• The Bedtime Story That Keeps Him Awake - These are the words of the author of the article, but I'm stealing them because I feel the same way. Beware, I struggled to sleep after this one. I am certified wuss so if you are, too, proceed with caution.

If you are encountering Brian Evenson’s marvelously unnerving short story “Good Night, Sleep Tight” for the first time, I must confess that I envy you. In truth, I envy every reader who is about to sit down and savor Evenson’s calculated prose, his unflinching dedication to character, atmosphere, and stylized dread. I feel somewhat inadequate providing an introduction for perhaps one of the greatest voices of modern literary horror, but I will do my best.

• Why are stores closing in droves in China's tier-1 cities? - So many talk about China from the outside looking in. I love this newsletter for its inside looking out perspective. What we are seeing in China appears to mirror the shift of sorts US malls are seeing as well. I am strangely hopeful for all the inventive ways malls are being reimagined.

These days, we are seeing a growing trend of so-called ‘non-standard’ (非标) malls and retail models in China. The reason is clear: people are tired of traditional malls that offer little more than shopping, dining, and workspaces. By China’s standard, malls like Westfield and Selfridges feel outdated, even NYC’s Hudson Yards seems very... 2015 (it opened in 2019).

• Streaming is an affront to God - I grew up in the era of the iPod so I struggle to imagine the era before widely available music. It is clear we lost something in the transition. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up streaming after this, but I am thinking about it in a new way.

Your boy Young Spyplane is old enough to have spent untold hours as a kid posted up in my bedroom next to my radio, with a blank cassette in the deck and my fingers poised to smash the ‘Play’ and ‘Record’ buttons — waiting for a song I’d heard & loved to come on again in the hopes that I could POUNCE, tape it, and make it mine.

• The business of check cashing - I am nothing if not a sucker for a deep dive. A deep dive for the ages, this is the new gold standard for my own deep dives. I first dove into the world of banking in Black Swan, swam around a bit with Goliath and then found myself hooked with Matt Levine's Money Stuff. I've yet to see anything like this article, which details the murky world of checks and how they fit into the financial system.

You might have gotten an A for 92% in school but if your checks are 92% likely to be good money that’s a hard no from us. We decline to extend you credit under this product. We may extend you credit in other fashions, if you ask. You’ll find that in those products credit costs a lot more than the cheap credit embedded in checking accounts, reflecting the elevated risk of doing business with you.

• Language Is a Poor Heuristic for Intelligence - I struggle with definitions of intelligence because of articles like this one. What I find so cool about this article is the way she connects our inability to discern human intelligence with our inability to discern computer intelligence. The rise of LLMs breaks our mental model of computers and we are struggling to rebuild it.

Over and over again, too many times to be anything other than a pervasive pattern, I saw the same story: in blog posts and videos and published memoirs, autistic teens and young adults described living for a decade or more without any way to communicate, while people around them assumed they were intellectually deficient. Kids who heard and understood every time someone referred to them as stupid or simple, who were in terrible pain but had no way to explain the problem, who could read at or above grade level but were forced to repeat the same basic alphabet drills for years. It was horrifying to imagine, and repeatedly broke my heart.

Usually I'll do one album a week. But this week I can't help but include two I've been loving:

• When Smoke Rises by Mustafa - Incredible as background music, yet deep enough to listen to with care. I'm not sure what genre I would call this, but I love it.

• Solo Val - In a nod to Solo Monk, my friend recorded incredible collection of acoustic guitar. Perfect for working for home, cooking music, and nerding out for those who love guitar. You can find more of Val on Spotify or bandcamp (which was new to me).

You can see what else I'm listening to this month here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0dFrY7Gbl4hFeRsP3xuwSz?si=cb95dd16d12f4e3f.

• The Bedtime Story That Keeps Him Awake - These are the words of the author of the article, but I'm stealing them because I feel the same way. Beware, I struggled to sleep after this one. I am certified wuss so if you are, too, proceed with caution.

If you are encountering Brian Evenson’s marvelously unnerving short story “Good Night, Sleep Tight” for the first time, I must confess that I envy you. In truth, I envy every reader who is about to sit down and savor Evenson’s calculated prose, his unflinching dedication to character, atmosphere, and stylized dread. I feel somewhat inadequate providing an introduction for perhaps one of the greatest voices of modern literary horror, but I will do my best.

• Why are stores closing in droves in China's tier-1 cities? - So many talk about China from the outside looking in. I love this newsletter for its inside looking out perspective. What we are seeing in China appears to mirror the shift of sorts US malls are seeing as well. I am strangely hopeful for all the inventive ways malls are being reimagined.

These days, we are seeing a growing trend of so-called ‘non-standard’ (非标) malls and retail models in China. The reason is clear: people are tired of traditional malls that offer little more than shopping, dining, and workspaces. By China’s standard, malls like Westfield and Selfridges feel outdated, even NYC’s Hudson Yards seems very... 2015 (it opened in 2019).

• Streaming is an affront to God - I grew up in the era of the iPod so I struggle to imagine the era before widely available music. It is clear we lost something in the transition. I'm not sure I'm ready to give up streaming after this, but I am thinking about it in a new way.

Your boy Young Spyplane is old enough to have spent untold hours as a kid posted up in my bedroom next to my radio, with a blank cassette in the deck and my fingers poised to smash the ‘Play’ and ‘Record’ buttons — waiting for a song I’d heard & loved to come on again in the hopes that I could POUNCE, tape it, and make it mine.

• The business of check cashing - I am nothing if not a sucker for a deep dive. A deep dive for the ages, this is the new gold standard for my own deep dives. I first dove into the world of banking in Black Swan, swam around a bit with Goliath and then found myself hooked with Matt Levine's Money Stuff. I've yet to see anything like this article, which details the murky world of checks and how they fit into the financial system.

You might have gotten an A for 92% in school but if your checks are 92% likely to be good money that’s a hard no from us. We decline to extend you credit under this product. We may extend you credit in other fashions, if you ask. You’ll find that in those products credit costs a lot more than the cheap credit embedded in checking accounts, reflecting the elevated risk of doing business with you.

• Language Is a Poor Heuristic for Intelligence - I struggle with definitions of intelligence because of articles like this one. What I find so cool about this article is the way she connects our inability to discern human intelligence with our inability to discern computer intelligence. The rise of LLMs breaks our mental model of computers and we are struggling to rebuild it.

Over and over again, too many times to be anything other than a pervasive pattern, I saw the same story: in blog posts and videos and published memoirs, autistic teens and young adults described living for a decade or more without any way to communicate, while people around them assumed they were intellectually deficient. Kids who heard and understood every time someone referred to them as stupid or simple, who were in terrible pain but had no way to explain the problem, who could read at or above grade level but were forced to repeat the same basic alphabet drills for years. It was horrifying to imagine, and repeatedly broke my heart.

Usually I'll do one album a week. But this week I can't help but include two I've been loving:

• When Smoke Rises by Mustafa - Incredible as background music, yet deep enough to listen to with care. I'm not sure what genre I would call this, but I love it.

• Solo Val - In a nod to Solo Monk, my friend recorded incredible collection of acoustic guitar. Perfect for working for home, cooking music, and nerding out for those who love guitar. You can find more of Val on Spotify or bandcamp (which was new to me).

You can see what else I'm listening to this month here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0dFrY7Gbl4hFeRsP3xuwSz?si=cb95dd16d12f4e3f.