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Plus lots of links to other good stuff that didn’t (yet)Too much? Not enough? Let me know what you think.

Hi! You’re here! Thank you.

It’s been a week. I was travelling for a couple of days, I stayed in a hotel with zero heat, I got to meet Samantha Harvey, it feels like spring, and apparently the new Hunger Games book is out, which means my teenager will be desperate for me to read it with them.

I’m a little punchy as I write this, a combination of fatigue and work stress (though doing this is an excellent destresser!). Lots of good stuff to dig into.

Let’s do it:

AI Short Story is Bad, news at 11

If you haven’t read it yet, here’s the ‘short story’ written by ChatGPT. I can say this confidently: it’s fucking terrible. Like that guy from grade 11 who wanted you to read his poetry terrible. Here’s a collection of smarter people than me talking shit about it.

No relation

This profile of Graydon Carter just ensured I’m going to buy his memoir. Plus the Air Mail offices look like a place I want to live in when I grow up.

The Snow Patrol guy wrote a book too

I was a huge fan of Snow Patrol for a short time (you know when). This piece about Gary Lightbody’s memoir makes me want to pick it up too. He sounds like a really excellent guy, and the story of his dad’s death sounds a lot like what mine went through.

Samantha Harvey is an author you should know

I went to an event with Samantha Harvey this week. She wrote the essential Orbital, and it was coincidental that just before the event kicked off, the two astronauts that had been stranded on the ISS finally got back to Earth. And the book was shortlisted for an award while the event was happening. I think I’ll have a piece on it next week, so eyes peeled. Read Orbital

TTFN RBC CFO

That was a fun headline. The first third of this piece about the firing of the CFO of Canada’s most profitable company with cause is wild. The rest is fine too, but holy smokes.

Provoking the jerks

This piece in Rolling Stone about Laura Jane Grace’s new song “Your God (God’s Dick)” is great. I saw Against Me! play years ago at Toronto Pride, and they were great. Grace continues to be a fucking icon.

Judith Butler too

A few weeks ago I wrote about Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender?. It’s a great book, and this piece in LRB hits on a lot of the points of it in the context of the current political climate.  

Reading:

It’s been a week. I missed a full day yesterday while bogged down with work. I only posted two book reviews (I’ll save the divorce memoir for next Tuesday). Both books were nonfiction.

The essential Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams (about the shitty people in charge over at Facebook), despite Meta’s lawsuits to try to make it go away, is #1 on the NYT list this week. Beautiful.

Too Much Too Young is an exhaustive (and a bit exhausting) history of 2 Tone records. I love the first-wave ska stuff as much as anyone, but this was a lot.

The stories on the Shortlist are a funky bunch today: an incredible memoir about a woman trying to reconcile with her right-wing-conspiracy-theorist mother, a few excellent fiction pieces, and some clown porn. You read that right. Go see them.

Listening:

Some great music this week, though I’m still one short on the music features this week. Maybe I’ll run an extra one next week.

Features on Swedish psyche-rocker Miynt, Toronto indies cootie catcher and Shiv and the Carvers.

The Setlist features standout tracks from The Boojums (above, click it), Ellie Brétéché and Cherry i. Those three songs are worth your time (and the Boojums song isn’t on streaming yet), so please click through and check them out. Then add the playlist and tell me what you hate about it. No restraint.

Hit the red button below to dig in. It’s 29 songs, 100 minutes. Apple Music or Spotify

Get the playlists

Managing Expectations: Next week’s even busier than this one, but I’m gonna queue up some posts over the weekend. That Scaachi Koul memoir, the Neko Case memoir, and music by The Girls Upstairs and Other Half.

Probably a bunch more too. Sorry for the wackiness this week, I’ll get my shit together for Monday. Promise.

Thanks for being here.

-hugh

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