Hello there,

Here’s some art, ideas, and internet for you:

1. “The selling point of generative A.I. is that these programs generate vastly more than you put into them, and that is precisely what prevents them from being effective tools for artists.” Ted Chiang on whether AI can make art.

2. People I like doing cool shit: My friend Rachel asked “What if a pre-workout energy boost could taste like Pixy Stix?” and Boom Stx was born; my pal Chris worked with the Chicago Reader to make a gorgeous coffee table book with highlights from the paper’s first 50 years; my bud Ankur wrote a novel that comes out in September and has so many incredible blurbs already; my former co-worker Claire wrote a book that will hopefully help my relatives finally understand why I quit Google after only a year.

3. Related: Will that job crush your soul?

4. I absolutely love this map the New York mayor’s office put together of free and cheap things to do around the city this summer. As others have pointed out: If we want kids and teens to spend less time on their phones, we have to give them somewhere else to hang out with each other and something else to do. (I also adored the recent 2-K jingle contest. Mamdanistan Comms is really good at their jobs.) I’d love to see them share this as an open-source template other cities and towns could use too.

5. Rebecca “St. Esperanzapedia” Solnit: “There is no rewind button on history. And once people have power and agency, and have seen what it’s like to have rights, voting rights, reproductive rights, they’re not interested in going back.”

6. This review of The Devil Wears Prada 2 from Katie Gatti Tassin nailed how I felt about the movie, too. (Another question I had: Why on earth would Miranda even want the job “Global Head of Content”? She doesn’t care about overseeing content; she cares about fashion.) Gatti Tassin is known primarily as “Money with Katie” but her writing is generally some of the best and most thoughtful I read on any given week.

7. Jellyfish cam and sled dog puppy cam.

8. “About 10% of AMC movie showings sell zero tickets. This site finds them. Go enjoy your private theater.”

9. Fellow Tucci-in-Italy fans: Tucci in Great Britain is in our future.

10. I love looking through the stuff of late, iconic women and Diane Keaton’s estate auction did not disappoint.

11. Windows of NYC (via Kottke) and Daily Rothko (via Today in Tabs).

12. Summer PSA: Drowning doesn’t look like drowning.

13. Looking forward to: How to Rob a Bank (kudos to directors who realize Nicholas Hoult is foremost a comic actor who happens to take the shape of a leading man); a forthcoming book about the “Nerd Reich”; the midterm elections.

14. A thing I didn’t really think about until recently is that there is no one “cure for cancer.” There are many kinds of cancers, thus we need many kinds of cures. Lately there’s been a ton of progress in prevention and treatments for some of the highest-mortality types. A new genome test could spare some breast cancer patients from chemotherapy altogether; promising research identified proteins that could mean early detection and prevention of lung cancer; a vaccine and drug combo can cut the risk of melanoma recurrence by nearly 50 percent.

15. I never intended to have this life, believe me—
    It just happened. You know how dogs turn up
    At a farm, and they wag but can’t explain.

    It’s good if you can accept your life—you’ll notice
    Your face has become deranged trying to adjust
    To it. Your face thought your life would look

    Like your bedroom mirror when you were ten.
    That was a clear river touched by mountain wind.
    Even your parents can’t believe how much you’ve changed.

    Sparrows in winter, if you’ve ever held one, all feathers,
    Burst out of your hand with a fiery glee.
    You see them later in hedges. Teachers praise you,

    But you can’t quite get back to the winter sparrow.
    Your life is a dog. He’s been hungry for miles,
    Doesn’t particularly like you, but gives up, and comes in.

    —Robert Bly, “The Resemblance Between Your Life and a Dog”

TTFN,

Laura

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