the Rainbow flag during the second chorus of Rule Britannia and waved it proudly for all the world to see, we were overjoyed…

    Of course, the elephant in the room was Brexit, but we all managed to avoid mentioning it, and instead we simply enjoyed the music, waving Union Jacks and European flags together.

  • Wise Words and Sad Leaves

    Raoni Metuktire, chief of the indigenous Brazilian Kayapó people, has a few words of advice for us. Unfortunately, I doubt that we will listen.

  • The Mother of Parliaments

    Jos Collignon, the political cartoonist of the Dutch Volkskrant newspaper sums up the shenanigans of Boris Johnson and his gang of shits, charlatans and shysters (thank you, John Crace) pretty accurately this week…

    MotherofP

    I see Farage has muscled in on the act as well…

  • Plex Drops a Bomb

    Back in the mists of time (i.e. 2006), I installed a home cinema setup here: a Denon AVR with 7.1 audio, B&W speakers, and a Bluray player connected to the TV. After four years of service, I began to wonder if I could replace the Bluray player with a PC – a Home Theater PC… Six weeks later, after some research, I had made the move.

    Over the next few years the setup evolved further, but in 2014 it became clear that I would need to change the player software used in the HTPC. I looked at two alternatives, Plex and Emby. I used both, but over time came to depend on Plex as being the more polished alternative. It was not perfect, but for TV and Movie viewing, it was my preferred choice.

    A few days ago, Plex dropped a bomb. In their blog, they proudly announced a new version of their Desktop app. And buried further down in the text I read this:

    The new desktop app is notably lacking TV mode, which means that we’re going to stop supporting the traditional HTPC setup (using a desktop computer connected to your TV or home theater) with this app. There. We said it. It marks the end of an era for us, and we’d be lying if we said it wasn’t a little bittersweet. But take heart. We looked at how most people were using the app, and most of you will have an equal (if not better) experience with a streaming device and our new players.

    No, I will not “take heart”. My HTPC is working perfectly well, and I’ve very happy with our home cinema setup as it is. I do not want to have to throw away my HTPC and buy a streamer, thank you very much.

    I suspect I’m going to be switching back to Emby in the near future.  I’m not feeling very charitable towards Plex at the moment.

    Addendum 19 August 2019: I see that fellow HTPC owners are spitting feathers over at the Plex forum at the moment. It won’t make a blind bit of difference – Plex management has made it clear that the Plex Media Player for the HTPC  is dead as far as they are concerned.

    So I’ve switched back to Emby – where Emby management has also made it clear that they have no plans to drop support for the HTPC.

    Addendum 2 – 23 August 2019: so as a result of the uproar, Plex management has been having second thoughts. I’ll still be sticking with Emby for a while, just to see how it performs compared to Plex. I have already noticed that Emby is now beginning to support photo metadata tags – something that Plex has been promising to do for at least the past five years, but somehow never got around to doing anything about.

  • Erwin Olaf: I Am

    My blog post about the photographer Jimmy Nelson reminded me to write a post about another photographer whose work I really like: Erwin Olaf.

    There’s recently been a major exhibition of his work in two museums in The Hague, and I visited it with a photographer friend of mine (this, I think, was his third visit to see the exhibition). Olaf has been making photographs since the early 1980s, and his first collection was published in Stadsgezichten (City Faces) in 1985.

    9070464314

    It was a collection of two styles: street photography of Amsterdam’s nightlife, and studio portraits.

    stadsgezichten

    I’m pretty sure that that is Henk (on the ground) and Laurens – two guys I used to know from when I lived in Scheveningen. They were frequent visitors to Amsterdam’s nightlife. I recall a visit with them to Chez Manfred and the Floral Palace…

    stadsgezichten0001

    This is a self-portrait of Erwin and Teun, made in 1985. He reshot this with the exact same poses in 2019 for the exhibition. The two portraits hung side by side and made a statement about the passage of time.

    His work has evolved over the years, taking in video and installations along the way, to creating scenes that hint at stories captured in the image. What the stories are about is left for the viewer to construct. For example, this image from the 2012 series Berlin:

    Olaf - Clarchens Ballroom

    I’m pleased to have a selection of his books in the library, starting with Stadsgezichten, and travelling through Chessmen, Mind Of Their Own, Silver, Erwin Olaf, Own, and I Am.

    Olaf - Chessmen 9072216601

    Erwin Olaf - Erwin Olaf12051_f  Erwin Olaf

    2019_06_06 21_44 Office Lens 1  ErwinOlafErwinOlaf23070GHXJ_f

  • Carmina Burana

    I was revisiting an old post of mine about a strange version of Carmen, and discovered that there’s a sequel that is perhaps even more weird: Carmina Burana – as you’ve definitely never seen it before…

  • Homage to Humanity

    While I was in Deventer at the book market, I popped into Deventer’s largest bookshop to check out the new book by photographer Jimmy Nelson: Homage to Humanity.

    I already have a copy of his previous book Before They Pass Away in the library, which has the same theme: photographs of indigenous peoples and tribal cultures that are in danger of vanishing from the world.

    I freely admit to being in somewhat of two minds about the books. The photographs themselves are stunning, but also carefully posed; almost theatrical. A sort of National Geographic crossed with Vogue. And yet, and yet – they are undoubtedly a record of sorts:  aspects of human cultures that are undeniably in danger of being swept away.

    So I wanted to take a look at the new book to see whether I should stump up the cost of adding it to the library – at €125, it’s not exactly the cost of a paperback…

    And, well, I was persuaded. It is a gorgeous book, printed by Rizzoli.

    I’ve ordered it via our local village bookshop. Now I’ve got to find space in the bookshelves to put it.

    JimmyNelsonJimmyNelson23247_f  BeforeTheyPassAwayJimmy20798_f

  • The Deventer Book Market

    The first Sunday in August sees a book market set up its stalls for one day of trading in the Dutch town of Deventer. This year marked the 31st time the book market has been held, and there were more than 850 stalls stretching a total length of 6 kilometres. I’ve been visiting it most years since 2004.

    I didn’t have a big haul this year – just four small books: two “St. Trinians” books, illustrated by Ronald Searle, a first edition of Cabot Wright Begins by James Purdy, and The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, to remind me of the richness of language.

    Terror of St. Trinians  Hurrah for St. Trinians 

     Cabot Wright Begins  Concise Sayings

  • Mierenneuken writ large

    The Dutch have an expression: mierenneuken. Literally, it means “ant-fucking” (the Dutch are nothing if not straightforward).  The English translate this as “nitpicking”, that is, the practice of meticulously searching for minor, even trivial errors in detail.

    And now, the full weight of the Dutch governmental process has brought into being a ban on the wearing of the burka in public places that seems to me to be the very epitome of fucking ants.

    Thankfully, some manifestations of public life in the Netherlands have recognised this law for being what it is, a pernicious waste of time, money and energy over 150 religious women in a population of 17 million.

  • “A cabinet of shits, charlatans and shysters”

    I think John Crace has the measure of Boris Johnson and his choices for the cabinet in the UK’s new, and hopefully very brief, government.

    Addendum: a comment on another article in today’s Guardian sums it up quite nicely:

    So now you have a narcissistic pathological liar as PM, a home secretary who supports the death penalty, a chancellor who was a casino banker for Deutsche Bank prior to the 2008 crash, a foreign secretary who doesn’t know why Dover is important for the British economy and who wants to shut down Parliament, a trade secretary who almost got a mental breakdown over cheese imports and a scarecrow as environment secretary.

    What could possibly go wrong?

  • Fasten Your Seatbelts…

    We have just entered a region of severe turbulence. Boris Johnson has become Prime Minister of Britain.

    Verily, I say unto you: Be afraid – be very afraid.

    This is not going to end well for any of us, citizens of the UK or the EU alike.

  • Truth Torments Trump

    It’s been instructive to observe how accurate the diplomatic briefings of Kim Darroch have been. And also how cowardly the likely next Prime Minister of Britain (I can no longer find it in myself to write “Great Britain”) is being.

    As the Guardian states: Kim Darroch has effectively been sacked by Boris Johnson on the orders of Donald Trump.

    It’s worth repeating the final paragraph:

    Johnson will go through the doors of Downing Street at some point this month smiling and wanting to be loved, but many will instead see him, as one interviewer, Eddie Mair, described him, as “a nasty piece of work”. In the words of the chairman of the foreign affairs select committee, Tom Tugendhat, a former army officer: “Leaders stand up for their men. They encourage them to try and defend them when they fail.”

    Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, another “nasty piece of work” continues to pump out his poison to the world.

  • An Offensive Clown in a Polka-dot Dress

    I’ve never had time for Ann Widdicombe. Her callousness and stupidity have been self-evident for years. Now she has re-invented herself as an MEP. And she’s still spouting stupidity. She and Farage make a pretty pair. They are in Brussels simply to wreck the EU in any way they can, and pocket the pay and pension from the EU whilst doing it. I despair.

    Addendum: Marina Hyde sums up the Widdicombe spectacle better than I could. Read and despair.

  • “In Fabric” – It’s On My List To See…

    Director Peter Strickland has a new film: “In Fabric“. The trailer looks intriguing:

    I listened to Mark Kermode’s review, and the film is now definitely on my list to see. His summation ticked all the right boxes as far as I’m concerned:

    “It’s Nigel Kneale, Suspiria, Are You Being Served and Doctor Who with added kink”

    And for an added bonus:

    “You could read the whole thing as a sort of ironic visual and aural essay on Freud’s theories of the origins and meanings of fetishism”.

    Wow!

  • Pow! Whap! Zing! Ker-splat!

    As we get ever closer to the point where the UK’s Tory Party crowns the appalling Boris Johnson as their next leader and the country’s next Prime Minister, voices are beginning to be raised urging them to reconsider. Max Hastings has a particularly hard-hitting demolition of Boris in today’s Guardian. Sample zingers:

    Like many showy personalities, he is of weak character. I recently suggested to a radio audience that he supposes himself to be Winston Churchill, while in reality being closer to Alan Partridge.

    Johnson would not recognise truth, whether about his private or political life, if confronted by it in an identity parade.

    If the Johnson family had stuck to showbusiness like the Osmonds, Marx Brothers or von Trapp family, the world would be a better place. Yet the Tories, in their terror, have elevated a cavorting charlatan to the steps of Downing Street, and they should expect to pay a full forfeit when voters get the message.

    The sad thing is that Max has been telling us all the truth about Boris since at least 2012. Why is it that no-one is prepared to listen?

  • What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

    So Facebook wants us all to use their new cryptocurrency Libra? I loathe and detest Facebook enough already without this being thrust upon us. As Kenan Malik writes: Libra cryptocurrency won’t set us free, it will further enslave us to Facebook. Count me out.

    The truly terrifying thing is that apparently:

    More than two dozen entities have signed on to be founding members of the Libra organization, including Visa and MasterCard, Uber and Lyft, eBay, and Spotify.

    So Visa and Mastercard have already cast their lot with Facebook? We’re doomed.

  • The Bigger Picture

    Jonathan Cook discusses the the assault by Mark Field on a climate change activist this week, and points out the bigger picture. He states that we are in danger of getting sidetracked. Worth reading.

  • Nailed!

    These are disturbing times. Forget about the ongoing disaster that is climate change, and disasters such as Trump and Brexit. Let’s focus for a moment on the buttock-clenching mini-disaster that is the UK’s Conservative Party’s odyssey to choose their next leader – who will also become the UK’s next Prime Minister.

    They will almost certainly choose the unremittingly dreadful Boris Johnson, but frankly, the field of candidates that they have to choose from is pretty dire. The one candidate who appears slightly different is Rory Stewart.

    However, if you look at his voting record in Parliament, it is nothing to write home about. Ash Sarkar nails it.

    In short – people in the UK, you’re doomed. We are all going to suffer the consequences.

  • Bird Strike

    At the moment, we’ve got a variety of nests in the garden. The fledglings are now leaving the nest for the first time. This young Blue Tit knocked itself out by flying into one of our windows. Nothing seemed to be broken, but it didn’t seem to want to repeat the flying experience in a hurry. It was seemingly quite happy to have its photo taken before I transferred it to a branch in one of our plum trees.

    20190606-1141-27