Microlog
14 Microlog entries tagged with ‘longreads’
61 Things I Learned At The National Hobo Convention
This is really pretty amazing and heartwarming and respectful. One of my links of last year. Permalink ·
The World of 30 Rock
It’s not the sitcom du jour anymore (that’s probably Community) but I love the hell out of 30 Rock and it’s interesting to get some of the backstory here. Permalink ·
Mail Supremacy
The New Yorker on The Daily Mail: the closest media outlet in the UK and Ireland to Fox News in terms of reality distortion. Permalink ·
The Bitch, The Stud and The Prawn
“Officials in the Inland Revenue had begun to notice more and more British films had actually amassed takings of less than £100. The tax men began to suspect something was up. One possibility was that all the films were so bad that no one would release them. In fact the reality was that for all these films it didn’t matter whether they were seen in a cinema or not. Their real function was as a tax dodge for rich people.” Adam Curtis on the story of George Walker and the rise of ‘geezer capitalism’. Permalink ·
Burn All the Liars
“An unfinished autobiography and a 1980s biopic turned Frances Farmer, one of the great golden-era stars, into a lobotomized zombie. The main trouble: Frances Farmer wasn’t lobotomized. An investigation to set one of Hollywood’s most convoluted stories straight.” Permalink ·
5.4: Pitchfork, 1995-present
A comprehensive critical history of the music review site. Give yourself a good half hour or so to digest the whole thing, it’s worth it. Permalink ·
One Town’s War on Gay Teens
Here’s my alternative standfirst: Why wretched people like Michelle Bachman and her supporters are dangerous and evil and must be stopped. Permalink ·
The Human Lake
“Instead of being lashed to a lab bench for years, carrying out experiments to illuminate one particular fold in one particular protein, we [science writers] get to play the field. We travel between different departments, different universities, different countries, and—most important of all—different disciplines. And sometimes we see links between different kinds of science that scientists themselves have missed. Which is why… I presented my audience with this photograph of a lake. For the next hour, I tried to convince them that their bodies are a lot like that lake, and that appreciating this fact could help them find new ways to treat diseases ranging from obesity to heart disease to infections of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.” Carl Zimmer’s talk on the importance of the human body’s microbial system. A long read, but fascinating stuff [c/o Kottke]. Permalink ·
The Information: How the Internet Gets Inside Us
Adam Gopnik elucidates the ways in which technology changes society, and how people react to this change: the clash between the Never-Betters, the Better-Nevers and the Ever-Wasers [c/o Infovore]. Permalink ·
Longform’s Best of 2011
As the link says, some top picks from the wealth of longform writing on the web this year. See also: Give Me Something To Read’s 2011 Highlights. Permalink ·
How the Potato Changed the World
Added to the ‘Things I didn’t know’ file: tomatoes can be affected by potato blight [c/o The Morning News]. Permalink ·
Scott and Scurvy
Epic post from Maciej Ceglowski last year that I never noticed at the time. Did you know they forgot the cure for scurvy in the 19th century? Crazy stuff. Permalink ·
Looking Back at the Upright Citizens Brigade’s Early Years
Reviewing more than 15 years of the comedy team that’s spawned “about half the funny people on [US] TV”. Permalink ·
The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist
A very sad tale of man’s inhumanity to man. Permalink ·
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This is the personal website of MacDara Conroy, a production journalist, music writer and mediavore in Dublin, Ireland. Read more »
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This page lists all Microlog entries by MacDara Conroy tagged with ‘longreads’. You will find many more entries sorted by month and by category in the Archives.
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