"Masha Polska, 15, was an avid dancer who had been dreaming of a star turn in the group waltz. That was not to be."
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
Longreads
• Carolyn Wells
"Masha Polska, 15, was an avid dancer who had been dreaming of a star turn in the group waltz. That was not to be."
Colossal
• Kate Mothes
This year, photographers in 160 countries submitted more than 108,000 images.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Atmospheric Scenes and Layered Interpretations Top the 2026 Hasselblad Masters Contest appeared first on Colossal.
Daring Fireball
• John Gruber
Daring Fireball
• Daring Fireball Department of Commerce
workos.com/pipes?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=q32026
Users expect apps and agents to reach the tools they already work in. Every integration that gets you there is a different OAuth flow, a different token lifecycle, weeks of infrastructure before you write a line of product code.
WorkOS Pipes handles it with one API call. Pre-built connectors for GitHub, Slack, Salesforce, Google Drive, and more. Pipes handles OAuth, token refresh, and credential storage. You call the real provider API with a fresh token, every time.
Link: workos.com/pipes?utm_source=daringfireball&utm_medium…
Song Exploder
• Hrishikesh Hirway
Metric is a band from Canada that was formed in 1998. They’ve won four Juno Awards, including Group of the Year. Rolling Stone included them in their list of the 50 Greatest Canadian Artists of All Time. In April 2026, Metric released their 10th album, Romanticize the Dive. And for this episode, I spoke to Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw about how they made the opening song on that album, “Victim of Luck.”
For more info, visit songexploder.net/metric.
City’s Beautification Initiative Hamstrung By Commitment To Local Artists. “I’m pretty sure when the mayor promised residents a revitalized arts district, he didn’t mean a couple of wonky fish sculptures haphazardly nailed to a tree…” Bwhahaha.
Longreads
• Krista Stevens
"Netflix’s new adaptation of the beloved book series will probably leave out some of the most fascinating details from the author’s life—from Pa Ingalls’s ineptitude to the serial killers that stalked Kansas during her childhood."
Longreads
• Seyward Darby
"It felt like a stabbing. It felt like a burning. It felt like a dull ache, then a sharp one, then it radiated all the way down."
Longreads
• Longreads

The Atlas Obscura Podcast
• SiriusXM Podcasts & Atlas Obscura
We head south of Miami to hear the story of a family that took a gamble on a humble roadside stand that blossomed into a fruit emporium and community staple.
This episode is part of our ongoing coverage of the soccer world championship. In each episode, we take you beyond the stadium, and to a nearby wonder that’s off the beaten track.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Longreads
• Seyward Darby
"Johnny Knoxville and his band of merry pranksters got me through one of the worst weeks of my life."
In this video I discuss the 2nd movement of the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 Op. 15 from 1858. This is insanely beautiful and you need to hear it!
My Beato Club supporters:
Justin Scott
Terence Mark
Jason Murray
Lucienne Kilpatrick
Alexander Young
Jason Wagner
Todd Ladner
Rob Kline
Nicholas Long
Tim Benson
Leonardo Martins da Costa Rodrigues
Eddie Perez
David Solomon
MICHAEL JOYCE
Stephen Stubbs
colin stead
Jonathan Wentworth-Linton
Patrick Payne
MATTHEW KARIS
Matthew Barouch
Shaun Samuels
Danny Kurywchak
Gregory Reedy
Sean Coleman
Alexander Verbitskiy
CL Turner
Jason Pappafotis
John Fulford
Margaret Carno
Robert C
David M Combs
Eric Flatt
Reto Spoerli
Herr Moritz Adam
Monte St. Johns
Jon Beezley
Peter DeVault
Eric Nabstedt
Eric Beggs
Rich Germano
Brian Bloom
Peter Pillitteri
Piush Dahal
Toby Guidry
Colossal
• Joy Machine
The Dutch artist reflects on both the momentous and mundane, particularly loss, grief, and the therapeutic powers of nature.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Collin van der Sluijs’ ‘Wanderland’ Imagines a Vast Ecosystem Encompass the Momentous and Mundane appeared first on Colossal.
If Only There Had Been a Sign That the Face-Melting Nazi from Indiana Jones Wouldn’t Make a Good Senator. “Marion Ravenwood said he trapped her in a room and physically assaulted her. But I decided to keep supporting Toht anyway.”
How to talk about “AI” without adding to the anthropomorphization. Suggestions: “artificial intelligence → probabilistic automation” & “AI agent → probabilistic, unverified software manipulator”. Seems like the horse is out of the barn on this though…