Reading

Excerpts from The Believer: An Interview with Debbie Harry and Chris Stein

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/an-interview-with-debbie-harry-and-chris-st…
Created
Sat, 06/12/2025 - 01:03

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A few pieces of creative advice shared by Debbie Harry:

  • You can’t please everyone all the time
  • You can never make a big enough fool of yourself
  • Use the perspective you’ve earned
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As my plans to interview Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie for The Believer first took shape, billboards sprang up, as if on cue, around Manhattan. Sprawled several stories high was Harry’s image, framed in a moody fashion-house ad. A glance up from the sidewalk suddenly felt freighted with the vastness of Blondie’s legend: the art and fashion iconography; the timeless hit songs; and the band’s enduring influence on countless artists, among them No Doubt, Garbage, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Paramore.

Is the Party Over?

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/is-the-party-over/
Created
Sat, 06/12/2025 - 00:33

Arriving at Your Party’s founding conference in Liverpool last Saturday, the atmosphere was tense. While Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana both insisted that this would be the weekend that put an end to the factional strife that has so far defined the new party, the word on the lips of delegates was ‘witch-hunt.’ With the […]

Casting Notice for the Unaired CW Pilot Young Hamlet

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/casting-notice-for-the-unaired-cw-pilot-you…
Created
Sat, 06/12/2025 - 00:00

SYNOPSIS
High school is no picnic for anyone, but especially if you’re one of Shakespeare’s most iconic leading men. Hamlet might be the big man on campus, but that doesn’t mean he’s got it all figured out. This drama puts a much-needed spin on a classic by imagining a world where Hamlet is young and hot.

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HAMLET
Sexy football player type, but not just a football player, because we need him to be smart and sensitive too. Lacrosse team, maybe? We’ll come back to this.

Required skills: Smoldering glances, ability to look deep without creating forehead wrinkles.

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OPHELIA
Hamlet’s friend, who has an unrequited crush on Hamlet. It needs to be realistic that Hamlet wouldn’t want to date her, but legally, we can only cast hot people at CW, so we’re kind of in a bind. Maybe she’ll wear glasses? Also, obviously, we’re putting her on the swim team because of foreshadowing.

Physics vs Economics

https://larspsyll.wordpress.com/2025/12/05/physics-vs-economics/
Created
Fri, 05/12/2025 - 20:14
Professor [Max] Planck, of Berlin, the famous originator of the Quantum Theory, once remarked to me that in early life he had thought of studying economics, but had found it too difficult! Professor Planck could easily master the whole corpus of mathematical economics in a few days. He did not mean that! But the amalgam […]

A Working-Class Writer Is Something to Be

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2025/12/a-working-class-writer-is-something-to-be/
Created
Fri, 05/12/2025 - 20:01

On a rainy morning in 1954, Sid Chaplin climbed out of the pit and handed Raymond Williams a letter: ‘just ten percent of authors originate from a working-class background,’ it read. The words were familiar, but lacked context. Seeking clarification, Williams presented the letter to Catherine Cookson, who had just appeared on an adjacent ballast […]

The Four Steps Guide To Learning

https://www.ianwelsh.net/the-four-steps-guide-to-learning/
Created
Fri, 05/12/2025 - 10:22
Sometimes it seems like half my life was spent learning something new. The more I’ve learned, the more I’ve thought about how to learn, and I’m going to distill part of the process down for you. These methods are primarily about intellectual matters: mastering a subject, but are easily adapted to practical and creative skills. […]