Boring: reading about the streaming wars. Never boring: reading about Richard Plepler. Ever since I read this profile of Plepler by Joy Press in Vanity Fair last month, I cannot get the phrase “aggressively urbane” out of my head and now strive to achieve aggressive urbanity daily. Plepler, chairman and CEO of HBO, stepped down last night. Why it matters:
He gets credit for the creative excellence that led to this golden age of prestige televisionAT&T bought HBO parent company Time Warner, now called WarnerMedia The new boss famously said that HBO would need to push out more content to compete with Netflix, Amazon and Disney+Plepler leaves, what happens to the quality of HBO programming and TV in general?
I cannot wait to see what Plepler ends up doing next. Another favorite anecdote: Larry David loved his name so much that he named a painting after Plepler in his movie Clear History. The painting was then stolen at the after-party.
A very welcome return
And if you're anything like me, Graydon Carter's return feels like a part of your life will be returning. Carter announced his latest project, a newsletter called Air Mail. He edited Vanity Fair for decades and founded Spy magazine before that, both personal favorites. Why it's interesting:
He's specifically said it will be Trump-free: Thank you, Mr. Carter, for potentially saving our weekends from the relentlessly similar overload of trump takesIt's focussed on fun: He calls it "a calm read," which reminds me of Vanity Fair at its bestIt's global: The US has become "inward-looking and therefore much less interesting than the rest of the world, according to CarterIt's a newsletter: Make of this what you will
China’s most popular app is a propaganda tool teaching Xi Jinping Thought
Released by China’s Communist Party, the app is helping cadres learn more about its political doctrine
Kompromat
Or, Revelations from the Unpublished Portions of Andrea Manafort’s Hacked Texts
The Bey Keeper
Yvette Noel-Schure Stands Between the World and Beyoncé
Acid Over Hollywood
How “Blade” Immortalized a 303 Anthem
How Japanese Ambient Music Became a Thing in America
For reasons not quite clear, the YouTube algorithm began recommending more and more Japanese music of this sort to anyone adventurous enough to let their AutoPlay queue up a few selections.
Why Do New York Disco DJs Love Those Headphones That Look Like an Old-School Telephone?
Whenever I’ve seen a one of these things, it’s been on the head—well, wedged against the neck—of a New York DJ playing disco or soulful house music.