vulture reads

Your Sunday Long Reads: Conan O’Brien’s Dystopian Vision, Quentin Tarantino on Django and Race, and Tom Waits on L.A.

It’s Sunday afternoon — 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:

“The United States of Comedy: 2035†by Conan O’Brien (Vanity Fair): The late-night comedian casts himself into a meme-demolished and pop culture-gone-power-mad dystopian (or is it utopian?) future.

“Tarantino ‘Unchained,’ Part 1: Django Trilogy?†by Henry Louis Gates Jr. (The Root): The Django Unchained director talks to the Harvard literary critic about helping Jamie Foxx connect with his slave-turned-bounty character and his plans for his next film.

“In the Neighborhood: Tom Waits†by Alexander Harvey (LA Review of Books): What Tom Waits talks about when he sings about LA.

“Small Wonders†by Emily Nussbaum (New Yorker): How smaller audiences are saving risk-taking comedy.

“Adam Yauch†by Alex Pappademas (New York Times Magazine): One last tribute to the late Beastie Boy. 

“This Must Be Pop†by Lindsay Zoladz (Pitchfork): On loving pop music like a grown-up. 

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