Weekend Reading

  • Apple Music’s Archaic Album Categorization→
    Benjamin Mayo sums up one of the most annoying features of Apple Music: the way the service thinks everything is an “album”, making it extremely inconvenient to find what you’re looking for. These artefacts of compact discs show up again when looking at an artist page.
    And this, amongst other reasons, is why I use Spotify.

  • Last blog standing, “last guy dancing”: How Jason Kottke is thinking about kottke.org at 20
    In 2013, Jason Kottke wrote a prediction for Nieman Lab’s year-end roundup: “The blog is dead, long live the blog.” Kottke was then (and still is) owner of one of the longest continuously running blogs on the web: kottke.org, founded in 1998. “Sometime in the past few years, the blog died.”
    Pffffttt, he’s only a year or so ahead of me (although his is a ‘true’ weblog, not this ramshackle nonsense)

  • The Breakup Museum
    It’s a simple necklace: a tiny, brown-striped clamshell tied to a black leather cord. The shell was gathered from a beach in Italy, and attached to the cord by means of two holes drilled into the shell with a dental drill.
    It’s always the little things, found one such item myself just this past week. *cries a river*

  • “Some women will shag anything to get anywhere”: Lisa Stansfield on fame, Weinstein and the problem with Jeremy Corbyn
    She was the biggest British female soul star of the Nineties. At 51, she’s back and ready to let loose. Lisa Stansfield likes to do an impression of Lisa Stansfield.
    What a great voice to be heard.

  • A true Olymipic moment
    Something like this happens at every Olympics. Humanity is strong than we give it created for.

  • A single dad walked 11 miles to work every day — until his co-workers found out
    Trenton Lewis’ legs ached from the 11-mile walk he made every morning to get to his 4 a.m. shift. And yet the 21-year-old dutifully did it for seven long months.
    No YOU’VE got something in your eye…

  • My Ready Meal Is None Of Your Fucking Business.
    Tonight, scrolling through Twitter, I came across a frankly audacious message sent from the ‘Bath Conservatives’ account, that had tagged me in.
    Jack Monroe in wonderfully scathing style. They are mighty.

  • Typing Practice
    I didn’t start my journal with the idea of recording my progress toward the ultimate truth. I was nowhere near bombastic enough to think I had anything important to say, even to my future self.
    So many reasons to keep a journal.

  • How to Keep Going
    Click to see larger!
    One to print large and pin up everywhere!

  • How Protein Conquered America
    My bodega is only a little bigger than my studio apartment, and sells no fewer than 10 kinds of Muscle Milk.
    Ahhh protein. My main food source at the moment, apparently.

  • The Women of WakandaNakia is the Real Revolutionary of “Black Panther”
    This story contains spoilers for Marvel’s Black Panther.
    Yes, yes and YES.

  • I have forgotten how to read
    Author of Solitude: A Singular Life in a Crowded World and The End of Absence: Reclaiming What We’ve Lost in an Age of Constant Connection. Turning, one evening, from my phone to a book, I set myself the task of reading a single chapter in one sitting. Simple. But I couldn’t.
    Wow this sat down HEAVY.

  • The Winter Olympics Feature 2,951 Of The World’s Greatest Athletes, And Also This Woman
    There’s a premise built into the structure of the Olympics that pretty much every single Olympian, even those far down the standings, are elite athletes at the top of their game performing at a level most fans could only dream of.
    This one of these stories at every Olympics. Humanity sometimes is a bit odd.

  • The ‘Poor Jen’ Narrative Fails Every Woman, Everywhere
    Jennifer Aniston and husband Justin Theroux have announced their split after six years together.
    I pains me to admit that this needed pointed out to me. A trope I’ve seen so so often.

  • Hundreds of rough sleepers in Scotland to be offered homes
    At least 600 of Scotland’s most vulnerable rough sleepers are to be provided with homes and the continuing support they need to sustain their tenancies, in the largest commitment of its kind in the UK.
    Proud to be Scottish (and proud to have contributed).

  • Japan’s Stock Market Got You Confused? Try Analyzing Eyebrows
    With Japan’s stock market having slipped away from strategists’ targets set at the start of the year, investors seeking alternative analysis could consider studying eyebrows.
    Because I’m not confused enough about the ‘magic marker’ eyebrows already??

  • Laurie Metcalf Was Hiding in Plain Sight
    A unicorn, a monster, a phoenix, a machine, a heavyweight fighter, an astronaut, a superhero, a thoroughbred, a home-run hitter, a waitress juggling “16 entrees, 42 starters, 16 desserts,” a jazz virtuoso, LeBron James, Magellan, Snuffleupagus.
    Mild Lady Bird spoilers, which you should go and see because Metcalf is mesmerising.

  • From imitation to innovation: How China became a tech superpower
    In late October 2017, when I went to visit Kai-Fu Lee, China’s premiere artificial intelligence (AI)-focused venture capitalist, I entered his office complex from the back side of the building.
    My prediction: The war is coming, ideologies will build on the back of such achievements, they always have. Tech is the new battleground.

  • At Japan’s suicide cliffs, he’s walked more than 600 people back from the edge
    Almost no one jumps on rainy days. They jump when the sun returns and the masses step outside, reminding them of their misery. They jump during financial crises and in the early spring, when Japanese schools open and the pressures of life converge.
    It is always, ALWAYS good to talk. Even a few words can change a life. You have no idea the impact your words may have with others. Don’t be scared to reach out.