Night/Sunday Warning S2E14: Debate prep.
Another instalment of weekly recommendations and miscellaneous items.
This is the weekly round-up of things I liked in the past seven days + extra content for paid subscribers.
5 Things I Actually Enjoyed This Week
1. ARTICLE
Vic Reeves Vs. The Pop Group
by Daniel Dylan Wray for Vice
Mark Stewart of The Pop Group died this week; may he rest in power. This story is from 2016 when Jim Moir (aka Vic Reeves) met up with his friend Mark:
Do you remember Glastonbury, Mark?
MS: I do, very clearly. Because we were punks and, not to be rude, we were against hippies. It was a tribal thing; before that, it would be like a City or Rovers football thing back in Bristol and people would shout at you "City or Rovers?" even if you didn't have a football scarf on. You also had the skinheads and the suedeheads, but we were smoothies.
VR: I was talking about this recently. When we were kids in the 70s, one week I'd be a smoothie, the next week I'd be a hippy, and then I'd be a funkster. I used to change every week, depending on what I was into. Like if I was into Captain Beefheart one week…
MS: Ah, so you were into Beefheart at a young age? You were a music head? See, I was into the clothes but - and I shouldn't say this - I wasn't really into music. I saw Alvin Stardust on Top of the Pops with a black glove on with a ring on it, pointing at the screen and I thought if I can make a living out of that and I don't have to go and work in one of those aircraft factories like you did then I'm up for it.
2. ALBUM
Return to the 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version
Apple Music | Spotify
I snagged a two-picture disc edition of this unhinged masterpiece on Record Store Day. Enjoy…
3. ARTICLE
The Radical Reinvention of the English Language
by Steven Mintz for Inside Higher Education
A fascinating look at neologisms and how they come to be:
Over the past century, each generation has generated its own slang. During the 1920s, catchphrases included “23-skidoo,” “the cat’s pajamas,” “hotsy-totsy,” “the bee’s knees” and “the real McCoy.” The 1930s brought “gig” to describe a job, “skivvies” for men’s underwear and “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle.” The ’40s introduced such words and phrases as “blockbuster,” “keeping up with the Joneses” and “smooch”; the ’50s, “boo-boo” and “daddy-oh”; the ’60s, “groovy,” “hippie” and “bread” (as a synonym for money). Then, there are more recent examples: “mind-blowing” in the ’70s, “chillin’” and “yuppie” in the ’80s, “diss” and “my bad” in the ’90s.
… To say that language shifts is not to say that it degrades or becomes corrupted. Rather, languages evolve in certain common ways. These include trends toward economy and efficiency, with more complex terms and phrases often replaced by those that are simpler, and toward new modes of expressiveness, as older words and phrases lose their punch.
4. PROFILE
Hellhounds on His Trail: Mack McCormick’s Long, Tortured Quest to Find the Real Robert Johnson
by Michael Hall for Texas Monthly
This is a mesmerizing story about a folklorist trouble by his biography of the bluesman who sold his soul at the crossroads and the book that didn’t appear until the author himself had died:
Nearly everything we thought we knew about Robert Johnson was wrong. The biographical information that historians had gathered about the King of the Delta Blues Singers, the Grandfather of Rock and Roll, an inspiration to Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan, and the Rolling Stones? The guy from Mississippi whose face was on a postage stamp?
Almost all of it was wrong.
And I had the evidence in my hands: a secret manuscript about Johnson’s life found in the archive of Houston folklorist and record producer Robert “Mack” McCormick. This wasn’t just any archive. At the time, it was one of the most sought-after collections in the country—the Library of Congress wanted it, and so did the Smithsonian and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Rock star Jack White was interested in it, as were Austin’s Dolph Briscoe Center and San Marcos’s Wittliff Collections. The archive had once filled almost every corner of Mack’s home—dozens of file drawers and boxes crammed with tens of thousands of documents, photos, and recordings. Mack’s computer was full of still more files—manuscripts, plays, interviews. The archive was so vast that Mack gave it a name: the Monster.
5. PODCAST
Prominent Corrections S1E1: Rupert Murdoch
Apple Podcasts | RSS | Spotify
Episode two of the podcast I’ve started with Sasha Baker will be out this week (fingers crossed) so I’m repeating this recommendation from last week. Check out our first episode which tackles Rupert Murdoch and, yes, talks about Succession too.
Updates, Corrections & Clarifications
None this week. I’m still recovering,
There’s usually a paywall here but not this week. Please consider a paid subscription though as it’ll be back up next week.
THE MICRO ESSAY
SEEKING A BADLOSS
I’m debating Professor Matthew Goodwin on Politics Joe tomorrow. Some say that I shouldn’t as it is platforming his ideas — which I abhor — but I don’t see it that way. He’s published by Penguin and has been interviewed by numerous broadcasters and podcasts. What we will have tomorrow is a moderated debate in which I have no intention of being cosy with him or accepting of his positions. I think his book is both boring and dangerous, an unusual and acrid combination.
The debate should be available to watch quite soon after it concludes.
Wish me luck or not…
THIS WEEK’S STATS
There are currently 8,972 subscribers to this newsletter in total (up 244 from last week). There are 685 paid subscribers (up 3 since last week).
This week’s most-read edition was A wild ‘no one tells me what to write’…
THREE NEWSLETTERS I NEARLY WROTE THIS WEEK
1. The bully pulpit
About Keir Starmer’s bully tactics and desire to get the bullies of the tabloid press to like him. (a non-mover from last week)
2. Newsroom terrorists
About bullying in newsrooms; a part two of the edition above.
3. The old fox
On Murdoch and the Dominion case.
PLAYLIST
Sunday Warning #13: A mixture of old and new stuff I listened to this week that I thought you might like too. It’s on Spotify but you can see the tracklist here too:
YOUTUBE FIND OF THE WEEK
P.F. Strawson and Gareth Evans debating ‘truth’:
Thanks for reading, and for sharing.
Previously: Buzzed off
The death of BuzzFeed News — no it wasn't the bit that did the quizzes — shows how 'new' media barons are as grotesque as the 'traditional' kind.
Good luck Mic!