Punk is not dead, punk eventually got a job it likes and is maybe a little overweight now
Conrad
@thelummer.bsky.social
Product & revenue at @foreignpolicy.com (not a journalist or SME). Ex- @bangordailynews.bsky.social. Board games, records, Detroit Lions. Fmr expat 🇬🇧 🇪🇪 🇯🇴 🇮🇹 🇩🇰, now in dt Grand Rapids, MI. Lauren's spouse. Passionate globalist. Zero patience for autocrats.
One possible theory of aesthetics in the age of AI: Marina Abramovic and performance art more generally were around half a century ahead of their time, but artists like them are about to get way more essential
Study cited by @baekdal.bsky.social this week - "Homogenizing effect of large language models (LLMs) on creative diversity." Striking, but not shocking: "GPT-4 essays contribute significantly fewer novel ideas compared to essays written by human writers." www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Homogenizing effect of large language models (LLMs) on creative diversity: An empirical comparison of human and ChatGPT writing
Generative AI systems, especially Large Language Models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, have recently emerged as significant contributors to creative processe…
sciencedirect.com
I've had a really dispiriting week, because of personal stuff, work, you name it. Tell me something nice, please.
The story of my life for about the past 10 years or so (gift link): www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
The Life of a Person Who Wakes Up Really, Really Early
“Extreme larks” get up naturally when some people have hardly gone to bed.
theatlantic.com
If you're going to be a rich motherfucker, be like Jim Irsay - buy a bunch of cool stuff like Gilmour's and Cobain's guitars and Jack Kerouac's manuscript for On the Road; hire your buddy to curate; when you die, sell it all at a huge profit and donate the proceeds to mental health charities. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Starting now, we’re dropping our paywall. For 48 hours only, we’ve removed the paywall on all of our coverage of the Iran war. Take a look for yourself to see what FP is all about: foreignpolicy.com/projects/ira...
If you've never heard Klô Pelgag, this is one of those albums that drips with so much talent and imagination that I want to blare it in the streets and press copies into the hands of strangers. Lush Quebecois chamber pop, worth it even if you don't understand a word. open.spotify.com/album/1rjIIN...
Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs
open.spotify.com
sorry for being cringe I'm trying to enjoy being alive
Lauren: "They'd have an easy time herding autistics off to camps because all they'd have to do is offer us a free train ride."
Andy Warhol would have hated safe spaces. So why keep dragging dead artists into today’s culture wars? www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Andy Warhol would have hated safe spaces. So why keep dragging dead artists into today’s culture wars?
Critics and curators are reframing great artists, from Gentileschi to Soutine, to fit with modern ethical narratives. But this ignores the glorious ambivalence of their creations
theguardian.com
Khinkali from the Georgian restaurant Lalko in NYC, one of the best things I've ever eaten
10 favorite songs by Everything Everything 1. Suffragette Suffragette 2. Kemosabe 3. Kevin's Car 4. Leviathan 5. Spring/Summer/Winter/Dread 6. The Wheel (Is Turning Now) 7. NASA is on Your Side 8. Breadwinner 9. Torso of the Week 10. Fever Dream
I got arthroscopic surgery! The surgeon cut away a layer of scarring that had developed around the ball of my shoulder, then manually loosened the knotted muscles that led to it. It hurts a lot, but it's worth it if I can sleep again. With Mom and Lauren's help, I'm taking days off to recover.
People of a certain age may enjoy Kurt Vile and The War on Drugs covering "Pictures of Adolf Again" by Bill Fay and "Country Feedback" by R.E.M., plus "Arms Like Boulders" by The War on Drugs youtu.be/egxqfdYbPtc?...
The War On Drugs - (Johnny Brenda's) Philadelphia,Pa 12.20.25 (W/Kurt Vile) Drugcember 2025
YouTube video by markit aneight
youtu.be
@iancohen.bsky.social Inquiring minds want to know: Have you changed your mind on Everything Everything's first LP Man Alive since you panned it for Pitchfork? A lot of your criticisms land but I love it anyway, and I'm curious about how you think it (and that very odd band) have aged. Thanks!
1/ I'm going to rant a little bit about the worst medical issue I've ever had, frozen shoulder, and how doctors deal with it. If I could wave a magic wand and get rid of one ailment, it would be this one, way ahead of the type 1 diabetes, for a few reasons. Frozen shoulder is when the tissue...
“Putin doesn’t want to sit behind the negotiating table, and he doesn’t want peace,” Estonian President Alar Karis told FP.
‘Putin Doesn’t Want Peace’
Estonia’s president on Russia, Ukraine, NATO, drones, and Trump.
foreignpolicy.com
Fuck. RIP. I fervently hoped D'Angelo had more records in him. I didn't really listen to him until Black Messiah came out, but it's one of the most essential records I own and easily in my top 3 of the decade it was released. share.google/UH9xxQ72pWH0...
D’Angelo, Grammy-winning neo-soul pioneer, dies aged 51
Singer known for tracks such as Brown Sugar and Untitled (How Does It Feel) died at home from pancreatic cancer
share.google
Those of you who have never been to my beloved Grand Rapids, in case you assume I live in some dreary post-industrial hellhole where we all sit around cooking meth to bad Springsteen ripoff bands, this is my neighborhood
