Welcome Distractions
A better way to waste your weekend.
books | music | short stories | rambling
Hey! It’s the last newsletter of 2025 (for real this time!)
Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about what to do with Turn & Work in 2026, and: I’m excited. Hannah, the new team member, is an absolute joy to read and I can’t wait to share what she’s done so far.
I made a YouTube channel. I’m not going to be making videos of myself (face for radio, a voice for silent film, etc.), but I’m going to be publishing the Setlists there. And if other video opportunities come along, I’ll be ready.
There’s a whole new newsletter thing starting in January too.
So I’m off until the new year, making some other upgrades to the site. In the meantime, I’ve collected a ton of links to keep you busy on your downtime.
And once more, since I’ve been told I’ve screwed this up a few times already, come play Crossplay with me (the NYT scrabble clone):
And on that note: *deeep inhale* On to the links!
Offsite: links you shouldn’t miss
The section about great music
Intertapes: where people find cassettes and send ‘em in, and the internet gets to listen and name the songs. It’s a ton of fun.
Watch Ribbon Skirt live on KEXP. I promise you’ll be glad you did.
Ari @ Home is a musician who built an incredible rig to wander around NYC making beats and livestreaming, letting complete strangers rap or sing along. Here’s a profile of him in NYT, and here’s an example of what he does:
I teased this the other day on Bluesky: an interview with Baby Dave Grohl in 1993 from MuchMusic (Canadian MTV). Choice quote:"I'll do this for a few more years and then have a normal life."
Everyone Wants a Piece of Cameron Winter is a pretty good analysis of why that Geese record is on every goddam list this year. It’s a good record! I refuse to believe that everyone thinks it’s a top-fiver.
The need to attach an overwhelming significance to a given moment is a sign of a society worried about its future. We need these events to mean something; we cannot wait to find out if they’re significant after the fact.
Similarly: How did LCD Soundsystem become so cringe? This article gave me secondhand embarrassment for the writer. LCD seems to have speedrun the path away from cultural relevance. James Murphy x Bon Jovi 2026?
On the other end of that path: Truman Sinclair. I’ve been a fan since 2024, and it’s great to see him getting coverage like this interview in Line of Best Fit. Give him a listen:
The section about great writing
The Cinematic Future is Upon Us: Philip Bump rewatched Children of Men (love this movie) and…it’s kind of creepy. The movie takes place in 2027, and it’s not hard to imagine a line from today that gets us on that path.
How I read: Aaron Gordon shares his reading process. I’m always curious how people find their next read. Maybe I’ll do some kind of piece on it in 2026. What’s your process?
The Jealousy List: I love this every year, the Bloomberg staff share pieces they wish they’d written. Favourites are this profile of Scott Galloway, The Future is Too Easy and this cult thing about someone named Ziz.
There’s also this excerpt from Liz Pelly’s incredible Spotify book, and this piece by an Illustrator about A.I.
The secret to my process is to be on high alert in this deep jungle for unexpected twists and turns, because this is where a new idea is born.
What editing magazine stories taught me about writing. Tons of interesting insight in this piece.
The Most Scathing Book Reviews of 2025. I’ve shared a few of these here before, but they’re great.
The real people of America's 'Zombieland': Have you heard of Medetomidine? This piece is stunning and alarming.
How to Bury Your Father: I’ve seen this a half-dozen times since I read it and shared on Bluesky. It’s a stunning piece of writing from Mike “Ruined by Design” Monteiro:
Graves are heavy things when we end up burying hope along with bodies.
The section with silly things
Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards has nothing to do with music or books but they’re great.
A classic that I’d forgotten about for years, and somehow remembered today: I am better than your kids. Still makes me scream with laughter.
Motherfucking website is the antidote to slow-loading, popup-ridden sites.
The section about A.I.
Amazon keeps raising the bar for shittiness: It’s letting users ask Kindle questions about books, and authors can’t opt out of it.
Unpopular opinion: Cory Doctorow is a hack. BUT: some of this speech is excellent, including this bit that I’ve been thinking about since I read it:
The promise of AI – the promise AI companies make to investors – is that there will be AIs that can do your job, and when your boss fires you and replaces you with AI, he will keep half of your salary for himself, and give the other half to the AI company.
Related: The Doorman Fallacy at scale is great writing about something you know, but you don’t know you know. (y’know?)
This is a clever little browser game about being an early AI investor. The end is worth the drawn-out middle.
The Wall Street Journal let Claude run their vending machine like a business. It failed miserably, but the story is hilarious:
Within days, Claudius had given away nearly all its inventory for free—including a PlayStation 5 it had been talked into buying for “marketing purposes.” It ordered a live fish. It offered to buy stun guns, pepper spray, cigarettes and underwear.
Another interesting perspective on AI: Resonant computing. Bring Back Innovation That Empowers, Rather Than Extracts. It’s something touched on in Tim Wu’s new book Age of Extraction (highly recommend, review in the new year)
Ashley MacIsaac (remember him? He’s my cousin, for real) had a show cancelled because of some AI bullshit.
Lastly, a GPT booster is letting the air out of the balloon. ChatGPT still isn't what it was cracked up to be.
To anyone who is intellectually honest, the pattern is astonishingly clear. Hundreds of models, always the same failure modes.
What got your attention this week? Got a hot take on something? Hit reply and let me know.
On the Blog
Books
Mostly the Van by Jason Narducy is an easy read, a rock memoir told as a series of well-designed vignettes. Somewhere between a coffee-table book and a scrapbook.
The Crisis of Canadian Democracy is exactly what it sounds like. Niche reading, but if it’s your bag it’s excellent.
Music
Radiator’s debut EP sounds like post-punk that came out in 1989.
Sweet Nobody’s latest record has moments like “what if Neko Case x Good Kid?”.
Lunch Break featured MM’99, Often Wrong, and Victor Strange
The Setlist I didn’t newslet last week but I did Setlist. Here’s last week’s playlist, and today’s is here.
Check it out on Apple Music or Spotify. And now YouTube!
Something I should read or hear? Send it my way
-hugh
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