Side note: My daughter, a few years old, called AF LP3 "sad dad music" as a three year old because I was listening to the record on repeat in preparation for talking to Kinsella and I don't know if I've ever felt so seen.
I had an editor respond to a pitch I wrote about AF and Kinsella with a short answer: "I disagree with your premise" and now this profile fulfills that idea I had and I'm so glad someone finally did it.
Listen to all the emo wave iterations and we've gone full circle back to American Football (LP1), Cap'N Jazz, Braid, Joan of Arc, and far from My Chemical Romance (thank god) and other bands like that. And Kinsella's production no his Owen records has held up as well.
But I'd argue he is one of the most important musicians of the 21st century sonically. Listen to modern pop (Halsey, Olivia Rodrigo, even T Swift and Selena Gomez) and you will hear some inflection that sounds like Owen/American Football. Phoebe Bridgers? Yeah. There too.
He really didn't want to be there. He didn't want to be in Cambridge, Mass, at all really. I, and everyone else, didn't know his personal life was falling apart. But he also didn't understand why he was such an interesting person for me to want to write about.
To get Mike Kinsella to sit down and do an interview about himself is nearly impossible. I tried once and wrote a story for @thebeliever.net (www.thebeliever.net/logger/mike-...) and it was almost impossible.
This profile is remarkable because it lays on the line a lot about a band that never expected to be a band and about a bunch of adults messing up and that's not what we get when we read about people we regard as our "heroes". And there's more. www.gq.com/story/americ...
Many conversations I have with friends about a book start with “I could have cut a third of it without a problem.”
(Someday I’ll write an essay about this teaching experience and AI and how they couldn’t read The Scarlet Letter or like Station Eleven because they can’t decipher nuance or understand time.)
At some point scoring points leaves you beat down with no sense of self or an identity. And then you die early because you’ve worked for something that doesn’t matter.
AI makes sense for them because school is transactional. It’s become a game. It’s about scoring points to get into a college that will score them more points for a job they think they’ll get, which is more points to their score, when that isn’t how life works or should work because
I’ve noticed my students can’t handle multiple point of view narratives or jumps on time in books or novels because they can decipher anything that isn’t clear cut and given to them because that’s how they’ve learned: they ask the internet for answers and get something back.
I tell my students once a week that they want you to use AI so you can’t think or do things for yourself so you become reliant on it and then they’ll charge you for it because they’ve brainwashed you into thinking it’s vital.
All these companies are like "We can't just turn these chatbot services off," really, I'm old enough to remember Vine
I tried to pitch a story about his brand and his dealings to a few places and got nowhere because he has crafted something of a legitimate identity. (Remember when the guardian credited him on transfer stories??)
Last week I started teaching my sophomore "Reading Lolita in Tehran" and most of them had little idea where Iran was or its history and I asked them again today and they still had no idea, never mind that we've gone to war with the country. TikTok and Snapchat don't rule the world.
Slowdive was built for this medium.
Chuck Schumer thinks letters work and that’s all you need to know about him.
To those of you who have read and enjoyed any of my three books, the reason they wound up in your hands is that in 2004, Ann Godoff, the editing and publishing giant who founded Penguin Press, took a chance on me. She died yesterday at 76. I owe her more than I can say. She changed my life. >
I think he’s fine. Atletico goes through midfielders and Simone knows he runs them into the ground. Johnny would be smart to start planning for a move before his legs go. He should be set for the WC roster as a bench option.
On the plus side, I’ve met many a great cooks who also cold not sit still. He’d be great at the prep station doing 15 things at once.
Trying to teach my son the intricacies of making great French toast and the main one is patience and low heat and he is out here break dancing and yelling and I don’t think this will work.
I think you two might want to try this. I taught it to my high schoolers who have zero idea who Bruce is and they connected with it and listened to his music after. cutleafjournal.com/content/lear...
My goal is to have students write about music without telling me any basic information about an artist and they almost never can accomplish. Granted, they’re high schoolers taking CW and a lot of what I give them is totally mind-boggling.
I teach this essay about Julien Baker. www.triangle.house/hanif-abdurr...
A friend of mine teaches my section of this about Jason Molina to his students. www.welcometohellworld.com/almost-was-g...
In 2004 I decided pursuing a journalism degree was more practical than a poetry one and I think, somehow, I was wrong. Graduating college with a journalism degree in 2009 was a trip. My first job was as a local reporter as a one person newsroom and I made $20k a year. It was insane.
The one and only in America.
at least it's not arsenal! I mean, that might not be some consolation for you, Mr. Everton fan, but for everyone else it is. There was a time when Liverpool was not cool and I remember those days.
