The FADER Weekend Reading List

Carl Wilson, Slate (9/1)

The Weeknd channels Michael Jackson, Carly Rae Jepsen channels Cyndi Lauper, and Taylor Swift...named her album 1989. A very fun and thoughtful piece on why pop music these days is drawing so much from the '80s. As Wilson writes, "...when the drive is The More Pop The Better, ’80s-ness has come to stand for pop’s essence." He continues, "The music’s very shallowness becomes a kind of helpless depth." No complaints here.

Adam Bulger, Van Winkle's (8/31)

Former psychology student, English professor, one-time porno director, and now legendary horror filmmaker, Wes Craven passed away this week. In order to celebrate his legacy, here is an article by Adam Bulger about the inspiration behind Craven's Nightmare On Elm Street: a monster called the Dab Tsong that haunted the dreams of the Hmong (from the mountains of Southeast Asia), who came to America as refugees from Laos and began dying in their sleep. This piece by Greg Cwik from The A.V. Club honors the late, great horror master with a smart exposition of why Scream changed horror forever.

Matthew Trammell, The FADER (9/2)

Trammell's column, "Beat Construction," featured producer Mocky this week. Mocky's worked with Feist, Kelela, and even filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowski. In this piece, we get to learn all about how Mocky blurs the line between reality and fiction, and what life was like "pre-DM."

Photography and video by Paolo Pellegrin, text by Scott Anderson, New York Times (9/3)

Learn about the refugees attempting to escape the poverty of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, and sub-Saharan Africa, by crossing the Mediterranean from Lybia to Italy in this beautifully presented piece of video, photography, and journalism from the New York Times.

Alice Gregory, GQ (9/1)

What is the Soho House? Well, apparently it's not so much like "that episode of Sex and the City where Samantha impersonates a British lady to gain access to the pool," and more like "a club in the way your rich uncle's country club is a club. Only instead of blazers and tennis doubles and Easter-egg hunts dutifully organized to distract the kids from their parents' feckless gin consumption, you get distressed denim," as Alice Gregory hilariously, and aptly puts it. Read her account of why and how Soho House is bound for world domination.

Benjamin Lebrave, The FADER (9/2)

An interview with Azizaa, a musician from Ghana, sheds light on the challenge of holding onto spirituality other than Christianity in a country whose Christian churches were founded mostly by Americans. "How can anyone of African descent be worshiping the same tool used to uselessly murder their ancestors?," Azizaa asks. Read more here.

Earl Swift, Outside (9/1)

Twenty-five years ago, wholesome, nature-loving hikers Geoff Hood and Molly LaRue were brutally murdered in a shelter on the Appalachian Trail. Earl Swift, now an author, was a fellow hiker at the time and shared the trail with Geoff and Molly—who left sweet and charming notes and poems in trail journals along their way, signing their names as Clevis and Nalgene, respectively. Swift writes of his experience knowing the couple through the trail journals, and in person, before their shocking, now-infamous deaths.

Kyle Chayka, Bloomberg Business (9/2)

Bloomberg's Kyle Chayka writes about Brooklyn Builders, the rock climbing gym-cum-office-space popular among startup types, and its new Long Island City location. I think a snippet is all you need to get hooked:

"...it’s easy to see the gym more as a kind of millennial day care, at which members can drop themselves off and stay for days. 'We want to make a facility that you don’t want to leave,' says Pinn, who looks more startup founder than climber in a plaid short-sleeve shirt, baggy jeans, and bright blue New Balances—a look he calls 'outdoor business casual...Our place is designed for a party. You could have a sick party in here, and we’re going to.'"