weekend links: bad Pitchfork reviews, James Turrell, typewriter art

Drake
Drake

Still from Drake's "Hotline Bling" video—not a James Turrell exhibit.

This is a couple weeks old now, but in case you haven’t read it and needed another reminder of why everyone hates Jonathan Franzen, here is a real interview he did with the Financial Times. I repeat: this is not an Onion article. [Financial Times]

Do you remember when Pitchfork was staffed with a bunch of holier-than-thou hipsters who wrote bullshit reviews like this one? Probably not, because they’ve scrubbed them from their site, along with everything that this guy has ever written. Also, Pitchfork is owned by Condé Nast now. What a world. [Gawker]

"While I am truly flattered to learn that Drake f*cks with me, I nevertheless wish to make clear that neither I nor any of my woes was involved in any way in the making of the 'Hotline Bling' video." James Turrell is a genius. [i-D]

Typewriters are not just good for quaint decoration and proving to your friends that you’re a real writer: they’re also good for making art. Your computer will never let you desecrate formatting rules like that. [Hyperallergic]

Historical genre names can tell you a lot. For example: if something is “alt-rock,” it was probably made in the ’90s. “Indie rock” only came to exist in the aughts, although “indie” was used in the UK for much longer. “College rock” was a distinctly ’80s affair. Although I don’t agree with everything written here, this is an interesting take on how NPR crushed college radio and created the birth of the “indie” (i.e., yuppie) lifestyle. [New Republic]

We spent last weekend hanging out with the folks at Deep Vellum, selling books and hosting a rowdy game of Balderdash during the Texas Book Festival. Maybe you heard about it, or maybe you were there—if so, thanks for coming out! Deep Vellum has a book on this list of eight small-press reads to keep an eye out for this month. Considering it’s already the 23rd, maybe you should just go with that one. [BookRiot]

Speaking of books: Lit Hub has a nice little write-up of the closing ceremonies at TBF, notable primarily for the fact that our beloved Texas Book Festival organizer and friend Steph Opitz has announced that she is moving to Kyrgyzstan. I never thought I’d say that in a sentence, but it’s true. Best wishes, Steph—you will be missed! [Lit Hub]

—Sean Redmond

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