It’s another week in lockdown! In preparation for Freedom Monday in October, I’ve been making lists of all the things I want to do once I can leave my 5km zone and getting excited. Actual life currently though has consisted lately of going for lots of walks, video chats (which I didn’t really do in 2020, but have really helped boost my mood this time around), reading the new Sally Rooney (my review: it was ok), and listening to a lot of the new Maisie Peters album because it’s full of fun bops. Here’s another good bop:
And the links:
If you’ve ever listened to a podcast ad where the hosts are basically making fun of the product and wondered how the advertiser could possibly be ok with paying for that, this article is an interesting look at that. I’m sorry to say that it uses the term ‘parasocial’ a lot, but other than that, it’s good.
A couple of writers at The Ringer sat down to talk about Julien Baker, Lucy Dacus, and Phoebe Bridgers (who together released an album as Boygenius) as all three of them head off on their separate tours. They each make the case for their favourite member - mine changes depending on what I’m listening to on any given day, but Lucy’s delivery of like, three specific lines in this song is a great argument for her:
However I love this description of Julien:
My somewhat glib elevator pitch for Julien Baker is this: What if Elliott Smith were also Mariah Carey? If you had told me when I was 16 that such a musician would someday exist, I would have worshipped her like the actual prophesied Messiah. And, well, here we are.
If this piece gets you wanting more Boygenius, get around this playlist.
On watching your AFL team do well from the other side of the world during a pandemic:
I need to admit something: I haven’t been watching. 1-0, 3-0, 6-0, nine games in a row unbeaten to open the season. The Demons winning, actually winning properly, convincingly, for the first time since before I was born, and doing it inside a fortress kingdom that also contains my family? The sporting success I’ve waited for, from any team, for my whole life, happening inside an indefinitely sealed border? It was too cruel to contemplate.
For all that the Twin Towers have been a kind of constant in the news for 20 years, I never knew anything about their architect. This fascinating article looks at Minoru Yamasaki, the Japanese-American architect who designed the towers in the 60s, the discrimination he faced, and the way the towers were received/perceived when they opened (one critic wrote that it was “the world’s daintiest architecture for the world’s biggest buildings”!?!).
+ a bonus: a short interview Vulture with Phil Dunster, who plays Jamie Tartt in Ted Lasso, which includes the line “Maybe it’s not like a legal thing, but maybe a hug is enough to say that he’s now a dad.”
Now, some tweets:
That’s it! As always, @ me or email me with any thoughts, good links, etc!