Newspaper Music

For quite some time now, I've been making Spotify playlists of songs mentioned in or inspired by articles in the magazines and newspapers I read. The practice might date back to my Media Diet email newsletter, seems to have become more formal and frequent in 2021, and became much more important and interesting to me when I moved to Portugal late last year.

After relocating, the effort served a three-fold purpose. In addition to reading Portuguese newspapers such as Correio da Manhã, Jornal de Notícias, Público, Expresso, Correio do Minho, and Diário do Minho, and magazines such as TV 7 Dias, TV Guia, Sábado, and Visão for local, regional, and national news, as well as learning the language, it also offered a crash course in Portuguese popular music—past and present. Portuguese newspapers and magazines do a good job covering local arts activities, including upcoming concerts, festivals, and other events—with a strong focus on Portuguese musicians in addition to touring international acts.

When compiling the playlists, which can take some time, I apply several "rules." If a song isn't named explicitly but a musician or musical group is, I pick one of the most-played songs on Spotify—unless I've previously included it in a similar playlist. If a song is named explicitly by title, I include that song—even if it results in including more than one song from a particular musician or band. Otherwise, I try to include one song per musician or band (or composer, in the case of classical music). I tend to try to include album cuts rather than single edits, live versions, or songs from best-of anthologies or compilations, though I sometimes rely on such records for expedience. And if a song has been remastered, I try to include the most recent remaster. That might seem like a lot of hoo-hah, but I think it results in me including a definitive version of a song. Whatever that means.

If I can't find a musician or band—or if I'm unable to determine which musical group is the band in question—I exclude the track, so not everything covered by the press ends up on the playlist. And when I finish the playlist, I share it as an Instagram Story. I don't really pay any attention to whether anyone else saves the playlist in Spotify, which seems the strongest signal indicating that others are also listening.

While compiling the most recent week's playlist—Newspaper Music: Week of July 20, 2026—which I finished yesterday, the enormity of the task and result struck me. (It makes sense that I've taken a couple of months off!) This week's playlist weighs in at 375 songs, or more than 24 hours of music. That's a far cry from compiling a 60- or 90-minute mix tape. 

I've already stopped doing this on a weekly basic—I don't always read all the papers and magazines every week, there are other ways to spend time in a new country, and, more importantly, I don't always listen to all of the songs and pieces myself. So I'm going to institute a new rule: I will compile the next Newspaper Music playlist once I've listened to all of the most recent playlist myself. I've been missing out on the true value of the musical education component of this practice: Experiencing the actual music.

If you'd like to check out some of the other playlists I've compiled along these lines, here are some additional links:

Media Diet 20210619 | Media Diet 20210905 | Media Diet 20211009 | Media Diet 20211205 | Media Diet 20220312 | Media Diet 20220416 | Media Diet 20220522 | The Week That Will Be 20220621 | Songs of the Weekend 20230409 | Week of 20241104 | Week of Feb. 3, 2025 | Week of May 12, 2025 | Week of Dec. 22, 2025 | Newspaper Music w/o Jan. 5, 2026 | Newspaper Music: Feb. 16, 2026 | Newspaper Music: March 23, 2026

I believe you can access even more playlists here.

Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2007

I also recently received a copy of the Best AltWeekly Writing and Design 2007 book published by the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies Press.

As a judge for the Website Content Feature category this past year, I had a hand in selecting the winners recognized in the book. While I was pleased to have some of my comments on the pieces quoted in the hard copy, I was disappointed that the online articles weren't actually reprinted in print form. Regardless, you can check out the winners online.

This is an underpromoted effort. While the best American magazine writing warrants its own annual anthology series and we have the Project Censored effort, the AAN awards should be just as recognized. Alt.weeklies contain some of the most critical and important journalism today, and the best of the best should be lauded appropriately. Similarly, the Web categories should be given similar shrift as the print categories. Print articles are reprinted in this volume, and online articles should be, too.

Regardless, you should buy this book every year. You'll be glad you did.

Dissecting the Times

While I'm pretty sure I stop shy of being obsessive compulsive, I do like to put things in order. I like alphabetizing my records. When catching up on reading back issues of magazines, I read them in date order. And, if this morning's read of the New York Times is any indication, I like to read my Sunday newspaper in a specific order.

Struck by that observation this morning, I took note of how I organized the various sections of the newspaper before reading it. Half of the paper is delivered on Sunday. I don't know how the following list falls out in terms of what section was delivered when, because I don't read the Sunday Times on Saturday. It's the Sunday Times.

Regardless, before reading the paper, I unbag both days' deliveries and arrange them in the order I plan to attack the sections. Here is that order:

• Book Review
  
• The City -- I'm especially fond of the FYI Q&A column
  
• The Metro Section
  
• Magazine -- I look for Rob Walker, Dan Clowes, and I save the Acrostic for Caitlin
  
• Sunday Styles
  
• Arts & Leisure
  
• Real Estate -- the first section. The second is all listings and less interesting
  
• Week in Review
  
• Business
  
• Automobiles -- a quick flip
  
• The front section
  
• Sports
  
• Travel -- usually my least favorite section, and therefore, the last to be read
  

I don't know how consistent I am Sunday to Sunday -- I'd imagine there's some variance -- but I found this interesting.

What Sunday newspaper do you read -- and how do you do so?

2007 AltWeekly Awards Winners

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies announced the winners of the 2007 AltWeekly Awards late last week. I was a judge in the Website Content Feature category. Congratulations to the winners!

Somerville Superstars

Since 1999, I've sung in a punk-rock band called the Anchormen. The band is part of an arts collective called Handstand Command. And we're featured in this week's edition of the Somerville Journal! The Somerville Journal is published by the Community Newspaper Co., which is now owned by Herald Media Inc., publisher of the Boston Herald. CNC used to be owned by FMR Corp., parent of Fidelity Investments. I think this is as close as the Anchormen will ever get to corporate sponsorship.