Hello friends! Welcome to the second edition of my weekly column, Guilherme’s Desk, where I share a little bit of what I’ve been reading, listening, watching and doing. Feel free to comment and chat. Past week was way more busy than I expected, so I don’t have a lot of new stuff to show. Anyways, let’s dive in!
What I’ve been reading
Past week I told you that I was reading Elliot Pepper’s Bandwith: An Analog Novel. I’m still reading it, but I really have to set some time this week to continue it. The story still has to really get me, and I’m hoping things get really chaotic in the next chapters.
This week we lost the great Michael Gambon, and most of my reading was about him. I understand many people complaining how the media always portray him as the actor who played Dumbledore on Harry Potter, but to be frank most of his body of work is almost impossible to watch outside the UK – especially since he was mainly a stage actor.
I find so interesting how the british media cover it’s own cultural sector – it’s not a critic, but a compliment! British media it’s not perfect (far from it), but it covers the country’s cultural scene with intensity and dignity. I’m from Brazil, and I can easily say that my country’s cultural sector has nowhere near the intensity and respect between media x culture as Britain has. My favorite piece this week was this one on the Guardian about people’s experiences with Michael Gambon, a very touching tribute.
Also from the Guardian, two more pieces: this one about Michael Kenna and his amazing photos (loved his use of black and white in empty scenes) and this piece about urban millenial loneliness.
What I’ve been listening
Around the same time I found past week’s jazz recommendation I found the pianist Laurent Coulondre. While browsing the top jazz albums on Mezzo Live HD’s website some weeks ago I caught a glimpse of Coulondre’s name on a album cover, which led me to this week’s jazz pick: Zeitgeist, by the Laurent Cugny Tentet – a group of brilliant French music prodigies brought together by the legendary composer and pianist Laurent Cugny. This album brings some composing by Laurent Cugny himself and other classic jazz material, resulting in a fresh and dense jazz fusion album. It’s sort of a jazz trip over different moods – think of it like a jazz version of The Young Avengers, in a sense that brings together lots of talent in long and epic songs.
What I’ve been watching
I’m some weeks late, but this week I finally watched the series finale for Kamen Rider Geats. I’m a huge fan of tokusatsu[1] shows, specially the Kamen Rider and Super Sentai Series. Geats tells the story of a group of people who play the Desire Grand Prix, a battle royale where the winner get his/hers wishes to be true, whatever it be. Geats already had me since the first episode, but the finale solidified it’s position as the best Kamen Rider Series in the Reiwa Era.
The Kamen Rider series is partially licensed in North America, mainly trough Shout Factory. Geats, tough, it’s not licensed, so you have to watch it elsewhere.
What I’ve been doing
My pipeline project using Jenkins is doing great and I had a lot of progress past week. Just have to finish some stuff regarding Nginx and I think it will be ready for next week’s column!
My next project will probably be some tests using WriteFreely (a open source CSM) and Amazon Lightsail. If this project is successful, I’m moving this website to it. Let’s see how it goes!
This week I have a college exams, so wish me luck! As always, you can chat with me on Mastodon. Would love to hear your feedback! See you next week!
Tokusatsu it’s a japanese term for shows with special effects, but it commonly describes shows with giant monsters and rubberized heroes, like Godzilla, Ultraman and the Super Sentai Series, which is the source for the Power Rangers series. ↩︎