I love the Best American Essays collection, and there are many good years (two honorable mentions include 2017 2019), but 2023 includes one of my favourite essays: āConcision: A Sprawlā by George Estreich. It is so good. The foreword by Atwan also has such clear call to writers, and gives warning about lil of the scary awful things happening in the US. Estreichās essay really elaborate on Atwanās main point so eloquentl, and without any direct reference. He just does what Atwan describes in the foreword, and does so in a way that leaves you feeling changed. He ruminates on identity, the need to be concise in writing, and how we relate to other people. Sometimes concision isnāt the best option, sometimes concision is exclusive, and other roads should be considered to reaching a more powerful end. Sometimes we need to sprawl.
Feb 20, 2025
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I canāt even begin to explain the way Abdurraqib spins together disparate topics and references, but the man always sticks the landing. I called it a āmagic trickā for lack of a better phrase, one that makes you stand up out of your chair and stare out the window, surveying a world you thought you knew suddenly looking very different in the aftermath.
This took me forever to read because I wanted to savor every sentence. Canāt recommend it enough.
Jul 2, 2024
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Spring is upon us (itās only Jan 26 lol). Itās time for crushes blooming from your spring awakenings. I also would be remiss not to express on my second recommendation that I am a stan of Hanif Abdurraqib.
Jan 26, 2024
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incredible, beautiful collection of music essays. abdurraqib made me love music writing again. i often return to his essay about fall out boy and cry every time.
Feb 25, 2024
Top Recs from @ugliestbinch
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Why not go through the process of blending those images yourself? Why not use process as an experiment? Why AI? What part are you playing? What makes it yours?
I think AI is impersonal. I think it is unethical when it has relied on the theft of actual peopleās actual physical (and because of the nature of art, often time emotional) labor. I also think it is unnecessary in creating art. I also think the environmental impacts are atrocious. I also think AIās biggest supporters are being maliciously ignorant because itās a fun new toy.
Is it ease? Is it efficiency? People talk about accessibility as if children donāt use crayons and stickers! As if graffiti artists donāt use postal labels as sticker, as if sand mandalas donāt exist, as if cardboard and tape arenāt in over abundance.
Apr 15, 2025
Mar 1, 2025
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Maybe this isnāt so much a fix for staff, but I feel like the reposting of things has gotten a bit lame. I donāt want the āEveryoneā feed to be the same post 20 times with nothing added, especially when the thing being re-recād isnāt even a real reccomendation in the first place. I like this app because it is different than Instagram and Twitter and tumblr and the like. I feel like people are trying to interact similarly to those other apps here. I feel like we are all drifting back into creating the same social media AGAIN.
My vote would be to remove the feature entirely, but I see how it can be used thoughtfully
Mar 3, 2025