Sunday Reads: Back, Back, Back Again
Read about the dawn of hip-hop, the hellscape of Disney World, cooking chemical reactions and much more!
Welcome to The Enthusiast, the newsletter that's all yum, no yuck! Every Sunday I send five interesting articles I enjoyed recently and think everyone should read. Friday Faves are now for subscribers only, but subscriptions are free, so why not sign up?
Hi bbs! I know, I know, I was like, “I’m back!” and then I disappeared for another month. But! There is big news: we’re moving! In less than a month now! It’s terrifying! And then, y’know, there’s like work and the world ending, just the usual stuff. Irregardless, here’s some good stuff to read for your Sunday:
Fifty Years of Hip-Hop in a World That Could Not Exist Without It
There’s been a LOT of analyses, histories, best-of lists, and much more (see Quick Hits below!) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop throughout the summer, but Tressie McMillan Cottom’s lyrical, analytical, and celebratory essay in Vanity Fair is the only one you really need to read. She deftly links the unstoppable rise of hip-hop as a driver of global culture to the concept of abundance as a form of resistance in the face of systemic racism and capitalist exploitation, and it’s a joy to read, as her work always is:
“How exactly did hip-hop beat the odds? Its brilliance is its brand of excess. For a culture often derided as derivative, hip-hop has three generations of cultural innovation… There is something to the extraness of hip-hop that has made it endure. Its most iconic images are studies not only in excess but in fabulousness.”
Disney World is Hell
I don’t know how y’all with kids do this. It’s been 25+ years since my family went to Disney and even then I was too old to really appreciate it beyond EPCOT—it sounds like an actual unceasing nightmare now. Like, you have to make special appointments and pay extra to see certain characters? They don’t give you FREE WATER REFILLS? This is one of the biggest, most ridiculous-ass companies in the world that owns more than half of pop culture now, and they can’t figure out how to pay employees enough for them to be nice to people? Something doesn’t seem right, but then Disney has always had its sinister undercurrents and dark mythology, so it’s probably just the next evolution of the corporate brand into all-consuming omniscient cultural and commercial beast. Stay hydrated, I guess, and good luck and godspeed.
Chemical reaction used in cooking may have nurtured complex life (registration required)
Okay, okay, hear me out: in high school chemistry, I wanted to do a science project on cooking. “Cooking?” my hideous wretch of a chemistry teacher scoffer, like I’d said I wanted to do a project on dirt or clouds. My rejection sensitive dysphoria kicked in, and being the second-guessing adolescent I was (am?), I instantly abandoned my curiosity about how cooking works for some other basic project I’m sure I only got a B on, this continuing the erosion of my lone source of self-esteem in high school.
I don’t really like or ever want to cook, I don’t consider myself a cook, but I am intrigued by the processes of cooking: emulsifying, rising, resting, grilling. This article about the Maillard Reaction, or what makes food turns brown as it cooks (aka the literal process of cooking), offers some interesting tidbits about how important this reaction may have been for human evolution. And no, I’m not bitter about my stymied science project idea at all. Nope, not me.
These Women Tried to Warn Us About AI
I feel like people are finally starting to realize that maybe we should slow our roll at little bit in letting AI take over everything without ever really asking if this is a problem that needs to be solved (see also: crypto), and it’s not a moment too soon. The only problem is that while the male CEOs of these tech companies are heroically announcing their fears of the impending apocalypse, a small group of brilliant women of color have already been raising alarms for years now—and in some cases have suffered undue consequences for daring to speak up. There’s no time like the present to learn more about these scientists and activists who refuse to remain silent and support their work to make the inevitability of AI more equitable for all human beings.
Quick Hits: More Hip-Hop Reads
- 🎤 Cindy Campbell needed new school clothes, so she threw the party where hip-hop was officially born.
- 💅🏾 Hip-hop has always been fashion, sweetie–look it up.
- 🎧 I remember when people were mad about sampling in the late 90's/early 00's, but I'm not gonna lie: a good sample can make all the difference on an iconic track.
- 👸🏾 24 game-changing hip-hop songs by women? * add all to playlist *
- Why Megan Thee Stallion getting justice for Tory Lanez SHOOTING HER matters on a macro level
Enjoy your Sunday evening, lovely readers! As usual, feel free to send along any intriguing articles you think everyone should read; subscribers, share in the comments!
See you on Friday for more regularly-scheduled faves–if you're not already a subscriber, sign up now (it's free!). Be sure to confirm via email to receive each edition direct to your Inbox. If you're already a fan, share this newsletter with a friend and spread the enthusiasm!!
Inconsistently (but I promise I'm trying!) yours,
LKH