david bowie – Zoë Lance.

Link Party: 1/23-1/27

January 29, 2017 by zoelance, posted in Link Party

This was a really, really, really tough week on many levels. I hope that you’re taking care of yourself and working towards finding your own sense of balance. Do not feel guilty about taking breaks to do the things you enjoy. “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.”

Here’s what I read this week:

1. The extraordinary stories of the White House mailroom staff, Obama’s 10 letters a day and the people who wrote them.

2. This is what it’s like to come to the United States as a refugee.

— Before you get to the rest of the links, it’s imperative you read the first two. They are required reading. —

3. What Roxane Gay is reading.

4. The story of David Bowie’s secret final project.

5. “Self-care” is not the same as “treating yourself.”

And a bonus: How to begin again.

Have a great week. I believe in you.

Link Party: 3/28-4/1

April 2, 2016 by zoelance, posted in Link Party

On Monday, I started a new job at my alma mater as a communications specialist. I am so, so happy to be back.

Here’s what I read this week:

1. The zen of the Buzzfeed Tasty video.

2. Hillary Clinton, “superpredators” and the deep roots of mass incarceration in the United States.

3. Lost in Trumplandia. (This is very, very good.)

4. The most important sentence on this article about Instagram’s switch to an algorithmic feed: “Our current version of the internet lives and breaths off a currency of human attention.”

5. The craving for public squares.

And a bonus: This David Bowie gifset made me laugh. What a dude.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Link Party: 1/11-1/15

January 16, 2016 by zoelance, posted in Link Party

Here’s what I read this week:

1. On Sunday at 11:30 p.m. I got a New York Times notification that David Bowie had died, which left me feeling empty as I tried to sleep and gutted at the beginning of the week. I remember the very first time and the very first Bowie song I listened to (“Suffragette City” on my iPod nano in ninth grade, from a two-disc best hits CD), and listening to his music has indelibly shaped the person I am today. No one will ever be like Bowie. In reading articles about his legacy, I found that this seems to be the case for a lot of people. I loved this article about bringing your kids up Bowie, his New Yorker obituary and this one about discovering his music when you’re a teenager.

2. This interview with members of the cast of “Hamilton” is very, very important.

3. The reaction shots at the Golden Globes.

4. Why Wikipedia might be the most important invention ever, in celebration of its 15th birthday.

5. The use of “they” as a singular pronoun in the 21st century. I like this idea, or even coming up with a third official English singular pronoun.

And a bonus: Biggie Stardust.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Link Party: 9/7-9/11

September 11, 2015 by zoelance, posted in Link Party

I’ve had this quote from Ira Glass saved for awhile, but one of my closest friends, Valerie, sent it to me this week — a very trying week for me — and it is so incredibly profound to me now that I’m trying my very best to remember it.

Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, and I really wish somebody had told this to me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not that good. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you. A lot of people never get past that phase. They quit. Everybody I know who does interesting, creative work they went through years where they had really good taste and they could tell that what they were making wasn’t as good as they wanted it to be. They knew it fell short. Everybody goes through that. And if you are just starting out or if you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Do a huge volume of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week or every month you know you’re going to finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you’re going to catch up and close that gap. And the work you’re making will be as good as your ambitions. I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It takes awhile. It’s gonna take you a while. It’s normal to take a while. You just have to fight your way through that.

Here’s what I read this week:

1. I’ve been following Jedidiah Jenkins on Instagram for awhile, and he’s in the middle of writing a book about riding his bike from Oregon to Patagonia. Based on this essay, I’m even more excited for his book to arrive.

2. The A.V. Club covered Force Friday in Chicago and it sounded insane. There are a lot of components to this that stuck with me: that this was a marketing and PR ploy more than anything else when it really should have been about the fans and the ethos, that people didn’t end up getting what they wanted and that the merchandise sounded and looked sub-par.

3. This discussion about freelance writing in 2015 and the state of online media is actually pretty frightening. I think it is a Real Problem when it’s more lucrative for writers to write multiple shallow articles than it is to write an in-depth longread. (Also, if you don’t click through to read the essay, he doesn’t get paid.)

4. Apparently there’s a story behind the company most famous for boxed wine that is essentially a soap opera. (I have never and will never understand the appeal of slap the bag.)

5. Do you miss Oliver Sacks? I miss Oliver Sacks a lot. This essay about his relationship with gefilte fish is very important.

And a bonus: These photos of David Bowie from the Ziggy Stardust era are everything.

Have a wonderful weekend.