MALONEMAIL No. 6: Begone, Seasonal Affective Everything

The levels to which my blood pressure rose seeing this trailer during the Golden Globes were, let's just say, probably irrational for a 25-year-old human woman

Hello, chickens (spring and otherwise). Did you miss me? January was so bleak, and February is just getting on my nerves. I've of course been hard at work, but didn't really have anything fun to share with you for the past couple weeks — and why bother unless there's something fun to share? Anyway, fear not, the fun is back.

Here's what I've been writing:

I debuted the first installment of my brand-new dystopia column (!!!!) on WIRED! This one is about the Sochi Olympics, a.k.a. the Dystopian Singularity.

Also for WIRED (I'm just gonna say it up front, all of this letter's stuff was written for WIRED), I interviewed some fandom experts about Sherlock and the relationship between fans and producers. it's not as lovey-dovey as you might think.

I interviewed Ken Burns about his new, AMAZINGLY NERDY iPad app.

I wrote this piece about the monome, a rare, super-interesting, eco-friendly instrument used by gear-head electronic musicians like deadmau5.

The incredibly addictive game Flappy Bird was removed from the App Store, which of course meant a zillion clones are now available. I sassily graded them. #teamfloatysquid

Here's what I've been reading:

Amy Wallace's Baz Luhrmann profile in NYT Magazine gave me posi longform strength vibes this past week.

Absolutely loved Miriam Elder's extensive profile on Pussy Riot and what they mean now over at Buzzfeed.

As always, Ann Friedman on TOP with her, in my opinion, definitively enlightening piece about the Dylan Farrow/Woody Allen horrorshow.

Shouts to my gurl Lindsay for getting quoted in Marisa Meltzer's great NYT piece on Lorde.

Alexander Chee's essay about Twitter and "outrage culture" online perfectly articulated how I feel about the anger of online circles & why it's not a bad thing.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, devastating as always, on Barack Obama's personal responsibility mantra and "unquestioning embrace of 'twice as good'" with young black America.

And Jenna Wortham's NYT op-ed about representation in television – as well as her completely necessary essay about Norway and surviving winter here in NYC – is inspiring, as she herself always tends to be.

Here's what I've been listening to:

I (somehow) stopped listening to Beyoncé on loop, finally, and it is all St. Vincent's fault — her new self-titled record, out February 25, is incredible and fills me with electricity (The first three singles are out now, for your listening pleasure). Also recommend: not missing Ava Luna or Screaming Females when they come to your town (on separate tours, of course).

I think that's pretty much it, for now. Lots of big things coming, though, so stay tuned — AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS THE GOOD WORD ABOUT MALONE-MAIL.

xoxo,
devon

P.S. (Parting Shot):

Look at this tiny, perfect, totally dumb dog. Just what do you think you are doing in there, midget???