Tune Time: October & November 2016

Here’s what I’ve been listening to for the past two months:

Bon Iver’s 22, A Million.

1. I was an extremely casual fan of Bon Iver before 22, A Million came out, but the YouTube lyric videos pulled me in. I knew enough about Justin Vernon to know that his music swirls in the indie folk genre, and that Kanye West is a big, big fan.

2. When this album first came out, there were people on my assorted timelines who were upset about it — it didn’t sound like old Bon Iver, and it was too weird to be wistful about. First of all, artists are allowed to experiment and grow just like the rest of us. Second of all, it takes a few minutes to actually listen to the record and reflect. You’ll find that he’s working with the same variations on the theme of loss — like the dissolution of a relationship, an identity crisis — and adding new sonic elements suggests an even more violent break from the past. I much prefer 22, A Million to the earlier Bon Iver albums, because it seems far more urgent, visceral and profound. This is what I love about music — that artists can evolve and make something new and exciting.

3. This album gives me both Walden Pond and Blade Runner vibes, with a little bit of a My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy influence.

4. Vernon is an exceptional lyricist, and I like that the lyrics of this album are steeped in biblical imagery. One of my favorite lines is from “715 – CR∑∑KS”: “Honey, understand that I have been left here in the reeds / But all I’m trying to do is get my feet out from the crease.”

5. I love the stylized song names, and also the use of the OP-1. My favorite songs are “22 (OVER S∞∞N)”, “10 d E A T h b R E a s T ⚄ ⚄” and “33 ‘GOD’.” I hope that Vernon has more to explore in this vein, and that there are some cut tracks floating around somewhere.

Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo.

1. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve tried to sit down and write something about Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo, and I always come up short or turn my attention to something else. I went to a Saint Pablo tour concert in October — which was incredible and magical — and I thought that with the amount of time I’ve spent listening to this album that I finally needed to get some words out about it. The first ones are that it is not a perfect album, but it’s still a masterpiece.When people on the Internet say that this isn’t a “good” Kanye West album, I know that they didn’t really listen. (I know there’s been a lot about Kanye the celebrity in the media lately, and I hope he’s doing okay.)

2. For my senior capstone project, I wrote an essay about Yeezus. I argued that the album was his ontological exploration of being a producer of music while also being a product as a celebrity, meaning that he makes art at the same time the public is shaping a persona and perceptions about who “Kanye West” is. After listening to and dissecting The Life of Pablo, I think that argument still holds up extremely well. This album is an extension of his Yeezus meditations, and even more so one on his public persona. The questions he asks himself on this album are “Who is Kanye West?”, and “Can I separate a private sense of self from the public sense of self I’ve created and the world has created for me?”

3. Let’s talk about “No More Parties in LA,” for example. Kanye talks about spending all of his money at Louis Vuitton, matted-out sportscars and buying pink furs for his daughter — and how that’s supposed to inherently mean something important, that the money signifies status and getting on Kanye’s level is unattainable. But the hook is “no more parties in LA, please baby no more parties in LA,” suggesting that he doesn’t want to be around people who subscribe to this hollow lifestyle. When you couple that with the lyrics that suggest he’s just trying to be an artist (“I feel like Pablo when I’m workin on my shoes” and his borderline-paranoid lines about driving around in an armored car), there’s this murkiness he can’t seem to clear up. Does he want to have that wealth and fame, or was it this huge stunt that he can’t get out of without sacrificing the level of exposure his art has? Or is he just playing with the image of what the public thinks Kanye West is? These are the questions I ask myself with every listen.

4. Rap music will never fail to be fascinating to me, with the incredible artistry of wordplay and how each line is dense with at least two or three levels of references and callbacks. It is poetry.

5. The opening of “Father Stretch My Hands, Part 1” is what dreams are made of, and you have not lived until you’ve witnessed the transition from “I Love Kanye” to “Waves” in a stadium with your friends and 17,000 other people. “Ultralight Beam” is one of the most affecting songs I’ve heard in a long time. If you have not listened to this album, you need to before the year is over.

Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited

1. 2016 has been my year of Bob Dylan discovery, and I have really enjoyed digging into this part of American musical history at this particular cultural moment. It’s been cool to listen to the music and read the interviews that were published at the time and oral histories, and I’ve been trying to better understand just how seismic this music was. Anyway, shout out to Jeff Bezos and Amazon Prime music for having most of Dylan’s discography on demand for free. So far, my three favorite albums are Bringing It All Back Home, Blonde on Blonde and Highway 61 Revisited.

2. Before we go any further, we should probably talk about his Nobel Prize. Do I think he deserves it, based on his literary contributions? I do. Do I also think there are a lot of other people who maybe deserved the Nobel Prize for literature a little more? Absolutely. That is the extent of my opinion on Bob Dylan’s Nobel Prize.

3. I love singing along with “But you’d better take your diamond ring, you better pawn it, babe” in “Like a Rolling Stone.” What a great metaphor in a song about security and materialism.

4. It would be beyond awesome to do a road trip of Route 61 while listening to this album. I’m sure I’m not the only person who has had that idea, and I doubt I will be the last.

5. My favorite tracks are “Tombstone Blues,” “Ballad Of A Thin Man” and “Highway 61 Revisited,” but any of the tracks from the three albums I mentioned are great starting points for getting into Dylan.

What have you been listening to lately? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Tune Time: June 2016

Here’s what I listened to in the month of June:

Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense.

Imagine the Zoë you know and love today as a 15-year-old, combing through the CD section at her local public library looking for music she can take home and put on her iPod nano. One of those CDs happened to be the soundtrack to a documentary of live Talking Heads performances in the 1980s, called Stop Making Sense. Those MP3s have survived every computer crash, iTunes library purge and iPhone upgrades. I’ve always liked the Talking Heads because of how infectious the beats are, and it’s aged really well when ’80s music can sound dated.  Fast forward to this past month, when I finally watched the movie on Amazon Prime. I really don’t know why it took me so long to watch Stop Making Sense, because it’s incredible and refreshed my appreciation for the Talking Heads’ music. 

If you have no idea who the Talking Heads are, you’ll watch the movie and thoroughly enjoy it — the music is easy to understand, and it’s fun to listen to. If you do know who the Talking Heads are, you’ll watch the movie and fall deeper in love. If the Talking Heads’ music is anything, it’s kinetic — and the visuals of David Byrne running around the stage, Tina Weymouth moving in sync with her bass or keyboard and the backup dancers /additional musicians bouncing up and down with every note makes the music even fuller. There’s an energy to the music that makes you want to get up and dance. Now when I listen to the tracks, I think about how wonderful the performances are and wish that I could have been there. I’ll never be able to the studio albums that Stop Making Sense pulls from, because they pale in comparison. My favorite tracks are “Burning Down The House,” “Life During Wartime” and “Girlfriend Is Better.” I think you’ll like them too.

Real Estate.

When I need work or driving music, one of the first bands I’ve always reached for is Real Estate. Back when Urban Outfitters used to release weekly and monthly download playlists, I found their single “It’s Real” buried in between two mediocre hipster tracks (I don’t remember specifically, but the only reason to download those UO playlists was to find the gems. I digress.) I’ve seen them at FYF and just recently in concert, where they were magnificent. They’re part of a rare breed where both the studio recordings and the live performances sound good.

Real Estate’s songs are both optimistic and wistful, which I like. The lyrics zero in on relationship disconnect, the feeling of running out of time and just general life fatigue. Real Estate’s music captures the idea that there are moments from your life that you can’t shake off of your consciousness, no matter how hard you try. “Past Lives” from Atlas is a good example of a song that parses this out — in the song, the narrator comes home to his small town and reflects on how much his life has changed in a way that makes my heart hurt. “This is not the same place I used to know / But it still has that same old sound / And even the lights on this yellow road / Are the same as when this was our town.” Real Estate is doing great work, and I wish more people listened to them.

Both Days and Atlas are wonderful albums, so start with both of those. If you like Real Estate, consider exploring Fleet Foxes, Mac Demarco or Grizzly Bear‘s tunes.

Alabama Shakes’ Sound and Color.

I discovered Alabama Shakes via The Arcs Spotify radio station, and I will always be annoyed with myself for not exploring their music when I first heard about them last year. The radio station cycles through both of the band’s albums, but I like Sound and Color the best.

This album is deliciously complex, in both its lyrical content and its musical arrangement. Sound and Color is definitely influenced by the blues and ’60s soul, but it also sounds like it was beamed in by the most well-meaning extraterrestrials from another planet. It’s loud and intense and unapologetic and contradictory, and I am a big fan of Brittany Howard’s voice. She writes songs about trying to figure herself out and find her place in the world, and I find her point of view more interesting and relatable than most white dudes in popular music. The relationships that make up some of the song’s narratives are not rosy, but she drops lines throughout the album that show she’s most interested in being her own person, and that you can find immense power in that to make big changes in your life and others — “Future People” swirls that idea around. Alabama Shakes makes songs for people who understand that they are human. I love that.

My favorite songs off of Sound and Color are “Sound & Color,” “Don’t Wanna Fight,” “Dunes,” “Future People” and “Gimme All Your Love.” I’m patiently awaiting the next album, and I’m excited to see what they come up with next. If you’re looking for a similar sound, go for The Arcs or Leon Bridges.

Kanye West’s “Touch the Sky.”

I have a ritual at the beginning of every work week where I get in my car to go to work, turn on the ignition and put on “Touch the Sky” before pulling out of the driveway. Listening to this song is better than any pep talk I could give myself, and it is one of my personal favorite good vibes songs.

You can say or think whatever you like about Kanye West the celebrity, but you cannot deny that the man is a genius when it comes to wordplay. Rap music is more imaginative and innovative with language than most other genres, which is one of the reasons why it fascinates me. “Any pessimists I ain’t talk to them / plus I ain’t have no phone in my apart-a-ment” is one of my favorite Kanye zingers and I am glad that it exists in this world. It simultaneously exudes bravado, the feeling of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and a hustler’s ethos. The sample of a great 1970s song makes it even better. I dare you to play this song first thing in the morning, and not feel like you can do anything you set your mind to.

What have you been listening to lately? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Link Party: 6/13-6/17

A new Jenny Holzer installation at the Broad Museum.
A new Jenny Holzer installation at the Broad Museum, which I visited yesterday.

I read so many great articles this week, and I couldn’t pare them down to the best six because they were all. so. great. The more the merrier. Here’s what I read:

1. Can Netflix survive in the world it created? (My take: probably not.)

2. How Silicon Valley nails Silicon Valley. (Do you watch this show?  I love it. Start watching it.)

3. This is a very emotionally difficult interview to read, but you really should read it — an interview with a woman who recently had an abortion at 32 weeks.

4. The underground economy that rules New York City’s food carts.

5. A delightful conversation about basically nothing with Paul McCartney.

6. Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo and the power of the unfinished album.

7. An inside look at how Yahoo derailed Tumblr.

8. Barbara Williamson, one of the most famous radical sex experiments of the 1970s, and her life today.

9. An excerpt from a new book about Max Perkins, the editor who discovered F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway.

10. The best of the Dirtbags.

Have a great weekend.

Link Party: 2/29-3/5

Flowers forever.
Flowers forever.

Here’s what I read this week:

1. This is a fascinating story about the history of the Kate Spade brand and its mythos.

2. Trader Joe‘s rejection of social media.

3. Email newsletters are the new zines.

4. Let’s talk about the Amazon Dash buttons, and what they mean for us as consumers.

5. Bob Dylan’s secret archive sounds wonderful. Time to take a road trip to Oklahoma.

A bonus article: Kanye West’s life, told in his own lyrics.

And the standard bonus: The Grateful Dead’s “Scarlet Begonias,” which is a song I’ve always liked and have recently rediscovered one of its lyrics: “Once in awhile you get shown the light / in the strangest of places if you look at it right.”

Have a great weekend.

Link Party: 2/15-2/19

Seeing the sky open up on my way to work one morning made up for the time I spent in torrential downpour traffic.
Seeing the sky open up on my way to work one morning made up for the time I spent in torrential downpour traffic.

Here’s what I read this week:

1. This article about Tumblr teens was wild at every turn.

2. I’ve never been a huge fan of Buzzfeed’s content (besides a really great podcast called Another Round), but I’ve always found their business strategies and virality fascinating. Read this interview with Buzzfeed’s publisher and you’ll see what I mean.

3. The world of Instagram-famous animals.

4. The obsession with Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector.

5. I loved this article about reproductions on display in art museums, so much so that it inspired me to write a post about something I had kind of forgotten about — stay tuned.

And a bonus: Kanye West’s “Wolves,” illustrated. (I’m still trying to collect my thoughts on “The Life Of Pablo.”)

Have a great weekend.

Link Party: 1/4-1/8

El Niño skies.
El Niño skies.

Here’s what I read this week:

1. An abridged history of red lipstick.

2. I did not know that private, off-the-record briefings between Barack Obama and media members were a thing, but now I’m glad I do.

3. The parallels between web design and architecture.

4. The deep space of digital reading.

5. The second-season title cards of “Mozart in the Jungle.” (I wrote about the first season here.)

And a bonus: Kanye West’s American Idol audition is golden.

Have a great weekend.

Link Party: 9/21-9/25

When I work events, I have a really hard time enjoying the food / entertainment just because I'm in Work Mode. Regardless, I was so impressed by Tastemade's first GALLIVANT! event. Here's an artsy shot of a chalkboard mural up at the event.
When I work events, I have a really hard time enjoying the food / entertainment just because I’m in Work Mode. Regardless, I was so impressed by Tastemade’s first GALLIVANT! event. Here’s an artsy shot of a chalkboard mural up at the event.

Here’s what I read this week:

1. I loved this essay about annotating Alice in Wonderland and the contemporary connection of Genius. This is the kind of literary analysis content I’m here for.

2. The influence of Kanye West’s “808s and Heartbreak” on the rap world of 2015.

3. A French history of fancy frames.

4. Apparently you can go across the United States for $213 via Amtrak and see a lot of cool stuff. I want to go to there.

5. The rise of #luckygirl and how admitting effort or hard work is taboo for women.

And a bonus: Here is a short video of Jon Stewart dancing to Drake’s “Started From the Bottom.” It is everything.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Capstone Adventures: Convocation

Here I am with my beautiful poster and beautiful box of pamphlets. Good times.
Here I am with my beautiful poster and beautiful box of pamphlets. Good times.

You guys, I graduated from the Kellogg Honors College on Friday! My capstone project is finished!

Well, that’s not entirely true. I need to send one last essay out to a publication, but I’ll tell you about that later. Tonight I wanted to talk about the experience I’ve been working towards for an entire year. To graduate with honors, you have to complete a senior research project and present it at this poster conference. For the uninitiated, I did my project on postmodernism and the high/low culture divide. In a nutshell, I applied postmodern theory to examples of pop culture and made some connections.

The conference and the graduation ceremony is called Convocation, and it’s really fun — I’ve been going since I was a sophomore, and everyone’s happy to share their findings. Of course, I’ve learned tons through this project, but for this post I’m going to zero in on Convocation.

It’s actually really emotional. 

I came into KHC as a freshman, and have been consistently and actively involved in the organization. I was only 17 years old when they explained to me that I needed to complete a senior project, and at the time I remember wondering what in the world I was going to research. I didn’t even know postmodernism was a thing yet. I am so so so glad that I had the opportunity to do undergraduate research. I got even deeper into American studies and realized that my journalistic passion is writing about art and culture. In some ways, it inspired this blog.

In the past four years, I’ve taken eight honors courses, participated in six civic engagement opportunities, had three KHC Club officer positions, volunteered in three Showcases of Excellence and spent countless hours in the honors commons having memorable conversations about life and academia. It has become a more significant part of my life than I had ever really realized. I have met some of the most wonderful students, faculty and staff through the program, and for that I am eternally grateful. The honors college gave me a sense of community when I didn’t know very many people on campus, and made me feel like there was always a place for me and support if I needed it.

All that being said, you can imagine that it was a very emotional experience to have it all come to a close. Walking across the stage with my KHC sash and my pin, it hit me that I was done. It’s weird to think that it was only a four-year program and that it’s not going to be part of my life anymore. I wouldn’t be where I am now without the honors college.

I had copies of my SCCUR presentation and all three papers hanging below the poster, with the box of pamphlets on the chair. I am very proud of myself.
I had copies of my SCCUR presentation and all three papers hanging below the poster, with the box of pamphlets on the chair. I am very proud of myself.

The poster is as intensive as the actual project itself.

I made four drafts of my poster before settling on the final one, and I am so glad my wonderful capstone professor (if you happen by some chance to be reading this, Hi Dr. DeRosa) pushed me to do my very best. It’s very newspaper inspired, and I think I had the best balance of text, image and design elements. I’m not even going to skirt around it — I really think I had one of the best posters. It was aesthetically pleasing and easy to read, without being bogged down by dense theory (which I had a lot of) or abstract language. I moved most of my text to a pamphlet I made that people could take with them.

To be quite and totally honest, this is the crown jewel of the Zoë Pantheon.
To be quite and totally honest, this is the crown jewel of the Zoë Pantheon.

I also had fantastic layout and font advice, and of course, my best friend Paige was a crucial consultant. I was also so glad to show up on Friday and find that my poster was clear and crisp — I was very concerned that the photos weren’t high quality enough. I also took extra time on the title headings that ended up being a great idea. I wanted that particular font that isn’t a standard Microsoft font, so I took the time to convert them into images. Totally and 100 percent worth it. I think it’s what makes the poster.

In retrospect, I only would have made a few changes to my poster. I would have had a better definition for the simulacra (explaining that was incredibly difficult) and I would have given a little bit more room to Kanye West and John Green. I was so concerned with having a good balance of blank space and content, and I think I could have gone a little further.

The experience of presenting was incredibly gratifying.

I’ve been working on this project for a year, and it was wonderful to be able to explain to people what my project was about and have them actually understand it. Postmodernism is not an easy thing to understand — hell, I don’t understand it myself most of the time. But many people thought that what I was doing was really cool cool cool, and that in itself was entirely worth it. I loved that I was able to share my discipline with people from all academic and professional backgrounds. Plus, I was the only student who got a hug from University President Soraya Coley (I gotta say, we’re pretty tight), so all in all, it was something I’ll never forget.

In case you’re interested in reading my papers or reading my poster and pamphlet up close, I’ve uploaded the entire project to Dropbox.

You can read my Kanye West paper here.
You can read my Fault in the Stars fanfiction paper here.
You can read my Community paper here.
You can view my poster here.
You can view my pamphlet here.

And here I am with my sash and pin. The end of an era. Photo cred Paige.
And here I am with my sash and pin. The end of an era. Photo cred Paige.

Have questions for me or want to share your undergrad research adventures? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Culture Connoisseur: The Top 10 Albums of My College Experience

Music of all genres has always been a significant part of my life. Here are a few of the vinyl records I enjoy most.
Music of all genres has always been a significant part of my life. Here are a few of the vinyl records I enjoy most.

The other night I tweeted about how I tend to associate music and books. I like to listen to music while I read or do homework (which usually involves reading anyway) and can often think of a book or album and what I was reading or listening to at the time. I also realized that there are certain albums that I associate with particular times of my life. As I approach graduation from college, I’ve been thinking about the albums that have had some kind of personal significance for me in the last four years. Here are the top 10 albums that have marked my college experience.

1. AM by Arctic Monkeys

I have been listening to Arctic Monkeys since I was 13 (it was one of the first albums I uploaded to iTunes and put on my iPod nano), and will wax poetic over the band’s entire discography for days. But what has a special place in my heart is AM, which came out in 2013. I saw the band perform three times for the AM era, and know 98 percent of the lyrics. This, I feel, will be an album that I will never get tired of. “Do I Wanna Know?” is my text tone. I have the digital version, the CD and the vinyl. Out of all of the albums on this list, it is definitely the most personal. AM reminds me of September nights, driving in Los Angeles and relationships that didn’t work out.

2. Modern Vampires of the City by Vampire Weekend

This is also another deeply personal album for me, and the record that made me a Vampire Weekend fan. I still enjoy dissecting the lyrics of MVotC, which deal with time and mortality and love and sense of belonging, amongst other things. I also got to see Vampire Weekend while it was promoting the album, and I desperately want to go again. This album reminds me of my school commutes, dancing around in my bedroom and rainy days.

3. Yeezus by Kanye West

This album is what made me a true believer in Kanye West and his cultural significance. Yeezus also changed my life. It is my go-to “gotta get shit done” album, and I find something new to analyze with every listen. This is not an easy album to listen to, but I think it’s the perfect example of just how powerful music can really be. Yeezus reminds me of many late, sticky summer nights.

4. Days and Atlas by Real Estate

This is a 2-for-1, but I discovered Real Estate in my second year of college and fell in love with the beachy sound. Atlas came out in 2014, and I have had it in heavy rotation. I also like how both albums talk about what it feels like to be displaced from home. Real Estate in general reminds me of both Berkeley and Washington, my discovery of lattes, and cold-but-bright winter weekends.

5. Sunbathing Animal by Parquet Courts

I believe my good friend Valerie recommended Parquet Courts to me, and I like Sunbathing Animal‘s balance between sentimental lyrics and good old fashioned rocking out. This is also a “gotta get shit done” kind of album for me, which has gotten me through many papers and planning sessions. This album reminds me of walking around on campus, feeling like a badass for the great things I said in class or about to go take care of business.

6. Is This It? by The Strokes

This is kind of a cheat, because I discovered The Strokes in high school (Side bar: I was in love with the friend of the boy next door [who I had never interacted with] and I found out through his MySpace account [this was like, ninth or 10th grade so don’t judge me on any of this] that he loved The Strokes) and have loved the band ever since, but I have found myself returning to Is This It? over and over again in the last four years. For me, it’s one of those albums you can play all the way through without skipping anything. I guess it’s my safety blanket. And “Someday” has been resonant for me at many points in the last four years. Is This It? reminds me of listening to vinyl records in my bedroom and doodling lyrics in cursive all over my French notebooks.

7. 2 and Salad Days by Mac DeMarco

I discovered Mac DeMarco last year through my brother Graeme. Graeme doesn’t like him much anymore, but I have a soft spot for Mac DeMarco. He’s a very weird dude with very weird preferences, but his music can be very tender. “Ode to Viceroy” and “Let My Baby Stay” are two very good examples of both the former and the latter, and happen to be my personal favorites. These albums remind me of Burgerama with Graeme and the Law siblings, the last summer at Public Affairs and multiple trips to and through San Bernardino.

8. Dead Man’s Bones by Dead Man’s Bones

I bought this album on a whim in October of my freshman year, mostly because Ryan Gosling was in it. I distinctly remember sitting in the library between classes, previewing this album on iTunes and immediately falling in love. It has sort of morbid subject matter, but it is very earnest and endearing. “In the Room Where You Sleep” comes to mind. Dead Man’s Bones reminds me of fall quarters and walking to a deserted parking lot after 7 to 8:50 p.m. statistics lectures.

9. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late by Drake

This is a very recent addition to the list, but a great one. I had never listened to much Drake before this mixtape came out, and we listen to it constantly in the Poly Post newsroom. If I remember anything about my Poly Post experience, it will be our spirit animal Ferlinda Shedricks (don’t ask), “apparently” and this mixtape. It also has got some fantastic lines that I have made a part of my vocabulary, and I listen to a song from this album at least once a day. If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late reminds me of Sunday deadline night and boba runs.

10. George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue

Between my second and third summers of college, I started watching a lot of Woody Allen movies. The opening scene of Manhattan references Rhapsody in Blue, and when I looked it up I fell in love. Rhapsody in Blue is the aural version of my life. It is nothing like the other albums on this list, but discovering Rhapsody in Blue is a hallmark of my attempts to widen my cultural horizons and appreciate art to the fullest. I will never forget seeing it performed live at the Hollywood Bowl last summer. Rhapsody in Blue makes me feel invincible and bold.

My honorary mentions include Allah-Las, Albert Hammond Jr., Spoon, Divine Fits, The Shins, Beirut, Arcade Fire, The Police, Fleet Foxes and The Black Keys.

Do you have albums that you associate with particular points in your life? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Link Party: 3/2-3/6

On the third floor of the University Library, there's this section of desks right below a skylight. It is my favorite place in the library.
On the third floor of the University Library, there’s this section of desks right below a skylight. It is my favorite place in the library.

Here’s what I read this week:

1. Someone mapped out all of Drake’s references to Toronto.

2. An interesting look at forensic linguistics.

3. Daniel Norris is a millionaire and the future of the Toronto Blue Jays, but he lives in a Volkswagen bus outside of a Wal-Mart.

4. Kanye West’s talk at Oxford is everything.

5. People got a chance to listen to the Wu-Tang Clan’s “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” and lived to tell the tale.

And a bonus: This really fantastic Instagram account, @ihavethisthingwithfloors.

Have a great weekend!