MALONE-MAIL No. 14: Endless (ENDLESS) Summer
It has been topsheet-only sleeping weather for roughly five months now. Don't get me wrong; I have LOVED being back in LA so far, but I can't understate how much I am ready for flannel weather already. Planning on heading up the coast next month to camp in the Redwoods for some real autumn chill.
Now that my whining is out of the way, this has certainly been an interesting month for me as a person who gets to put sentences on the Internet for money! I started doing some editing over at Vulture, and so far my writers have done really fantastic work there. Check out their stuff (as well as a bunch more from writers I'm not editing) here. NOW, to the meat:
What I've been writing...
I profiled FKA twigs, one of my favorite artists right now, for Billboard.
I went to the VMAs, bore IRL witness Nicki Minaj AND Beyoncé in one night, and wrote about the show's likeness to a teen-culture stock market for Grantland.
I contributed to these Very Important WIRED guides to who won and who lost in pop culture this summer.
I wrote another dystopia column, this time about that reality show Utopia & its many paradoxes, for WIRED.
And I made my ~writing debut~ over at New York magazine's The Cut with this guide to feminist moments in sci-fi history.
What I've been reading...
This infuriating yet still very good essay by Ewan Morrison at the Guardian on the libertarian/conservative/capitalist undertones visible in recent dystopian YA fiction.
Leigh Alexander's extremely frank and extremely effective #Gamergate-related essay at Gamasutra.
This delightful interview with Margaret Atwood about her MaddAddam trilogy (some of my favorite books, I should add, or maybe I shouldn't, since it's entirely unsurprising) at Vulture.
This great personal essay on black women in sci-fi by Keidra Chaney from the Learned Fangirl.
Per usual, I pretty much insist you read my girl Lindsay Zoladz's hilarious reviews of U2's & Chris Brown's new albums at NY Mag.
Just today, this awesome Becca Rothfeld essay over at LA Review of Books that combines two of my favorite things on earth: fantasy/sci-fi subgenres—this time, vampire literature—and the sociology of their evolution.
And since I somehow failed to include it in last month's MalonE-Mail, the always transcendentally on-point Wesley Morris on Ferguson and the deeply ironic release of Let's Be Cops.
What I've been listening to...
Been listening to a lot of old stuff of late, including brushing up on my Talking Heads diet, putting Roman's Revenge on repeat and soundtracking long drives with No Doubt singles. BUT I also recommend the self-titled EP from Girlpool, this really (to quote a wise man) bratty-assin' LA duo. Listen to one of the songs from the original, which I guess they've taken off their Bandcamp in advance of its rerelease via Wichita Records on 11/18, here.
Also, since I now have a car (plus 66 car payments!) and have been clocking many, many hours in it, I've been catching up on older Longform podcasts; I particularly dug (because of course I did) Wesley Morris's, Sarah Nicole Prickett's & George Saunders' episodes. (Also, I say this as a podcast-hater in general: Longform is one I recommend for even the most podcast-averse writers.)
And if you're wondering, which you really shouldn't be, but hey, the world's your oyster: yes, I deleted the U2 album. (Did you also LOL @ the passive-aggressiveness of "Remove iTunes gift album"?)
P.S.
I have been wracking my brain trying to find an entertaining parting shot for y'all. I considered introducing you to this thing someone told me about called WeedMaps which is literally just a Yelp for weed doctors and dispensaries in your area. I considered pointing out how Ansel Elgort and Shailene Woodley somehow have the same hair in The Fault in Our Stars, which I just now am finally watching. And I considered talking about how, now that I am coming up on moving into ~my first Los Angeles apartment~ on Oct.1, I am become Death, Destroyer of Craigslist-and-Pinterest-based Interior Decorating. But none of that seems very exciting, so here is a tiny screaming puppet creature that embodies my very soul. Enjoy, you filthy animals.