Week recap: October 4, 2024
Everything that happened on the blog last week with a couple extras.Too much? Not enough? Let me know what you think.
Corporate Update
(the boring stuff)
I’m not sure what happened, but I had an unbelievable rush of new subscribers last weekend. I think this is some kind of bot activity, but the addresses look legit, so I guess we’ll see. This is what Mailchimp tells me has happened to my list in the last week, the darker colour is the new subscribers:
That’s 5,000% growth. If you’re all real? Thanks for being here, I hope you find things you like. If you didn’t sign up? Look around, you might spot something great.
I also did a major redesign of the homepage and updated the fonts, to try to make it a little more magazine-style layout. I’m still tinkering with how it works, and I’m not a designer at all, but if you have and opinion on it or spot a bug, please reach out!
And now, here’s the main event:
Dead Anyway Month
If you need an intro and some context, here’s the intro post.
I also wrote about Kate’s book Kicking at Tombstones, which I loved.
More to come next week, including some fun surprises.
Read
You should read Catalina. The narrator is unforgettable, and I think the author is going to be a major figure in American writing. The post has audio and links to all kinds of other good stuff.
Slow Horses is excellent, but if you’ve watched the AppleTV+ show, the book offers nothing new — it’s a credit to the show’s creators that they kept so close to the book.
Here are six short stories. They’re all good, and The Great Silence by Ted Chiang is a classic, in the vein of Benjamin Labatut. You should read Chiang (and Labatut!) every chance you get.
This piece called “Are We Too Impatient to Be Intelligent?” by Rory Sutherland is bursting with ideas. The title catches the eye but doesn’t do it justice.
Liz Phair’s best album came out 30 years ago and Slate had a good piece on it.
Got something to share? Want your first reader or listener?
I’m always looking for good writing and good music. If you have something to recommend (even if it’s your own stuff), lay it on me.
Listen
Music features:
Sofia and the Antoinettes makes cinematic indie pop, and I think they’re going to be huge (England)
Flower Face’s super-sinister acoustic indie-folk (Montreal)
googly eyes’ new EP is irresistible electro pop (California)
Aluminum’s debut record reminds me of the New Pornographers’ Mass Romantic (San Francisco)
Dutch Mustard’s alt-rock is one earworm after another (London)
The playlist is killer this week. Also on it:
Singles from previous faves &Tilly, Vitesse X, Clothesline from Hell, Sophia Warren and of course Dead Anyway, and new discoveries from MAY, Kassie Krut, Dork, Deaf Peach, Marta Vega, LEOBLU, NikoCorlin, Bad Bloom, Wax Head, Chloe Slater,
21 tracks, 65 mintues. Hear it all on Apple Music or Spotify
NEXT WEEK: music from kleio, Lost Lyra, more Dead Anyway, plus books from Leslie Jamison and Kai Cheng Thom
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