Hello and welcome to REPLY ALT, the only email newsletter about music which is also slowly morphing into a shameless hype machine for my new book SELLOUT which comes out in just 11 DAYS and is very good! Have you pre-ordered it yet? Imagine the thrill of knowing it’ll be shipped right to your door the moment it’s released. Don’t be the last one on your block to be talking about this year’s Hottest Book like some kinda fuckin’ loser!

2023 will soon come to a close and I’m extra grateful that you’ve joined me for the ride this year! I enjoy PTFS so much that my 2023 to do list got longer as we went along. One of the items was to offer you a list of my go-to ingredients for making Asian food. A paid subscriber suggested it months ago as a way for folks to know that they have all (or most of) the stuff for making recipes I write about.

I’m a sucker for online quizzes, and the BDSM test is no exception. I learned about it from my friend Rico a couple of years ago. Rico is the kind of guy who works a safe European postal job by day and goes to sex dungeons and kink parties by night. When he first told me stories about dominatrixes and tying people up and leather-clad twinks, I felt like I was standing on the edge of a new world.

Passover begins tonight and I wanted to share two of my favorite recipes for the holiday (they’re also great if you don’t celebrate Passover!). The first is a side dish, Charoset Quinoa, which has all the flavors of charoset, the mixture of apples, wine, and nuts that is a traditional part of the Seder plate. I love it because you can serve it at room temperature, which means you can absolutely make it in advance.

Alright I lied about taking a break- Here are my revised thoughts: The most charitable (and very unrealistic view) of this is that the org have a reasonable replacement lined up, have already been talking with Soph, and are really worried about cap space. That doesn't work as an excuse for me for a few reasons: 1. Even if Soph's contract is as extreme as it could be -- Say 3/$2.