Magazine
Isaac Chotiner interviews Richard A. Epstein, Detroit faces coronavirus, saving indigenous languages, friend dates, and 2000s celebrity drama
This week I spent more time on the internet than I did last week, but still less than previously. I also let myself enjoy the things that made me smile and provided a brief and necessary moment of respite.
Proprietary technologies and planned obsolescence collide to make data harder to extract once a file format is no longer supported, leading to a growing concern about the impact of this current “digital dark age.”
Losing yourself in a good book is a timeless way to manage uncertainty, unease, and being cooped up in a house with the family and roommates that you love so, so, so much, but seriously can you just turn down the volume on your video games please?
Honestly, I have spent most of this week avoiding the internet, going online just enough to stay abreast of COVID-19 developments.
There was kinda a lot of art news on the internet this week.
In Flourish, Malech's poems rarely alight anywhere near where they begin—often introducing unexpected themes into the fray.
The internet was a lot this week. Good, but a lot.
The internet was very nice this week.
David Foster Wallace was a jerk, Macaulay Culkin is not who you think he is, Jeanne Calment might not have been the oldest living person, Joshua Yaffa’s Russia is worth paying attention to, the power of Parasite, and more.
Libraries as places of possibility regardless of social class enabled Daniel to experience a larger world outside the one she lived in and imagine a variety of prospects that life might hold for her. That capacity drives her vision for the Pratt.
Highlights: Having a hobby, academy jerks, Meghan McCain’s tears, the pain of Oprah, the first drag queen was a former slave, Tressie McMillan Cottom, J.Lo and Shakira’s Super Bowl, Christine Sun Kim’s patriotic act, how we make homes, and Erykah Badu’s pussy.
Brexit finally happened, coronavirus is a global epidemic, apparently you don’t need witnesses (or evidence) in an impeachment trial, and I am highkey VERY concerned about PETA.
Some crazy shit punctuated a mostly boring week on the internet—but there were also some quiet hidden gems.
Highlights: What The Oscars got wrong, shifting our perspective on monuments, a royal exit, the sometimes tragedy of birth, meditating on cats and Elizabeth Bishop, the politics of textiles, the popularization of Botox, you probably aren’t Beyoncé’s friend, and the Bernie/Warren spat.