Category: Shorts

I’ve saved up a lot of reading for today. Here’s the best of what I read:

• Otis Redding: Remembering His Life 50 Years After His Death. There used to be a plaque in Madison that commemorated that plane crash. I wonder if it’s still there?
• Why Disney’s purchase of 21st Century Fox should scare you. Seriously world, Disney doesn’t need to own everything. Or even most things.
• Meet the Gettys! Wow, that’s a LOT of family drama.

• I will confess to only looking at the pictures and not reading the article but: what would modern animals look like if they were drawn like dinosaurs (that is, from their skeletons only without all the parts that wouldn’t have fossilized).
• Watch the trailer for American Crime Story: The Murder of Gianni Versace. I am not, repeat, NOT a true crime fan. But I remember the day this murder was reported so very distinctly, and it came during 1997, which is the year that defined the next section of my life… It was weird and memorable and I can still hear the person who told me about it pronouncing his name “Johnny” because “the i softens the g in Italian, it doesn’t get pronounced on its own.” She was Canadian and a hoot and I wish I could remember her name.
• On Being Midwestern: The Burden of Normality. “Our bland, featureless Midwest—on some level, it is a fantasy. The easiest, most tempting tack for a cultural critic to take with fantasies is to condemn them. Given what ideas of normalness, in particular, have done to this country, to its nonwhite, nonstraight, non–middle-class, nonmale—and also to those who are all of those things, and are driven slightly or fully crazy by the effort to live up to the norm that is their birthright—it is tempting simply to try to fumigate the myth away.” (The Midwest, by the way isn’t flat. The Plains states are flat. The Midwest has hills and forests and lakes – some of them Great – but it isn’t flat.)

• A short history of capes in the movies. Man, now I want to have an excuse to swan about in a cape. (I do own one, so that part’s done.)
• There is a Lego house and you can stay in it.
• Something is wrong on the internet. I only made it partway through the underlying article which details how automation and showing people content like what they’ve consumed before may constitute abuse (which maybe falls into the “way harsh Tai” category). It’s interesting to think about though. Please kids, remember to curate your own media consumption and do read people you disagree with sometimes.

• A Fire’s First, Fatal Hours. This is some amazing, moving storytelling about the first hours of the fires in Sonoma and Napa last week.
• Is This Our Moment of Decline? Lessons From Rome Before the Fall. I’ve been looking forward to this book since I pre-ordered it last May. It should finally show up this week. Yay!
• Here’s What We Learned From Staring at Social Media Data for a Year. Or, how Facebook and Twitter are absolutely editing the information you see.

It’s the end of the week and all I care about is getting to sleep in tomorrow.

• Did this book buy its way onto the NYTimes bestseller list? Yes, and reading about the sleuthing on twitter yesterday was the best. Don’t try to outfox YA book twitter.
• The Cast of The Outsiders Then and Now. A lot of dudes of a certain age were in this movie.
• We might as well talk about Taylor Swift’s new single.  Maayyyyybe she needs to check her privilege.
• The Real Reason Jeff Bezos Grinds Trump’s Gears.
• I wish I didn’t care about dressing my age. I’m 42 and this article resonates.

• In the first paragraph of Astrology Is Fake But Scorpios Are Extremely True it says: “If you are a Scorpio and you are reading this, stop. You are smiling in a way I don’t appreciate.” Reader, I was smiling. And may have laughed out loud in the middle of the coffeeshop. (Let me confirm. I’m a scorpio.)
• Charlize Theron Is Not Here To Make Friends.
• Do You Look Like Your Name? Yes, but only to people with whom you share a culture, interestingly enough.
• Why You Feel Richer or Poorer Than You Really Are. Turns out, it’s about how much money you have in your checking account. I mean, it’s more than that too, but really: how much cash do you have easy access to?

• Changing the gender dialogue via unisex baby clothes. Less restrictive gender roles in this country are good – if unisex baby clothes are one way to get there, I’m in.
• The Grey Force in Star Wars. Light + dark in one? But where will the source of confrontation come from?
• Three thoughts on emotional labor. Emotional labor is hard. HARD.