Welcome Distractions
New music, book reviews, short stories and more from blog this week
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Last weekend was Father’s Day, and it’s Pride month. I’ve read and written a lot about books and music and stories by and about and for the LGBTQ+ community lately, and it led me to write about the Things I Know about Parenting a Trans Teenager. It’s probably pretty saccharine, but that’s how I am about my kid. It’s been a long road from late nights in crisis to a confident, outgoing, strong overachiever, and I’m immensely proud of that kid. My teenager is an absolute case study for the good that gender-affirming care can do. I don’t know if the piece will resonate, but it sure felt good to write it.
I’m galactically lucky. At any point things could have gone drastically different for us, but they didn’t. And today I am radioactively proud of my kid for persevering, for being patient with me and others, and helping me understand as much as I do.
Also last week I wrote about Emily Allan’s incredible record Clanging. She played a release show last weekend in NYC, and I think that everyone who saw her show wound up on my site. Check out the chart the traffic to that page vs everything else in the past 30 days (note the post had only been up for 8 days at this point):
Got something to share? Lay it on me. And now:
Off the blog: links you shouldn’t miss
This week is kind of AI week. I won’t be doing this every week (god knows I can’t read that much about AI and I wouldn’t ask others to), but with the books that I read this week, a lot of what’s below is related material. I promise next week will be very different.
The AI stuff:
The OpenAI files is the perfect companion to Karen Hao’s book Empire of AI. It tracks concerns with governance, integrity, and culture at OpenAI.
Inside Microsoft’s complicated relationship with OpenAI: one of the themes in the second half of Hao’s book is the difficult relationship between the two companies, and Altman’s contribution to it. This piece gives some good insight about that.
This is the gentle singularity? Brian “Blood in the Machine” Merchant levels his sights on this pile of ~something~ from Altman. Altman’s schtick is wearing thin.
They Asked an A.I. Chatbot Questions. The Answers Sent Them Spiraling: Kashmir “Your Face Belongs to Us” Hill writes about some bizarre behaviour by LLMs that lead to her, somehow. Watch this CBS Saturday Morning piece about an AI guy for a wild plot twist.
The Non-AI stuff
This Ocean Vuong piece in the NYT on Becoming a Father to His Brother is flawless, and a fantastic design exercise as well. Vuong is one of the greatest living writers, and he’s in top form here:
I had become a kind of father, a queer father wherein my obligation to himwas not dictated by the traditional ethos of the nuclear family, but through the funereal salvage of immense loss.
I hate linking to Twitter, but this is awesome: Bad book covers. Like this one:
The James “A Million Little Pieces” Frey rehabilitation tour continues. The piece in the NYT is kinda fulloshit, and John Warner takes them to task. There are so many underappreciated writers, let’s all just ignore the fraudster.
Two Days Talking to People Looking for Jobs at ICE: This piece is fascinating. I’ve been thinking about it all week.
The recruiter for the air marshals told a crowd of applicants they shouldn’t bother applying if they were fat. “No one likes a fat cop,” she said. She drank Pink Monster Ultra Rosá and had multiple dreamcatcher forearm tattoos.
What got your attention this week? Got a hot take on something? Hit reply and let me know.
On the Blog
Reading:
Searches by Vauhini Vara was incredible for the first half. Disliked it by the end.
Apple in China by Patrick McGee was better than I expected
Empire of AI is the best AI book I’ve read this year (and I’ve read a fair few)
The Shortlist: is taking this week off. I spent that time writing my Parenting a Trans Teenager piece. Watch for a doozy of a Shortlist next week.
Got a short story? Send it my way
Listening:
Ea Othilde is a Norwegian musician that you should check out. Her debut record comes out in October (I’ve heard it, you’ll love it).
Kirsten Izer’s new EP is only four songs, but I can’t get a couple of them out of my head.
Bee Blackwell releases her new EP today, and it’s delicious 90s alt rock.
The Setlist: 33 tracks(!), about 140 minutes. Standout tracks by Lacuna, Warburton and Ece Era.
Listen on Apple Music or Spotify
What’s on your playlist? Send me your faves
Next week: More translated books. On the Calculation of Volume (2), something called We Are Green and Trembling and a NYRB one I can’t recall. I like this theme week idea, we’ll see how long it keeps up.
Music from Isabella Strange, Placement, Starling, and Smut, and probably a couple other things.
Thanks for being here.
-hugh
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