Greetings from Brooklyn. The sun is visable, there are clouds in the sky, and we can all breathe slightly better. I’m sure you heard, but it was a weird few days here and along the East Coast. I found myself having coffee at Ralph’s with a friend near the Flatiron on Wednesday. I generally like that spot because the people watching is great, but standing there watching all the confused tourists and locals taking selfies with the smokey sky and the buildings behind them was odd. It was spooky, but also strangely cinematic. I tried to take it all in, another weird moment in New York City that will likely end being memorialized on a T-Shirt that reads “I survived the Smokepocalypse of 2023.” Then I went and ate some shwarma at Rainbow Falafel off Union Square. I didn’t plan this, but as I ordered, I remembered that I ate at the exact same spot the day of the 2003 blackout since I was working right around the corner. The lights went out when I went on my break. I walked into Rainbow and asked what was going on and the guy didn’t know, but he still had hot food so I ordered. 20 years later, I honestly didn’t plan to end up there on another weird day in NYC history, it just worked out that way. I’ve been going to Rainbow forever, and I still say it’s one of the best in the city, especially the homemade baklava. But now it’s also etched into my mind as a place I went to not once, but during two…whatever you call the blackout of 2003 and the smoke-filled sky of 2023.
Things seem to have cleared up for the weekend, so I assume that means people will be out and about again, and maybe if you live here you’ll spot Team Cozy Boys aor some other well-dressed style gang roaming the streets, out for a good time. I haven’t published at GQ for a second because things have been a little crazy over here, but it’s good to be back at it.
Read: “The Case for Coordinating Your Outfit With Your Boys” by Jason Diamond at GQ
Very important hot dog news: Vienna Beef Plaza is opening up in Chicago next year. The hot dog kings of the Windy City are revamping their headquarters and also adding a restaurant. Basically half of the city is already a Vienna Beef restaurant, so I’m curious to see how the actual company that makes the true Chicago hot dogs will pull this off, but you bet your butt I’ll be there asking to take a walk through the garden.
Read: “Vienna Beef Reopening Restaurant, Corporate Headquarters At Former Bucktown Factory” by Quinn Myers at Block Club Chicago
Becca Schuh wrote something over at Dirt that really hit me. We don’t actually see enough about writers who work jobs and what those jobs teach them about writing. And when I say “jobs” I don’t mean teaching or editing; I mean those jobs that have you on your feet all day, spending your time talking with people that maybe aren’t also writers or artists. Those are the only jobs I ever had before I ended up doing…whatever this is, and they taught me more than any college class. Becca’s piece was the first great thing I read this week, and it felt bookended by a New York Times piece that came out yesterday about the people behind the Drunken Canal trying to “save indie media,” even though they can’t pay writers yet. People on social media spent a good amount of time dunking on the piece, but there was one thing that stuck out to me, a quote from Taylor Lorenz about how “If you’re starting out, who do you pitch for? There’s no one left.” It got me thinking about how hard it was when I was trying to break in a little over a decade ago, and how much harder it seems now. I mention the fact that the site, Byline, can’t pay writers yet because I think everybody should get paid for their work, but I also know that the first two years or so of my own career were spent not getting paid for anything. I don’t say that as a “I did it this way, so should everybody else,” but more as a way of pointing out that at least I had a bunch of places that had little to no prestige and could let me basically try things out and it wasn’t like they were going to make or lose money on it. I got bylines and a little more experience each time, and I did it while I was working jobs like the ones Becca wrote about. Those places are basically extinct these days. Of course, I also literally lived in a hole in a wall in an old factory in Gowanus because it was the cheapest option, but the two pieces really had me wondering if there can ever be a middle-ground, especially for those of us that didn’t get an Ivy education or had connections in media or publishing. I think it’s great that there are other writers who actually work jobs that have nothing to do with the writing world and I hope that’s always the case because we need more people whose entire lives aren’t in the media/publishing/literary/academic bubbles, but I also want those people to have money and space to write and not have to scrape to get by. I also want to see more independent publications that can give writers their early opportunities, pay those writers, and also keep the lights on. I think Defector and Hell Gate are both great examples of how to do it right, and I think Substack actually could be a great place as well. Becca’s essay going at Dirt is another great example. I’m not sure who else would have touched that essay. That’s not a comment on Becca’s writing, but more just how hard it is to get interesting writing out there.
Read: “Bad Waitress” by Becca Schuh at Dirt
A few weeks ago, my friend Jesse told me he went out to L.A. to meet with the team behind The Simpsons and watch how they work for a piece. The article came out this past week, and, friends, The Simpsons are back!
Read: “The Simpsons Is Good Again” by Jesse David Fox at Vulture
Finally, the article on Crass Records I never know I needed. Well, to be honest, I knew I needed this, and I’d actually like more. I think there could be a very big book on Crass Records, the bands it put out, but also the space it occupied in ‘70s and ‘80s music and culture. This article sort of scratches the surface, but it gives an interesting look at the diversity of sounds and ideas the label helped push out.
Read: “The Strange World Of… Crass Records” by Chris Low at The Quietus
I'm biased because I write for them, and because they were the first to publish me, but on the movie criticism front, Bright Wall/Dark Room is a great place to start out. They dedicate space in every issue to submissions from new writers, and they've published early work from people like Karen Han and Angelica Jade Bastièn. (Angelica's piece about Keanu Reeves in particular is tremendous: https://www.brightwalldarkroom.com/2016/04/21/the-grace-of-keanu-reeves/).
I’m a huge fan and a paid subscriber. One of the best sites out there.