Oh hi. I didn’t see you there.
Annie here. I’ve been off Substack for a while for a number of reasons — I don’t love the platform, I never knew exactly what I wanted to do with it in the first place, and I’ve been focusing more on my career than free-time longform posting in the recent past. But, watching the general confusion on Twitter, I figured it would be a good idea to fall back on the (limited) infrastructure I’ve built up here while considering other outlets. So: here I am!
I’ve got a lot of half-baked thoughts on Journalism Twitter™ and the evolution of a microblogging platform into a bizarre, quasi-professional outlet, but none that would be very useful here. For the near future I’ll be thinking about what’s best for Tugboat and my own social media diet. In the meantime, here are some (bite-sized) takes.
what I’m listening to
It feels very Rome + fiddle to post the weekly 5x5 last.fm album spread on Twitter, so here’s some music I’ve been into lately.
Indie saxophone interludes. I love a good rock saxophone, and it feels like we’re seeing a renaissance right now. Maybe we have Cassandra Jenkins and “Hard Drive” to thank? My current favorite examples: Immanuel Wilkins on this year’s Kevin Morby album, Curtis Oren on the new Tenci, and Lewis Evans of Black Country, New Road with Ethan P. Flynn on last year’s cover of “Television Show.”
Micro-niche playlists. In high school, when I was an even bigger dweeb, I joined a Facebook group dedicated to crowdsourcing songs for really specific prompts (a recent example: “songs my pet praying mantis is listening to when I’m not home”). It’s somehow still thriving, and I’ve been finding it especially comforting the last couple weeks.
Nostalgic jazz vocals. In part because of the “Solitude” TikTok trend, in part because of Over the Garden Wall — I’ve had Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, and the Nat King Cole Trio in heavy rotation. Tis Autumn indeed.
what i’ve been watching
Cult documentaries. This is pretty much a constant for me, but oh man there are plenty to choose from right now. I think these scratch a similar itch to true crime stories: they’re just as salacious and freaky, but they feel safer to engage with. It’s a lot easier to say “I’m too smart to join this weird group” than “I’m too smart to die.” And it’s interesting that the cults that come under the camera’s eye these days — NXIVM, OneTaste, Teal Swan, Rajneeshpuram — have distinctly capitalistic overtones.
F-Boy Island. My roommate recently described me as “the HBO queen” and I’m proud to say the title holds true even for the channel’s less pretentious offerings. There’s a distinct chance I’ll have more to say on this show when I finish Season 1, so for now I’ll leave you all in limbro.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned!
-Annie