Seeing Double: Learn From the Rest, Not From the Best

One of my favorite guilty pleasures is reading and rereading “The Inheritance Cycle” by Christopher Paolini. I do this for two reasons. Firstly, the series contains many wonderful flashes of brilliance from a talented young writer. Secondly, the books are also deeply terrible. Reading “Inheritance” challenges the reader to sift through convoluted plot, shaky dialogue and other flaws in order to identify and appreciate the really good elements. It forced me to confront why I felt certain parts w

In 2021, The Grammys Remain Woefully Out of Touch with Newer Styles of Rap

The 2014 Grammys featured perhaps the most stacked list of nominees for “Best Rap Album” imaginable. Between Drake and Kendrick Lamar’s instant classics “Take Care” and “good kid m.A.A.d City,” Kanye West’s then polarizing but now widely acclaimed “Yeezus,” and Jay-Z’s impressive “Magna Carta Holy Grail,” the voting committee certainly had a tough decision to make. While I hoped and expected that Kendrick Lamar would walk away with the award, I was excited by the prospect of any of these talente