Music The more I listen, the more I like Kevin Morby’s new album, This is a Photograph. The prayer / toast toward the end is especially wonderful: to free the flame from burning up inside to thunder like a motorcycle headed down the line to eat to weep to lay me down so sweet to sow to reap oh to let our glasses clink to time to time to time to time to time to time to time to time...
Podcasts This Conversations with Tyler episode with Chuck Klosterman was great. There are a lot of really interesting sections! At the end, Tyler breaks his Very Serious Interviewer mode and they just chat for a while. It’s still super interesting and fun to hear something a bit more conversational than ususal. I still love his standard no-nonsense approach though and wouldn’t want him to change as there is much less of that out there than there is just people chatting about stuff....
Happy V-day, lovers. Podcasts Season Two, Episode Two of What had happened was has a gem of a section that could easily be turned into a 5,000 word think piece on art, ephemerality and the responsibility we have (or don’t) when it comes to preserving art that may just fade into nonexistence under current legal and economic conditions. It’s this section where I realized that El-P is seeing the whole chessboard....
Podcasts Open Mike Eagle’s What had happened was is a gift to humanity. It’s the history of weirdo, independent hip hop from the horse’s mouth. Season One with Prince Paul (producer for De la Soul, Stetsasonic, MF Doom, Paul Barman, etc. etc.) was easily one of my favorite podcasts of 2020. I’m late to the Season 2 party with El-P (Company Flow, Run the Jewels, etc.), but it’s sounding good so far....
Music Remember 01 by The Halluci Nation (formerly A Tribe Called Red), an indigenous Canadian hip-hop group based in Ottawa. Another indigenous Canadian musician, Willie Dunn wrote incredble folk songs about native history, culture and western civilization and politics. He has a great voice and his lyrics are 👌. Ballad of Crowfoot is a good place to start and one of his best known songs Mabe Fratti. Moving. A Guatemalan cellist making minimalist electronic cello music in Mexico City....
Books Money: The True Story of a Made Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein. By one of the hosts of Planet Money. Short and interesting, made me want to learn more about the Chinese intellectual and scientific advances from around 600 AD to 1200 AD. Articles Acceptance Parenting by Agnes Callard Why are non-alcoholic drinks so expensive? Vancouver is the anti-asian hate crime capital of the world. It’s also nearly 30% asian....
Articles This Bloomberg article on anti-Asian discrimination in Vancouver The table on the timeline of the Women’s Suffrage page on Wikipedia. It’s mind-boggling how recently women gained the right to vote. This awesome newsletter entry by Ted Gioia on The Deadliest Song in History. Taking Sex Differences in Personality Seriously Music My Analog Journal. A great YouTube channel that “explore rare grooves around the world on vinyl”. It’s a bunch of hour long sets, filmed looking straight down at the turntable while he spins....