~notes~
Aussie Accents FTW and Tamagotchi Nostalgia
Mad’s Music Mix
The HBK Gang, “Never Goin’ Broke”
Shouts out to my cousin, Noah, for hipping me to this song, and keeping me in the loop on the latest in Bay Area rap, which seems to be as innovative as ever. One of the top collectives coming out of Cali (shots fired, Odd Future!), HBK Gang is anchored by inventive founder IamSu! (rap name chosen and stylized for Search Engine Optimization purposes, of course) and his nimble crew of Richmond homies. Group members riff on parties and hotel lobbies; it’s a joyous song of friendship and optimism backed by a really catchy beat.
Ephemerals, “You Made Us Change”
Classic soul horns puncture the intro, paving the way for a sweet throwback. The honeyed track is made complete with organ, horns, piano, strings and a tender voice. Hurts so good.
Nic Hessle, “Hearts Repeating”
Speaking of throwback, here’s a sunny song harkening back to the days of ‘90s pop (I can picture the ill-fitting leather jackets and spiked hair a la Savage Garden as I type this). Nic’s backstory is stunning: He was paralyzed four years ago and unable to embark on his first tour. Spectacularly, he overcame his paralysis and is now back in the game.
While Nic Hessle overcame paralysis, the band Nick Klein skillfully evokes a sense of paralysis with constricted, pulsating synths. Tightened by the sustained staccato of the production, this song ensnares you and keeps you glued.
Formerly of civic-minded smartass group Das Racist, Heems just dropped this first single from his upcoming solo album, Eat, Pray, Thug. Heems raps about duality, contradictions and and the general nuances of living life, all set amongst a banging beat. Allegedly this album will be his last, but I’m praying to the thugs in the sky that this won’t be the last we hear from Heems.
Music Vid Pick: Here’s something to brighten those gloomy winter blues: Betty Who’s “Somebody Loves You.” The Australian pop singer dances with some colorful characters in this technicolor trance, sure to lighten up your mood. I also really dig that she lets her accent shine through, because Aussie accents are the coolest and American accents can be pretty meh. Cheers!
Jeff’s Journo Jems
The Hidden Language of the ~Tidle~ [BuzzFeed]
The first time you opened our newsletter, I hope you looked at the header in all of its creative glory. The gold cat (get it?), the lowercase (only!) letters, and those weird squiggly lines that provide the bookends. What do the tildes mean? Are they the mathematical symbol for approximately? A nostalgia for old website directories? Nope, it’s pure sass, and thankfully BuzzFeed put on its linguist hat to describe exactly how we use tildes today. The working definition: Tidles are used “to signify a tone that is somewhere between sarcasm and a sort of mild and self-deprecatory embarrassment over the usage of a word or phrase.” ~Spot on~
The Virologist [The New Yorker]
There are few things I like better than when The New Yorker sends a curmudgeonly journalist to cover millennials. It always ends up like a pseudo-anthropological study trying to explain exactly what the kids are doing today. This time the venerable magazine looks at clickbait factories. The scary part: The writer’s description of the utilitarian work environment — a loft space where kiddos tap away at keyboards and talk to each other online instead of in real life — sounds a little like my own job. But, guys, I promise that kind of workplace isn’t nearly as dystopic as it sounds.
Online Dating Is Turning Us All Into Tamagotchis [The Motherboard]
Every relationship — from friends to significant others — takes nurturing. I don’t mean that in a parental way, rather to point out that it takes lots of time and effort, and hopefully ends with both parities feeling like they’ve grown for the better. This story asks (like SO many have before): What kind of wrench does online dating do this to process? Answer: It makes relationships like the Tamogatchis of our childhood. We feed each other (metaphorically, but, yes, the Tamogatchi gets “fed” virtually) by tapping away at our touchscreen devices, instead of nurturing those relationships offline.
The Genius of Taylor Swift’s Girlfriend Collection [BuzzFeed]
Who’s the last person Taylor Swift dated? I have no idea because her Instagram feed — yes, I follow her on Instagram and you should too — is filled with all of her friends, from Ariana Grande to Lorde. In a genius PR move, Swift has managed to remake her image from boy-crazed teen to a cool 20-something who just wants to hang with her friends. My journalism crush, Anne Helen Petersen, puts on her academic hat to explain to us what this means for gender norms and pop culture.
The Town Without Wi-Fi [The Washingtonian]
There are some stories that just seem tailor-made for longform journalism, like this story of a town where the U.S. government forbids residents to use Wi-Fi and cellphones. It’s not just some weird type of social experiment — a government telescope requires this no-technology zone to work properly. Now technophobes — well, not people who are afraid of technology, but believe that they are very sensitive to electric signals — are flocking the town as a newfound Mecca. Unsurprisingly, tensions between the old and new guard start to boil over.
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