Daniel Aged has been compared to Rhye, The xx, and even Seal. To me, he doesn’t sound like any of those people, but I think what folks are getting at is the sense of gentleness that runs through his R&B-adjacent work. Recently, he’s made space away from his (likewise quiet) brother duo, Inc., to write and produce for Frank Ocean, and now he’s bringing an Ocean-level sense of interiority to his first solo work: a synthy, ambient funk EP, a wash of sound that’s also perfect to consume solo. Headphones up.
This month, my rent (formerly a “deal”) is going up for the fourth year in a row, approximately five seconds after the hysteria calmed down over everyone leaving the city. So you’ll understand how hard I clicked on this article about “how the basics—a secure, affordable roof over one’s head—became the stuff of fantasy.” I’m not the only one clicking for solace— this piece has been linked in a million places week, reflecting just how many of us feel less than secure in this absurd housing market. But some people seem to be doing just fine. I hear high-end interior design is booming, for example, and Boomers are filling entire housing developments with their best buds. And extra suburban bedrooms are becoming closets because belongings deserve to be comfortable, too. Power to your shoe room. We’ll just be over here praying for access to laundry.
It soothes my soul at least to consider that people in Nevada may no longer have lawns. Rebranded as “ornamental grass,” any turf outside a sports field is on the chopping block during this prolonged drought, a measure that should save the state 12 million gallons of water each year (in addition to supporting biodiversity, which is suddenly being accepted as a thing). The plan doesn’t even touch single-family homes yet, but may soon, and should probably extend across the US at some point since evidently A QUARTER of our non-agricultural water usage goes to lawns. Why!
That’s great about the lawns, but think bigger. If you haven’t already, please read David Treuer’s proposal to give America’s national parks back to the Tribes. Did you know that Yosemite became a national park just 40 years after a California militia massacred the Miwok people who lived there? Or that wars over ownership of the surrounding Plains were still happening as the park was established?
“For Native Americans, there can be no better remedy for the theft of land than land,” Treuer writes. “And for us, no lands are as spiritually significant as the national parks.” Not to mention, the US has been pretty much sucking at caring for the parks, and around the world, scientists are looking to indigenous people to restore the health of land because they’re the only people who’ve lived with any meaningful symbiosis. Read the rest from Treuer. You’ll learn so much.
