Weekly Recs Roundup
The Nicest Swamp on the Internet, Story Basics and A Wasted Life
Hi!
It’ s the start of what we call in Melbourne “False Summer’ and I am once again trying not to squander it by doing as many things as possible. I don’t know what it is about the quality of light at this point in time that makes me say ‘yes’ to a music gig after a day of driving to surf. Anyway, I’m exhausted and it’s my own fault.
I’ve been reading lots of books that feel like beginning of Autumn too like “Love in the Big City”, a queer coming of age book set in Seoul that’s also about the friendships. It makes me want to put on a long trench and drink a lot of soju while watching leaves fall. I’m also now an advocate of annotating books and passing it on to friends ; I like the warm and fuzzy intimate knowing of the the lines that moved your friends when reading.
Watching the new season Abbot Elementary for that back to school chaotic energy.
And of course as per tradition, Taylor Swift’s Red has done a complete spin in the house with a bonus of Role Model covering the very good Nothing New from the re-releases.
📰READ
Michelle Zauner’s Success Nearly Destroyed Her [paid] Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast talks about her break from music writing and the aftermath of her metoric breakhthrough in 2019 when she released both a best selling book “Crying in H Mart” as well as her album Jubilee. A lot of interesting thoughts about having grief so publicly out for consumption, the body wearing tiredness of touring and spending a year in Korea to write the kind of music she wanted. I am very excited for her new album
The Nicest Swamp on the Internet” A loving ode to one of the most surprising trajectory reddit, going from 4Chan adjacent to its current “oasis of happiness, expertise, exuberance” (mostly.) It is funny to think how much time I spend on Reddit now and I am impressed how it’s manage to scale and keep the early 2000 generosity of message boards. You didn’t ask but my some of my favourite subreddits are r/popheads, r/accidentalrenaissance and r/mouldyinteresting. This part in particularly really spoke to me “But the only two questions that people ever really ask on Reddit, if you think about it, are these: Am I alone? Am I okay? And after all these years, in subreddit after subreddit, no matter what the topic at hand is, the same answers keep coming: You aren’t alone. And you might not be okay. But we’re here.”
Let it grow bigger[paid] Hayley this week again. She just writes the right things for me at the right time. Last week, she recounted having a lovely time in London but having a gnawing feeling of wanting to cry and the intellectualising through the day in the Boroughs of London before a friend gently suggesting she switched tact (right as the waiter approaches to take their order of course). Anyway, is it a trauma response to covid when you have big feelings and decide to go lie down in the middle of the work day to meditate to headspace? Asking for me specifically.
Angels of Approach [paid] I actually really love Sally Rooney’s non fiction writing. Here is her take on snooker championships. The tight sparseness and film like writing of her books really shine in retelling on geometry, skill and what it takes to be a great snooker player.
story basics #1, opening Brandon Taylor also has a new book out at the end of year and I am very excited to read. In the mean time, he is doing a weekly sort of mini lecture/classes on writing on story basics via his newsletter. I both enjoy his evident love of trying to understand what structure and form works and also his criticism of the modern novel. Well worth a read if you like the written word, whether you are writing or not.
The Digital Packrat Manifesto “One of the more abstract but dire consequences of this streaming mentality is that we’ve started to treat art and culture like wallpaper….Living with some degree of artificial scarcity also changes the way you value those things, and makes you question how much media is “enough.”
More writing on why physical media is becoming increasingly important. Janus Rose jumps off from the Amazon Kindle decision to stop allowing downloads of ebooks to trace a short history of big tech’s war on ownership, ultimately urging readers to make a media library of one’s own.A wasted life “Arendt blurs the lines between the active and contemplative life, suggesting that one is not inherently superior, but that they complement each other.” Sometimes I read a piece that at a sentence level, I don’t think I completely understand but then you pull away and the whole essay reveals its meaning to you. It’s actually kind of crazy. Nathan Becker’s post on philosopher Hannah Arendt and living a wasted/active life in the context of creative pursuit and design is exactly that. I enjoyed the brain noodling of contemplating the productivity of creative practice.
Shibuya Meltdown In 2014, a then–anonymous Instagram account began posting photos of Japanese citizens collapsed in public spaces, “melting down.” Amanda Chen on the self-fulfilling documentation of Shibuya’s nightlife.
My publication rec of the week is Psych.co
Part of the AEON magazine family and focuses on the “the human condition through psychology, philosophy and the arts.” It is vaguely self-helpy but I feel like there is enough interesting research analysis and actual opinions to make it worth a read or at least a good conversation starter with titles such as “To have deeper conversations, try being more of an asshole”
📺WATCH
With the release of Mickey 17 by Parasite director Bong Joon Ho, I decided to watch an earlier film by him “The Host” about a monster emerging from the Han River to attack people and the family that will stop at nothing to save their daughter. It has all the trademarks of his blend of horror thriller, a political satire and a dysfunctional family comedy. Also quite liked the monster design.
🎵LISTEN
There’s actually been so many good things lately:
Melbourne’s own Rita Satch album Meet me in the Garden is a lush debut of soul/pop. Also cute that the music video was partially filmed in the Rippon Lea Gardens.
It’s literally been years but welcome back the HAIM sisters with Relationships.
New Yaeji has also been very good
Jennie has had the most solid debut album of the Blackpink girls so far. Handlebars with Dua Lipa is a stand out.
Queer Records now has a new weekly playlist of fresh queer pop: Sounds Gay 2025. Unironically, loved discovering “I wanna see my friend's Dicks.”
Bye!
Bev