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Hello Everyone,
And welcome to the Cultural Reads Newsletter with book, music, and movie recommendations from around the world.
I have some big news. My new Cultural Reads website is live!!
And the most exciting part?
Country pages with the best books, movies, and music per state.
Now on to this week’s newsletter: Best Japanese Movies, Rock from Zambia, The Last Nomad from Somalia, Drawing, Discovering Countries, and Public Toilet Africa.
Japan is one of the top 5 movie producers in the world.
They’re also one of the more unique ones.
Japanese cinema ranges from samurai movies to drama and anime.
Are you ready to dive in?
Check out these top 16 Japanese movies!
As part of the new design, I added a page with a music playlist and the best five books & movies per country.
It’s a work in progress, but these nine countries are already live:
1. Cameroon
2. Nigeria
3. South Africa
4. Argentina
5. Colombia
6. Mexico
7. Vietnam
8. Albania
9. Denmark
If you have suggestions for your country, please reply to this email!
Why do most Somali’s not known when they were born? And how do they use nomadic networks to navigate the desert?
Shugri Said Salh will give you the answers in The Last Nomad.
At age six, she moved from the capital Mogadishu to live with her grandma in the desert.
As a nomad, she had to relearn everything and use ancestral knowledge for the most important thing – the search for water.
Jeff from FFOREST drew this illustration for me.
In Why To Draw, he explains that all kids draw.
We only stop because, at age 10, adults decide whether our drawings are “good” or “bad.”
But there’s still hope. Try this technique.
Zamrock is a fusion of traditional African music and psychedelic rock that became very popular in the 70s in Zambia.
If you like bands like the Velvet Underground, Deep Purple, and The Cure, you’ll like this as well.
WITCH and Paul Ngozi are the most famous artists, but you can find the entire scene in this Spotify playlist.
If you’d want more or prefer video, check out Records from Zambia with Tambourine Party on My Analog Journal.
Last week, Magus from Poetry, Thought, Word Magick recommended watching the Ghanaian movie Public Toilet Africa which is now streaming on film festivals worldwide.
The film tells the story of Ama, who was given to a white art collector as a little girl. Years later, she returns with a quest to repay an old debt quickly, which goes on a tailspin when she recruits an ex-lover for the ride.
But Public Toilet Africa is not your typical movie. It’s surrealistic and satirical, doesn’t follow a straight storyline, and is a unique tribute to African filmmaking.
You can read more about the movie here and watch it on MUBI.
Or would you like to be one?
If so, check out Nomadico and Nomad List.
Nomadico is an excellent newsletter with tips for digital nomads.
Nomad List is a community database with information on the price, wifi quality, safety, etc., in coworking hotspots worldwide.
