Music
Today’s song is “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” by Shaboozey, which seems to be perfectly of its moment, for a couple of reasons aside from the fact that it’s yet another track about how binge drinking is hilarious. First, it includes an interpolation of J-Kwon’s 2004 ode to underage drinking, Tipsy. That song, in turn, samples Queen and The D.O.C, and, well, you get the idea, The Vibes are Endlessly Remixable. Second, it’s a country song by a Black artist. The moment for Black country has been building since 2018’s Old Town Road hit #19 on the country charts before being disqualified for being too, well, you know. Today, though, Shaboozey is the first Black male artist to hit #1 on the Hot Country charts. Because the prior Hot Country #1 was Beyonce’s “Texas Hold ‘Em,” this is also the first time the #1 country spot has been held by two Black artists consecutively.
Reading
Today’s book is The Saint of Bright Doors, a novel that, despite winning the 2023 Nebula, doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre. Sure, there are supernatural elements — demons described as “invisible laws and powers.” These demons are literal invisible monsters, but also the unspoken forces that bind the oppressed and protect the powerful — the inconsistent enforcement of laws; the never-ending classifications and reclassifications of class and race and caste; the unspoken and occasionally impossible expectations parents have for their children. It’s about a boy with supernatural powers, but it’s also about the Sri Lankan civil war, Theravada Buddhism, colonialism, and the formation of our consensus reality. The protagonist has been raised by his mother as an assassin to bring down his estranged father, a spiritual leader known as The Perfect and Kind. When he abandons this destiny to live on his own, he joins a support group for cast-off near-prophets, and is sucked into subversive politics and becomes a spy infiltrating a thaumaturgical research group. When riots and plague break out in the city, he’s forced once again to confront, and possibly avoid, all of his possible murderous destinies. It’s one of the very few “genre” books I’ve recommended to my mother, and it’s brilliant enough that when I finished reading it, I immediately started over and read it again.
Elsewhere
The Food that Makes You Gay: Jaya Saxena explores the intersection of homophobia and sexism and food, starting with Fox News personalities alleging that eating ice cream or soup makes a man effeminate.
The Uninsurable World: The Financial Times explores the ways the insurance industry can’t quite keep up with climate change.
The Shamans and the Chieftan: Alito, the rule of law, irrational political action and identity.
Why doesn’t Oklahoma City have a network of cooling centers for heat waves?
Hamilton Nolan covers the Texas Republican Platform.
Anil Dash: The purpose of a system is what it does.
Ruby Tandoh in the New Yorker: The Maillard Over-Reaction: Have we reached peak browning?
The Baffler takes on The Insulin Empire.
Secretly Ironic 