Cultureteca 03.11.19

On Monday morning, media outlets reported that the iconic and sometimes scabrous film producer Robert Evans had died over the weekend at the age of 89 years old. After a brief career as an actor, Evans used his few industry connections and personal wealth accrued from the fashion industry to begin a meteoric rise as a movie producer: his first venture saw him purchase the rights to the novel The Detective by Roderick Thorp, which was subsequently turned into a successful neo-noir film starring Frank Sinatra, Lee Remick, Jacqueline Bisset, Jack Klugman, and Robert Duvall. His forthright production style and a profile in The New York Times swiftly brought him to the attention of Paramount Pictures, and in 1967 at the age of just 36, Evans was named the studio’s head of production.

When Evans was installed as the head of Paramount, the studio ranked ninth and last of the Hollywood majors and was on the verge of collapse. Eight years later the studio ranked first, and headed into the 47th Academy Awards with a record forty-three nominations led by Chinatown, The Conversation, and The Godfather Part II. The turnaround wrought by Evans owed much to his willingness to option new material, to his habit of investing in young directors even as his combative nature brought conflicts and edits, and to his passion for film. Early successes came in the form of Barefoot in the Park, The Odd Couple, and Rosemary’s Baby, after Evans sought Roman Polanski to make his American debut. The Italian Job, Love Story, The Godfather, and Serpico followed, before Evans’ work as a producer on Chinatown amounted to a personal and artistic peak. In the process Evans helped to hone talents including Polanski, Francis Ford Coppola, and Elaine May, even as some of these relationships turned fractious. He brought the plays of Neil Simon to the screen, and boosted Paramount’s investments by helping to instigate the purchases of Desilu and Simon & Schuster.

After Chinatown, Evans attempted to branch out as an independent producer, but after some successes the 1980s were marked by a cocaine addiction and tumultuous film projects, most notorious of all the long-running saga around the film The Cotton Club. He continued to produce sporadically, while cameo acting appearances and voice roles more often than not saw him embrace his own mythos, performing as some version of himself. Robert Evans also published a couple of memoirs, The Kid Stays in the Picture in 1994, which was subsequently adapted for a feature documentary, and in 2013 The Fat Lady Sang which elaborated his long recovery from a stroke. Across Hollywood, Evans’ death brought a string of tributes.

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A group of scientists from South Africa, Australia, South Korea, and Namibia, led by Vanessa Hayes from the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, published a study this week tracing the origins of modern humans to the wetlands of Botswana. The research, titled ‘Human origins in a southern African palaeo-wetland and first migrations’, was published in the journal Nature. Based on 1,217 samples of mitochondrial DNA, the study argues that anatomically modern humans appeared 200,000 years ago in an area south of the Zambezi river, remaining there for a period of 70,000 years before regional climate change prompted the first migrations. Other scientists however have disputed the nature of the study, arguing that analysis of mitochondrial DNA alone – which is maternally inherited and one small part of human genetics – is insufficient when it comes to narrowing down the complex process of human development.

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As Red Bull Music Academy prepares to close – touted back in April as a move to decentralise the company’s creative operations following a split with the consultants Yadastar – it has posted online twenty-one years’ worth of archival material. From the academy’s first lecture, with techno pioneer Jeff Mills in Berlin back in 1998, to modern series from artists as diverse as Janelle Monáe, Mykki Blanco, Jean-Michel Jarre, and Laurie Anderson, the archive boasts more than 500 lectures in total alongside interviews, features, and other videos. The full archive is available to search while Red Bull Music Academy continues to present randomised daily collections.

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The crown has been passed from a scalp to some tousles, one must die so that another might live, and all that jazz or dirge-like folk music, for this week in its quest to find a suitable Game of Thrones prequel HBO cancelled one project, in the process breathing new life into the next. First HBO reportedly took the sword to a prequel which was to have been set a thousand years before Cersei and Jon and Daenerys et al. fought over Westeros, ‘weaving in issues of race, power, intrigue and White Walkers’. The prequel had been created by George RR Martin and showrunner Jane Goldman – co-writer of Kick-Ass and the Kingsman films – and a pilot had been shot in Northern Ireland, directed by S.J. Clarkson and starring Naomi Watts. The prequel was one of a batch put into development prior to the ending of Game of Thrones, none of which have now received the go ahead.

At the same time HBO gave a ten-episode straight-to-series commitment to ‘House of the Dragon’, a prequel based on the A Song of Ice and Fire companion Fire & Blood, which will be set 300 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones with a focus on House Targaryen. George RR Martin and Ryan Condal are co-creators of the series, and Condal and Miguel Sapochnik will serve as the showrunners. Sapochnik will also direct the pilot and subsequent episodes, having tested his metal on some of the iconic Game of Thrones episodes including ‘Hardhome’, ‘Battle of the Bastards’, and ‘Winds of Winter’.

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The actor and comedian John Witherspoon died suddenly on Tuesday at his home in Sherman Oaks. He was 77 years old. Witherspoon began his career in entertainment as stand-up in the 1970s, before transitioning to television with a variety of roles on the short-lived Richard Pryor Show. A string of minor film and television appearances followed, before his role as Ice Cube’s father in the 1995 cult comedy film Friday brought him to wider recognition. Witherspoon featured in the film’s two sequels, while serving as a member of the main cast on the sitcoms The Wayans Bros. (1995-99), The Tracy Morgan Show (2003-04), and The Boondocks (2005-14). Most recently, he lent his voice to episodes of The Jellies and BoJack Horseman, and played for three seasons on the sitcom Black Jesus. Ice Cube, Marlon Wayans and others paid tribute.

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On Wednesday in a series of tweets, Jack Dorsey, the chief executive of Twitter, announced an effective ban on political advertisements across the platform. Stressing that the ban would cover both candidate and issue-based ads, describing internet political ads as a ‘challenge’ to ‘civic discourse’ owing to the scale and sophistication of ‘machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes’, Dorsey added that Twitter’s full policy on the matter will be published by 15 November, with enforcement commencing the following week. While the announcement inevitably increases the pressure on Facebook to follow suit, critics noted that political ads make up only a tiny fraction of Twitter’s revenue, while querying the practicalities of classification and enforcement and wondering whether the policy serves to favour the status quo.

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Wednesday night brought perhaps the biggest treat in all of baseball: a Game 7 of the World Series. And it was the Washington Nationals, coming from behind yet again, who emerged as the surprise victors, with a turnaround seventh inning at Minute Maid Park against the Houston Astros. The Astros led 2-0 after six innings, failing to make the most of their baserunners but with pitcher Zack Greinke dominating the mound. But in the seventh inning a home run from Anthony Rendon brought the Nats back into contention, and when Greinke issued a walk to Juan Soto, he was withdrawn and replaced by Will Harris.

Harris’ second pitch was met by the bat of Howie Kendrick, and it sliced right up and over the field, eventually hitting the steel foul pole for a two-run homer that gave the Nationals the lead. It was a lead they only extended over the next two innings, with the game finishing 2-6 in favour of the Nationals. In the process the Nationals won their first ever World Series: especially remarkable for a team that started the season 19-31, went into the postseason as underdogs, and trailed as late as the eighth inning in both the wild-card game and the final game of the division series. The World Series was also remarkable because for the first time, the away team won every matchup. Stephen Strasburg was named World Series MVP, as Washington began its celebrations.

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Between the ongoing controversy over World Wrestling Entertainment’s long-term partnership with Saudi Arabia and a stalled return flight which left many superstars unable to attend SmackDown on Friday night, WWE at least managed to eke a little bit of positive coverage from Crown Jewel at King Fahd International Stadium in Riyadh, which on Thursday hosted Saudi Arabia’s first ever women’s wrestling match. Natalya forced Lacey Evans to submit in the Sharpshooter as part of the undercard, with Brock Lesnar also defeating a debuting Cain Velasquez by submission before ‘The Fiend’ Bray Wyatt won the WWE Universal Championship from Seth Rollins in the main event.

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Not quite a year on from Some Rap Songs – Earl’s third studio record and one which made Culturedarm’s albums of the decade list – at midnight on Thursday Earl Sweatshirt released Feet of Clay, a surprise new EP. Mostly self-produced, with additional production from Alchemist and Ovrkast and featuring spots from MAVI and Mach-Hommy, Earl said in a statement ‘FOC is a collection of observations and feelings recorded during the death throes of a crumbling empire’. Feet of Clay, with its spectral goat sleeve and seven brisk tracks, arrives on Warner Records in partnership with Earl’s own label Tan Cressida.

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Saturday was Día de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, Mexico’s annual celebration of the deceased, which encompasses ceremonial altars called ofrendas, representations of skeletons and skulls, visits to gravesites, and street parties full of food and fancy dress. 800,000 people turned out in wet weather for Mexico City’s Day of the Dead parade, with a host of smaller events taking place in the capital and across Mexico.

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A wild weekend of sport booted off early Saturday in Yokohama with the final of the Rugby World Cup, and after blasting past New Zealand in the semis a disappointing England were unable to match the physicality of South Africa, as the Springboks scored two tries and six penalties to triumph. This was South Africa’s third world title, and amid the celebrations players hoped for a unifying effect. On Saturday night UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden came to a slightly underwhelming and contentious close, as the self-styled ‘Baddest Motherfucker’ title went to Jorge Masvidal, with Nate Diaz stopped by the doctor at the end of the third round thanks to a deep eyebrow cut. The Rock was on hand to present Masvidal with the BMF belt, while the undercard saw important victories for Darren Till and Stephen Thompson.

Staying in New York, Sunday brought the forty-ninth edition of the New York City marathon. The men’s race was won by Geoffrey Kamworor, for his second title in New York after winning in 2017 and finishing third last year, while the women’s race was won by Joyciline Jepkosgei. Jepkosgei’s victory was all the more impressive as the half marathon world record holder was competing for the first time over the longer distance, and managed to get the better of perennial winner Mary Keitany. Finally in tournaments hampered by withdrawals due to fatigue and injury, Ashleigh Barty won the season-ending WTA Finals in Shenzhen, the world number one defeating defending champion Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3. With the ATP Finals still to come, at the Paris Masters Novak Djokovic closed the gap on Rafa Nadal in the race for the year-end number one ranking, with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Denis Shapovalov.