Links
A regularly updated collection of things I find worth reading, watching, or listening to. Subscribe via RSS.
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I’ve been a fan of Perfume Genius ever since he released No Shape in 2017. His latest album, Ugly Season, is out now and accompanied by the film above. I highly recommend you listen to the album in full—start to finish, no interruptions, preferably with headphones on—because it is an experience. To me, this is his finest album yet; an album that combines and builds upon all the beautiful things he’s created over the years and, at the same time, takes it to another level. The visual by Jacolby Satterwhite is mind-boggling, a mesmerising tasting platter of Ugly Season.
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I recently watched this documentary about Martha Cooper, who photographed much of—if not all of—New York’s graffiti in the 1970s and 1980s. The documentary is an inspiring piece of work, and Martha comes across as a delightful individual, with a fantastic legacy of documenting people rising above their environments.
Seek it out, if you can!
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Brought to my attention by Fabian, in response to my essay on the intimacy of experiencing a film in a movie theatre, Soderbergh’s address—dating back to 2013—is an impassioned speech, arguing that film culture is "under assault by the studios".
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The New York Review of Software. I’d subscribe. (Though reading the sentence that mentions revisiting software a few years later served as a sad reminder that a lot of software wouldn’t survive until the revisit.)
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I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and making improvements on our house in the past year. Our house is old (built around 1907) and, while we have some forward-looking plans, it is sometimes difficult to know where or how to start. In swoops Simon Sarris' Substack. He built a beautiful home in New Hampshire and has documented the process, providing some useful guidance and recommendations along the way.
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If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll know I make no secret of my infatuation with Better Call Saul (sorry!). I think it is one of the best shows the best show ever made. It is funny and dark, slow but challenging, and bold and daring. It one-upped Breaking Bad and elevated that universe to new heights. In the video above, Thomas Flight does an excellent job explaining the why and how.
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“What if, instead of thinking of the metaverse as a set of interconnected virtual places, we think of it as a communications medium?”
Tim O’Reilly published an incredibly thoughtful post on the Metaverse, what it is, and what he thinks it isn’t. It’s refreshing to see him break down the walled garden that has been under construction ever since the term was coined.
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Lately I’ve been digging into methods for asynchronous work and learning about how to implement them, because I think we (still) have a little way to go in that respect. I’ve found Twist’s newsletter on the matter very insightful. It’s not too preachy and highlights pros and cons of asynchronous (and synchronous) work in an accessible way. If you’re into designing how a company (your company?) communicates, this is a good place to start.
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A blogpost by Tim O’Reilly from 2009, but timely as ever. On working on things that matter, on creating value, and on taking the long view.
“That’s why a time like this, when the bubble is bursting, is a great time to see how important it is to think about the big picture, and what matters not just to us, but to building a sustainable economy in a sustainable world.”
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“You didn’t have to agree with her, but you had to submit to her sentences.”
In remembrance of Joan Didion, who passed away late in 2021.