Hello.
Welcome to the next era of The Racket: Some Noise.
This is, for all intents and purposes, The Racket Newsletter with a new name. Why a new name? Because as much as I love The Racket, after a decade of doing it, I want to give myself personally some space to grow. Some Noise will “always” include The Racket, but it won’t be limited to what we produce under the umbrella of The Racket.
What does that mean? I don’t know quite yet, but I want to do new things and the room needs to be big enough to accommodate it all.
Part of that is a gentle push towards monetization. You can, and I hope will, sign up for a paid subscription to Some Noise. It’s 8 dollars a month (or 2 dollars a week, or .25 cents a day, or or … you get the point) for a consistently, weekly newsletter. Every Tuesday, a new selection of thoughts, recommends, links, all culled from my often addled and sleep-deprived brain.
It’s pretty simple:
Paid subscriptions get additional stuff.
Unpaid subscriptions get the same amount of stuff you’ve come to expect from The Racket–thoughts, recommendations, all The Racket news you need to survive in this hellish world.
I’ve written and re-written this twenty times because asking people for money makes my palms sweaty. I want you to be here, paid or not. If you want to throw a little money towards what I believe is an incredible, and worthwhile, project, it will be extremely appreciated. If you don’t, or if you can’t, I love you all the same. Thanks for being here.
Either way, you can subscribe right here:
That took forever.
Thanks for being here. I hope you’ll stick around.
THINGS WE’RE DOING
Miah Jeffra, an individual we often refer to as the Patron Saint of The Racket, sat down with Hollie Hardy, a writer and literary community builder, for a chat. There’s craft talk, there’s craft theory, there’s a lovely discussion of what it means to evolve as a person and as a writer. It’s well worth your time.
STUFF WE LIKE
Book of the Week
Y2K : How The 2000s Became Everything / Colette Shade
I grew up in the shadow of an impending digital apocalypse. Was it scary? I don’t really remember, but I’m excited to read Colette Shade’s book of essays plumbing the experience of living in the 2000s. It felt like a decade without much heft, but the aftermath has defined the way we currently live. I’ve heard it described as both “enlightening” and “depressing”, which is right up my alley.
What I’ve Been Reading
There’s so much to say about this book about a boxing competition for teenage girls in Reno, Nevada. It’s brilliantly structured (each chapter is a bout between two fighters), brilliantly written (sparse but everything), and jumps from the inner workings of the wind to the cosmos from page to page and it all feels so deeply connected.
The New
I decided to see Babygirl at 11:30 on a Tuesday last week. I had to ask friends, “Is this creepy?” But it turns out a midday erotic thriller is par for the course for a big box theater in Petaluma. The theater was near full and I was seated in between another solo dude and an elderly couple for every intense, awkward sex scene this film throws out there. It was spectacularly uncomfortable in the best way. You could describe the film very much the same, but with standout performances by Nicole Kidman and the new Prince of Cool, Harris Dickinson, it’s a discomfort you want to reside in.
What I’ve Been Watching
If you were heading into Queer thinking, “I loved Challengers!” you’re in for a shock. Queer is a distinctly odd film about William S. Burroughs searching for love in a theater set that resembles Mexico City in the 1950s. It’s long and surreal and doesn’t attempt to define itself in any way. Daniel Craig has a perfect hangdog masculinity in the film and even if I can’t say I loved it, I’m definitely still thinking about a few days later.
Five Songs:
Skin on Skin / Jasmine.4.T
Kind of country, kind of pop, kind of not either. It almost has a mid-career R.E.M. vibe to it. It’s definitely Phoebe Bridger adjacent.
Ankles / Lucy Daucus
Daucus’s last album is a favorite of mine. Her new single lives in a similarly hooky, similarly feel-y place.
SLOW DANCE IN A GAY BAR / Benjamin Booker
I’d call this ketamine soul. That’s not a thing. But this is that thing.
Tweaker / G3 CELO
If you woke up thinking, “I need a modern St. Lunatics” well, today is your day.
Fur / Blue Lake
Sitting on a dock on a lake with a cigarette music.
The first one is always the hardest.
And that, my friends, wasn’t easy.
Hope you’ll stick around.