Sixteen years after their last album, five years after Robert Smith said “I feel intent on it being a 2019 release and would be extremely bitter if it isn’t,” and three years after long-time bassist Simon Gallup “appeared” to have quit the band because he “got fed up of betrayal,” The Cure is releasing Songs of a Lost World. And they seem to be having fun doing it.

They sent “cryptic postcards” to fans that didn’t quite announce the record. They put up a poster in the club where they played their first gig, followed by billboards and projections in cities around the world. They created an early 2000s-feeling promotional website where you can listen to short clips of two songs - if you can get in. They premiered the first song on the album on BBC Radio 6, and then launched a pre-order site, where you can order, among other things, a cassette of the new album. But the fun might end there. Robert Smith described it in 2022 as “relentless doom and gloom. It’s the doomiest thing that we’ve ever done.”

HT: Metafilter

Aptly named “Broken Man,” the Lincoln Project’s latest video mercilessly trolls Donald Trump for being what he fears most: an old, scared, worn-out has-been.

Say what you will about The Lincoln Project, they do create some sharp videos.

Dame Maggie Smith, latterly famed for the cantankerous matriarchs she played so well but long-recognized for a lifetime of acting excellence, is dead at 89. She was the dowager of Downton Abbey and Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter film series.

Nicholas Bate –

AI…

Wants you to stop reading so that it becomes smarter than you, more rapidly.

Don’t fall for the trap.

Build a book pile and start devouring the intelligence of the ages and the imagination of authors.

Stop scrolling; start reading.

As always, good advice.

I really love writing on my blog, having no comments, and having no idea how many people read it

— Austin Kleon (@austinkleon) September 27, 2024

Me too.

Warren Ellis –

I sat outside for a bit around half past five. Watched sparrows bouncing around one of the holly trees, the one that’s berried in red jewels. Scrappy winds tumbling across the garden looking for a fight. Lilac bellies on the clouds heading east for the night.

Today was that kind of tiredness that feels like being empty. Sometimes there’s nothing left in you to put down on paper, so you have to watch the clouds go home and wait to fill up again.

Katie Woo, writing for The Athletic, has a story on what the St. Louis Cardinals off-season moves might potentially be.

The Cardinals have lost their way, according to people within the organization interviewed by The Athletic, all of whom were granted anonymity in exchange for their candor. All described an outdated player development department, one that has hurt players like Walker. Some lamented the organization’s emphasis on directing more money to the big-league payroll, even if it meant skimping on hiring the coaches, instructors and modern technology that are vital to refining players as they progress through the minors. Those decisions have left the organization to reckon with the harsh reality that they have fallen behind their rivals.

This has been years in the making.

The Cardinals missed the postseason for the second consecutive year and appear ready to revive the infrastructure that once served as a conveyor belt for polished homegrown players. Though they do not plan on tanking, people briefed on the Cardinals’ plans say the organization is preparing to shift its focus on upgrading the minor leagues and the player development department, even if it means going down a path seldom taken in baseball-mad St. Louis: accepting the possibility of not putting the major-league team in position to contend.

President of baseball operations John Mozeliak plans to publicly address the team’s future shortly after the regular season ends, though he and general manager Mike Girsch declined multiple requests for comment for this story. Representatives of the ownership group headed up by chief executive officer Bill DeWitt II did not respond to The Athletic’s interview requests.

It’s a great piece touching on nearly every aspect of the club. However, it doesn’t address the glaring hole of the missing Yadier Molina, who I think still wants to be part of the organization, but it’s unclear what role that might play.

Overall, it’s difficult to see the same people responsible for the collapse are also trusted to make the right changes and turn it around. I’m not so sure.

Nick Heer on the ever-increasing user-hostile demand for your attention from the biggest social platforms.

When I open any of the official clients for the most popular social media platforms — Instagram, Threads, X, or YouTube — I am thrust into an environment where I am no longer encouraged to have a good time on my own terms. From home feeds containing a blend of posts from accounts I follow and those I do not, to all manner of elements encouraging me to explore other stuff — the platform is never satisfied with my engagement. I have not even factored in ads; this is solely about my time commitment. These platforms expect more of it.”

More and more I’m removing myself from these apps.

On Undecided Voters: “To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”

To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.

― David Sedaris

Warren Ellis –

Nights drawing in. Dark already. A damp warmth: damp already, damp like those days in March and April when it feels like winter has gone on too long.

Three squares of very dark chocolate and a glass of Sauternes as the light leaves.

Will Leitch in New York Magazine –

It’s natural to focus on successful teams: Winning is, after all, the point of every game, the reason we have scoreboards in the first place. But we remember the truly great teams far more than we remember the regular everyday champions: to be the best at something will make you immortal. It thus stands to reason that being the best at losing is also eternal. Do you know who won the World Series in 1962? Do you even care? The only thing that has lasted from that year is the horribleness of the Mets. Besides being more memorable, losing is more relatable and far more familiar than winning. A finite few of us will ever understand what it’s like to be revered, to have tens of thousands of people chanting our name. But doing our best and falling short? Of being bested by a superior? Things not working out? We all know that feeling.”

I feel for the fans. The Cardinals were not much better.

Illini Football.

Being talked about.

Patrick Rhone –

One of my favorite things is walking around my neighborhood. Especially with my wife. We live in such a lovely place with beautiful homes and wonderful neighbors. All the shops and restaurants are great too. Gratitude overload every time.

I’m lucky enough to have that same feeling. My wife and I walk around our neighborhood in the mornings, and I’m instantly grateful that we live where we live.

Marvel Studios has released the latest teaser trailer for the upcoming Thunderbolts*. It’s practically a full trailer.

The big tease is Bob, who everyone who knows comics realizes is Sentry. I’m looking forward to seeing the Void.

Seth Godin –

A poignant definition of civilization is all the conveniences, courtesies, standards, insulation and tools that we hardly notice now but that we would miss if they were gone.

Will Leitch, writing at his Medium account, outlines his version of civic engagement.

There is something charming, even endearing, to me about a political lawn sign. In an age where everyone seems to be shouting for your attention all the time, a political lawn sign just sits there, lo-fi and eternal, like a scrawl on a cave. I know there are people — you may well be one of these people — who are irritated by political lawn signs, who are already overwhelmed and exhausted by politics and the coming election, who have taken great pains to avoid it and thus who don’t appreciate having to be confronted by it constantly when they’re just trying to drive home from work. I am empathetic to this. Remember, I live in a swing state, which means I currently can’t watch a 20-second Illini football highlight without having to hear about the apparently infinite number of serial killers Kamala Harris has let out of prison or how J.D. Vance is hiding a tattoo of the complete Project 2025 platform under his beard. It’s relentless. I get wanting to have a few minutes away.

But the difference between firing off angry missives on social media and putting up a sign on your front lawn encouraging people to vote for your candidate of choice strikes me as vast. To stake your claim in front of your home, where you live, isn’t tossing more verbiage onto the endless heap like posting on social media is; it’s actively participating in the public square. It is putting your money where your mouth is, or, more accurately, it’s understanding that the political is personal — that you and the people who live in your community are together. Perhaps the candidate whose sign is on my lawn will win, or perhaps the candidate whose sign is on your lawn will. But whatever happens will affect both of us, as humans, as citizens, as neighbors. We have grown to isolate ourselves so much, to stay in our silos, to engage only with those who agree with us, to talk only to people who tell us what we want to hear. To put a sign in front of your house — the place where you sleep, and eat, and do laundry, and all those mundane essentials that accumulate to make up a life — that says “this is what we stand for, we would hope you will consider standing for it too” isn’t cynical propagandizing, or civic pollution. It’s an attempt to reach out. It’s an aim to connect.

I have never had a lawn sign in my yard. This year, I bought a Harris-Walz sign for my front yard. As of this writing, it has not arrived yet, but it was because of Will’s writing that I felt the need to support the campaign publicly.

#WeWillWin

Cards Against Humanity is suing Elon Musk for 15 million dollars.

Why do we need to do this? Even if Musk un-fucks our land, that doesn’t un-fuck the damage he’s done to our reputation. 150,000 people gave us their hard-earned money, and in exchange we vowed to protect this land from racist billionaires and their dumb vanity projects. They trusted us because:

• When we say we’re sending people a box of bullshit, we send people a box of actual bull feces.
• When we say we’re donating webstore profits from forced-birth states to fund abortion access, we donate half a million dollars of red-state cash to the National Network of Abortion Funds.
• And when we say we’re digging a tremendous hole in the ground, we don’t walk away from our promises⸺we dig a big fucking hole in the ground.

Our longstanding reputation as a company that makes outrageous promises and actually keeps them is on the line! We promised we’d use every legal tool at our disposal to protect this land from bullies like Trump and Musk (who’s spending millions to get Trump elected and also wants to build the stupid wall). If we don’t take action now, why would anyone ever trust us again?

Los Angeles Dodgers DH Shohei Ohtani entered last night’s game in Miami with 49 stolen bases and 48 home runs for the season. Only five other players in MLB history have ever hit 40 home runs and stolen 40 bases in a season. No player had ever achieved a 50-50 season.

On September 19, 2024, Shohei Ohtani made history.

Ohtani went 6-for-6, hitting 3 homers, stealing 2 bases, and knocking in 10 RBIs — thus breaking 50 in both categories in the same game.

He had arguably the greatest day in baseball history.

Bill McClintock’s latest mashup is titled “You Make Me Feel Like Stayin' a Rocket Queen." It combines the Guns N' Roses song “Rocket Queen” with “Stayin' Alive” by the Bee Gees and “You Make Me Feel Like Dancin'” by Leo Sayer.

Of course, it’s magic.