Michael Grant

Michael Grant (MG) is a writer, creative director, and connoisseur of spicy music takes. He was a Warriors fan before you were. Michael’s music takes are exclusively his and do not necessarily represent the tastes of your regular WITI editors - Noah (NRB)Michael here. Last week, the formerly tastemaking music site Pitchfork published “Rescored,” a list of do-overs for album rankings. While not as hilariously self-serious as the time they spent a week reviewing the entire Beatles catalogue (spoiler: turns out the Beatles were very good!), this recent re-scoring exercise is an equally good example of Pitchfork’s reverence for their own rightness. But they are certainly right about initially being wrong about one album in particular: the bad album Random Access Memories by the good electronic duo Daft Punk. Coincidentally, in a recent Discord discussion, I called Daft Punk one of the three most overrated artists of my lifetime. This (correct!) opinion was, apparently, an act of cultural treason amongst coastal elite dads, enough to rouse Noah (NRB himself) from his speed-cubing den. He disagreed. Daft Punk were hugely important and influential, he said, having released two classics out of the gates. I argued that is why they were overrated, because they had in fact not released good music since 2001, even as their stature and coverage grew exponentially leading up to the release of R.A.M. in 2013, and carrying forward another half decade beyond that. Noah theorized that maybe the overexposure/overrating of Random Access Memories was due to a weird point in time when indie-type things crossed over semi-permanently into the mainstream. Maybe they just got swept up in a shift in the discourse? I said well, yeah, that was around when Poptimism began to really take hold. Noah said, “What’s Poptimism?”Why is this interesting?Despite having a silly name, Poptimism changed the way music is covered. Full stop. While few people living outside the music-criticism cul-de-sac have heard of it, this mini-movement gained steam through the years and, I believe, is largely responsible for what gets covered today, and how. Without sending you to too many articles from years past, the easiest way to define the idea of Poptimism is what it was intended to stand against and correct for: Rockism. You can guess what Rockism is. The old canon. The fossilized record of the music that we were told mattered in the second half of the 20th century. You might guess the bands who were deemed the most important—treated the most as artists rather than mere entertainers—were mostly in a lineage of White Dudes Making a Point.So Poptimism came along to point out that hey, you know, by focusing so much energy on the genius of Van Morrison, the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, and on (and on) all the way through Neutral Milk Hotel, maybe just maaaybe there were other genius-level talents being largely ignored in terms of “serious” criticism. Namely: everyone on the pop charts, the R&B charts, anything mainstream. What if all that stuff was treated as if it mattered?Well suddenly you would greatly expand the scope of what merits coverage in serious music criticism, right?The first time I remember hearing about Poptimism was all the way back in 2006, when (the wonderful!) Maura Johnston was still writing for Idolator. She treated My Chemical Romance’s newly released single “Welcome to the Black Parade” as the masterpiece it was, and still is. At the time I would have otherwise written it off as mainstream emo (audible scoff!). But I gave it a try, and, whoa. One of the best rock songs in years—and one I would never have taken seriously unless a serious mind told me to do so. That’s the idea, writ large. “These things previously deemed unserious are in many cases equally or more seriously excellent than the established seriously excellent things.” Where the gold standards of music-as-art were previously reduced largely to Bob Dylan, proto-punk, punk, and post-punk, Poptimism emboldened (prodded? guilted?) critics to use their same analytical and expressive toolsets to address, say, a #1 selling mainstream R&B release. Crucially, it also led to many new writers publishing good takes about music that were unbeholden to the old canon (of music, and of critics). After all, Pitchfork reviews Taylor Swift albums now. It seems silly they didn’t always, but here we are. You’d be right to assume this will continue to inform the retrospective canon as well. Look at Rolling Stone’s recent revised lists of the top 500 albums and songs of all time. The top 20s look very different than they would have even five or ten years ago. This is all good. And necessary. The word inclusive comes to mind. Even Enya and Sade have rightfully been bumped up to the critical top tier (though Enya has been doing just fine living in her literal castle for a while now). The first Luther Vandross album is on lists right next to the Beatles and Neil Young. It is (probably) only a matter of time before George Michael’s Listen Without Prejudice Vol. 1 is at last enshrined as a 90s masterwork! But I think what’s interesting goes beyond what was won in the Poptimism vs Rockism discourse wars of the aughts. There’s, of course, also the question of what was lost. And I’m not talking about the undeniable lack of scorched-earth assholery these days. It certainly feels like music reviews today are wielded as correctives in a fight that’s already over. Look how much we like this album our publication wouldn’t have liked before. Or more performatively, look how little we like this album our publication would’ve previously hailed. Combine the firmly entrenched Poptimism paradigm (mostly good!) with the rise of online stan armies (mostly terrifying!) and we’ve got a situation where it’s hard to gauge to what extent music criticism is even about, like, the music anymore. If you say a popular thing is lightweight, you risk looking retrograde. If you go harder and say a popular thing straight up sucks, you risk having an Extremely Online fan army make your life miserable. And all the while, constantly evolving and often ephemeral trends in the discourse might be influencing music reviews and coverage more than the songs in question. But at least our ratings-obsessed tastemakers, after achieving heretofore untold levels of critical clarity regarding the lesser works of Daft Punk, can presumably stalk unburdened toward the Final Boss of being overrated: Beck. (MG)Quick Links:Shams Charania Needs To See His Teacher After Class (NRB)What Actually Draws Sports Fans to Games? It's Not Star Athletes. [Thx SV4] (NRB)What Really Happened at the 2021 DC Peaks 50 Mile Race? (NRB)__WITI x McKinsey:An ongoing partnership where we highlight interesting McKinsey research, writing, and data.The EX factor. If you're not paying attention to employee experience, or EX, you should—particularly in this era of workplace upheaval and high attrition. Companies that focus on it can strengthen employee purpose, ignite energy, and elevate organization-wide performance.  A systematic approach can help; here's how.__Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Michael (MG) —Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.

The Poptimism Edition

Michael Grant (MG) is a creative director at Avocados and Coconuts in SF. He’s writing a book set in New Mexico, which required deep field research into adovada sopaipillas and points of fringe UFOlogical interest. When he fills his gas tank, it’s a used blue Honda Odyssey.  Michael here. If you go into any public-facing large-scale money-making enterprise, chances are the layout has recently been optimized to get you from consideration to choice to payment with as few dropoff points as possible. You know, just like how it happens online. The word physical experience designers use for it is “streamlined.” They are aiming for a frictionless flow, and store layouts and the checkout process have evolved to be more efficient. Why is this interesting? is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.Except for gas stations. Because, well, they didn’t need to change. The layout has been a perfect fit for an optimal consumer experience since…forever? There are pumps and a convenience store. Maybe some crackly top 40 radio. You get gas, grab snacks, and go. A gas station is a gas station is a gas station. Except one time, at a Shell station near SFO, the music playing at the gas pumps was so clearly incongruous with the setting that I had no choice but to Shazam it. It was “Tears for Adagio” by Magdelayna, an ambient trance confection I’d never heard of before. Huh. Anyway, that’s when I turned around and noticed the dinosaur. I was not expecting the T-rex in the tophat with the boombox at the Shell station. I went to get a closer look, as the Magdelayna track swelled behind me. There was a little sign in front of my saucy new dino friend.What the hell was going on here? The dino sculpture was fine. The sign was ART. All of a sudden it hit me: for the first time in my life, I had a favorite gas station. That was summer 2021. From then on, whenever possible, I went back to the Tanforan Shell to get my gas, even though it’s 20 minutes south of where I live in SF. Every time, I noticed a new detail or two. Like the sign at the self-vacuum station…Or, well, everything about the mini-mart from the name to the statue to... Wait…was that a Zoltar machine? Why wouldn’t it be.Then earlier this year, inside the Hangry Mart, I saw this message about the car wash.I wanted to have “the full experience!” Oh yes. So I came back later that week, after sunset of course. During “showtime.” It exceeded my high expectations.A few weeks later, again inside the Hangry Mart, there was a new posting.This being the Tanforan Shell, my favorite gas station, I was not surprised when they quickly followed through on their promise of a healthier mini-mart. But it wasn’t all smiley good vibes. The messaging was pretty bold. And it extended all the way to the pumps.Why is this interesting?Our reliance on gasoline is catastrophic for the planet. We go to gas stations to get the bad stuff. But this gas station is trying hard to be good. It also seemed improbable that this was all happening at an official Shell station, not some independent operation.I finally reached the point where I needed to know more about who is actually behind the beautiful madness of the Tanforan Shell. I called them up and the manager, Roberto Gonzales, gave me the name and number of the man I was looking for: Bobak Bakhtiari. I left him a message, told him there’s an entire newsletter dedicated to things we find Interesting, and that I’d like to write about him and his gas station.I got the text a few days later: “Hi Michael. Let’s chat tomorrow? - Bobak Bakhtiari.” Bobak and I ended up talking for close to an hour, so the following interview has been edited for length. MG: How long had you been thinking about making the convenience store plant-based?Bakhtiari: Once I started delving into research on factory farms it was pretty immediate. It really just hit me hard. It was a four minute video by Animal Recovery Mission, an undercover investigation into Coca Cola organic dairy farms. I watched it and I started crying and then for the next month and a half, I was literally just sobbing every five hours. And I was like, wow, for like the last 40 years of my life, I've been sponsoring terror essentially. And contributing such immense misery to these animals. So I decided, okay, this store has to be plant-based. Even if some employees at first still tried to bring Hostess back, hiding it in the corner. MG: Your emotional response really comes through in the rebrand. I could tell right away this wasn’t some greenwashing. It’s really in-your-face. I mean, there's signs on the pumps with cows saying, “Dairy takes babies from their mothers.” What was your thinking in making the message so bold and so prominent throughout the entire gas station, from a customer experience standpoint?Bakhtiari: I wanted the site to be not only plant-based, but a source of advocacy and education–as comprehensive as possible. And when I first started, it was actually a little bit aggressive. So I kind of toned it down, but I still wanted it to be loud. I've always wanted to bring some wonder to like the mundane…some playfulness to just, you know, pumping gas. MG: That's actually a good segue, because that playfulness is the first thing I noticed about Tanforan Shell–even prior to the plant-based rebrand. It was the music, which felt so random and different for a gas station. So what’s up with the music at the pumps?Bakhtiari: I just wanted to steer away from mainstream gas station garbage music. Gas stations have evolved into being like high volume compulsive junk food accompanied with just a lame setting that no one really cares for. I wanted to make it special and maybe a little bit emotional. So we play music that gives some sort of awe or relaxation, or sometimes just Gregorian chants for two weeks.MG: And when did you start adding all the other touches at the gas station–like the gardenias, the murals, and the sculptures? Bakhtiari: The first idea I had was to put a big whale mouth at the exit of the car wash. And for two years I basically fought the city and lost. If you Google “whale mouth car wash” you get like nine articles about me not getting a permit. So then I was like, you know what, I'm just going to classify all the art as merchandise. So I started doing that. I list a big dragon for thirteen grand but I don’t really care to sell it. As long as it’s merchandise, I can keep it out.MG: So that big dinosaur sculpture is technically merchandise?Bakhtiari: Yeah. I found the dinosaur off [highway] 92 and bought it off a guy that has a ton of dinosaurs, near Half Moon Bay. And when I transported it, that was a scary mission. I kept thinking he's gonna hit a pole or a power line or something on the ride over. MG: But who added the top hat, the boombox, and the lighting?Bakhtiari: Some sculpture friends. Props2C is the name, which is a horrible name for the range of amazing work. His real name is Tony Rivera and he does some incredible work. He did the Poseidon on the roof, and the ice cream cone sculpture. He was actually commissioned to do the whale mouth. I’m just kind of giving him ideas, sketch things up, and then he’ll do it. MG: Can you tell me about the signage overall? They were quite irreverent and meme-y even before the rebrand.Bakhtiari: I don't put up anything that Shell wants me to put up. In fact, they've threatened to give me a lease violation many times, but I have pretty good attorneys. You know, like they tried to get me to take Trump out of the mouth of the dinosaur. He was in there for a while. They were freaking out and I just reached out to legal and they were like, yeah, there's nothing on the lease that says you can't put a politician in the mouth of dinosaurs, so you're fine. And I sent that to them and they just went quiet. MG: To repeat: there's nothing in the Shell corporate agreement that says you can't put politicians in the mouth of a dinosaur?Bakhtiari: Correct.MG: Do you think Shell will change that because of you?Bakhtiari: Possibly, but generally our site does pretty well. So they see me as sort of a loose cannon that will fight for whatever I want. I mean I'm not supposed to put anything near the Shell logo–but I'll fucking cover the Shell logo with an animal rights sticker. My fuel supply agreement is up in like 10 months and they're trying to bribe me to renew it, but I'm probably gonna rebrand the whole site as Hangry Planet and slowly phase out of gas. Maybe I’d keep the car wash going too.MG: Ok, so about the car wash…is there a name you have for the nighttime car wash experience?Bakhtiari: It's been evolving. We had Tunnel Vision for a while. And Bubbletown Video Show. Now I just prefer VR wash.MG: What made you wanna do that?Bakhtiari: It was about five years ago. I found out that theme park rides are like roughly five minutes–and the car wash is five minutes. So let’s do a light show. But then I was like, okay, how can I also get music in the car? We set up an FM modulator for the audio, linked that up to the media server. And then it took about five months to get the projectors dialed in, to get the right enclosures so they don’t get wet. Everyone thought I was crazy. And there’s hiccups, but when it's dialed in it really has a nice immersive feel to it. MG: But why? What makes you actually want to take all these steps and spend all these months, or years, dialing in this immersive experience in a car wash?Bakhtiari: I'm sure you'd agree that, you know, when you're a child and you go through a car wash, there's a level of awe and wonder. And I wanted to excavate and amplify that. Like how can I make it 800% more exciting for children and have a “wow, what the fuck!” going on for adults? Like a five minute self-care wash experience, a sound healing experience. A lot of the music that we have, we actually work with a sound engineer, utilizing a lot of sound healing frequencies. So there's a psychological self-care aspect to the wash as well.MG: Before we spoke, you sent me a recent article on the Hangry Mart from a site called Inhabitat. It said you are planning to shoot a commercial called “Where’s My Snickers, Bitch?” that will possibly feature Miley Cyrus. Were you joking around?Bakhtiari: No. I wrote this kind of borderline controversial ad and shortlisted like 10 celebrities. She was the first that we reached out to. Her agent is being kind of difficult, but my proxy to Miley is hopeful. And if it doesn't work there's some backup. MG: I noticed a sign at your gas station that says that you donate 10% of profits to charity. Where is that money going and how much have you raised?Bakhtiari: We used to do 3% and raised it to 10% three or four years ago. Since I started doing that we’ve probably raised around $500,000. Essentially there's hunger relief, orphanage projects, and schools through Moms Against Poverty. Then there's animal welfare organizations like Animal Recovery Mission. And also we give to substance abuse treatment, nature education, local public schools... MG: So you’re trying to do a lot of good for animal rights and, it sounds like, all kinds of other issues. Have you thought much about the disconnect between that and the fact that gas stations are, at best, a necessary evil at this point? That what you sell and how we use it is objectively bad for the planet?Bakhtiari: Right, right. It’s something that can feel inherently dirty, regardless of the desire to do good. It's a pretty loud paradox. I do intend on phasing out gas over the next four years, and a big part of that is because of that inherent paradox. So I have given that quite a bit of thought. I think regardless of the irony there, the whole concept of Hangry is to try to inspire other businesses by showing a model where like, “Hey, if you go more ethical it's not business suicide, you're actually doing better.” It becomes like a destination of sorts. At the same time, it feels funky, you know, selling gas and then also supporting animal welfare and orphanages.MG: What do you know about the history of Tanforan in general?Bakhtiari: A lot. It was the largest Japanese internment camp during the war. I think that whole mall across the street is cursed pretty much, because of that history. The energy there and what it represents is stuck there and haunts the vendors. MG: Do you think your proximity to that Tanforan history, from across the street, has impacted or influenced your desire to make a positive impact? Bakhtiari: Yeah, I think it definitely enhances and inspires, to polarize me further into messages of equanimity and love. MG: You’re clearly action-oriented in your beliefs. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who know the changes they want to see in the world, but they have a hard time making the changes to their own lives that reflect that knowledge. What would you say to someone like that?Bakhtiari: I think for me, what has helped me be more proactive is really delving into changing myself. Constantly checking in if I am consistent with what I preach, and that activates greater resources within, to pursue and advocate for what you're trying to achieve in the world. When you fully commit to what you believe in and change your lifestyle to accommodate that vision, the universe starts providing the resources and the energy to keep pursuing that vision.MG: Thanks so much for all your time on this Bobak, I’m grateful we got to have this conversation–Bakhtiari: There's one other thing I wanted to say that I don't normally share. About eight months ago, I moved to Ann Arbor in Michigan. Because I've been getting more work as an actor in Chicago and New York, so I’m closer. I dunno if I mentioned I'm a TV and stage actor as well. I played a lot of bad guys on TV. MG: It’s in your LinkedIn profile, the acting, but I don’t think I realized it was a legit job for you. Bakhtiari: I was just on Law and Order SVU. In fact, I was the one who got robbed this time. So I guess brown is the new innocent.MG: Are you saying that until recently, you would’ve been the one doing the robbing on SVU?Bakhtiari: Yeah, or the killing. I've killed so many people on TV, and I've died so many times. On both NCIS shows too. I got killed once but it was on accident, and LL Cool J’s like, “Damn we killed the wrong guy.” He was good.MG: And this is the thing you don’t normally share? Bakhtiari: No, no. Sorry. It was about what I’m doing in Ann Arbor besides the acting. I bought some land here, and I have decided to move forward with an animal sanctuary. It's about 10 acres that I have, and I've had some talks with SASHA, which is the Midwest’s largest animal sanctuary. And we're gonna be collaborating to create a smaller sanctuary called Symphonic Sanctuary where every few weeks there's a philharmonic performance for the animals. It will also be an advocacy site, with a cafe in a big barn, and Hangry Mart will be doing some of the funding.  MG: I have some family near there, so hopefully I can visit sometime. Thank you for the time, again.Bakhtiari: Absolutely.WITI x McKinsey:An ongoing partnership where we highlight interesting McKinsey research, writing, and data.Saying no could advance your career. When was the last time you were asked to take on non promotable work? Handling tasks or assignments that help your organization but not your career can have a profound effect on women’s jobs and lives. In a new Author Talks interview, Lise Vesterlund explains why women so often agree to it—and how they can say no.—Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Michael (MG)—Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing (it’s free!).Why is this interesting? is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

The Tanforan Shell Edition

Michael Grant (MG) is a creative director at Avocados and Coconuts. He has previously written about the Tanforan Shell Station and Poptimism. He can remember what his first Napster download was…but it’s a secret.Michael here. There have been two distinct, sustained eras for building a collection of recorded music.The first was a system wherein customers went into a store, forked over money, and took physical media home in the form of records, 8-tracks, tapes, or cds. In order to lose this type of collection your house had to catch fire, or someone had to shatter your car window and jack your Case Logic binder, or you had to die. The second is a system wherein customers pay less than the cost of a Mission super burrito for access to basically everything ever recorded and systematically build their “own” “library” of selections. In order to lose this type of collection, I suppose you can tap delete til your finger bleeds, or wait for the day when Neil Young finds a sustainable way to destroy the Spotify server farms. And that would be curtains on this piece—and the answer to the daily question would be “that actually isn’t interesting”—except there is a hidden mini-era in between the two, a half-decade of memory-holed music from roughly 2003-2009. For those playing at home, yes that is from the widespread adoption of the iPod until its dismissal and demise. All of us had music on our iPods that we didn’t have before and haven’t had since. Tracks that defined those years and are now confined by them. They’re abandoned, and it has as much to do with how we got those songs as the devices we played them on. WITI Classifieds:We are experimenting with running some weekly classifieds in WITI. If you’re interested in running an ad, you can purchase one through this form. If you buy this week, we’ll throw an extra week in for free on any ad. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to drop a line.For the inner journey. For the outer journey. The Intermodal Spirit. Subscribe here.Daly is a comms+ agency that reaches beyond the standard PR playbook to deliver results (and some magic) for our exceptional clients. Check us outFor 10 years, this has been the go-to newsletter for people who like to keep up with what’s exciting in design, books, beauty, food, & more. SubscribeWhy is this interesting? It was a perfect storm of chaotic mass music acquisition. iPod capacities were ballooning right as internet speeds were spiking and pirating options were blossoming. In other words, we could get (read: steal) sooo much music sooo fast. Enough to fill up our computers and spill over into a sea of external harddrives (that mostly still exist, somewhere in storage, unloved and unlabeled).It was more music than we’d ever had, but it still felt like ours in a way that was spiritually adjacent to the old model. These were our files! And to get them we braved sketchy links, endured mislabeled songs, cleaned up metadata, and compared multiple versions of the same low-quality leaks. And then the vast majority of it was abandoned. So where did it all go? The answer is: nowhere. We kept going. It stayed right there. But we loved it once, and we can again.  So it’s worth exhuming some tracks from this not-so-distant past. Call it a conscious unvanishing. A collective act of musicomental archaeology. I asked my fellow WITIzens to join in trying to remember the songs we lost. The resulting playlist of iPod Rock is so much more than “the best indie of the late aughts.” Google exists and so do those lists. No…there had to be more to it. These songs are the ones that will always be 128kbps in our hearts, that are inseparable from the doofy little circular docks they nestled into, that soundtracked our oddly enthusiastic drives to go see a remake of King Kong starring Naomi Watts and Jack Black.It turns out iPod Rock is the only genre that could possibly claim to connect Ratatat to Robert Plant, Electrelane to E-40, and Goldfrapp to Guns ‘n’ Roses. So do a little clickwheel thumb circle, hit play, and let us know what we missed. (Apple Music edition here)—Thanks for reading,Noah (NRB) & Colin (CJN) & Michael (MG) —Why is this interesting? is a daily email from Noah Brier & Colin Nagy (and friends!) about interesting things. If you’ve enjoyed this edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend. If you’re reading it for the first time, consider subscribing.