vulture reads

Your Sunday Long Reads: The Mind of Passion Pit Front Man Michael Angelakos and Writing to Jay-Z

AUSTIN, TX - NOVEMBER 04: Michael Angelakos of Passion Pit performs in concert at day one of Fun Fun Fun Fest at Auditorium Shores on November 4, 2011 in Austin, Texas. (Photo by Jay West/WireImage)
Michael Angelakos. Photo: Jay West/2011 Jay West

It’s Sunday evening, or: your last chance to read all that stuff you meant to read last week before Monday brings a new deluge of things you will want to read. Below, some of our recommendations:

“Rite of Passion,†by Larry Fitzmaurice (Pitchfork): A look inside the frequently troubled mind of Passion Pit front man Michael Angelakos, along with the “synth squiggles†that made his career. 

“Tracking the Biggest Star in the World,†by John Herman (Buzzfeed): 27-year-old California writer who has kept up a two-year-long, one-sided conversation with Jay-Z f is pretty sure the rapper has read all 262 of the confessional e-mails he’s sent.

“What George Orwell, Henry Miller, and John Waters Taught Me About What to Read Next,†by Maria Bustillos (Culture Desk/New Yorker): Some book recommendations are better than others.

“John Oliver is still kind of baffled by America,†by Steve Heisler (A.V. Club): An interview with the Daily Show correspondent about the art of stand-up and playing the “national outsider.â€Â 

“English teacher: I was wrong about Hunger Games,†by Brian Platzer (Salon): Do teenagers get more out of plot-heavy literary fiction than they do YA novels? At least one eighth grade teacher says maybe not. 

For more in-depth weekend readings, visit our friends at Longreads.

Sunday Reads: Angelakos, Jay-Z, and John Oliver