Defector

SAN FRANCISCO - Charli XCX had a cold. You could only tell after five songs and one costume change, when the backup dancers and full backing band briefly disappeared so she could perform

The band American Football released their fourth self-titled LP in May. They are no longer the band they were in the late '90s, when their debut EP and album somehow developed a cult status that has endured to this day. Today, they are a middle-aged band

Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. You can also read Drew over at SFGATE, and buy Drew's books while you're at it. Today, we're talking about butter parties, severance packages, finding new h

If you are a soccer fan of any real commitment, then surely you've seen last week's news that Real Madrid officially landed Ivorian winger (and former Florida high school student!) Yan Diomandé, prying him away from RB Leipzig with the considerable levera

For a month this spring, Melon was truly living up to her name. She had always been a round cat but never quite this gourd-like-small neck billowing out to a majestic corpulence. This sudden plump came with an attitude. She had abandoned her sweet old hab

Some people are fans of the Atlanta Falcons. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Atlanta Falcons. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so farhere. Your team:Atlanta Falcons. Your 2025 recor

I started reading Valley of the Dolls for the first time the other night. It opens in 1945, with Anne Welles landing in New York and securing a job as a secretary at Henry Bellamy's theatrical agency. She's been tasked with finding an apartment for Henry'

Take capelin, a small silvery fish in the smelt family. Now add salt. Then throw those two ingredients in 110 vats, each of them about 10 feet tall, and let them sit in a defunct factory for over two decades. The resulting stench might haunt an entire com

Who among us has not attempted to start a whimsical community-oriented project, only for it to devolve into a site of small-scale authoritarianism? It happens all the time! It even happened in my own town! For a couple of months earlier this year, there w

Haskell adherents revisit the language