All the month's links
+ a few new ones
Hey, it’s a holiday weekend in the U.S. and I’ve been meaning to send a “roundup” (in the parlance of the day) of the links I’ve been reading and sharing.
I thought I’d compile them all together in case something catches your fancy this time around.
They’re re-arranged into articles, music, books, movies, etc
Since you all hang on every word I print 😉, you may think this is unnecessary, but I added in a few new ones! Here we go:
Articles:
What Happened to Wirecutter? The Internet Happened. At The Atlantic.
My former co-worker Jean wrote a viral piece about Ask vs. Guess Culture. Really interesting dichotomy for approaching the world. At her Substack.
Man Called Fran by John Jeremiah Sullivan. At Harper’s. Great piece for homeowners, great piece for people who used to live in Wilmington, NC (like me!), great piece for people who like “slice of life"-type stories, great piece for people who like interesting writing.
Weird that I drove all the way through Virginia, including north of Richmond for the first time when *that* song hit it big. Also weird that I know a few songwriters in Nashville who would kill for exposure like that. Good take at The Atlantic.
The Greatest Blog Rock Albums of All Time. I love me some Los Campesinos! At Uproxx.
The Rise of Short Books. At Esquire.
Pixar Was Never a Masterpiece Factory by Freddie DeBoer.
Why Millions Stopped Going to Church. At The Atlantic.
I appreciate Nate Silver breaking down the Pac-12 conference's demise.
Goodreads bad. At The Atlantic.
The Slow Death of Creativity in Sound. At Utne Reader (RIP?)
Don’t eat Oreos when you’re bored. At Medium.
American Cheese by Adam Gnade.
How Do You Organize Quotations? by
A Small Town Paper Lands a Very Big Story. At The New Yorker.
Can You Moneyball Sportswriting? by
Moving Images
I watched 20 Feet From Stardom the other night. It’s been on my list forever, and can’t believe it’s 10 years old? A good look at the lives of backup singers, their evolution, and when they should’ve made it big (if at all). On Max (for the moment).
Lol, a review of Popeye’s Fried Chicken Sandwich. YouTube.
Winning Time on HBO.
There’s a new documentary about HQ Trivia, but the original podcast about it from 2020 was pretty good IMO
Telemarketers, also on HBO Max. Ever received a weird call from a policeman’s union asking for money? Probably a scam.
I’ve been re-watching Seinfeld. Not sure I’ve seen every episode. This one “The Limo” really stuck out to me because there’s *NO* way it would ever be made today.
Books
The Best of Everything by Rona Jaffe. Never heard of this until the recent re-release, but it’s about the lives of secretaries and typists at a publishing house in 50s NYC. Written and published in 1958. Mad Men vibes but from the female POV.
Trust by Hernan Diaz and The Best Minds by Jonathan Rosen. I’d recommend both and they both prepped me for NYC in their own ways. Trust is a meta-novel about a financer in the early 1900s and The Best Minds is a memoir/case study of two friends, one who has schizophrenia.
Orphaned Believers by Sara Billups. Didn’t finish it before leaving Nashville (library book!), but it’s an interesting memoir, especially about the influence of 70s era end-times theology on modern Christianity.
Music
Some new albums from bands I like:
His Glory Alone 2 by KB
Last Things
“The person who reads too much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking.” ―Albert Einstein
Keep going,
-Josh Spilker