50 Reasons to Love Joni Mitchell’s ‘Blue’ On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the release of Joni Mitchell’s fourth studio album, The New York Times provides a colossal retrospective with commentary from fellow musicians, some who participated and … Continue reading Outside Reading — Songs Are Like Tattoos edition
A High School Senior Won a $40,000 Scholarship. Then She Gave It Up. by Maria Cramer To my dismay, I tend to focus on the individuals and institutions that are causing the most untoward disruption, sowing chaos with their ineptness … Continue reading Outside Reading — Being Verda Tetteh edition
Making Waves by Gabriella Angotti-Jones This marvelous piece from The New York Times, largely a photo essay with just enough elaborative commentary to heighten the power and poignancy of the images, touches on the small and mutually devoted culture of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Waves edition
On Chandler Bing’s Job by Megan Garber I’m not my cohort’s resident expert on the sitcom about a sextet of New Yorkers who will be there for one another when precipitations obeys the law gravity. So it with humility that … Continue reading Outside Reading — Transponster edition
Sinead O’Connor Remembers Things Differently by Amanda Hess This fantastic profile of Sinéad Marie Bernadette O’Connor, who also goes by the name Shuhada Sadaqat, offers a definitive, paper-of-record pardon of the artist’s notorious rending of a religious figure’s photograph. Better … Continue reading Outside Reading — Very Much an Irish Woman edition
A Bronx Upstart. A Logo With a Tilt. Now It’s Everywhere. by Shane Goldmacher I wrote about the inspired messaging of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez’s inaugural political campaign three years ago, right after her upset victory in the primary set her … Continue reading Outside Reading — One of Us edition
The Girl in the Kent State Photo by Patricia McCormick More than fifty years after the Kent State shootings, Patricia McCormick profiles the girl who was at the center of the most famous photo of the government’s crime against the … Continue reading Outside Reading — This Summer I Heard the Drumming edition
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie: The oral history by Adam Carston The big-screen iteration of Mystery Science Theater 3000 hardly seems to have enough significance to merit a lengthy oral history on the occasion of its anniversary, but I’m … Continue reading Outside Reading — This Island Earth Doesn’t Shine for Me Anymore
The Storm by Luke Mogelson It is three months since the U.S. Capitol was assaulted by frothing zealots in red caps and t-shirts with slogans of proud bigotry. It was a criminal act and an affront on the very principle … Continue reading Outside Reading — Criminal Insurrection edition
If Y2K-Era Movie Theater Carpets Could Talk by Foster Kamer Now this is the sort of narrow-niche article that I crave. Writing for the blog of independent film distributor A24, Foster Kamer offers an appreciation for the garish aesthetic of … Continue reading Outside Reading — Tripping Halls edition
Coffee for Two 