Alex Burns

Any avid self-deprecator immediately understands this logic: if we believe that the worst version of ourselves is the true one, we’re protected from being ambushed by our own inadequacy. Better to overestimate our flaws than to fail to see them in the first place. But this strategy is fundamentally isolating, leading us to create a brittle carapace... See more

Read the newspaper

To that last point, consider getting a newspaper subscription, even just for one day a week (I’d go with Sunday, personally). It’s a slower and more resonant way to process the week’s headlines. No clicking away. Also, if I might submit some superficial rationale here: sitting in the kitchen reading a newspaper looks and feels... See more

The past several years have ushered in a wave of “brand” tales in Hollywood—films that speak to America’s prodigious capitalist ethos, just in case you forgot to look at a billboard. From Blackberry to Air to Flamin’ Hot ,these films have captured the full spectrum of brand power, documenting the highs, lows, and synthetic cheeses of big business.... See more

We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.

— Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

It would make sense to say that, despite appearances, third-order vanity ratchets up the neuroticism, rather than quiets it down. But what I find most interesting about third-order vanity is that often its most prolific purveyors seem so lost in their role that they’re almost unaware they’re performing at all.

It’s fitting, then, that A24 and director Jane Schoenbrun have staked a large part of the movie’s experience on another relic of the pre-streaming era: the compilation soundtrack. The I Saw the TV Glow OST is the type of project you don’t see much of in 2024. It’s a who’s who of indie music mixed with a handful of rising artists, all providing... See more