Largehearted Boy: Shorties (A Profile of Jia Tolentino, Hanif Abdurraqib on Dashboard Confessional, and more)

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March 9, 2020

Shorties (A Profile of Jia Tolentino, Hanif Abdurraqib on Dashboard Confessional, and more)

Rolling Stone profiled author Jia Tolentino.

In conversation and writing, Tolentino’s thoughts — almost always candid and self-deprecating — seem to sprawl. A single essay roves from C.S. Lewis to DJ Screw to MDMA, but she spools them together into a big-picture theme. In Trick Mirror, she returns again and again to selfhood, and how our identities are warped by the constant performance and monetization of them in the internet age. “I just have this natural suspicion about any narrative we make up about ourselves,” she says.

Hanif Abdurraqib reconsidered Dashboard Confessional's The Swiss Army Romance album 20 years after its release at NPR Music.

Whether the emo music of the 2000s and its many offshoots have done more harm than good is in the eye of the beholder. If I'm weighing my damage as a fan, I don't think I can say that I've broken even: So many songs from the years when I loved this music most feel less approachable to me today for the recklessly imbalanced lens they place on relationships. I'm not as jaded or as angry as I used to be, and my pathways to cynicism are found outside of music these days.

March's best eBook deals.

eBook on sale for $12.99 today:

Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison

Destroyer visited The Current studio for a live performance and an interview.

Destroyer covered Lou Reed's "Ecstasy."

The Week recommended books to help understand coronavirus.

Stream a new Clem Snide song.

The Guardian interviewed author Evie Wyld.

When I was a kid I read so much Stephen King, and there are parts of his work that I always feel like I’m in conversation with – about what is frightening and why. That really interests me. I think his endings are always a bit of a letdown, because it’s like... showing the monster. I think I’m always interested in how to start off big and exciting and interesting and still have an ending that doesn’t disappoint, but doesn’t wrap things up neatly.

Rolling Stone interviewed Blondie's Debbie Harry.

Female authors recommended spring's best books by women at Parade.

Paste recommended the week's best new albums.

Refinery29 recommended spring's best books.

PopMatters recommended music from the New Zealand pop underground.

Sadie Jones talked books and reading with the Guardian.

The book that most influenced my writing

Ernest Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast, not even for the writing, which is astounding, obviously, but for the way he describes work, and his approach to it. It is a book full of the love of writing, and of working hard – and the love of living.

John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats discussed Mercyful Fate’s Don’t Break the Oath album at Under the Radar.

The songs on Don't Break the Oath are discrete. They're mainly about Satanic and witchy themes, sort of classic '70s horror movie Rosemary's Baby-type things—just scary and exiting and lurid Satanic scenes. But I think the story of Don't Break the Oath is that it's the best collection of riffs anywhere. Metallica would have a case on Kill 'Em All. If you're talking about riffing, Zeppelin and Sabbath are the titans. But Don't Break the Oath stands up to literally every riff collection ever. Every single riff is amazing.

Salon recommended March's best books.

Global News interviewed Radiohead guitarist Ed O'Brien about his solo album.

The Guardian profiled "Europe's most exciting authors."

Stream a new Jason Isbell song.

The 2020 Tournament of Books has begun.

Soccer Mommy's Sophie Allison shared a playlist at Gorilla Vs. Bear.

The Rumpus interviewed author Leesa Cross-Smith.

Stream a new Racecar song.

Fiction Writers Review interviewed author Mimi Lok.

Vagabon covered Esther Rose's "Don't Blame It on the Moon."

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