A Sounds Like A Cult secret, revealed
And an Italian meetup?
Writing prompt:
In my early 20s, one of my favorite poetry collections was Mary Reufle’s Little White Shadow, a book of erasures. I’m also a fan of Kate Baer’s erasures, where she transforms unpleasant online messages into beautiful poems. Take a page from a book you detest (for any reason), and turn it into an erasure.
Sounds Like A Cult is back this week with a surprise bonus!
Tune in this week to meet your two staggeringly brilliant, warm, kind, hilarious, insightful new cult leaders!!! I am overjoyed to introduce a pair of co-hosts, who are joining me this season for a long-awaited Sounds Like A Cult 2.0. Tune in first thing tomorrow wherever you stream podcasts for a little bonus intro episode, where you’ll get a teaser of these glorious human beings, who I’m so grateful to work with on this topsy-turvy project.
Catch me in LA tonight for my friend Coco Mellors’ LA book launch!
Aside from being a brilliant author, most recently of the novel Blue Sisters, Coco is my dear pal and, when she lived in LA, my devoted line dancing compadre (see above lol). We’ll be at Skylight Books tonight chatting about her latest! Come say hello <3
When:
Monday, September 9, 2024 - 7:00pm
Where:
1818 N Vermont Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Anyone here living near Bologna, Italy? I’d love to do a little meetup while I’m there this month :)
Feel free to DM me on Instagram if you’re in the area and free to hang sometime between September 15 and October 12!
A weekly roundup of books, podcasts, TV shows, tchotchkes, and anything else I’m currently “cult following.”
Book: Madwoman
I only just started this darkly hilarious, thriller-y novel with themes of motherhood, wellness, self-improvement, and attempting to obscure a heavy past, and it’s already SUCH a gripping read. It’s by Chelsea Bieker, author of the cult novel GODSHOT, if anyone hear read and enjoyed that!
Short Read: Why A.I. Isn’t Going to Make Art
I’m a simple man—I see Ted Chiang writing for The New Yorker about artistry and artificial intelligence, I click. “We are all products of what has come before us, but it’s by living our lives in interaction with others that we bring meaning into the world,” Chiang says. “That is something that an auto-complete algorithm can never do, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.”
Unnecessary Purchase: Sézane’s Fall Collection
Sézane is one of very few clothing brands I love enough to buy brand new (as opposed to thrifted). Their new fall collection is utterly scrumptious. I wish it weren’t 110 degrees where I live so I could actually wear it.
The fact that I am sincerely watching and enjoying this objectively not-well-written, billion-dollar series is evidence of me at my nerdiest. I just love the Tolkein world, okay!! Especially the Harfoots.