Welcome Distractions
New music, book reviews, short stories and more from blog this week
Plus lots of links to other good stuff that didn’t get there (yet)
Hi! You’re here! Thank you.
Ho-lee shit what a week. I had a call with an American business partner on Thursday, the first thing she asked me was what it’s like to not feel like anyone around you might be carrying a gun.
And in the book I’m reading right now (the new one by Jason Mott), he writes a scene with a similar sentiment:
“….Each generation in this world remembers times that were simpler. Safer. But not anymore for you Americans. No. The tree has already fallen, as they say...Soon, there will be no more simpler times that anyone can remember. It will have all been devoured by the shooting and the terrorists climbing your capitol steps and your Republicans and Democrats. Your politics and all the flags you cannot agree on, all the hills you plant them in and then fight over. All of it…You Americans...You are already too late. The good times? They are gone. And they will not return."
I can’t imagine how stressful these days must be for left-leaning Americans in [blue states / academia / the arts / any publicly funded whatever]. Stay strong friends. Come to Canada and I’ll buy you lunch or you can sleep on my couch or something.
Let’s talk about books: I started going through the Essentials pages and putting together some lists, and this week I posted the first two: Nonfiction Books I Think About the Most and Novels I’ll Recommend to Anyone Who’ll Listen. Check them out and let me know what you think. There’ll be more to come, hopefully one a week.
What’s your welcome distraction today? Lay it on me.
And now:
Off the blog: links you shouldn’t miss
Lots of good reading today:
If you won’t listen to me about how amazing RSS is, listen to the LitHub nerds. RSS is the best way to follow sites (or YouTube channels or newsletters or or or or…) you love on the web.
This interview with Rebecca Solnit goes hard. Three guesses who she’s talking about here:
He’s television incarnate. He’s a carnival huckster. He always seems like something semiliquid to me, some kind of vomitous slime mold lurching along in his inanity and repulsiveness.
A list of ‘banned’ books in the Guardian. I’ve read eleven of these. I included it because a few are new to me, and look really interesting. Anything on the list stand out to you?
The 2025 Polaris Music Prize, handicapped by Michael Barclay. Part one. Barclay knows this stuff so much better than me. Ribbon Skirt is going to win, and Mustafa’s gonna get the song prize. You read it here first.
Why Boredom is important. This video is a fun and refreshing, and you can’t convince me that the presenter isn’t John Slattery.
Do LLMs have good music taste? Tyler Cosgrove plays with them to find out. I’m not sure I learned anything here, but Grok has terrible taste (no shit)
I Hate my AI Friend - I didn’t think that it could get dumber than the AI Pin, but this idiot nailed it. He paid almost $2m for the url friend.com alone. Dumbass
More AI: How Powell’s Books stepped in it by using AI art. Took me a second to figure out the tell on this illustration (look at the spines on the book), but the company’s response is terrible. Shop at Bay Used Books instead. I’ve been going there since I was like 5.
This is pretty Reddit-coded but here’s a website of The Greatest Books of All Time. I spent an hour or so messing with this and didn’t find anything great, but if you do, let me know.
Lincoln Michel’s thoughts on the state of book reviews. He launches off of this article in NY Mag about the death of cultural criticism (I have thoughts about that article but his are better). He also links to this on Bluesky:
Lastly: Nobody’s reading for fun anymore, so James Folta has a list of recommendations of fun reads. I’ve only read like three of these, but a lot of them are on my list now. Any picks from his list?
What got your attention this week? Got a hot take on something? Hit reply and let me know.
On the Blog
Reading:
I launched my Essentials Lists this week with 8 novels and 10 nonfiction books that I recommend a lot. And the comments on those posts are open, so if you have comments, you can leave them there! Or reply here, that’s cool too.
Raymond Carver: A Writer’s Life: Holy hell Carver was not a good man. Even when he got sober. Just a world-class dink. Killer biography though.
This is Your Brain on Music: This book is 20 years old and is the best refutation of the whole “AI music is coming!” alarmism I’ve read. The brain remains a goddam mystery.
The Crying of Lot 49: This book almost made me cry. I’ve never suffered so hard for a sub-200 page book. I have no further urge to get my Pynch-on (sorry)
The Shortlist: Eight stories, three of them nonfiction, including one that was the seed of a book that’s about to come out. Check em out
Got a short story? Send it my way
Listening:
Melt Motif: I’m not an industrial music fan, but this is like vampire nightclub music. Threatening, sinister, and super seductive.
Milly Strange: Just stunning Australian indie-rock, that sounds like a hundred years old and brand new at the same time.
Léna Bartels: Brooklyn indie, kinda country, kinda weird. I’m a huge fan.
Georgia Maq: Did you ever listen to Camp Cope? Maq was the lead singer of that band. She’s continuing to kill it as a solo artist, having moved from Australia to California.
Long one today. 40 songs. Features from Australian folk/grunge act Daisypicker, experimental harpist (!) Kety Fusco featuring Iggy Pop (!!), and Dutch noise rock from Death Sells Listen on Apple Music or Spotify.
What’s on your playlist? Send me your faves
Next week: If a new war hasn’t erupted somewhere (civil or otherwise), I’ve got an incredible book by Jason Mott to talk about. Also a German band called HEAR ME OUT. Plus another list of essentials.
Thanks for being here.
-hugh
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