Probably the closest publishing platform to the one I'm using — Ghost — is Substack. Although Substack is much more popular for a few reasons, not the least of which is the low barrier-to-entry (it's free if you are not charging for your publication), it has come under quite a bit of scrutiny lately. There was a big push to get writers to abandon the platform after The Atlantic posted an article asserting that there were many Nazi publications using the platform to spread and even monetize their ideas. A prominent tech journalist named Casey Newton, who was using Substack, led the charge to get the company to amend its content moderation policies. After not achieving complete success with his campaign, Newton took his publication, Platformer, to Ghost. Substack did, however, remove five accounts (out of the six that Newton reported) that were distributing Nazi material, in accordance with its existing policies about violent speech. Many writers opined that this was the bare minimum that Substack could do to quell the outrage that was being directed at them.
A friend recently introduced me to the Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy podcast, wherein Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick explains the Orthodox Christian faith. One thing I took away from it, and really appreciated, is the exploration of the Orthodox view of competing brands of Christianity. Fr. Andrew describes other sects as "incomplete." Having come from a Protestant background, the characterization struck me as both charitable and accurate. There isn't any attempt to denigrate other forms of Christian faith, but merely to point out that perhaps there is more out there to discover.
In many ways, though not in all, it’s gotten much harder to share the music you love with others. I was reminded of this a couple of days ago. For my wife’s birthday, my sister made her a playlist on Apple Music. This was thoughtful and kind, but unfortunately, we don’t have Apple Music. So my wife had to copy down the tracks that made up the list and find the songs to make her own playlist on Qobuz.
Back in the day, when you had a crush on someone, or simply wanted to spread the gospel of superbad tunes for getting down, you made a mixtape. If the recipient of your tape had a cassette player (which everyone did — they were standard government issue), they could listen to your creation until their heart's content. Or until the tape wore out (this is a real thing).
Neil Young put his catalog back on Spotify. He was moved to do so by the fact that Apple and Amazon are now serving the podcast he objected to (The Joe Rogan Experience) and that led him to remove his music from the streaming service. He reasons that he can't remove his music from all of those services, so apparently the next best thing is to make it available on all of them.
The NYT recently ran a piece about baggy pants coming into fashion again. The observances about the cyclical nature of fashion trends made me pause to reminisce a bit.
My dad drove me the four hours across mostly rural NC that it took to get to my college orientation back in 1994. He didn’t seem in a particularly good mood during the drives. On the way back, he shared an anecdote about a friend long ago who had been hit in the head by a glass bottle thrown from the side of a passing vehicle.
Alisa Ruddell wrote a masterful and in-depth review of the visually stunning animated film The Peasants for Christ and Pop Culture. The movie follows a woman named Jagna, whose promiscuity threatens the social fabric of her community in rural Poland around the turn of the last century. The use of the movie’s contemporary changes cast against the original book it was based upon (which was published in parts between 1904 and 1909) provides fertile ground for illustrating changes in society.
The new J. Mascis album, What We Do Now dropped recently, and has garnered a fair amount of attention. Though it’s expected that a solo album by Mascis will be a lower-key affair than a Dinosaur Jr. album, this isn’t the case with his latest effort under his own name. The songs have a bit more rock in their roll, though Robert Barry observes for the Quietus that doesn’t necessarily mean that you are going to be banging your head or that you will hear one of these tunes on the next Jock Jams compilation.
I’ve loved the fourth track on the Small Black record, Limits of Desire ever since the album was released over a decade ago. It was a clear standout, a highly stylized, dreamy ode to a woman who could probably be described as a “free spirit.” The song is based on a real person. As is revealed in the anniversary reissue of Limits of Desire, “Sophie” can perhaps be even better understood as the spiritual successor to “Somebody’s Baby,” the Jackson Browne track that anchored Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
I don’t always read Freddie deBoer because he can sometimes be a bit… well, mean. At the same time, I have to admit that he’s one of the most interesting and insightful cultural critics we’ve got. If you have the stomach to read one more think piece on the bizarre national divide over Taylor Swift, it should probably be his.
deBoer is fully aware of the ridiculousness of this story and the breathless reporting on it.
Lately, when my wife and I are both on our iPads, she watching Law & Order reruns and me reading blogs, I’ve been thinking about the concept of parallel play. Parallel play is something kids do during a certain stage of development.
Parallel play is a form of play in which children play adjacent to each other, but do not try to influence one another’s behavior; it typically begins around 24–30 months.
I’ve read a few conservative reactions to the pronouncement from Pope Francis that Catholic clergy can now offer blessings to those who are in same-sex relationships. What I was more interested in, though, is hearing from those who are most directly affected by the change. Namely, those who are in same-sex relationships and seeking blessings. Michael J. O’Loughlin provided just that perspective (gift article) for The Atlantic. O’Loughlin’s view is that it isn’t just those in relationships that the church does not recognize that can face difficulty staying in the church.
This seems to have been the week for feed aggregators, with The Icon Factory and Silvio Rizzi (creator of the Reeder RSS reader) both announcing new apps in the space. Both are well-regarded developers with history behind them and the announcements have generated considerable interest.
The Icon Factory’s new app is called Project Tapestry and has a Kickstarter campaign as its entry into the new space. The scope of the project sounds ambitious.
This video for the song “Blame Me” by Bathe Alone is described as a “short film.” It’s full of symbolism depicting the recent dissolution of singer/instrumentalist Bailey Crone’s marriage, with the gleeful destruction of wedding props including the recognizable and iconic white dress. The lyrics to the song indicate infidelity, which is typically going to make a divorce less-than-amicable.
Cyndi’s right again
I told her everything
She got it all from start to end
Jane Penny, the frontwoman for TOPS is following in the footsteps of her bandmate Marta Cikojevic (aka Marci) and releasing a solo EP. The song features the satiny smooth vocals we’ve come to expect from Ms. Penny. I can’t confirm, but I would assume the music was composed by long-time collaborator David Carriere. There are sleek, modern sensibilities throughout the track that mix with a style that is in some ways congruent with decades old pop radio.
Spencer Kornhaber covers the merger of Pitchfork with GQ for The Atlantic.
Yesterday, Condé Nast’s chief content officer, Anna Wintour, announced plans to merge Pitchfork into the men’s magazine GQ. “This decision was made after a careful evaluation of Pitchfork’s performance and what we believe is the best path forward for the brand so that our coverage of music can continue to thrive within the company,” she wrote in a staff memo.
Casey Shutt considers an article on AI by Paul Kingsnorth for Mere Orthodoxy. Kingsnorth sees demonic forces at play within technological advancement in general and AI in specific. Shutt expands upon the concerns expressed by Kingsnorth in his own piece. He hones in on the sense of real foreboding that plagues some who work with the technology.
The Godfather of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, seems genuinely haunted by AI’s mysterious power and the astonishing speed at which it is advancing.
Jess Weatherbed writes for The Verge about members of the European Parliament targeting Spotify with regulations to make sure European music is well represented and that artists are compensated more fairly.
The proposition was made to ensure European musical works are accessible and avoid being overshadowed by the “overwhelming amount” of content being continually added to streaming platforms like Spotify. MEPs also called for outdated “pre-digital” royalty rates to be revised, noting that some schemes force performers to accept little to no revenue in exchange for greater exposure.
As I headed to Divine Liturgy yesterday morning, I was glad to be able to participate in sacred time. The ability to set aside time for worship and repentant reflection has clear benefits for the soul. Elizabeth Oldfield writes about Keeping Sacred Time for Comment Magazine. Rowan Williams says that “undifferentiated time” is one of the hallmarks of secular societies, and we are all dancing to its catchy, repetitive tune.
I've been fascinated by the idea that the opposite of addiction is connection since I first heard about it. It seems to be a transformative paradigm shift in terms of how we think about addiction and treatment. This piece by Robert Weiss details some of the research that has gone into formulating this conclusion.
Given the above, one wonders what is really going on with addiction. Obviously, there is more to the equation than just the dopamine pleasure response.
It was getting dangerously close to the end of the year, and I still hadn't picked out a favorite track from 2023, if only for my own contemplation, even if not for publication. This week, though, I finally listened to Daydreamer by Molly Burch, which came out in September. It sat in my album collection in Roon for a few weeks before I even took the time to actually put the virtual needle on the record.