- Studio Dirt
- Posts
- The Dirt water cooler
The Dirt water cooler
Discord > discourse
Terry Nguyen recaps the latest Dirt Discord discourse, summer reads, and media news.
Over the past six months, I've managed to successfully reduce the number of dumb tweets I send on a daily basis by being more active on Discord. I'm biased, of course, although the Dirt Discord is not quite my Twitter replacement. It's a group chat stand-in for media and internet recommendations, and singlehandedly responsible for my newfound fascination with fragrances, from the sophisticated (Louis Vuitton's Pacific Chill) to the silly (Coca-Cola is planning to release a Fanta-inspired scent this summer).
Recently, Dirt friends have introduced me to the racy drawings of Milo Manera ("Horny artists who understand anatomy are rare and should be appreciated more," a sentiment I very much agree with) and chair dressings by Kristin Dickson-Okuda, a Los Angeles-based designer. I was reminded of DFW's brilliant Roger Federer essay in our tennis/niche sports channel, prompted by this Slate piece that imagines what DFW would've thought about pickleball 🎾. Music-wise, we've been in a jazz-y/ambient mood: Osirene recently picked up a Ryo Fukui vinyl, and musicians Josiah Steinbrick and Bill Evans were two stellar recommendations dropped in the channel. I've also been streaming *1, a new, glitchy album from the Vietnamese experimental group Rắn Cạp Đuôi.
📚 As the weather warms, the books I'm reading are getting shorter...A coincidence, I'm assuming, until I can formulate a cogent theory that correlates the length of my books to my skirts! Paul McAdory, a new-ish Dirt Discord friend, had some good vacation/beach reads for Colleen Kelsey (she's currently reading Casino, with Big Swiss and Biography of X lined up). McAdory recommends After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie by Jean Rhys, which is "equal to Good Morning, Midnight and better than Quartet," although Wide Sargasso Sea is still his favorite. Some less depressing vacation reads, also from McAdory: The English Understand Wool, a 60-page novella by Helen DeWitt or a Nell Zink book (Wallcreepers or Nicotine).
PLAYBACK
Snippets of streaming and media news.
I don't watch Succession, so I defer my take on this week's media bloodbath to Hunter Harris: "The very day after Succession aired an episode titled 'Kill List,' the top bosses at Fox News and CNN released their own kill lists (stan behavior)." On the chopping block were Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon (who has been no saint).
The Atlantic's Charlie Warzel on Tucker Carlson's post-Fox News future.
First deepfakes, now AI: The RNC releases an AI-generated anti-Biden ad.
An AI-generated Drake and The Weeknd collaboration went viral over the weekend. It's a lyrically generic simp track that reminds me of mid-2010s Drake. I'm curious to see whether someone will try to get AI to replicate Nicki Minaj's flow.
Grimes says that she will split 50 percent royalties on any successful AI-generated song that uses her voice: "Feel free to use my voice without penalty. I have no label and no legal bindings." (A source at Columbia Records has confirmed her departure.)
Nate Silver is leaving 538, which has been "substantially impacted" by Disney layoffs.
An excerpt of Ben Smith's Traffic on Vanity Fair, which recounts how Smith convinced Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti in 2013 to not let Disney's Bob Iger buy the company: "The price on offer was $450 million with the potential of earning $200 million more, an extraordinary sum for [Buzzfeed,] a company that had priced itself at less than half that just nine months earlier." Apparently, Peretti consulted Smith for his opinion while they were getting high on legal marijuana (emphasis legal) at the Palihotel on Melrose, along with Buzzfeed president Jon Steinberg. At one point, "Steinberg got down on his knees on the balcony to plead with Peretti to take the deal." Men (all parties involved) are so embarrassing.
🌱 JOIN THE DIRTYVERSE
Join our Discord and talk Dirt-y with us. It’s free to join! Paid subscribers have access to all channels.
Follow @dirtyverse on Twitter for the latest news and Spotify for monthly curated playlists.
Shop for some in-demand Dirt merch. 🍄