👩🏻🎤Bowie, Benedict, and a brand new bookclub...
Hello
This weekend I went to the cinema and had my annual cry* whilst watching Moonage Daydream, the newly released Bowie documentary. I loved seeing his musical and personal evolution, the footage of gigs impossible for me to have gone to, stories from when he spent a number of years floating around the world in an effort to not get too comfortable, and the link between his childhood and his use of music / character / art as a means of escape. I was also delighted to hear him describe himself as a generalist - there’s hope for us all!
I became fascinated by Bowie when I was about 9 years old and stumbled upon his page on Encarta (Google it kids). I would play the little lo-res 30 second video clip of Changes over and over again whilst scrolling through the photos of this strange looking man. Fast forward to January 2016, I still remember the feeling seeing the news alert pop up on my phone whilst sat on the tarmac at Sydney airport waiting to fly back to Melbourne. His is the only celebrity death I’ve been genuinely sad about. This documentary reminded me why; what a brilliant, brilliant alien.
(I will warn you though; if you’re feeling even a smidge like you’re not living up to your creative potential at the moment / are in a bit of a rut, this will quite likely make you feel much worse. It will also make you want to only wear jumpsuits.)
There’s lots of live footage in the film, and plenty of crowd shots of screaming, singing, crying fans. It made me think of the recent book I read called This Is Not a Book about Benedict Cumberbatch, by Tabitha Carvan. In it, Tabitha talks about how when women are shown screaming/singing/crying at music concerts (see: Beatles / Beyoncé / Bublé / Bieber), they are portrayed as hysterical. Whereas when men are screaming/singing/crying at [insert sports event], they are ‘passionate’, ‘diehard’ fans.
For women, there’s an extra rub. In order to be a True Fan, you can’t be like the Other Women. Your fandom is questioned more, you have to prove how much of a fan you are. One way to do this? By not outwardly enjoying it as much.
One more gut-punch in the book is Tabitha shining a light on the fact that women are expected to ‘grow out’ of liking things. Men (you’ve guessed it), can carry on liking things for their whole damn lives. Sigh. The message of the book is this; reclaim the joy of loving something - anything - like your life depends on it.
With that said, here’s some other things I’ve recently enjoyed:
Article - Stan Grant for the ABC: True to form, Stan Grant writes powerfully about the challenge of Indigenous Australian voices being silenced (more than usual) over the last couple of weeks.
Netflix - Wirecard: The Billion Euro Lie: I love a financial scandal story and this recent one out of Germany is almost too ridiculous to be true; a FinTech company that grew bigger than Deutsche Bank turns out to be a massive fraud.
Podcast - The Missing Crypto Queen: Did I mention I love a good financial scandal? After a wonderful breakfast with Claire Hatton the other week, I walked away with lots of new pod recommendations. This is one of them; the FT investigation into a fake crypto company. Some of the production is a bit over-hammed but the story is excellent. Spotify | Apple.
Podcast - This Working Life: Lisa Leong talks to experts about the lucrative industry of leadership development, why most initiatives fail, and what organisations should be focused on instead (or as well). Spotify | Apple.
Tech - iOS 16: more personalisation!
Going - multi-day hike: I’m heading hiking/camping with two friends for the long weekend. There’s something quite fulfilling about packing a bag with the things required to be self-sufficient for a few days and knowing there’s a decent physical challenge around the corner. Recommend.
Waving hiking poles and a glittery jumpsuit,
Steph
*Ok, I did have a few tears watching Nick Cave’s This Much I Know to be True in May, and came close whilst watching this video. There sure is something about music…
PS. To borrow from Austin Kleon (and everyone else who borrows this from Austin Kleon), this newsletter and the podcast are 'free but not cheap'. You can support their ongoing creation by buying me a coffee as a one off 'thank you', or leaving giving the podcast a (five 😉) star rating on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. Thanks!
☀️ Sneak peek: Steph’s Business Bookshelf Summer Book Club ☀️
With Summer around the corner here in Australia (La Niña or not), I’m pre-launching a little thing for friends of the bookshelf… Introducing Steph’s Business Bookshelf Summer Book Club (SBBSBC??!).
If you’re taking a bit of time off over the summer and want someone to pick your reading material for you, this is the book club for you. Read however fast / slow you want, in whatever order you prefer, with no deadlines. The books will all arrive at once in late November, so you won’t need to cancel your summer travel plans to wait at home for them to arrive.
Here’s the early deets…
📭 3 October: SBBSBC opens for pre-order
📫 21 October: SBBSBC pre-order closes
📦 Late November: books sent out
📚 December - February: read, read, read
🎉 February: SBBSBC virtual book party
There’ll also be a couple of options to choose from, so you can pick a book category that suits the type of reading you’d like to do.
Needless to say, this would also make a great gift 🤶🏼. Wink wink.
Want in? Hit reply to this email to go on the list to be first to hear when orders and package options are released 👀