This article originally appeared in the September 1995 issue of SPIN. It’s getting harder and harder to remember that, for much of his career, Neil Young has been regarded—if loved—as a self-destructive oddball. Even in his most celebrated decade, the 1970s, he shelved entire albums; others, such as Time Fades Away and On the Beach, were so determinedly marginal that they’ve never been reissued on CD. Then, in the ’80s, he released a notorious series of rockabilly, synth-pop, and country experiments so off-putting that his label, Geffen, eventually sued him for not sounding like himself. But starting with “Rockin in the Free World,” the anthem that bookends 1989’s Freedom, he went back to being Neil Young. Ragged Glory was a typically...
Richard Powers Richard Powers on His Latest Book, Bewilderment—And Why Children Are the Ones to Call Out Climate Change EvasionBY ELIJAH WOLFSON SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 7:00 AM EDTRichard Powers’ 2018 novel The Overstory, which won that year’s Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, followed decades of the MacArthur Fellow’s work investigating the intersections of culture, the environment, science and technology. His most recent book, Bewilderment, released Tuesday, again delves into the impact of science on human life. Bewilderment by Richard Powers In Bewilderment, something of a contemporary take on the Flowers for Algernon story, Powers writes of a neurodivergent, middle-school-aged child named Robin who undergoes an experiment involving decoded neurofeedback (a cutting-edge neuroscience technique in real life). The experiment improves Robin’s emotional quotient—at least at first.Powers spoke to...
Imagine with me: Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook without any metrics.You log onto the app, and see the same pictures from your friends and the latest food videos from creators like Emily Mariko — but there's no number of likes, no number of views, and no number of comments. You don't know how many followers other people on the app have, or how many followers you have. You don't even know the number of people you follow. There's no way to quantify your experience — and no numerical way to compare it to others.Tying numbers to our lives online has made our popularity quantifiable and, some say, that has deepened an unhealthy reliance on potential virality on the apps that can...
Being a mom is the most difficult job in the world. Every day can be an endless battle against trying to keep things at home in order while ensuring that your kids are well taken care of. Don’t worry, mom. You’ve got this. You can’t make your life perfect but you can surely make it easier. Check out these interior design hacks for busy moms like you. Have Fun With Decor and Textiles You’re spending most of your days at home so it’s just fitting that you make it your “happy place.” Decor and textiles make beautiful additions to your home. Fabric instills a sense of coziness and calmness, making your place homier. They also come in an enormous richness...
A natural-born exaggerator with a superb taste for the absurd, Tony was the ultimate storyteller. Tony’s way of looking at the world, his ability to transform the bland everyday into a fantastic reinterpretation of reality, only seemed to add more meaning and truth to the original event. “Both versions of the scene will begin with the same shots of the train approaching the station. Keep my version straightforward, about food—with a passing reference to the hungry kids,” Tony said, talking a mile a minute, pausing only to light a cigarette. “We want to leave almost no hint of how badly things spun out of control in my version, skim over the ugliness and culpability and shame and spare the viewer...
