Here’s what’s making us happy this week.

Given: it’s another tough one out there, people. In the Northeast, there’s talk of a world-historical blizzard. Meanwhile actual ICE is hunting our neighbors—or they will be, very soon. I still think it’s crucial to lift up the light in dark hours. As we figure out how to protect one another and model the better world, it’s centering to name what we’ll want to save from this one.

Here at Lit Hub, we continue to thrive off music, esoterica, poetry(!), and sweet little moments with loved ones. Here’s what’s making us happy this week.

James Folta has a terrific pick me up for your frigid Friday. The AV Club’s Matt Melis recently wrote a look back at The dB’s debut album, which sent our staffer spinning down memory lane. “An absolute power pop masterpiece, [1981’s Stands for deciBels] was the soundtrack to a few big years and bigger friendships in college. Simply can’t get enough of ‘Big Brown Eyes‘ this week.”

If you like early 80s college rock and smiling, do follow suit.

Drew Broussard is really digging a “new crop of old-school-internet-style lit mags.” Specifically: Y2K Quarterly, an indie “devoted to the glory days/nightmares that were the late 90s and early 2000s,” and Ritual Dagger Zine.

The latter “may or may not have” published a poem(!) from our podcasts editor just this week. You can read that poem here. (Spoiler: it’s eerie and involving, just like Drew.)

Oliver Scialdone is here to cosign the desktop nostalgia. Our community editor recently hyped a few more retro zines on our TikTok. But ICYMI: do check out Some Words, which is hosted on an old school message board. Or A New Session—which is “hosted on telnet, which is so wild.”

And in future news, Jonny Diamond is looking forward to introducing his youngest to “the proper glory of a full-regalia Highland Pipe band” later today, at the local brewery. The hullaballoo is “in honor of what is sure to be the snowiest Robbie Burns Day in recent memory.” The littlest Diamond is nearly ready to inherit the family kilt.

For the uninitiated, Robbie Burns Day is the annual celebration marking the birth of the beloved Scottish poet.

This week I, Brittany Allen, loved learning about Abigail McGrath, the former Warhol muse and storied “only child of the Harlem Renaissance.” In her regularly wonderful column for Harper’s Bazaar, Kaitlyn Greenidge lifted McGrath’s undersung story in a fitting tribute.

An architect of downtown theatre, leftist literary leader, community builder, and erstwhile background vocalist for the Velvet Underground(!), McGrath reminds me that a person really can contain multitudes. An icon worth imitating, to be sure.

That’s all, folks. Stay safe and warm out there. And keep loving your neighbors more than the state.