Faulkner

From New Jersey 🇺🇸

Another day, another NYT dragging. (Guess they wanted to one-up NBC’s deployment of “pizzazz.”)

From Vietnam 🇻🇳

From Amman, Jordan 🇯🇴

Just saw Serbia win the ATP Cup, and Nikola Cacic is such a dish. We don’t see enough of him.

From Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic 🇩🇴

From Vienna 🇦🇹

Pliskova and Keys are tour veterans but will play their first-ever WTA match against each other in a final. Tennis is such a funny sport.

You’re right. I’ve seen Emmanuelle Béart in other things (The Witnesses), but I didn’t recognize her there. It does look like an ‘80s soap publicity still.

Who’s the actress? The first Dixie?

From Delhi 🇮🇳

From Hamilton, New Zealand 🇳🇿

From Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺

From China 🇨🇳

From Belgium 🇧🇪

From Nigeria 🇳🇬

From Argentina 🇦🇷

From Florida 🇺🇸

From Los Angeles 🇺🇸

From Long Beach, California 🇺🇸

From Havana 🇨🇺

From Miami Beach 🇺🇸

I think they’re in a difficult position with albums receding as the primary way of organizing music consumption in a post-mp3, now-playlist-driven streaming universe. They’re trying to apply the brave new world to an largely antiquated idea that certain artists and record companies are trying to hold on to. I like that streaming now provides enough real-time data to show how people are *actually* listening to music, as opposing to the era when an album would sell millions and people would only listen to that one hot track and skip the rest. That’s great for the singles charts but creates the same problem for the album chart: album “sales” are artificially inflated by either releases with 20-30 tracks (like Drake’s Scorpion) or by one massive hit with a gazillion streams. At least now you can see the data. I remember when Billboard had the stupid rule that songs had to be released as physical singles to chart on the Hot 100. So something as world-dominating as No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” never charted on the Hot 100, even thought you couldn’t turn on a radio in 1996 without hearing it. (It topped the less-prestigious airplay chart for 16 weeks.) Dumb. Billboard has had a lot of dumb rules. The likely new No. 1: