How to Do Things With Words: brief goings-on

December 3, 2024

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. — Central to everything I am and believe and...

A Playlist for November 6, 2024

November 8, 2024

songs for whatever it is that's happening now.

Notes toward a theory of posting

February 7, 2024

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. I've been thinking a lot lately about the...

Of Making Many Books There is No End

February 21, 2023

"... honestly, I don't think our movies should be watched. I have no idea why we make them. All I know is this: we keep coming here after school every single...

Interview with Music Journalism Insider

October 1, 2022

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. This summer I did an interview with Todd...

An extended interview with John Van Deusen

August 25, 2022

Ahoy! This is an extended version of the piece I published in early August, an interview with the Anacortes, WA- based "Christian" (scare quotes for many...

Dear Coach's Corner (Canadian content warning)

July 3, 2022

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. For several years, I've been really into the...

We Rebuild What You Destroy

April 9, 2022

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. OK, first: here's a 40% off discount code...

My new book is OUT

March 15, 2022

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. Most of you already know this, but I just...

Nervous

January 13, 2022

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. Hey! I hope to have news about my new book...

A Conversation with Aaron Weiss of mewithoutYou

August 13, 2021

Welcome to Reasonable Things! (Warning: This is going to be a long one.) Earlier this week I spoke to Aaron Weiss, the singer of the band mewithoutYou, for...

“The Mountain Goats is just Christian Rock for Gay Millennials”

July 21, 2021

Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse. “The Mountain Goats is just Christian Rock...

A brief dispatch

July 7, 2021

My pre-sabbatical summer of no teaching has been pretty crowded so far. So here are some highlights of stuff I’ve done lately! I officially submitted the...

The opposite of nostalgia

May 21, 2021

"Everything I feel now as an adolescent is true. This is who I am. Each day that passes I grow away from my true self. Every inch I take towards adulthood is...

Chinese Satellite

January 25, 2021

Chinese Satellite When Judee Still introduced her song “Enchanted Sky Machines” at a 1971 concert in Boston as “a religious song about flying saucers coming...

The Gift of Hope and Fear

December 19, 2020

Ahoy! I am done with grading for the semester and here to share some stuff I've been writing, reading, and listening to. WRITING I wrote a piece about what...

Make Me a Mixtape

October 20, 2020

The first time I was really blown away by a radio DJ was when I heard KEXP's DJ Riz, on a dark and rainy weekend night in Seattle in the early 2000s, play...

Books and music for the perpetual end of the world

August 5, 2020

I've found it almost impossible to read and write since about March 15. Did you know that anxiety plus a global pandemic generally -- in my experience anyway...

In which I earnestly declare that everything, including baseball, matters

October 9, 2019

I love Effectively Wild. It’s my favorite podcast, and it helped rediscover my love of baseball . But I take issue with something that comes up on the show...

Throat-clearing

September 9, 2019

Hi! I'm Joel! This is my email newsletter! I have been inspired by friends and writers I admire who seem to be pushing against social media, getting back to...