Welcome, reader. Are you reading this on a tablet or a phone? You're probably spending more time gawping at it each day than the idiot box in the corner. Now that's progress. Clap along with Shia up there.
The Vice empire has deployed Terraform, a "new home for future fiction". Definitely worth keeping an eye on if that's your sort of thing.
Also in Vice, Emily Gould wants everyone to Leave Jonathan Franzen Alone. As if that's likely to happen.
“John Franzen of Manhattan
Ance lived in Bellygan,
And stole King Malcolm’s daughter,
The King of fair Scotland.
He beats her, he binds her,
He lays her on a band;
And every day he dings her
With a bright silver wand
Like Julian the Roman
He’s one that fears no man.
It’s said there’s ane predestinate
To be his mortal foe;
But that ane is yet unborn
And lang may it be so.”
Steve Albini is relatively happy about the music industry. Should we all be concerned?
Thoughtful Games
There are a few great pieces in the New Yorker about the sorts of games that still don't get mentioned enough outside niche game publications.
the council believed that a video game offered a chance to share the community’s stories and culture with new audiences around the world. “Our stories feature strong characters, fascinating settings, and are filled with wisdom and learning that address universal human themes. We believe they can travel.
Could A Video Game Help To Preserve Inuit Culture? | Never Alone
In Ether One, I found that the distance between these seemingly incompatible worlds lessened just a little. Even though I couldn’t quite forget myself inside its artifice, it was comforting to have the space to try.
Ether One: The Video Game That Tries To Simulate Dementia
YRSHIT
Introducing a new occasional feature, You Really Should Have Ignored This, which aims to bring you the very best stories that you just couldn't look away from, even though you thought you knew better. Today in YRSHIT, Fine Gael TD Noel 'ISIS Situation' Coonan. Here he is cutting loose in Dáil Éireann. Here is the transcript, for completeness.
- Bonus: How ISIS corporatized Terror. Is this what Deputy Coonan was talking about?
Eye Candy
Worth Pondering
Totally Confused
Bot hunters, French kitchen culture, oven payout, ten Mike Nichols trailers and Dorito looting.
Finally, have a listen to The Flying Teapot, the 1973 album from the endearingly bonkers Gong. This is Radio Gnome Invisible.
Yours weekendingly, @loughlin
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