Happy Saturday! My favourite part of the week is here: bringing back five great reads that deserve a buoy in the rapids of this week’s news cycle. Take a beat, digest and, if you have a favourite read, tell us here: australia.newsletters@theguardian.com
1. ‘This industry is a wild west’
There is a surprising trend happening under our noses: beard transplants – something I’d never heard of before sniffing out Simon Usborne’s story on this growing industry, where transplant tourism and illicit clinics are rife and the stakes are high.
Are the risks worth it for the chance of a thicker, fuller beard?
Yes (for some): Franck Fontaine feels “much more confident” after his transplant, aside from when his six-year-old daughter begs him to “shave it off”.
Words of warning: Spencer Stevenson, a prominent mentor for balding men, urges caution. “You can have a bad hair transplant and sometimes get away with it, but with a beard it’s a whole new kettle of fish because it’s on your face,” he says. “You can’t put a hat on it.”
How long will it take to read: five minutes.
2. What is the meaning of life? Here are 15 possible answers
Following in philosopher Will Durant’s mail trail, James Bailey decided to write to some well-known people to hear their thoughts on the ultimate existential question: what is the meaning of life?
Their answers are fascinating and funny – but could they help us frame our days on Earth? From the hundreds of comments left on this story, perhaps yes.
Susan Pollack, Holocaust survivor: After a British soldier rescued and placed her into an ambulance, Pollack has taken nothing for granted. “I remember the effect and appreciation this first helpfulness had on my life,” she writes. “It gradually removed the heavy iron cover on me, and sparks of ‘I can do’ and ‘I want to do’ gradually came into my existence.”
Hilary Mantel, late author: “You use two terms interchangeably: ‘meaning’ and ‘purpose’. I don’t think they’re the same. I’m not sure life has a meaning, in the abstract. But it can have a definite purpose if you decide so.”
How long will it take to read: 10 minutes.
3. ‘No Monkee business’
Just shy of his 80th birthday, Micky Dolenz spoke to Alexis Petridis about being in one of the biggest music groups in the world – and its last surviving member.
John Lennon described the Monkees as more “like the Marx Brothers”. The original advertisement for their show called for “folk’n’roll musician/singers … four insane boys”. My only real appreciation for the group was their impact on mainstream music: from I’m a Believer (thank you, Smash Mouth) to Daydream Believer (thank you, grandma).
***
“It was not a boyband. It was the cast of a television show, like when the cast of Glee made albums.” – Micky Dolenz
The legacy: the Monkees “weren’t supposed to have such staying power”, Petridis writes. “The TV show was cancelled in 1968 after two seasons … But [it] is a kind of period piece, a last transmission from a more innocent era of 60s pop that was about to be overwhelmed by psychedelia and more serious-minded artistic ambition.”
How long will it take to read: five minutes
4. Descending into authoritarianism
Each week, I eagerly await the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief’s latest analysis on Donald Trump. The themes are always disturbing. But I find something comforting about being privy to conversations the experts are having. This time around, David Smith warns “America is sleepwalking into authoritarianism”; that Trump’s actions are edging closer to those of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán’s; and he hears we may be approaching “Defcon 1”. I’ve forgotten what I found comforting …
A political strategist and former campaign operative for George W Bush and John McCain, says: “Donald Trump is producing a Washington television show from the Oval Office that’s authoritarian in nature. You go on TikTok and see the deportations scored to songs and videos released by the administration. It’s a theatre of the absurd. It’s a theatre of malice. All of it is desensitising people to the use of authority and power.”
How long will it take to read: six minutes.
Further reading: Smith’s analysis was before the White House’s catastrophic security blunder on Signal. For more on that, Andrew Roth’s take on the depths of the Trump’s administration loathing of Europe is worth your time.
5. Postcards from a Melbourne tram
Sketching tram route 35, Josh Nicholas sees a whole new side of the city he has lived in for three years. Before the experiment, he walked the same Melbourne streets, caught the same trains.
“I must have hundreds of sketches of Flinders station alone. So I decided to be a tourist,” he writes.
‘I caught some of the energy’: Nicholas sketches fellow passengers crammed inside the stuffy tram. It’s chaotic at the best of times but the effect it has on his watercolour works is stunning.
How long will it take to read: three-and-a-half minutes.
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