IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Band members from Hole detail what went down during the making of their fantastic record Live Through This, which was released 20 years ago this month. Sex, drugs, and rock n’roll.
(Spin, approx 30 minutes reading time, 6191 words)
Courtney Love: The songwriting process was really easy. We started at [defunct LA punk club] Jabberjaw. I wrote “Violet” there. Then we moved to Seattle in the middle of that. “Miss World” was written in Seattle, if I remember correctly. Look, I don’t even remember who I don’t like anymore. My brain is a little addled in terms of my long-term memory. It could be PTSD, which is everyone’s excuse for everything.
Eric Harvey investigates how streaming has changed the way we listen to music, breaking old habits and creating new ones. What does that mean for artists and listeners?
(Pitchfork, approx 66 minutes reading time, 13,267 words)
Digital streaming’s predictive algorithms and on-demand capabilities can feel futuristic, but they are built from the fundamental ideas of several music ancestors. Remember, pop music itself was born and nurtured on radio’s non-stop streams of ad-supported music—the most prominent ancestor of the feed-driven Twitter/Facebook/Tumblr landscape that shapes 21st century digital streaming.
Walt Bogdanich takes on the story of Jameis Winston, a popular American football player accused of rape. The investigation was flawed, the paper says – so flawed that there was “virtually no investigation at all”.
(New York Times, approx 27 minutes reading time, 5511 words)
The police did not follow the obvious leads that would have quickly identified the suspect as well as witnesses, one of whom videotaped part of the sexual encounter. After the accuser identified Mr. Winston as her assailant, the police did not even attempt to interview him for nearly two weeks and never obtained his DNA.
Sasha Sagan is the daughter of famous astrophysicist Carl Sagan. She details the life lessons he taught her.
(NY Mag, approx minutes reading time, words)
My parents taught me that even though it’s not forever — because it’s not forever — being alive is a profoundly beautiful thing for which each of us should feel deeply grateful. If we lived forever it would not be so amazing.
Russ Pitts meets the men behind Ridiculous Fishing, a game that was stolen through ‘cloning’. Cloning isn’t unusual – or illegal. Here’s how they beat the cloners.
(Polygon, approx 40 minutes reading time, 8038 words)
“It was pretty soul-crushing,” Ismail says, in 2012. “We found out the hard way that creativity is fragile. People say, ‘Well, you guys are creative. You can make up new stuff. You’ll be fine.’ But that’s not really the way it works. I remember us sitting there for at least a few weeks being completely demotivated.”
Maria Bustillos journeys into the weird and wonderful world of Adventure time, the bizarre kid’s show that’s not just for kids.
(The Awl, approx 55 minutes reading time, 11048 words)
The resolution of each eleven-minute episode is anything but tidily triumphant; each one is as likely to end on a question or a joke as on an answer. Yet one comes away satisfied, a little bit the way one might at a David Lynch movie. The narrative is endlessly malleable, and includes all the possibilities granted by the existence of wizards and magical creatures, time travel, and a huge, ever-evolving cast.
…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…
In 1989, the late Sue Townsend – author of the Adrian Mole books – wrote about her time as a young mother depending on social welfare in England. This heartbreaking story looks at one day when she scoured the streets for money to buy food for her children with.
(The Guardian, approx 11 minutes reading time, 2328 words)
I couldn’t face walking the five miles home. I begged the young man for 50p, but he wouldn’t relent. The staff in the back office started to put their coats on and tidy their desks. Half-past five arrived. Most of the people in the waiting room were ushered out. Others, desperate like me, stayed – explaining – some in tears, others shouting, that they hadn’t eaten, had nowhere to stay. It was bedlam. My children were hot and thirsty. Could I give them a glass of water? “No,” the office was now closed.
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