Tuesday Links

I just read Niko Stratis’ book, which is part memoir, part reflection and analysis of the music she has loved. I found this interview with her, and this passage really struck me. I strive for my posts that are about music and memory to be accurate, but I often wonder how accurate my recollections really are.

Ultimately, I’m never going to fully know the past. I’m in my forties now, so some of those years are so far in the rearview that it’s hard to see them perfectly anymore, and that has to be okay…And that is a hard reckoning as you get older, of “What are the stories I’ve told myself are true, and what are the stories I actually believe are true?”

Niko Stratis On Building Identity Through Sound

Now see, I had been thinking something along these lines, mostly given the putrid state of the Eastern Conference. But when a national writer says it, it makes me start getting my hopes up. And the Pacers really should be leaning into not being good this season and finding a way to land at the top of a jam-packed draft.

The Indiana Pacers will win more games than they did last season.

The Biggest Zags of the NBA Offseason

Sigh.

American stupidity is nothing new…But we’ve really stepped it up a couple notches this year. We are no longer anti–intellectual. We are actively anti-intellect. Close your eyes and imagine what would happen if the idea of seat-belt laws had been introduced into the country now. You know exactly which of your high school friends would performatively launch himself through a windshield on Instagram to show he was an alpha, and you’re lucky if you can think of only one.

Welcome to the Era of Big Stupid in America

Truly the end of an era. I’m disappointed in myself for not writing 2000 words last fall about the 30th anniversary of me logging onto AOL for the first time.

AOL Pulls the Plug on Dial-Up Service

I started tracking the books I read in 2007. Over that span I’ve finished 920. If I live as long as the man in the article below, I would need to average just 71.4 books per year to match his total. I like a challenge but, jeez…

A Man Read 3,599 Books Over 60 Years, and Now His Family Has Shared the Entire List Online

I had no plans to watch the new version of War of the Worlds even before hearing it is one of the worst reviewed movies ever. I still don’t, but I am thankful it has generated all kinds of hate content like this.

Please, give this a skim before committing real running time to this piece of shit. This isn’t a so-bad-it’s-good movie like Battlefield Earth or The VelociPastor or most of the garbage fish-monster movies. War of the Worlds is a so-bad-it-hurts movie.

The 21 Worst Things About the Worst Movie of the Year, ‘War of the Worlds’