Read Faith, Hope and Carnage by Nick Cave and Sean O’Hagan: This book is essentially a long-form conversation on Nick Cave’s personal life. I’ve ingested much written text about grief, but Faith, Hope and Carnage has provided a new take that I’m resonating with for the time being.
—Syd Walker, Assistant Design and Photo Editor

Listened to Broken Record: This wonderfully vivid podcast features a conversation between music producer Rick Rubin and the one and only James Osterberg, aka Iggy Pop! Iggy has an encyclopedic knowledge of culture and history—soaked up from the streets of Los Angeles, right across Europe to Berlin’s Alexandraplatz, and everywhere in between. He talks to Rick about where it all started—in Detroit, where the Stooges supported bands such as MC5 and Frank Zappa’s The Mothers of Invention—reminiscing on David Bowie, recording Fun House, and seeing the ocean for the first time. Essential listening for even the mildest of rock ’n’ roll fans.
—Alexandra Bickerdike, Junior Fashion Editor

Read Especially Heinous: 272 Views of Law & Order SVU by Carmen Maria Machado: As a kid, I watched Law & Order quasi-religiously, and Special Victims Unit really took the cake. This show goes on and on and on—24 seasons and counting; it was always playing on live TV, and chances were that, anytime you felt inclined, you had a shot at discovering an episode you hadn’t seen before. I loved Carmen Maria Machado’s novella Especially Heinous, which takes the horror of SVU’s subject matter quite literally—Benson and Stabler are haunted simultaneously by their doppelgängers, Henson and Abler, and a host of murdered girls—victims of the crimes they investigate. It’s an utterly creative story, arranged by episode and by season, playing on the show’s repetition and predictability, its sexuality and violence, its ridiculousness and numbing effect that all grow ghostly in time.
—Morgan Becker, Digital Managing Editor

Bought Dorset Delft tiles: Aviva Halter hand-rolls these tiles, onto which she paints perfect renderings of any dog you please with near-frightening accuracy. I commissioned one for my work wife for Valentine’s, launching me toward supremacy in the (probably one-sided) competition for her affection against the man she is legally married to.
—Megan Hullander, Print Managing Editor

Watched Yasujirō Ozu’s unofficial “Noriko Trilogy” (Late Spring, Early Summer, Tokyo Story): The unofficial “Noriko Trilogy” by Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu comprises the films Late Spring (1949), Early Summer (1951), and his oft-considered magnum opus Tokyo Story (1953), each of which are masterworks of quiet poetic imagery, punctured by moments of startling emotional clarity. None of the films are directly tied to one another—only loosely connected through Ozu’s use of mostly the same cast throughout, and through the naming of the title character, Noriko, played by Setsuko Hara. But each film gently provides incisive commentary on the clash between tradition and contemporary values, and on the often unspoken dynamics and tensions that run within a family, as youth meets age, and time keeps on.
—Phil Backes, Director of Partnerships & Social Media