Recently: 29 April
29 April 2022
It’s been several weeks since I did this sort of thing in my newsletter, so there’s a lot to cover.
Links
- “Chain box stores were big businesses, sure, but they were also a crucial third space for casual hangouts and serendipitous run-ins that metro suburbs, smaller cities and rural places often lack.” A Bookstore Revival Channels Nostalgia for Big Box Chains
- “Saying that someone has disgraced themself is helpful, in part, because disgrace implies the possibility of grace.” A Few Ways of Thinking About “Cancel Culture”
- Why the Sudden Urge to Reconsider Famous Women?
- Analyzing the ‘Bimbo’: A Reading List on Hollywood Blondes
- The Legacy of 90s Teen Girl Murder Films
- The more you know: A guide to befriending wild crows
- Two early Robert Eggers’s short films now online: Hansel & Gretel and The Tell-Tale Heart
- “I’m suggesting that you unbelieve in this word that—along with its evil twin, productivity—has snuck into our talk as a bad logic, as an unexamined thinking, that cares not a jot for you and your short span on this whirling, blueish ball.” Against (the Very Idea of) Procrastination
- The Years, a poem by Alex Dimitrov
Reading/Watching/Listening
- This one is going to end up one of my favorites of the year: We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.
- I give a qualified recommendation of The Northman. I liked how uncompromisingly it took on mythic storytelling, but it didn’t hook me as much as either The Lighthouse or The Witch did.
- Night’s End is horror meets experimental film and it’s incredibly well-crafted.
- I liked X.
- I enjoyed the low-key horror satire I Blame Society.
- I caught up with one of my favorite current detective novel series, the Roxane Weary books: Once You Go This Far, by Kristen Lepionka.
- Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch is an exploration of motherhood, transformation and primal rage, and it’s worth engaging with.
- I assume you’re already watching Severance. If not, you should probably do that.
- Archive 81 didn’t get a renewal, but if you like strange, creepy stories you should give the single season a spin. I like it better than its podcast origin.
- I assume you’re also already watching Our Flag Means Death. If not, you should probably do that.
- Abbott Elementary is great.
- Because there are never enough documentary podcasts on cults, I recommend listening to Twin Flames, a deep dive on a particularly insidious online organization.
Lately I’ve been hitting my gigantic, carefully curated 90s playlist hard. Nostalgia’s a comfort in lieu of spring. So enjoy a tune.