CULTURE

Footer Column 2

Footer Legal

Footer Main

Nav Bar

OTHER

SPORTS

Subscribe, at any level, to play

Thanks for your interest in Defector Crosswords!

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

Plans start at $8/month.

Subscribers enjoy unlimited, ad-free browsing.

Register to continue

Or click here to subscribe for unlimited, ad-free access!

Our gift to you: This year's post is unlocked. Register your email to get even more free articles.

Welcome to the 2025 Hater's Guide!

Just register your email:

This blog is free to read.

This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector

Israel Daramola

Patrick Redford

Lauren Theisen

Defector Music Club

Chet Baker Sings, And Defector Music Club Chats

Dan Gentile is a writer, editor, and DJ based in San Francisco by way of Austin, TX. He works as the culture editor at SFGATE and has freelanced for publications like The Ringer, Rolling Stone, Texas Monthly, Wax Poetics, and more. Find more of his work at <a href="http://dangentile.net/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://dangentile.net&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711040620694000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3XTZa73tUKo0JIWhdqylUa">dangentile.net</a> and on that <a href="https://twitter.com/Dannosphere" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://twitter.com/Dannosphere&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711040620694000&amp;usg=AOvVaw3jvqFxajyG27FDs81Ssg-S">terrible social media site</a>.

Dan Gentile

Arts And Culture

Partying With The U.S. Army At South By Southwest

A screenshot of Nick Nolte facing a giant canvas in his loft in Martin Scorsese's segment of "New York Stories."

A Journey Through The Process Of Making And Talking About Art

Dan McQuade was a founding member of Defector. He died in January 2026.

Dan McQuade

Moby performs on stage at a concert in 2002. He is in front of a mic in a black t-shirt with a weird eyeball design on it. He's sort of pushing forward with his torso as his arms go backward.

Music

A Notorious Pitchfork Reviewer Was My Biggest Musical Influence

Defector Staff

House Concert at the Mozart family in Vienna, 19th century. Found in the collection of the Russian State Library, Moscow. (

Year In Review

The Best Things We Heard In 2023

Britney Spears performs during the 2007 VMAs

Defector Music Club Wants A Piece Of Britney Spears’s ‘Blackout’

three members of the Stereophonic cast in a recording booth

‘Stereophonic’ Is “The Fleetwood Mac Play” And So Much Better For It

Soraya Roberts

Crowds are seen in front of the stage as Lost Frequencies gives a DJ Performance concert on the second day of the Champions Festival, which is being prepared for the UEFA Champions League final to be held in Istanbul, Turkey, on June 9, 2023.

I Just Want To Go To A Concert

Giri Nathan

David Roth

Defector Music Club Faces Its Fears With ‘Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps)’

Columnist. Author of many <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Drew-Magary/e/B001JS8R52/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1">fine works of literature</a>, including Point B. Handsomest man in the world.

Drew Magary

Funbag

Pop Culture Is Good For Your Children

Diana Moskovitz is Defector&#8217;s investigations editor. You can contact her at diana@defector.com or dfmoskovitz@protonmail.com. She&#8217;s also on Signal @dmoskovitz.99

Diana Moskovitz

Shakira arrives for the screening of the film "Elvis" during the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 25, 2022.

Soccer

Where Were You When Shakira Ruined Gerard Piqué?

The Best Things We Heard In 2022

Dave McKenna

An image of Colts owner Jim Irsay standing in front of the Washington Monument. On each side of him are two rockers with guitars. Irsay is leaning on the tree and singing, yup, Bob Dylan's "Blowin in the Wind." There's text confirming this in the lower left corner, like you used to see in music videos all the time.

Killin’ Dylan: The Fascinating Horrors Of Jim Irsay’s “Blowin’ In The Wind”

The Best Things We Heard In 2021

Richard Marx has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide over the course of his career. He is the only male artist whose first seven singles reached the Top 5 on the Billboard charts, and he has written on a number one single in each of the last four decades—an accolade previously only reached by Michael Jackson. He won a 2004 Song of the Year Grammy and has scored fourteen number-one singles, both as a performer and as a songwriter/producer. He is also a committed philanthropist, supporting charitable causes such as the American Cancer Society and the Ronald McDonald House Charities, Mercy For Animals, ASPCA, Humane Society, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and the charity closest to his heart, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. He lives in Malibu, California, with his wife, Daisy Fuentes.

Richard Marx

Book Excerpts That Don't Suck

Not Even Richard Marx Gets The Girl When The Other Guy Is The Great One

Lil Nas X, holding up a pair of the Blood Shoes

Life's Rich Pageant

The Blood Shoes Will Steal Your Immortal Sole

Stoke City's English striker Peter Crouch gives instructions to team-mates as he comes on as a substitute during the English Premier League football match between Brighton and Hove Albion and Stoke City at the American Express Community Stadium in Brighton, southern England on November 20, 2017.