Weekend Reads (February 8): Slowdive, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Elon Musk’s Takeover, Tech Broligarchs
Recommended weekend reading material for February 8, 2025.
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Every week, I compile a list of articles in order to give subscribers like you something interesting and thought-provoking to read over the weekend.
This week marked the 30th anniversary of Slowdive’s Pygmalion. Back in 2020, The Quietus published Joe Banks’ reflection on the minimalist masterpiece.
Instead of pursuing a chilled techno sound, they went in the opposite direction, stripping back their wall of noise to reveal its shimmering, ghostly outline underneath. In doing so, they created a minimalist post rock masterpiece that may have struggled to be heard in 1995 — blotted out by both the brouhaha of Britpop and the baggage of their own reputation — but sounds today like a visionary blueprint for generations of bands to come.
I still remember the first time I heard “Rutti,” the album’s opening track, and one of the most haunting songs in Slowdive’s catalog. The owner of Lincoln’s Zero Street Records (RIP) played it for me, and I was entranced — something I still experience while listening to the album, even after three decades.
Related: My review of Pygmalion, which seemed like Slowdive’s swan song at the time. “[I]t is a challenging work, but at the same time, more rewarding than any of their other albums.”
Also related: Alan Sparhawk (Low), George Clarke (Deafheaven), Stuart Braithwaite (Mogwai), and more weigh in on Pygmalion’s influence and legacy.
A revival of the beloved Buffy the Vampire Slayer starring Sarah Michelle Gellar is in the works from director Chloé Zhao.
[Gellar] said she didn’t agree to anything in that meeting. However, she warmed up to it by having more conservations and “landed on an idea” with her team, and writers Nora and Lilla Zuckerman.
“I have always listened to the fans and heard your desire to revisit Buffy and her world, but it was not something I could do unless I was sure we would get it right. This has been a long process, and it’s not over yet,” she wrote. “I promise you, we will only make this show if we know we can do it right. And I will tell you that we are on the path there.”
Not surprisingly, series creator Joss Whedon — who has been accused of toxic behavior and harassment — is not involved in the revival.
Related: SlashFilm ranks all of the major Buffy villains, and it should come as no surprise who claims the top spot.
Warner Brothers is digging into their vault and releasing full-length movies on YouTube. The eclectic selections include Michael Collins, Mr. Nice Guy, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, The Mission, and Return of the Living Dead Part II. Check out the full YouTube playlist.
Related: Every month, I highlight the best titles arriving on streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+.
If you’ve been following American news, then you’ve probably heard something about the growing concern over Elon Musk’s unprecedented — and likely illegal — level of control and access to the federal government’s inner workings. If not, The Verge’s Elizabeth Lopatto offers up a brief overview.
While putative President Donald Trump was busy alienating allies through tariffs and wasting water in California — real mad king hours — Musk pushed out the head of the FAA. Then the reports came fast and thick: Federal employees received a “fork in the road” email highly reminiscent of Musk’s Twitter ultimatum, encouraging them to resign, sent from an insecure server. A bunch of goons, some of them actual teenagers, reportedly got access to the US Treasury systems. (Read-only, reportedly, for now.) Longtime civil servants were locked out of the personnel systems that, by the way, house the personal data for government employees. Musk’s lackeys are in control of the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration. They’ve gotten ahold of classified information, and are now shutting down the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Musk said he “spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.”
Fortunately, it appears that some people in a position to do something — even some conservatives — are realizing that the U.S. is in a crisis thanks to Musk’s actions.
The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie has written some of the most clear-headed analysis of Elon Musk’s power grab to date.
Again, if Musk had been elected to some office, this would still be one of the worst abuses of executive power in American history. No one in the executive branch has the legal authority to unilaterally cancel congressional appropriations. No one has the legal authority to turn the Treasury payments system into a means of political retribution. No one has the authority to summarily dismiss civil servants without cause. No one has the authority to take down and scrub government websites of public data, itself paid for by American taxpayers. And no private citizen has the authority to access the sensitive data of American citizens for either information gathering or their own, unknown purposes.
I feel like I could quote all of Bouie’s piece, so I strongly recommend you read the entire thing.
At President Trump’s behest, large amounts of data have been wiped from the CDC’s website. Fortunately, there’s still the Internet Archive.
Part of a small group of researchers who managed to download the entire CDC website within days, virologist Angela Rasmussen helped create a public resource that combines CDC website information with deleted CDC datasets. Those datasets, many of which were previously in the public domain for years, were uploaded to IA by an anonymous user, "SheWhoExists," on January 31. Moving forward, Rasmussen told Ars that IA will likely remain a go-to tool for researchers attempting to closely monitor for any unexpected changes in access to public data.
Janus Rose argues that “spending lots of time online posting about what people in power are saying and doing is not going to accomplish anything.”
Cross’ book contains a meticulous catalog of social media sins which many people who follow and care about current events are probably guilty of—myself very much included. She documents how tech platforms encourage us, through their design affordances, to post and seethe and doomscroll into the void, always reacting and never acting.
But perhaps the greatest of these sins is convincing ourselves that posting is a form of political activism, when it is at best a coping mechanism — an individualist solution to problems that can only be solved by collective action. This, says Cross, is the primary way tech platforms atomize and alienate us, creating “a solipsism that says you are the main protagonist in a sea of NPCs.”
“Everything on social media is designed to make you think like that,” said Cross. “It’s all about you — your feed, your network, your friends.”
Via Pixel Envy.
I’ve certainly done my fair share of posting about Trump and Musk on social media, and Rose’s article is convicting. It feels necessary to do something during this chaotic time, and sharing honest and factual assessments feels like doing something. But it’s nothing compared to actually doing something, be it protesting, organizing, or contacting your elected representatives.
Russell Moore on the spiritual and theological ramifications of “tech broligarchs” like Elon Musk ascending to power.
Seeing humanity and the rest of the “real” world through the metaphor of machine has consequences. Seeing humanity and the rest of the world through the metaphor of data is more dangerous still. Once one interprets the universe through a grid of mechanistic mastery — believing what counts is what’s quantifiable and measurable — the end result is a disrespect of the sanctity of a human nature that cannot be understood that way. And once one sees all limits as arbitrary and “analog,” why would one stop at the limits of norms and traditions and laws and constitutional orders, the things that make up a society?
The Ars Technica staff identifies some of the worst offenders when it comes to the internet’s increasing enshittification. Consider, for instance, the smart TV sitting in your living room.
Today, smart TVs are essentially digital billboards that serve as tools for companies — from advertisers to TV OEMs — to extract user data. Corporate interest in understanding what people do with and watch on their TVs and in pushing ads has dramatically worsened the user experience. For example, the remotes for LG’s 2025 TVs don’t have a dedicated input button but do have multiple ways for accessing LG webOS apps.
This is all likely to get worse as TV companies target software, tracking, and ad sales as ways to monetize customers after their TV purchases — even at the cost of customer convenience and privacy. When budget brands like Roku are selling TV sets at a loss, you know something’s up.
Finally, let’s end with something both nerdy and uplifting. Joe George argues that we need “corny” Star Trek, with all of its idealism and optimism, more now than ever.
The fact that we consider solutions based in empathy and community so unrealistic only makes fiction about these ideals all the more important. We live in a world where the government does actually send military groups to commit horrific acts, where political posturing and expediency almost always outweigh any real concern for people’s lives, a world in which kind and professional people who are good at their jobs are consistently overworked and underpaid, and the vulnerable and underprivileged are victimized and reviled. We don’t need Star Trek, of all things, to reflect that reality. We need them to keep going forward, to keep seeking out new life and new civilizations, in the hopes that they’ll inspire and galvanize us when we need it most, and remind us that it’s possible to make our lives and civilizations better.
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