Month: November 2022

Mucha fuerza debe tener el fútbol si “Los entresijos de la FIFA” (Netflix) nonos quitan las ganas de ver un partido. Sabemos que la corrupción está en elorigen del Mundial de Qatar. El Lobby entró en la FIFA y encontró gentesensible al dólar, así de simple. El resultado es un Mundial ennoviembre/diciembre, en una ciudad antes que en un país y bajo el imperio deuna riquísima monarquía autárquica. Occidente condena a Qatar sin fisuras porno respetar los derechos de la comunidad LGTBI, por considerar inferiores alas mujeres o por las terribles condiciones de trabajo de los obreros queconstruyeron los estadios. Pero veámoslo así: un Mundial es una invasiónpacífica que permite, entre otras cosas, denunciar y abrir el apetito de laslibertades en países donde están restringidas. Quedará por ver si el tiempo escapaz de hacer su trabajo cultural. Quizás sea una ingenuidad, pero es micoartada para que, al menos, no nos roben la posibilidad de disfrutar del

“No he recibido ningún don divino. No soy el mejor tirador ni el mejormanejador de balón. Tampoco soy el más rápido o el más fuerte. Pero lucho.Juego tan duro como el que más y nunca me echo atrás. No me asusta nada ninadie. Si crees que eso puede ser un talento, ese es el mío”. Aquellaspalabras de Jimmy Butler eran música para los oídos de Pat Riley, presidentede los Miami Heat desde 1995.

Butler visitó las instalaciones de los Heat el 30 de junio de 2019, encondición de agente libre –era la primera vez en su carrera que laexperimentaba- y para cerrar su acuerdo con la franquicia de Florida, una vezsabía la renuncia de Philadelphia a extender su contrato aquel verano. No esque Riley necesitase saber quién era, le había seguido de sobra y de hechodeseado incorporar desde varios años atrás. Pero la crudeza del mensaje,dentro de un contexto tan imponente como su oficina, escenario capaz deempequeñecer incluso al hombre más seguro, reafirmaba el acierto decontratarle. Jimmy era lo que Miami buscaba.

“Mirad –contaría Riley después a la prensa local-, él es un tipohipercompetitivo pero honesto. Su verdad nova a ser siempre la tuya. Habrámomentos de desacuerdo, pero no problemas. Si tu punto en una discusión esmejor que el mío, eso me acabará enseñando algo, me descubrirá qué hago mal.Y, sinceramente, considero necesario que algo así suceda”.

Doha es una ciudad en guardia, avizor de un Mundial del que no está muy claroqué espera ya quién espera. A dos días de la inauguración, la capital catarítiene un aire fantasmal. Son las 9.30 de la mañana (las 7.30 en España) y enel paseo marítimo de Corniche, una de las arterias principales, no hay másalmas que las de una extensa hilera de agents de policía entremezclados conpersonal del servicio de limpieza. Todos a cobijo. No hay bien más preciado yescaso que una sombra protectora de los 30 grados que ya abrasan y el 40% dehumedad que ya sofoca. Los cuerpos sudan como regaderas, al menos los de unadocena, no más, de valientes transeúntes sin uniforme. Los que lo llevan seempapan para nada. No hay a quién vigilar, ni siquiera hay tráfico que dirigirporque todo está cortado y vallado. Y porque en esta capital, de momento, nohay tránsito peatonal. De no ser por el tráfico, silencio, silencio. And lascalles, por el día y por la noche. And Doha se conducte, no se callejea. Nadaque ver con lo que presuntamente se espera. De ser así, un cambio de agujastotal.

And realidad, todo Doha es un recinto vallado, vallas, vallas y más vallas. Alretén de policías les secundan los recoge basuras que se empeñan en recoger labasura que no hay, porque no hay quien manche. Pero es lo que toca.

Unos y otros, gendarmes y limpiadores, suponen que en breve tendrán tarea. AndDoha todos suponen. También el personal con chaleco amarillo que indica alpeatón por dónde cruzar una avenida, como si los semáforos estuvieran en otroidioma. Están tan arbitrariamente sintonizados y hay tan pocos peatones que aestos se les invita a cruzar con el monigote en rojo para evitar esperas decuatro y cinco minutos a pleno sol y con el asphalto en brasas.

Hay guías peatonales como hay sherpas que indican por dónde salir y entrar almetro o señalan convenientemente qué escalera mecánica sube y cuál baja. Haypersonal, mucho personal, de todo tipo, a todas horas y por todas partes. Todoson timoneles. No importa que en la zona de la Bahía—la habilitada para loshinchas, los fake y los originales— y esa secuela de Manhattan que pone porlas nubes el cogollo financiero y administrativo de la capital, no hayaclientela a la que proteger del tráfico o hacer de lazarillo por el trensubterráneo. Un metro adelantado por la llegada del Mundial en el que podríamerendar en el suelo el más escrupuloso del universo. Una obra de palacio,todo resplandeciente. Con tres lines basta. Como pasa en el exterior, a faltade aficionados, lleguen o no en masa (la organización, optimista, prevé unmillón), hay muchos más monitores, no importa de qué materia, que pasajeros.No falta el atrezzo futbolero, claro, con balones de metal incrustados entrelos barrotes de agarre. Se suponen que nadie los desmontará tras el Mundial.Al fin y al cabo tendrán más utilidad posterior que los siete estadios del másallá construidos para el gran evento futbolístico. And Qatar, llegada la ligacatarí, el fútbol no da para tanto.

Elon Musk, in the middle of a crisis of his own making after hundreds ofTwitter employees quit following his demand they commit “hardcore” totoileting at the company, found the time to pardon comedian Kathy Griffin forthe crime of impersonating the tech tycoon.

Griffin was suspended from Twitter in early November after she changed heraccount name to “Elon Musk” and used his pic for her profile. Griffin tookover the Twitter account of Maggie Griffin, her late mother, after beingbanned and has continued to troll Musk. On Friday, sheresponded fromthat account, “Dear Eilon. You f**ked up, fool. I’m going downstairs to mybasement of heads. You’re up. Xxoo, The Header.”

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As for whether or not to let Donald Trump back on Twitter, Musk said, a“decision has not yet been made.” Trump was permanently banned from Twitterand other mainstream internet platforms in early 2021 for his posts supportingthe Jan. 6 rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol.

Musk has accused Twitter of censoring conservatives and he has previously saidhe would reverse Twitter’s permanent ban on Trump, calling it a “morally baddecision.” Trump has previously insisted he would not rejoin Twitter,regardless of who owns it, to stick to his own (ironically named) TruthSocial, a Twitter knockoff.

In addition to reinstating Griffin — whose first name he misspelled as“Kathie” — Musk also said author Jordan Peterson (which he misspelled as“Jorden”) and satire site Babylon Bee have had their Twitter accountsrestored.

Peterson, a right-wing Canadian psychologist, was suspended in June 2022 underTwitter’s rules prohibiting hateful conduct after he tweeted, “Remember whenpride was a sin?” He then deadnamed Elliot Page, the actor who in 2020announced that he is transgender, and said that Page’s “breasts [were] removedby a criminal physician.”

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In March 2022, Twitter suspended the right-wing Babylon Bee, also under thecompany’s “hateful conduct” policy, after the publication announced that ithad selected Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender woman who is US AssistantSecretary for Health, as its “Man of the Year.” The website bills itself as“your trusted source for Christian news satire.”

In response to a Twitter user who exhorted Musk to “bring back Alex Jones,”the conspiracy-monger who has been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion tofamilies of victims of the Sandy Hook school shooting, Muskreplied“No.”

Musk, shortly after he closed the $44 billion Twitter takeover on Oct. 27,said the company would create a content-moderation council with “widelydiverse viewpoints” and that “no major content decisions or accountreinstatements will happen before that council convenes.” It’s unclear whethersuch a council was formed.

Upon completing the Twitter deal, Musk fired the senior management team andlaid off 50% of its 7,500 employees. On Thursday, more than 1,200 employeesquit over Musk’s “hardcore” workplace fiat, the New York Times reported. Thatwould leave around 2,500 staffers remaining, about one-third its previousheadcount.

In a thread Friday, Musk said Twitter’s new policy ensures “freedom of speech,but not freedom of reach.”

According to Twitter’s CEO, that means “negative/hate tweets will be maxdeboosted & demonetized, so no ads or other revenue to Twitter.” He added,“You won’t find the tweet unless you specifically seek it out, which is nodifferent from rest of Internet.”

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[BLOG] Again unrest in radioland. The Netherlands Authority for Consumersand Markets (ACM) advises the cabinet that in the new auction each radiocompany may only have a maximum of 3 FM packages. It is a step in the rightdirection, but still not the right way to restore a healthy radio market inthe Netherlands. We have to go back to the situation of 2003, where one partymay have a maximum of two FM packages, preferably one of which is alsoincluded. I know I ‘m not making myself popular with this, but that’s nothingnew. Will it try to explain to you why this really is the best solution, forthe maker and the listener.

The current radio market is of course unworkable, especially for the makers.John de Mol’s Talpa has about the 4 most important FM packages, except for100.7. This not only gives him a dominant position when it comes to sellingadvertising, but he has also been holding back real innovation in radio landfor years. The best man still believes that you can do everything the old-fashioned way, treat listeners to endless commercial breaks with a picture anda chat. The wages and working conditions for the radio disc jockeys are alsopitiful, because try to get a job elsewhere. Many talents even say ‘fine tomake radio there, but not under John de Mol’.

With three FM packages in the hands of a billionaire, these kinds of NorthKorean situations will of course remain normal. Involvement down to the detaillevel, as a result of which Edwin Evers, for example, decided to call it quitsa year earlier than planned. Many disc jockeys hardly dare to go on-airanymore, because before you know it John hears it and you’re out. The samegoes for radio managers, of course, who just do what they did every year sothat they don’t have to come to the mat or even worse get fired. As a result,more and more listeners are turning their backs on the medium and are seekingrefuge online in podcasts, for example.

But there is another reason why it is not good to house so many radio stationsunder one roof: mutual competition. You can bet that they are cheering atRadio 10 if they are the only ones who have not dropped in terms of listeningfigures and 538, Sky and Veronica have. Everyone keeps an eye on each other,especially in a culture of fear. Imagine that not only Feyenoord, but alsoExcelsior and FC Dordrecht all train, meet and play football in De Kuip. Andwhat that does to the mutual atmosphere. For good radio you need a top teamthat gives each other something and where there is peace and safety. Not awasp’s nest where stations are mutually jealous of each other marketingbudgets, jocks, advertising revenues, press attention, etcetera. With adictator in power who kills creativity.

I think back fondly on the fantastic time I had for twelve years at RadioVeronica, from 2004 to 2016. We were in one building with Sky Radio, which hadno deejays. Of course there was some bickering about which of the two channelswas on in the canteen or in the hallway, but otherwise you wished each otherthe best. That was also because both stations were not fishing in each other’spond, the division was clear: Veronica focused primarily on the men, Sky onthe women. The Formula 1 action was with Veronica, the Disney action with Sky.Sky played current hits because not specified, Veronica played 80’s and 90’shits. Easy peasy. Such a clause is not so bad, because ‘the true artist showsitself in the limitation’. Now that everything will be released immediately,except for Dutch and news, it will become an even bigger uniform sausage on FMwhere everyone will sit down and do the same thing again. The listener shrugsfurther and gets the surprise from somewhere other than the radio. And richowners only think how can I make that shop here even more profitable so that Ican resell the business with a substantial profit. Count out of your creative

Christina Applegate is sharing more about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

The 50-year-old actress spoke to variety about the final season of Dead toMe , now streaming on Netflix, and how as production began, she experienced”scary” symptoms that ultimately led to her diagnosis. MS is a disease of thecentral nervous system that disrupts the flow of information within the brainthat can cause unpredictable physical, mental, and emotional symptoms.

“I’m not going to say that any of it was easy,” Applegate, 50, said aboutfinishing the show. “I started having symptoms in January 2021 — very small,something you could just brush off. Right before we started shooting [in May2021]it was as if I got hit by a truck and didn’t know what was going on.”

She called it “very scary for me, because this body that I had known was nolonger mine.” At first, they had to “kind of work around” her mystery symptoms”until, finally, I had answers. I found that I had MS while we were shootingon a Monday. I went home, and the doctor said, ‘I need to do this meeting withyou.’ I could feel that this Zoom was not going to be good news. It sucked,I’m not going to lie.”

Christina Applegate has said she won’t accept that she has MS, saying instead,”I’m pissed.” At her Hollywood Walk of Fame star ceremony, she rocked nailpolish that said: “FU MS.” (Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

After Applegate’s diagnosis, the show shut down for five months so the_Married … with Children_ alum could process the news and start treatment.However, “There is no processing the fact that you have a lifelongdegenerative disease,” she said. “Maybe other people could have gone intoacceptance. I’m just a year in, so I’m still in that mourning process.”

She credits her co-star Linda Cardellini and showrunner Liz Feldman, who shewas interviewed alongside, for helping her be able to complete the series. Bythe time she returned to the set — which she insisted on doing — she needed awheelchair. She had to physically be held up, by an off-camera crew member,for shots. She’d take naps to get through the long tape days. Sometimes, shejust had to leave and go home.

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“If I didn’t have these two ladies, especially, I don’t know what I would havedone,” Applegate said.

Applegate was given the option of not returning. Feldman said they would piecetogether what they had to bring closure to the story about two widowed bestfriends. The Emmy-winning actress said finishing it “was personal.”

“The conversation had come up, like, ‘Should we just stop?’ I was like, ‘No,we have to finish this for ourselves. We have to tell our story. And I’ll dowhatever I can — I’m just going to need your help,'” she said. “When I’d say,’Hey, you know what? I can’t work today,’ they’d go, ‘OK, we’re gonna not worktoday,’ or ‘We’ll find other scenes.’ I was profoundly grateful that I couldsay, ‘I need a half an hour,’ or ‘I need to go lay down — I can’t walk.’ … Myday started hard, so it was only going to get harder as we went along duringthe day.So we just tried to pace ourselves as much as possible.We just went,’Let’s just rely on the story and this relationship.All that other stuffdoesn’t matter.'”

Applegate now uses a cane to get around and has gained 40 pounds after herdiagnosis. She said while making the show, she “wouldn’t look in the mirroranymore” while doing fittings with the costume designer.

Asked what she learned while making the show, Applegate — not afraid of makingjokes about her diagnosis — quipped, “That I have MS. Just kidding — it nevergets old!”

She then got serious, saying, “I don’t think of life poetically. I don’t self-examine. I’ve always been go, go, go, go, go. I’m almost 51 years old. I’ vebeen in SAG since 1976. I’ve worked a long time. During the course of that, Ihave had some incredibly hard things happen to me in the midst of work, andwork always made me push through it. I broke my foot while I was living mydream of being on Broadway [in Sweet Charity ]. I had breast cancer while Iwas on my favorite show at the time, Samantha Who? A boyfriend [Lee Grivas]also died that year.”

She continued, “Having the biggest one [MS] happen to me during this, I haveto honor help. I have to feel the pain that I think I’ve always wanted to feelfor all these other things, that I wasn’t allowed to because I wasn’t given anamazing space to do so. I had pushed everything down for so long. Throughthese characters — getting a chance to not have to be on all the fing time,be funny or get to the fing punch line; being able to play these charactersthat are so broken, that feel so deeply and so painfully — it really taughtme: Christina, you’ve got to be able to honor that in yourself sometimes.”

Applegate isn’t sure what her future holds with acting, she’ll continue toproduce for sure, but said that “the gift of my life” was co-starring oppositeCardellini on this show. “Hopefully, that was not the gift of my swan song.But if it was, I am so happy that it was with [her].”

Earlier this week, Applegate made her first public appearance since herdiagnosis, attending her Hollywood Walk of fame star ceremony. She debuted hernew cane and appeared sans shoes, as footwear can be restricting for peoplewho have MS. Her former TV mom from Married … With Children Katey Sagal,hero her to help her keep her balance at the stage.

Applegate was accompanied by Cardellini and Feldman, who both spoke on herbehalf, as well as Sagal and David Faustino. Applegate’s husband, Porno forPyros musician Martyn LeNoble, 11-year-old daughter Sadie and step-daughterwere among those there to honor her.

She shaded the disease that’s made her lose control of her body, and made itclear she’s not accepting of any of this, rocking a special manicure for theoccasion that said: “FU MS.”

updateShe had to get her brain cracked because Tania Kross could be in anotherepisode of it last night Secret Duets but don’t stand up: who was that ladybehind the wall with those sporty legs? “She didn’t win the medals forsinging,” commented presenter Jamai Loman dryly, as 927,000 people saw.

In the singing show, famous artists duet with someone they can’t see. Usingthe voice and some hints, they have to guess who is on the other side of athick wall. That can be a professional singer, but also a celebrity who is notknown to be able to sing.

It was Tania Kross’s turn to guess who she was singing a duet with. The operasinger had to make do with a few hints in advance: seven gold medals, jellyand a sword. “Oh man. Another greatness”, she sighed. For the rest of thepanel, consisting of Gerard Joling, Romy Monteiro and Dave von Raven, it wasclear: this had to be an athlete. “Inge de Bruijn?” suggested Jolingcautiously.

Once on stage, both Kross and the seated panelists were given a brief previewof the performance. Kross sang along with the mystery guest What a wonderfulworld from Louis Armstrong. The short show didn’t provide much clarity,except that it might be an older lady. Monteiro could not imagine that itwould be an older lady. “The legs… they are not necessarily older legs,” themusical star thought aloud. And, Joling explained, those ‘incredibly highheels’ could very well be the cause of that shaky voice. It was also a greatmystery to Von Raven. “Sporty legs, let me say that anyway.”

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The mysterious guest in Secret Duets © RTL

Bell ringing

It was still a mystery to the panel and so more had to be sung. Kross and thelady with the sporty legs started the number again, meanwhile some chairs wereremoved so that the mystery guest became a little more visible. But thatdidn’t seem to help either. Dave von Raven therefore asked for a new hint frompresenter Jamai. “Life is full ups and downs ”, were his words. That wasthe moment that a bell started ringing at Joling. ,,Aha! I know right. But Ican’t imagine she is.” Monteiro and Von Raven also thought they were on theright track.

To find out if the panel was right, the duet was sung for the last time. Krossracked her brain, but an answer never occurred to her. ,,I don’t know. So Ireally don’t recognize the voice.” To make things easier for her, Joling wasallowed to give a hint. “Of course you are always on Curaçao. You don’t seeeverything. If you switch on Dutch television in the afternoon, it is stillvery early with us. And then she can actually always be seen.” Monteiro added:“Yes, this is a concept.”

Then a penny dropped with the opera singer. ,,Oh, oh, oh! Is it the lady from_The Netherlands in motion_? Olga Commander?” Loud applause followed, becauseshe was right. ,,I did not expect this. How nice this!” exclaimed Kross. The64-year-old Commander confessed afterwards that he found it ‘terribly scary’,but could count on a big compliment from Kross. “You are a fantastic example.”

What started as an attempt by René Froger to bring his quarreling colleaguesGordon and Gerard Joling back together, grew into an occasional formation thatwill give its fiftieth ArenA concert this weekend. But are De Toppers still aspopular as they were in 2005?

In the early years of De Toppers, Froger, Joling and Gordon sometimes playedsix times a year in a full ArenA. This year three concerts are planned fromFriday to Sunday. Sunday’s show has been completely bought up by the PostcodeLottery. There are no tickets for sale for that concert, you can only winthem.

The occasional formation, which nowadays consists of ‘Oppertopper’ Froger,Joling, Jeroen van der Boom and Jan Smit, has already sold all tickets forSaturday’s show. But tickets are still available for Friday’s show. Places inthe second rank have been sold for only a tenner in recent weeks via Holidayauctions. A fourth concert, for which Jumbo customers could save for a secondfree ticket, was canceled because the promotion was not running.

Is this a sign that the popularity of De Toppers has declined in recent years?Froger and Van der Boom think not. “There may be some cards here and therewith less visibility, for example, but it will just be full,” Froger assuresNU.nl.

“And if it ends up being 66,000 people instead of 67,000, that’s still a lot,”adds Van der Boom. “That’s why it’s strange that people ask so often whetherit’s not even enough. If you suddenly stop doing it, you step over the partyof thousands and thousands of people.”

Toppers originated during a concert by Froger

Since their first concert series in 2005, De Toppers have not skipped a singleyear, except for the past two editions due to the corona pandemic. Froger, whois the only member who has not missed a single edition, will celebrate hisfiftieth ArenA concert with De Toppers on Sunday.

The 62-year-old singer could not have dreamed that in 2004, when he invitedthe bickering ruffs Joling and Gordon to perform with him during his ownconcert series in the ArenA. That went so well that they started De Toppersand planned a concert in Carré. Due to the high demand for tickets, that showwas moved to the Johan Cruijff ArenA.

Despite Froger’s glue attempt, disagreements between Joling and Gordoncontinued to predominate. In the run-up to their participation in theEurovision Song Contest in 2009, Joling decided to leave the group. He wasreplaced by Van der Boom. When Gordon left the band in 2011, Joling returned.Later Smit also joined the company.

‘De Toppers will still exist in twenty years’

The group has endured various conflicts and entertained countless Dutch peoplewith their concerts over the years. Anyone who thinks that Froger sees afiftieth concert as a good time to put an end to it, will be disappointed.

“I want to put an end to that typical Dutch question of how long we willcontinue,” says Froger. “I see De Toppers still exist in twenty years’ time.As long as the public likes it and we enjoy it, we are not going to stop.”

Froger thinks that De Toppers’ concept is timeless and that it can survivewithout him in the future. “When it comes time to pass the baton, I will.”

A deluxe reissue of the album was released last week _ …If I Die, I Die _fromthe Virgin Prunes from 1982. Singer Gavin Friday’s band originated from thesame group of friends as U2, but as an avant-garde opposite.

Gijsbert RoomNovember 18, 202205:00

In his autobiography, published earlier this month Surrender – 40 Songs, OneStory Bono tells extensively about the club of friends that formed in Dublinabout fifty years ago. They invented the city of Lypton Village themselves, inwhich they spoke their own language. The imaginary town would spawn two bands:Bono’s rock group U2 and its more avant-garde counterpart Virgin Prunes(1977-1986), whose lead singer was Gavin Friday before going solo.

Friday (63) is not only still friends with Bono, but has also been involvedwith U2 for more than forty years as an advisor or ‘midwife’, as Bono callshim.

“That qualification is for him,” says Friday laughing in a New York hotel roomwhere he talks via Zoom about the re-release of … If I Die, I Die , VirginPrunes’ 1982 album. An event that coincides nicely with the publication ofBono’s memoirs. The book and the poster give a nice picture of Dublin in theearly eighties.

The Virgin Prunes around the appearance of ‘…If I Die, I Die’Sculpture UrsulaSteiger

‘Ireland was really under the spell of Catholicism at the time. It was apolitical and religious one fucked up country. I lived on the same street asBono and Guggi, my later partner in Virgin Prunes. In a nutshell: Bono startedwith guitarist The Edge U2 and I formed the band Virgin Prunes with Edge’sbrother Dik and Guggi. U2 was more of a real rock band, we wanted theatre, artand music to come together in an anarchic way. Everything was born out ofanger at the religious oppression, which I had really felt as a boy. We wantedto bring pagan and Celtic elements back to theater and music, and made adelicious mess of it. Dressing up and painting on stage, in dresses or runningnaked across the stage. It was a mess, but around 1980 we made a name forourselves, thanks to performances with Nick Cave’s Birthday Party, who werejust as eager to disrupt.’

Virgin Prunes got a record deal and a producer, Colin Newman, who knew Fridayfrom the post-punk band Wire he admired. ‘We were anti-everything, so alsoanti-producer, but I’m glad that we went with Newman at the insistence of therecord company. He disciplined us and brought out the best in us with thesimplest instructions.’

Sculpture Ursula Steiger

…If I Die, I Die had a brown, mystical record side and a blue, more rocksong oriented half. Friday: ‘I was pleasantly surprised when I listened toeverything before remastering. Okay, that song side has those typical echoingeighties drums. But the first half influenced by Celtic folk and dark gothicmusic is really beautiful. Such a title as Ulakanakulot came straight out ofthe language we spoke in Lypton Village.”

There was not much contact between Bono and Friday in those years. ‘Between1980 and 1985 Virgin Prunes and U2 followed their own path. I saw U2 becomereally famous and I was proud too. I didn’t have such great ambitions myself.I was mostly angry and I wanted to turn that anger into something beautiful. ANew Form of Beauty, as we called it. Expression came out of regression, andwhen I now hear what we sang about in songs like Baby Turns Blue, self-harm,suicide among young people and gender fluidity, those topics are stilltopical.’

Bono wanted to go in a completely different direction with U2. ‘He liked toembrace his audience, we preferred to disrupt. But the club of friends inLypton Village has always existed. Bono still calls me regularly when he, Ican hardly pronounce it but come on, needs his midwife. I’m here for U2 ifthey don’t come up with a song. Then I say: do this or that, or I’ll just singsomething, and then hop, then that song is suddenly finished. It has been thisway for more than forty years. Most of the time they don’t need me, butsometimes I say, Bono, where’s the chorus?’

For tours like the one accompanying the album Achung Baby (1991) Friday wasemployed as a visual consultant, and together with Anton Corbijn, Fridaydesigned the photo section in Bono’s book.

“Bono likes to have me everywhere. Also yesterday, when he presented his bookhere in New York at the Beacon Theater. That’s so obvious, as it goes infriendships. But I’m not going to run after him for an entire tour. I’m goingto wrap up my new album here, which should be out in the middle of next year.I notice that I have a lot of anger in me again, just like in the time of theVirgin Prunes. No more about Ireland, which is now a well-liberalized country.But the encroachment of the ultra-right everywhere, including you, worries me.We are entering the same dark age as the late 1970s and early 1980s. To escapethat, we made forty years ago … If I Die, I Die. That album actually fitsvery well with this time.

And then Cigdem Mater stopped answering her texts. It is Monday, April 25,when the German filmmaker Adrian Figueroa suddenly can no longer reach theproducer with whom he has made two films. Her phone has been confiscated aftershe was just sentenced to 18 years in prison. Mater’s offense: thinking aboutfinancing a film about the Gezipark protests, in 2013 in Istanbul. In thecase, seven others, including a lawyer and an academic, are given the samesentence; the prominent philanthropist Osman Kavala is sentenced to life.

Together with Figueroa, Mater made the short film in 2020 Letters fromSilivri and in 2022 Dear Osman. The films are about Kavala, who has beendetained for more than five years. The films were shown on Wednesday at theGoethe Institute in Amsterdam, as a show of solidarity with Mater and theother prisoners. Figueroa was invited by fellow filmmakers who organized themeeting. The room was filled with about fifty culture lovers, stakeholders,friends and colleagues, mostly from Turkey.

Figueroa knew Kavala from previous film projects and had no doubts about whatthe subject of his film should be when he traveled to Istanbul in 2019 for aresidency, he says in Amsterdam. Under Mater’s leadership, a film plan wasdeveloped for Letters from Silivri , in which Kavala’s letters to theoutside world are read against the backdrop of a gentrification-strickenIstanbul suburb. Time stands still while Kavala muses on life, nature, theoutside world. He sees sparrows on the prison wall and a sporadic gull.

Read also: Not a shred of evidence, yet businessman Kavala has to go to jailfor life

Innocent people

In Dear Osman the perspective is reversed. Friends and family read lettersthey wrote to Kavala, with Mater’s office in Istanbul as the backdrop. Peoplestruggle for words about the injustice done to their beloved Osman, “rolemodel” in Mater’s words. Mater worked with Kavala on cultural exchangeprojects for the Anadolu Kültür he founded. Shortly after the release of thefilm, she, like him, would disappear behind bars.

Also in the room is Yigit Aksakoglu, who himself was imprisoned in anothercase around Kavala. He reminds those present that thousands of innocent peopleare being held in Turkey to “waste their time in a nonsensical way”. Aksakoglumanaged to flee to the Netherlands after he was released in 2019. The Erdoganregime is primarily responsible, he says, but the Dutch and German governmentsare equally responsible for the Turkey deal they made in 2016 to keep refugeesout of the EU. Approving nods from the room.

At the exit, the last word is up to Mater. In a letter printed on flyersdistributed during the IDFA documentary festival, she addresses her audiencefrom prison in Istanbul. “Your voice and support are tearing down the grayprison walls,” she writes. “I dream of the days when we can only talk about