Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
Kim Gordon's memoir "Girl In A Band" is out this week. Photo: Unknown
Kim Gordon on the Pain and Anger of Performing With Her Ex - NY Mag (excerpt from Girl In A Band: A Memoir)
"The couple everyone believed was golden and normal and eternally intact, who gave younger musicians hope they could outlast a crazy rock-and-roll world, was now just another cliché of middle-aged relationship failure — a male midlife crisis, another woman, a double life."
Christchurch: My first quake anniversary away from home - by Olivia Carville, The Press
"This year, I will be alone on the anniversary. For me, in my new Canadian home, it will be 6.51pm on Saturday the 21st when Christchurch gathers to mark the fourth anniversary. I will be 14,400km away, but I will stand in silent unison with my fellow Cantabrians for that minute. And, for that minute, my heart will be in Christchurch. Any Kiwi expat will likely feel the same. That's why flowers pop up in road cones all around the world. That's why Facebook feeds are full of tributes for our broken city. It's all we can do from afar."
Meet Tink, A New Voice For Proudly Imperfect Women - by Jenna Wortham, The Fader
"Tink is a teenage girl growing up in America, and she mines material from her experiences to create relatable composites. Her peers know what it's like to find incriminating text messages on their lover's phone, about crushes that feel like rolling on molly, the despair of wanting to feel love, or the loss of friends who are gone too soon. Tink has created a trustworthy soundtrack for a generation raised on self-documentation, their lives captured in hastily written tweets, emo Facebook posts, and late-night snaps."
Is new music killing the record industry? - by Angus Batey, The Guardian
"Music has never been more widely available, faster to access, or easier to discover. Yet despite all of the investment, the number of new acts who are building sustainable careers is tiny – and shrinking. In 2009, again according to the BPI, 46 debut artists had an album sell 100,000 copies or more in the UK. In 2011, it fell to 32, and last year only 14 acts hit that mark."
Some Hollywood extras suffer, but others are rolling in it - by Hillel Aron, LA Weekly
"Last year, one extra worked about 140 days and took home about $170,000, before taxes. He used to write for television — some of the others have dubbed him "Harvard" for being more erudite than they are. But once the TV writer started doing background work, he found the stress-free lifestyle intoxicating."
American Deserter - Why AWOL soldiers are most at risk in Canda - by Wil S. Hylton, New York Magazine
Sometimes Dean Walcott disappears. He’ll be sitting on the sofa, watching his boys play, their shouts and giggles slicing the air, when the scent of blood washes over him and the day goes black.
“All of a sudden, I’m gone,” he said quietly. “And I’m on the floor, crying.”
The Ideal Woman - by Mallory Ortberg, The Toast
"Just a regular woman in a regular gown holding a regular fan. I don’t know what’s on your floor right now, but I’m willing to bet it isn’t a single crushed white rose. Whatever is on your floor right now, I’m willing to bet it’s aggressively mediocre, just like your life."
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