MALONEMAIL 3: With a Vengeance

Ho ho HO-barf. I am unclear as to how adults do this whole working-while-also-preparing-for-the-holidays thing. Please enlighten me. It's been a chilly, snowy couple of weeks and I've still done approximately zero holiday shopping. (I did, however, buy a potted cactus instead of a Christmas tree. Worth it.) WHATEVER, here's what I have to show for it.

The stuff I've written:

At WIRED, we did a few year-end lists (SHOCKER). I wrote about a couple of the more defining music moments of 2013 (note: this was Pre-Yoncé), as well as a couple of the best TV shows of 2013.

I wrote about a new song from a new(ish) band from Seattle called Tacocat called "Bridge to Hawaii" and a new-ish song from a Brooklyn band called Shark? (yes, with the question mark – good luck finding them on social media without my help) called "Fingers."

Also wrote about "Birth In Reverse," the first single from St. Vincent's forthcoming fourth record, St. Vincent, for Pitchfork. It's a Best New Track, both for Pitchfork and In Devon's Heart.

I don't believe it either, but somebody (shouts to WIRED Editor Supreme, the god Laura Hudson) actually paid me to write a post about IKEA Monkey, one year later.

Aaaaand a woman in Seattle built this 200,000-piece Lego model of Rivendell.

Stay tuned for some more things I've been toiling on, which will be emerging imminently as the year-end content deluge continues. Fun!

Some stuff I've been reading:

• Iceland's police force killed a man for the first time ever this month. Icelanders were horrified.
  
  

• Nuvaring is killing people. Oh goodie. Welp, that rules that one out.
  
  

• The INSANITY that is the erratic, "gender-discriminating" behavior of the Archie Comics co-CEO.
  
  

• Here's a story chronicling the rainbow rise and corrupt fall of the Lisa Frank empire (!).
  
  

• Saint Ann Friedman asked why dudes shouldn't be able to experiment with same-sex hookups, and shamed me into reconsidering dating only tall men.
  
  

• Also the Gawker piece about Snark vs. Smarm and the New York Times' monumental series about the homeless children of NYC, which, okay, you all read these too (I'm guessing).
  
  

• Have you ever read Amy Wallace's award-winning WIRED story on the anti-vaccine movement from 2009? It's really, really good. Also good: her episode of the Longform podcast. Did I already tell you about this? Doesn't matter. Did you listen to me?
  
  

• And one from earlier this year — in September, Monica Potts at the American Prospect investigated the mysterious downturn in life expectancy of poor white women in America.

And here's some stuff I'm listening to:

• Beyoncé's Beyoncé
  

• this great charity punk compilation (sales of which benefit a women's center in D.C.)
  

• Vince Guaraldi's Charlie Brown Christmas
  

• Joni Mitchell's Blue and Court and Spark
  

• Beyoncé
  

• also Beyoncé

That's all for now, kiddos. We won't speak again until after you all get showered in sweaters and socks and Chili's gift cards, so have a good holiday, all right? (Also, to my Chosen and other non-holiday-celebrating sisters/brethren: may your Chinese food be delicious and your radiators function properly.)

Love,

~*~dEvOn~*~

Parting Shot (P.S.):

It's my quarter-life crisis 25th birthday on December 22. Anybody have a few words of wisdom about surviving without pulling all of my hair out? Right now, all I got is the Sesame Street Birthday Special.