This is such a fun, imaginative piece of filmmaking about a long day on a bicycle (video)
I never patronized an Automat—they were only in New York and Philadelphia, and the last one closed in 1991—but I remember Patti Smith mentioning going to one in her book Just Kids, and I somehow knew what they were, and had a weird feeling kind of like nostalgia when I imagined her in one. So of course Rolando Pujols’ new Substack piece about the possible return of Automats hit home for me, and also introduced me to a word for that feeling: anemoia.
I just this week discovered the r/PhotoshopRequest subreddit and I am kind of obsessed. I think this post + comments are a pretty good representation of the general vibe there.
I don’t know if you have to have any experience with addiction, or parenting, or being a child of a parent, or whatever, to get something out of this story (gift link), but it sure delivers a hell of a moment.
I remember when Baz Luhrmann’s song “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)” came out, and all the great lines in it, and how we all somehow thought it was someone reading the transcript of a Kurt Vonnegut MIT commencement speech. I stumbled upon this Guardian piece this week and it was nice to read the true story, as well as take another listen to the song, 20-plus years later, as I’m 20-plus years older, and hear how much of it still rings true (especially the part about nostalgia).
Maybe you saw the headlines about a man calling into a court hearing about his suspended driver’s license while he was driving a car (!) a couple weeks ago. Well, it wasn’t true, and the correct story will probably get nowhere near as much publicity—which is kind of a lesson on how hard it is to unring a bell these days.
Do you want to read a feature story about the Excel World Championships? (yes, Excel as in spreadsheets). Take one piece of advice from me and notice there is a small toggle labeled “Palette” at the bottom right of this page (top right if you’re reading it on a phone), and read it in black text on a white background instead of hi-vis yellow on a black background, which is what I did. Maybe my favorite sentence from the story: “Diarmuid Early, a past ModelOff champion and the biggest celebrity in the room — an article once referred to him as “the LeBron James of Excel,” which immediately stuck — is sitting in the back row of the Vegas ballroom, trying not to think about whether he’s trained enough.”
I know I mentioned these new PATH Projects Ultra-Something hats a couple weeks ago, but I forgot to mention that if you buy the hat, the book is only $10, and with that book, you get one of the stickers pictured below, and that’s the only way to get one of the stickers.
