Have a holly jolly linkmas

and add a cup of cheer

Author

Courtney E. Smith
December 17, 2023

This newsletter is brought to you by my full immersion in holiday mode. And here’s my beloved holiday playlist on Spotify for your enjoyment.

Good Reads

The story giving me nightmares this week is the WSJ’s breakdown of what publishers, including my employer, are aflutter about — Google rolling out an AI tool that will negate the need to click through and read any articles. It’s in test mode now and is already causing an industry-wide strategy shift away from relying on SEO traffic. In some ways, that is a good thing. SEO strategy is why I’ve written and assigned a lot of stupid ass stuff in my career. I’m hearing a lot of talk about leaning into dedicated users and tempting them in via channels publishers own, like newsletters. Hopefully, that means a move towards more in-depth and unique content that doesn’t rely on what people are Googling to be deemed worth creating. But it also means traffic for publishers falling off the side of a cliff yet again and more layoffs industry-wide.

This is the article all my media friends have been sharing this week, in which a couple of people we assume are living the dream break down what it actually takes and beg everyone not to do it.

Behind the Birth of an Anti-Vaccine Story (New York Times - gift link)

Wonder how the anti-vax stories about it was causing young men to experience cardiac disease and die got started? That’s a story I heard after my cousin watched clips of a doctor on Joe Rogan spreading misinformation. This story shed some light on the true story that inspired that not exactly true warning.

I love R.E.M. endlessly and the fact that multiple people didn’t text this to me is insulting. Anyway, it’s fine and I forgive you. This piece makes Stipe sound like he has an incredible case of ADD at first but stay for the part where he’s at Electric Lady Studios while Taylor Swift is recording with Jack Antonoff during the dating Matty Healy from the 1975 era because the tightrope walk of him talking to these people while not giving a shit about their music or who they are is incredible.

I love a messy post-mortem on how fucked-up shit went down and I’m happy to see that Vanity Fair is still the home of these pieces. This is a book excerpt and while I will likely never read the book, I devoured this gossipy piece like the hater I am.

Good Stuff

What Happens Later (Bleeker Street)

I was sucked into this movie when it used the Lightning Seeds’ song “Pure” in the trailer. Not only do I love that song, but I have this vivid memory early in my friendship with Melissa, my cohost on Songs My Ex Ruined, of her asking if I had an MP3 of it because it wasn’t on iTunes. Of course I did. Also, I like romcoms. I didn’t realize Meg Ryan both wrote and directed it, in addition to starring in it. It’s great, but what was totally unexpected was the way she wove music from Gen X into it as a plot point. Very cool.

Saltburn (MGM)

It’s unhinged, you have to watch it. I cannot say anything more because of spoilers. I love Emerald Fennel. Support women directors and filmmakers.

My Stuff

We’ve dropped several excellent episodes of Songs My Ex Ruined since the last one of these I sent out. J’na Jefferson’s episode is a long, juicy story about a breakup she should have instigated way sooner and the drawn-out ending to a relationship. Plus, she’s super fun to listen to.

And we just released an episode of Have You Heard This One? by Cristian Salazar that is all about the Woodstock of Mexico, which took place in 1971 and caused the country’s government to lose their shit and shut down native rock music for 15 years. If you don’t know that story, you gotta listen.

I’ve written several things for Eater Dallas that I’m proud of, including a feature on the folks at Restaurant Beatrice starting a leadership program with Dallas College to empower women, an interview with local chef Matt McCallister about his unexpected next move, and the very time-consuming process of the Eater Award winners for 2023 in Dallas.