Read the original Koopa newsletter.
Welcome to OPE!, the newsletter by writer and music journalist Brady Gerber (me). This essay, originally published in my weekly newsletter, is free for all subscribers. Paying subscribers also gain access to an exclusive content. All typos are intentional.
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Well, hello there. How are you?
First off, since I was out last week:
“UCLA?”
“Yes, every day.”
The Naked Gun reboot.
What a wonderful film.
The hardest I’ve laughed in a theater.
I ugly cried.
I saw it on a Friday and saw it again on Saturday.
Crab people. Ronald. Squishy trash cans. Scatting. That snowman montage. All that coffee. A dirty oven. Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago. Chili dogs. Body-cams. “Amish Paradise.”
Go see it, folks.
Elsewhere, this week on the OPE! podcast, I talked about KPop Demon Hunters and Horses 4k.
https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ope-music-with-brady-gerber/id1805375618?i=1000721619862
https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ope-music-with-brady-gerber/id1805375618?i=1000721915992
Anyway.
This Week: I made a new “app” called Koopa
https://koopa-video-game-music.vercel.app
https://koopa-video-game-music.vercel.app/how-i-made-koopa
Enjoy!
But enough about all that. Here are this week’s best links and songs …
MY FAVORITE LINKS OF THE WEEK / WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION
- ASAN’s recent statements regarding some troubling new health policies. (For those new to OPE!: Whenever someone asks me how I feel about any autism news, I direct them to ASAN’s monthly newsletter. They do a great job articulating a lot of what’s going on in the world. For example, whereas I would simply tell you that “RFK Jr. is a cunt,” which would make me feel good in the moment but would not answer your question, ASAN will calmly explain the bogus science he’s relying on and what he’s pushing onto health workers. ASAN is a great resource; we’re better off with it. Check it out.)
- Related: Information is Beautiful summed up some debunked “vaccines cause autism” myths and studies in one helpful page.
- SEO is dead. Hello to GEO?
- Casually Explained: Billionaires. (Makes the hilarious case that the only people Billionaires can relate to are homeless people.)
- Related: What does one billion dollars look like?
- I got a new laptop and have fallen in love with Arc. (I’ll now probably never go back to Chrome unless I have to.)
- I didn’t get a new phone recently, but I also fell in love with !Weather. It’s maybe the most beautiful mobile app I’ve ever seen.
- Billy Strings covers the King of the Hill theme song for the new season.
- Claude is the drug, Cursor is the dealer. (I hated to read this as a “AI sucks but I find legitimate value in Cursor” dude, but yeah, pretty spot on.)
- Vine is … coming back? (It never really left in terms of its influence, but you know what I mean.)
THIS WEEK’S MIXTAPE / WHAT I’M LISTENING TO
- Horses 4k – “Barely a Horse, Mostly a Pony” (So, so, so pretty and spacious)
- Wombo – “Danger in Fives” (love the Modest Mouse vibes but with a whole different approach towards singing)
- Emily Hines – “All Of Our Friends” (Big Thief if Big Thief didn’t suck)
- Winter – “Hide-A-Lullaby (feat. Tanukichan)” (Very excited for this album)
- Jay Som – “Cards On The Table” (Also excited for this album)
- Militarie Gun – “B A D I D E A” (This freaking rules)
And that’s it. See you next time.
With love and all the other good things,
-b
Original OPE! logo by Claire Kuang. Words and cartoons by yours truly. My views don’t reflect my clients or the publications and brands I work with. All typos are intentional.