Hello! My big news for this newsletter: it is publication week for the Lateral book in the UK! You can pre-order it today and it should be in your hands on Thursday, or you can buy it from actual bookshops. In the US, it'll be out next week. 100 questions, most of which are brand-new and exclusive to the book. Producer David and I are really excited that it's finally making its way into
the world! Meanwhile, on YouTube! - Would I watch a regular video of someone making
a waistcoat? Probably not. Would I watch Vincent Briggs painstakingly making a 1770s waistcoat that includes dozens of Werther's Originals wrappers in order to make an obscure literary joke? Absolutely. In his words: "I'm not making this to be historically accurate, I'm making it because I thought it would be funny". Also, tailoring something
takes so long! (Contains slight, brief sight of blood. Thanks to Trinity for sending this over.)
- Pianote is a company that sells music lessons, and — thanks in part to their budget and contacts — they've hit upon a golden YouTube format. Find a professional pianist or keyboard player; find a well-known hit song that they've somehow not heard; play just the drums and vocals
and let them improvise a piano part. A Harry Styles song. A Sabrina Carpenter song. There's a whole playlist of them, but the standout for me is the most recent: Jon Batiste, in his own studio, hearing Green Day's "Holiday" for the
first time. It's format-breaking, there's none of the usual layering of sounds or careful note-taking, it's just someone incredibly talented showing off their skills with what the description accurately calls "infectious joy". I just kept smiling at this. They have a similar playlist of
drummers; I can only assume there'll be one for guitars or vocals soon.
- Cabel Sasser gives a wonderful talk about a McDonalds mural, theme parks, and blasphemy. (Start from 2:39 to skip the catch-up about a
previous talk.) This was on my to-watch list for a while: several people told me something along the lines of "I can't spoil it for you, but it's worth watching". And it is. I can't spoil it for you, but it's worth watching.
Other interesting links I've found this week: - She's one of Florida's most lethal python hunters. A ride-along, and profile of, one of the hundred bounty hunters who go out into the Florida Everglades at night to catch and kill invasive snakes. This is a nuanced, fascinating portrait.
- Time in Ethopia is offset by six hours. Not by time zones: but many Ethiopians use a twelve-hour clock that starts at approximately dawn and dusk. It's still the same clock, it's just the meridian (the m in am and pm) has been moved by six hours. I'd never
even thought about that being possible before!
And finally: you guys ever wonder how the baseball strike zone graphics work? (strong language)
All the
best,
— Tom |
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