July 21, 2021
Astronomia II: The Rise Of Lyra
Nick Rhodes & Wendy Bevan Release Second Album Of Four-Part Series [Top40-Charts.com] Astronomia is a 52-song, 4-volume project being released as 4 albums. Astronomia II: The Rise Of Lyra [YT Audio playlist] came out on June 20, 2021. It can be heard (or purchased) on these online services. (Previously: Astronomia I) [more inside]
His last purchases—beer, cigarettes, pot—occurred 18 years ago.
Through long talks with Jason about the meaning of life, the nature of God, and how to make people happy, he’d come to see money as plain bad. How could it not be? It enabled organizations and “people who rely on the belief in evil” to do bad things. Armies, borders, possession, ownership—all bad. And not only did money enable what he deemed insane behaviour on a grand scale, the dependence on it, the fear of losing it, the focus on acquiring it wrecked people’s lives and drove them to be dishonest with themselves and others..."And then it just hit me. Like, I've had enough of this. I'm not playing this game anymore. And I was done. I had no use for money.”
USA vs USSR moon probe intrigue
Previously: how the USSR repurposed high resolution film salvaged from American spy balloons to use on their Lunik 3 moon probe. But then: One day in late 1959 or 1960 ... a crack team of four CIA agents worked through the night in stocking feet taking apart a kidnapped Soviet Lunik spacecraft without removing it from its crate. They photographed every part and documented every construction element, then perfectly reassembled the whole thing without leaving a trace. [more inside]
These Are the Workers Who Kept New York Alive in Its Darkest Months
Could I interest you in everything about "Inside"?
Bo Burnham started out as a geeky kid writing parody songs in his room, but the success of his work on YouTube soon launched him into a career in comedy, where he quickly won the respect of comics thrice his age. Three innovative specials and one acclaimed coming-of-age film later, Bo seemed to disappear from the scene for years... only to return in spring 2021 with INSIDE [trailer], a striking one-man/one-room pandemic comedy masterpiece, inventively cinematic in style, which devolves from clever social media parody to incisive sociopolitical critique to dystopian internet horror to a heartbreaking elegy for a dying world as it parallels his own emotional breakdown. Two months later, with six Emmy nominations and a nationwide theatrical release this weekend, there's plenty of Content to chew on -- a full track breakdown, lyrics, commentary, analysis, and beyond. Want it? Good. There's [more inside]
"It's always Christopher Burr"
From when Mary Carillo had to fill in some dead air for NBC while nothing was happening at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, a badminton rant.
Radio Housewives Remembered
KMA’s radio housewives "filled the rural [Iowa] airwaves from the 1920s to the 1980s, with recipes, gardening advice, and friendship...They were the early mom influencers. They created a sacred space, a gentle gathering of women’s voices, which had no place in major media outlets. Here, they could be themselves: just women talking to lonely women over the airwaves." Lyz Lenz's Men Yell at Me newsletter considers wives, whiteness, and the construction of midwestern identity: When Women Filled the Air. [more inside]
Sacramento. Punk. The Loft
The Boulevard Park Trio: One and Done
This obscure Sacramento band's only record embodies the timeless beauty of bored, talented youth entertaining themselves in a hot, flat city in the 1990s.
Well researched and detailed newsletter post about the punk scene in Sacramento in the 90's.
Phwoart!
Pornhub has just launched a museum guide for classical nudes [TimeOut] but then the
Louvre Calls in Lawyers Over Pornhub’s Hardcore Re-Enactments [Daily Beast] [more inside]
Anonymized location data is as scary as we thought.
Catholic official resigns (Axios) after publication identifies him using legally obtained (and purchased) "anonymized" location data that links him to Grindr and gay bars. The New York Times did a big feature on the risks of this data in 2019 posted here previously. [more inside]
stories that feature law enforcement as the sole source of information
Chappell and Rispoli, writing for Neimanlab, argue that we should defund the [journalism] crime beat. (With some secondary links to questionable sources and or paywalled stuff.)
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