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Other things we learned from Kim Gordon’s candid but dignified memoir, Girl In A Band:

– Thurston Moore broke up their marriage and Sonic Youth because he cheated on her with this hanger-on who had always wanted to be connected to the band. Before the woman had gone after Thurston Moore she had tried to get close to Kim.

– The cheating was discovered through text messages.

– Kim is a punk rock purist.

– She does not like Courtney Love and Billy Corgan and was especially grossed out when those two were dating.

– She was very fond of Kurt Cobain but was not surprised when he killed himself.

– Henry Rollins was twerking before there was twerking.

– She does not recognize New York today. She arrived there in 1980 when she was poor and New York was bankrupt. Larry Gagosian gave her a job and claimed she was his ex. She knew Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel and does not think much of either one.

– She was a fan of Madonna in the 80s, hence Ciccone Youth.

– Gerhard Richter allowed Sonic Youth to use one of his candle paintings as the cover of their Daydream Nation album because she was a friend of his wife.

The latest hit from super-producer Shonda Rhimes (Scandal, Grey’s Anatomy) promises to teach us How To Get Away With Murder and then throws in needless complications to make sure we flunk the course.

The first question we might ask of the series is, “Whose murder?” This show does not stint on corpses. Is it the week’s high-profile case being handled by hotshot attorney Annalise Keating (Viola Davis)? Or the murder of sorority girl Lila Stangard, which seems to have been committed by everyone on the University of Pennsylvania-like Middleton campus?

Or is it the murder we keep catching glimpses of in flashbacks that may trigger seizures? This last one is presented like a coy, spastic striptease; by the time we have all the facts our eye muscles could bench-press law books from all the rolling exercise. I suspect that if events unfolded in chronological order instead of arbitrarily flashing forwards and backwards, this show would be a routine murder mystery.

Read our TV column The Binge in BusinessWorld.

As viral phenomena go, the math problem posted by Singaporean TV host Kenneth Kong is more interesting than the latest celebrity stupidities. It made people use their brains for a change. However, Kong claimed that this math problem is given to fifth graders. Nope, not even the vaunted Singaporean educational system dishes this out to fifth grade children. Turns out it’s a question in a high school math Olympiad.

Before I learned that it’s a mathlete problem, pride compelled me to prove to myself that I am smarter than a 10-year-old Singaporean (Sucker!). Time I should’ve spent writing my column, so now it is this week’s column.

1. The Problem

Albert and Bernard just became friends with Cheryl, and they want to know when her birthday is. Cheryl gives them a list of 10 possible dates.

May 15 May 16 May 19
June 17 June 18
July 14 July 16
August 14 August 15 August 17

Cheryl then tells Albert and Bernard separately the month and the day of her birthday respectively.

Albert: I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know that Bernard does not know too.

Bernard: At first I don’t know when Cheryl’s birthday is, but I know now.

Albert: Then I also know when Cheryl’s birthday is.

So when is Cheryl’s birthday?

Read our column at InterAksyon.com.

Seen in traffic on EDSA, Guadalupe, Makati: Pay toilet rates “wee-wee 3 pesos, poo-poo 5 pesos”. Is the user required to announce whether he intends to do number one or number two, or does someone do a spot check afterwards?

We found out that While We’re Young is showing in cinemas and we have no memory of a Noah Baumbach movie ever showing at the mall so we rushed to see it and were very glad because it’s about people our age.

“People our age” being those who, when filling out forms, hesitate at the blank for “age”, subtract the year of their birth from the current year, then re-compute because that can’t be right, that’s too high.

Being in your 40s feels strange because you’re not young anymore, and suddenly things you mocked when they first came out—the entire Lionel Richie discography, Sylvester Stallone movie themes—are adored by people in their 20s, except that their adoration is ironic so you’re not sure exactly where they stand or whether they stand for anything at all, but you know you still loathe “Hello” and “Eye of the Tiger”. But David Bowie, even minor David Bowie, is cool forever.

You don’t want to hang out with your older friends because they’re bitter or depressing or openly disapprove of your refusal to “settle down” or you’ve already heard all their stories, which were boring when you first heard them 20 years ago, or you’re not prepared to live in eternal nostalgia just yet, or you just don’t have anything in common anymore.

You are flattered because your 25-year-old friends seem to look up to you and want what you have, but they want it now, fast-tracked, and they don’t realize that your failures have a greater impact on how you turn out than your successes do. Early success is particularly tricky because when people have too much to lose they stop taking risks and get fossilized prematurely.

Rating: Highly recommended.

And yay, Adam Horovitz!

We’re off to Udine for the film festival next week, then Vienna and Budapest. We’re always thrilled to be travelling, but we will miss some things we’d been looking forward to.

1. The Avengers: Age of Ultron. Blast. But it’ll still be showing when we get back, or we can watch it there, where it opens later than it does here.

Who does the Avengers’ laundry? Iron Man could just fly through a car wash, but the other costumes look dry clean-only. If they put them in the washing machine, they would shrink…

Toss them in the washer! Toss them in the washer!

2. The start of Game of Thrones Season 5

Would the showrunners have made Grey Worm a more prominent character if Jacob Anderson, who plays him, weren’t so cute? They actually cooked up a relationship angle for an Unsullied. Not that we mind. Also we hear he’s the most fluent at the Valyrian language.

We have fond memories of the Tyrion and Bronn show on the road from Season 1 and are looking forward to the Jaime and Bronn/Tyrion and Jorah shows on the road this season.

3. Marvel’s Daredevil

Promises to erase memory of the movie. We’re glad Marvel’s TV arm got its act together after the Agents of SHIELD debacle. Loved Marvel’s Agent Carter, hope they do another series with Peggy in the 1950s-60s.

By the way we loved the pilot of The Cosmopolitans, Whit Stillman’s Amazon series which could be a sequel to his movies. (Apparently its continued existence is in doubt, which is not surprising but is still dispiriting.) Chloe Sevigny could be playing the same character from Last Days of Disco, Adam Brody could be reprising his role from Damsels in Distress, and we expect Christopher Eigeman to turn up any minute. Back to repeat viewings of Metropolitan and Barcelona.

4. The Pacquiao-Mayweather fight. Specifically, the 28 Days Later emptiness of Manila’s streets while the boxing is on. Then again, you just know there will be a rematch.