200g of Sliced Turkey
I watched Will & Harper, the documentary road trip movie starring trans comedy writer Harper Steele and her long standing comedic partner Will Ferrell, almost by accident.
A wristwatch that's a compass and a cell phone
Legally, I’m already behind on my responsibility to write about the new MJ Lenderman record, Manning Fireworks. I write about music, I’m a culture critic to some, a journalist when it matters, a writer who often writes about music when I tell people what my job is. Music
All wild things are shy
I have told you this story before, and for reasons that will be made clear it’s important that I tell it again. It opens years ago, in St Johns, Newfoundland on a Sunday morning with a half-blue sky, crisp and just cold enough to feel barely warm enough for
The promise of oxygen
“I’m a random bitch, and you’re a random bitch, just think about that for a second”. I’ve been thinking about this line a lot this week, delivered by Chappel Roan into the front-facing camera sitting comfortably in front of an off-white wall. It’s the tail end
Essays
I've got my spine, I've got my Orange Crush
The true promise of transition and sobriety and all big changes is asking to remember all the things I have worked to forget and carelessly put away.
The potential hiding in space
When I was a kid, I had a wallpaper trim creating a border in the centre of the otherwise blue walls of my bedroom. I’m sure there’s a proper term for this kind of wallpaper division, and if there is please tell me as I’m clearly just
Essays
Playlist of desire
Every time I write the intro to an essay lately I feel I am at my most John Wick, all tired and hunched over. Saying yeah, I’m thinking I’m back in my most charming monotone. I submitted the revisions on my book, and this is what has made
A conversation with Jael Holzman of Ekko Astral
Hey everyone. Trying something new or this week, I took an opportunity to have a long chat with journalist and musician Jael Holzman, who alongside her incredible band Ekko Astral, just got off the road touring with Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and Idles. I wrote a little about their
The scars of summer
I've been less than consistent with getting to these. I realize that I've been missing the occasional Tuesday here and there and this is me apologizing without ever once saying I'm sorry. I'm overworked, tired, a little burnt out. Gassy. And now,
Moving through it
It is easy to find despair in all things right now. I know this is an exceptional bummer and a helluva way to start a newsletter, especially after writing about Elliott Smith last week which led at least three people to write and say "hey, you okay?" No.
Essays
Haystack charm around your neck
When did we become so banal and unserious that sadness and the songs that sing it aren’t allowed in polite company anymore?
Tastes just like Mr Pepper
I'm prefacing all of this by saying I know I'm annoyed, and I'm aware of how often annoyed is the gateway drug to being annoying. Edging on frustration. I haven't had to think about gender for a long time, not in a