I’d Kill To See Hair Metal in Moscow, And Other Phrases I Never Thought I’d Type.
Lovelies! It’s Friday, it’s the middle of May, the sun is rising earlier and earlier, and I’m looking forward to switching to my weekend yoga pants, getting through my Kindle backlog and catching up with friends.
And hey there, I was on a podcast! Thank you Roberto Baldwin for having me on his quarantine project The Stupid Podcast Ideas Podcast, wherein I ran 17 bad ideas past him, only some of which included squirrels, and I think that’s a demonstration of how I’ve grown as a human. It’s really, really, really silly and I have so much fun.
So a thought: won’t you Check on an Extrovert Today? Thank you Friend of the Missive Greg K. for sending it in, AND for checking on everyone’s favorite homebound Canadian extrovert, who is doing OK but should probably get outside for a walk today, don’t y’all agree?
There’s a lot to listen to / read this weekend, so let’s get to it!
Wind of Change (Pineapple Street / Crooked Media) - Friend of the Missive Katelyn alerted me to this podcast a couple of days ago, and I’ve already bingelistened halfway through the season. It. Has. EVERYTHING: the Berlin Wall, chartered 747s, spies, maybe-spies, hair metal rock & roll, CIA magicians, clandestine ops, the Cold War History of strained US/Soviet relations, possible government songwriters. Listen to it. It’s SO VERY GOOD.
Dave Grohl, The Day the Live Concert Returns (The Atlantic) - I’d spent the previous decade not attending live music as much as I used to, and so when I moved out on my own two years ago, I promised myself I would start spending my time seeing my favorite musicians play live. And there have been SO many highlights: Striking Matches at Bottom of the Hill, Pomplamoose at The Fillmore, Carly Rae Jepsen at Bill Graham. This piece is a love letter to those, and all, live music experiences, written (beautifully) by a man who watches it all from the stage.
Shadowland (The Atlantic) - Well, now that The Atlantic launched their investigative project into American conspiracy theories, I guess I have my Saturday morning planned for me, starting with I Was A Teenage Conspiracy Theorist by Ellen Cushing and The Prophecies of Q by Adrienne LaFrance. This is SUCH an impressive / terrifying collection of portrayal of our current moral insanity and I cannot wait to binge read the whole thing.
Brandy Zadrozny, These disinformation researchers saw the coronavirus 'infodemic' coming (NBC News) - Someone give these researchers the keys to Twitter and Facebook, and let them do whatever they want. Especially in the next six months before the election. If I have my way, that group of women would get to air horn any bad social media product feature out of existence.
Tim Dickinson, The Four Men Responsible For America’s COVID-19 Test Disaster (Rolling Stone) - Meanwhile, these people exist in the same world as the researchers above and if you ever needed an illustration of the spectrum of human decency, competence and civic-mindedness, well there ya go.
Y’all are just great. Be kind to each other, and have a delightful weekend!
xoxo Amy