Likes, Links, and a Cat Playlist

An cat-themed playlist, a profile of Meg White, interviews with Jamaica Kincaid & Water From Your Eyes, new fiction from Sara Baume, and more

Jun 05, 2023

An erratic late spring has landed in Brooklyn, with high temperatures varying between the 60s and 90s, and the first extended sunshine since December (at least).

I’ve been working from the backyard when I can, in the warmer weather. When I do, our cat (Mr. Kibbles, aka The Notorious KBZ) often calls to me from the bedroom window. Softie that I am, I then move indoors to the bedroom so that he can sit and sleep on my lap while I write/work. He’s been with us for over nine years, and has only become a lap cat in the past year, now he has trained me to be a lap (on demand).

Today’s playlist is for you, Mr. Kibbles.

Largehearted Likes:

Dr. Brown’s Diet Black Cherry Soda
So refreshing and a surprisingly close alternative to the Frank’s Black Cherry Wishniak soda I grew up with.
Pancakes
This weekend, my partner woke up with a hankering for pancakes. After a trip to Market on Kent for vegan mix and a trip outside to dig out our pancake griddle, I was soon time traveling to family breakfasts at home.
Yellowjackets
The series does a remarkable job with needle drops (said by a person who is enthralled by scored television and film).
Pellet birdfeeders
We added a couple of new birdfeeders, pellet feeders, to the backyard to attract more songbirds and woodpeckers. Nothing against the sparrows and mourning doves, just adding variety. So far, the sparrows love these…
The music of Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s new album The Ones Ahead comes out on July 28th, and I have immersed myself lately in his discography.
The OTHERPPL podcast
Brad Listi’s podcast features in-depth conversations with authors that go beyond books.

A Playlist of Songs for Cats (20 songs, 69 minutes of purr-fect music)

Largehearted Links

International Booker winner Georgi Gospodinov profiled
“What I thought would happen tomorrow started happening right now, and the problem with dystopian novels in dystopian times is that they become documentaries,” he says with a laugh.
ELLE’s profile of Meg White
“Don’t get me started,” says Kid Congo Powers of legendary bands like the Gun Club and the Cramps. “It’s just sexist. People have been saying the whole time that her drumming was simplistic, but the band was just guitar and drums. The music they’re mining is simple music, and she’s playing it exactly right and exactly great.”
Author Monica Heisey talked reviews with 0s&1s
One of the first reviews authors get is on Publishers Weekly. Yours was quite positive, ending with "Readers will gobble up this Bridget Jones’s Diary for the smartphone era." This comparison also appeared in over 50 reader reviews on Goodreads. How do you feel about it?
Bridget Jones’ Diary is a classic, so I don’t mind it at all. I have mixed feelings about comps in general, though. I wish people were a little more interested in picking up a book and just seeing what its vibe was, as its own thing. I guess they can be helpful so readers know what they’re getting into, but some of the best reading experiences I’ve ever had have involved going in totally blind, off a friend’s recommendation or a gut feeling in a bookstore.
Want to hire a pop star for your party?
BOMB’s interview with poet
Maya C. Popa
about her new collection
Yeats said that “poetry is the clear expression of mixed feeling,” which seems about right to me. I narrowed my focus on mixed feeling, on moments that were luminous while having a sense of loss at the outskirts or edges. Moments that, upon closer examination, suggested more than what was being said outright or that intimated, as Woolf would say, “the unspoken at the edge of the spoken.”
Also: read two new poems by Popa
Junun
Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2015 documentary about the making of the album of the same name by Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur, Radiohead guitarist Jonny Greenwood, the Indian ensemble the Rajasthan Express, and Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich.
Amy Grace Loyd’s essay on migraines, pain, and creativity
Snail Mail’s Lindsey Jordan in conversation with Water From Your Eyes’ Rachel Brown and Nate Amos
JORDAN: Snail Mail can play a very sloppy set sometimes. Sometimes it’s like we have never practiced. And I’m like, “Does Pavement get away with it because they’re slacker rock? Do you have to be slacker rock or can you just play a bad set and it’s cool?”
BROWN: Dude, I mess up all the time. It’s like when people are watching professional sports, being like, “You can do better.” But you don’t have 30 thousand people watching you. Your body has been playing this game almost every day for years. You’re injured in some way or another. Honestly, sometimes when we’ve opened for bands, we’ve gotten messages saying, “This is the worst thing we’ve ever seen.” What’d that person say?
AMOS: “Call it a day, mate. You’re the worst band I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
New short fiction by Sara Baume
The Quietus profiled four young Polish experimental composers
“Everything makes a sound,” says Martyna Basta, as she taps a glass during our Zoom conversation. “The most exciting sounds hide where we don’t expect them. When I take the simplest recording, I start to transform it. We don’t need instruments, because we can create abstract sound spaces not associated with the source.”
The Granta podcast interview with Jamaica Kincaid
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