Back to work, back to normal! The new normal, anyway. It felt weird and good to be back in an office, getting used to small-talk, catching up on all the people and progress I'd missed. A big, big change from the pattern of the last couple months. I'd felt all wound up an anxious on the lead-up, and I left the house with tears, but came back happy. Change is good.

I had a bit more flexible time earlier in the week, so I did a couple coding projects that have been on my list for a while...

For the first one, I've had an ongoing project to keep track of which NYC subway stations I've used – either entering, exiting, or transferring. I keep track on a big poster and circle the stations with a Sharpie. I wanted something where I can record in the moment, too, so I created an iOS app where I can pull up the station and check it off. (Now that I've got that infrastructure in place, I think I'll add similar for Atlanta, LA, SF, and other cities where I've already made good progress...)

For the second, I added a new movie log page for this site. I knew I'd seen and written about a lot of movies in the time I've had this blog, but I didn't know the total was almost 1100 now! The movie log links to my original write-ups, such as they are. I also started a very loose star system – none, one, or two stars – to indicate the special films that I hold my attention more than others. Still a fair amount of backfill to do there, but I like where it's headed.

"Don't give up until you're proud."

Books

The Hard Way. I'm really stringing out these last few dozen pages...

Running

Another fallow period! It happens.

Around the Web

When toys become things to preserve instead of play.

"Nothing is boring in America. Go—go—and see it all."

Women Used to Do All the Cooking. Some Men Are Flipping the Script.

Be grateful for home-cooked meals.

Why example.com looks different now!

Music

Poulenc: Stabat Mater; Gloria; Litanies à la Vierge noire (really liked) and Poulenc: Concerto pour orgue; Concert champêtre (it's fine).

Daði Freyr, Too Much Not Enough & Then Some. Clean and polished vocal-forward club music. It's fun. The country/western spin in "With You" was a nice surprise. Generally appreciate the more wistful ones – "Beautiful Day" and "Is That Seat Taken" are good for me.

Mozart: Piano Concertos K175, 449, & 466. It's Mozart, soak it up, the floor can only go so low.

Andy Ahiko, Sandbox Percussion, Seven Pillars.

Movies

Angels & Demons. I think I like it more than The Da Vinci Code, more grounded, but still a good brain-off watch.

Influencers. The first Influencer was fun, and this one keeps it going. Expands the world in thoughtful ways – a manosphere dude, an Insta-model / alt-right paranoiac – while staying connected to the interiority of the characters we already knew. A sequel done well.

Ocean's Twelve. Another worthy sequel, gently propulsive, one of those you might catch on a hotel TV and stay inside just a bit longer than you intended.

TV

So much TV this week!

East of Eden, s1e1. I'm intrigued!

WandaVision, s1e7. Spinning our wheels just the slightest bit? Funny how it was so easy to pick out quirks of previous decades but large parts of this one "just look like TV". Curious to see where we go with Agatha.

Over the Garden Wall, s1e3. I like all the music in this one. Feels like this show just follows its weird little daydreams, in the best way.

Teen Titans, s1e1. Much slower than I expected! Thought it might be more energetic, but seemed like a lot of dead air. Maybe if I were more familiar with the characters beyond Robin and Cyborg.

Pucca, s1e1. Lively and dynamic animation, very refreshingly brisk. But the title character, she does ~nothing for me. There's a reason we don't see Pepé Le Pew anymore!

Batman: Caped Crusader, s1e1. Really like how they modernized the animation while keeping all the noir / expressionistic style from Batman: The Animated Series. A season-long arc and reimagined villains have piqued my interest...

A big adventure with the baby in Manhattan last Sunday: coffee shop, Madison Square Park, Central Park, MoMA, and plenty of subway navigation. The longer outings seemed daunting at first, but at this age, it's mostly the same things I've done a million times before, on repeat, just in difference places than I'm used to. Thousands of people do it every day!

Another round of family visits this past week, exhausting and fulfilling, and we're done for another month or so. I return to work at the end of the week. Parental leave has been great, 10/10, highly recommend.

Art

Pigeon Within, animated film by Emily Hubley, a highlight of the MoMA visit. More locally, the kachina doll exhibition at Brooklyn Museum was super cool and I also liked seeing Matsunaga Hisahide smashing his teacup, a woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

Books

The Hard Way. I'll finish one day! A page or two at night is all I can manage lately.

Around the Web

"For every message you put out, start by saying what you mean. Don’t work backwards from what the algorithm wants or what a platform permits."

AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible. You can find skill in everything, and have to remember you might not have it yet. (via)

What happened to yoga?

Music

Stevie Wonder, previously-unreleased tracks on the Songs in the Key of Life EP. It would have been nice to have enjoyed these for the last 50 years, but better late than never.

Higher Intelligence Agency, Biosphere, Birmingham Frequencies. Solid ambient/experimental electronic stuff.

Movies

Toy Story 5. Odd one with the Buzz / Woody parallel stories. Good moments, and overall good. I think my Toy Story rankings are... 4, 3, 5, 2, 1? I have a feeling I'll never re-watch to confirm anyway.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Very brief moments of fun in a "hey, I recognize that" kind of way, but I didn't enjoy it much at all. Oddly choppy and chaotic and unsubstantial storytelling.

Disclosure Day. Sometimes it's nice to be confused for a bit, rather than have a movie hold your hand and make the characters yap the orientation material at you. Blunt shows great talent, and her character can be interpreted not just as a hapless vessel but an eventually-willing prophet-type character. So easily accepted? A few hours passed and I had a good time and I'll forget about it soon.

(Tough week!)

TV

The X-Files, s7e4 "Millenium". The ending!!! Love how they transitioned the soundtrack at that moment, too.

WandaVision, s1e6.

Neagley, s1e7–8. I'm ready for season two.

I was out for a jog, and popped into a local community garden where I'd never been inside the gates. Walked in noticed a path, decided to do the loop. "Most people when they come in here, they say hello". Turns out, another guy was there, a regular (I presume), emerging from behind a wall of foliage.

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Just checking things out! I've never been in before. How's it going?"

"I'm closing up soon. Just asking, next time, be neighborly."

I appreciate what he's going for, but ya gotta give me a chance! :(

On a weekday morning local playgrounds in NYC, usually fenced off from the rest of a park, feel like airport lounges. Semi-private area just for those who meet some qualification. Kinda nice to have some mild separation from genpop? Also better than airport lounges in my experience.

Note to self: one thing that makes early parenthood easier is wearing a shirt with a pocket. Easy place to stick a bottle or dangle a pacifier or a tuck burp cloth or etc..

I'm finding it's helpful to think of myself as a "growing parent". It's so easy to get tunnel-vision in the moment and just try to power through everything and keep pushing on to the next task. But it's in the occasional moment of rest and quiet, if I take advantage of it, that everything I'm learning consolidates and distills and solidifies. Naps! Daily miracles!

A few times lately I've been using Codex from my phone to do some basic blog infra updates while I've got the baby asleep in the other arm. It's fun! Dictate a few ideas and let it rip, wake up to changes.

Books

The Hard Way. Progress has slowed way down, but it's still a keeper.

Running

My weekly mileage is about half of what it was before becoming a parent, but I'm very happy it's been so consistent-ish, even if less adventurous. I didn't expect to be so steady so early. Grateful for the reliable outlet.

Around the Web

You Are No Longer Invited to Dinner.

What happened to the working-class husband?

Was Anglo-Saxon England really wealthy?

Sports vs. math.

The Pope supports the artists!

Music

Jeff Redd, Down Low.

Ghost, 2 Big to Rig. I love Ghost!

Two from Ólafur Arnalds: with Talos, A Dawning; and Island Songs.

Two from Bitchin Bajas: Inland See and Isle Peaks.

Ciara, Yes Pack EP.

The Marian Consort, The Illyria Consort, Adriatic Voyage: Seventeenth-century Music from Venice to Dalmatia.

Utopia Ensemble, The Musical Universe of Andreas Pevernage. I'd never heard of Pevernage before, a minor Flemish renaissance composer, I suppose, but a good example of how it pays to go deeper.

Duo Mignarda, The Delights of Solitaryness: The Lute Songs of John Dowland. Great album! Really liked "The Lowest Trees Have Tops" (a setting of Edward Dyer's "A Modest Love").

Movies

Thelma. Loved it. After falling for a phone scam, an old lady goes on a revenge tour. It's funny and clever and deeply empathetic and sweet. Love the heightening and dramatizing of routine daily challenges to bring the tension. And we see Tom Cruise's impact! This will make my year-end favorites list.

TV

WandaVision, s1e5. Feel like my heart is gonna get broken any minute now?

Neagley, s1e6. I understand the revenge instinct, and it can make for satisfying TV, but like in Reacher, the callousness about and eagerness for just killing off villains makes me uncomfortable!

Contact naps: I used to see them as a trap, something that kept me stuck while I could be doing other things. Now I can see them as easy ways I can sneak in extra bits of sleep. Just gotta have my pillow configuration locked in. Perspective!

Another family visit this week. It's interesting that we spent so many years doing so little hosting and now we're getting multiple heavy doses in just a few weeks. Not restful, but a welcome and refreshing change of pace even if disruptive.

I'm very anxious to and nervous about returning to work. So many big shifts in so short a time, it's hard to get my bearings. Each week a new venture into the unknown.

Books

The Hard Way. Finally got some reading momentum back. Chipping away when I'm lucid before bedtime.

Running

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Around the Web

Battleship Pretension episode on how to give [movie] recommendations.

Storied colors. (Thanks, Jara.)

My current gadget-brain phase has me looking long and hard at something like the Xteink X4 or the Boox Picco. Feels like a fun commuting size. Outside of fall/winter when I have big jacket pockets, my Kindle is just big enough that it needs to be in my backpack. Maybe one of these will fix me. Make the good things easy and you'll do them more often.

Music

Mariah's new single is great.

Jeff Redd, A Quiet Storm. "Dance With Me".

Movies

Toy Story 4. Fun! I run a little hot and cold on the franchise, but this was pretty good.

TV

The X-Files, s7e3 "Hungry". Great episode! I like when villains recognize and struggle with their bad tendencies. I also like that Mulder and Scully weren't the main characters in this episode, more just people that appeared a few times in a particular point in the protagonist's life. "I can't be something I'm not".

Over the Garden Wall, s1e1–2. Dark and funny fairy-tale-ish animated shorts. An acquaintance recommmended this to me years and years ago and it stuck in a dusty corner of my mind. Glad I finally followed through. I'll watch more.

Neagley, s1e2–4. We gotta stop torturing people!

Lost, s3e23. I had to go back.

I was struggling, and very lucky to have a partner who saw it and pointed it out and tried to find ways to make it easier.

One thing that got easier: I was bad at bottlefeeding, now I'm better. My wife always seemed to get her feeding times done more quickly, and quietly, and easily. Mine, I'd drag myself back to bed hours later, exhausted, irritable, eardrums fried. Something needed to change! Turns out: skill issue. I needed to learn what works today instead of relying on what was convenient 3 weeks ago. Lesson: a beginner's mind and a good coach can make all the difference.

Some big milestones this last week: outings with baby to a coffee shop, to a couple parks, the playground, a sunny morning picnic, etc.. Reminding myself that we're growing just as he his, spreading our wings and figuring out how to operate them as parents. It takes a constant gentle push to keep getting out there and realizing how much easier it is when you're in it vs. anticipating it.

I think along with parenthood I'm feeling a new urgency, a greater desire to do things NOW, while the opportunity is there. No time to waste.

Books

The Hard Way.

Running

Losing the weekend long run as my anchor sorta throws things off, but still got several good local runs in. Need to work on the non-run exercise in between...

Around the Web

"You know you’re doing something right when there’s a lot of singing, dancing, bopping, etc. in your day-to-day..."

Ordinary Abundance.

The Spice Drawer.

Born In The USA? This Blanket Might Look Familiar.

Americans Don’t Understand Who’s Rich. "For every CEO of a public company, there are more than 1,000 private-business owners with a net worth of more than $25 million…"

How the MTA Learned to Build Again.

Has Taking the Perfect Photo Ruined Tourism?

"Discussing these AI systems, everybody wants to talk about “intelligence”, but I don’t think that’s the profoundest thing about them. Rather, I believe it’s the other -ences: patience, diligence."

Nothing, Except Everything. I need to go back and listen to more Beach House.

Music

Several from Talos: heartfelt swelling torch songs, often in falsetto. Makes me think of Anohni and the Johnsons, in a good way. (Thanks to Chris Martin for putting him on my radar.)

• Wild Alee
• Far Out Dust
• Dear Chaos. Happy to see a Brian Eno cover: "Spinning Away".

Three albums from Masakatsu Takagi, which became a perfect gentle wee-hours feeding & lullaby soundtrack:

• Marginalia
• Marginalia II
• Marginalia III

Movies

Fuze. Sturdy crime thriller, good hints and satisfying twists. David Mackenzie's Hell or High Water was also great.

TV

The X-Files, s7e2 "The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati". Glad that we're wrapping up this storyline.

WandaVision, s1e1–4. Loving this show so far. Using the style of old tv shows – in costume, setting, delivery, movement – is so good.

Reacher, s4e7–8. Best season to date? Maybe need to rewatch the first for true comparison, but this was a huge breath of fresh air.

Lanterns, s1e1–2. I'm out.

Neagley, s1e1. A little Reacher cameo to hand off the baton and we're off sprinting. I'm in!

Male postpartum depression. It makes perfect sense that it exists. But after 4+ decades on the planet, I'd never heard of it. Or didn't hear about it enough to stick. (Added to my list of papercuts and grumbles about the pregnancy experience. Number one: baby products and websites where the photos only feature women!).

I don't think I qualify for MPPD in the clinical sense, but earlier last week the stress of the last month sent me spiraling down into a depressive episode familiar from a previous life: irritable, resentful, anger simmering, despair closing in, trapped, hopeless, lethargic. I did a better job of stating the struggle and sharing it with friends and family than I did in the past. But no miracle turnaround. I found myself again having to will myself out of it, to choose revival. Maybe/probably a somewhat toxic attitude in general, if I held it about others struggling in the same way, but it's helpful for me to believe I have some choice in the matter.

Very grateful to have family in town to help me see that this week. Kids are cuter when someone else is taking care of them, in part. Also just great to be able to observe very experienced people at work, see different techniques, pick up little tricks. (And also to see where modern advice differs!)

Art

Colorful Realm of Living Beings, thirty-scroll sequence of birds and foliage by Ito Jakuchu. Arum and Flowering Weed, painting by Shibata Zeshin.

Books

The Hard Way by Lee Child. I DNF'ed the book on Icelandic sagas, and the one on English queens. Instead, switched over to a Jack Reacher novel and I'm ripping through chapters again. (More books need chapters!)

Running

Family in town got me more free time, so I rebounded with four good short runs and a long walk in the park. I feel sane again.

Around the Web

My Labor Story.

The 101 plays itself. (via)

Tennis at 333am isn't cool.

Music

Modjo, self-titled. I picked up the album due to "Lady - Hear Me Tonight", one I heard on a speaker somewhere. The song is great, and it's the only one memorable for me.

Gorillaz, The Mountain. Interesting! Much more variety than I expected. Who knew they were still going?

Christer Bothen, Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin, Serpentine. Reminds me of the Stars at Noon soundtrack a bit. Loose and evocative instumentals, "Pink Panther vibes".

Movies

Would you believe not a single one? Not sure of the last time non-vacation period that I went so long without a movie.

TV

Reacher, s4e3–5. Great, great season. Fight scenes are much more fun and dynamic. More interesting supporting cast and better settings. Best season since the first one.

Batman: The Animated Series, s1e14 "Heart of Ice". This show is still so good.

A perk of late-night baby feedings: it's really nice to be awake in the dark, when all is quiet. When the work is done I feel re-energized. It doesn't work in my favor – I should go back to bed – but it's nice in the moment.

Art

Haiku, weaving by Anni Albers in cotton, hemp, metallic thread, and wool. Sortilège (Spell), sculpture in stone by Pierre Robert Christophe. Envol au soleil (Flight into the sun), tapestry by Simone Baltaxé.

Books

The Sagas of the Icelanders. I'm inching along. Coolest thing so far is learning that Egil of Egil's saga fought for and met King Æthelstan, who I read a book about earlier this year.

Running

Much better this week. Trying to find the right schedule and mindset to carve out guilt-free runs. Much better to do less than I want but consistently rather than doing nothing at all.

Movies

9 to 5. Took a while to rev up, but it's really fun after we settle into the characters and the movie allows itself a little zaniness.

Clueless. After reading the book and watching three other movie versions of it, what a delight to see rewatch this modern rendition of Emma. I didn't know how much I was missing! The movie itself is much more funny and sly than I remember, so that was icing on the cake. Really glad I did this whole Emma project. The characters are all so much more vivid and sticky now.

Atomic Blonde. It's not good. There's "cool", and then there's "sleepy". A couple good fights but too subdued and sluggish to hang with.

Van Helsing. Silly horror monster mash-up. Surprisingly decent CGI for 2004, and I always appreciate Hugh Jackman's commitment. I prefer Dracula characters when they have just the two big fangs, not a full shark mouth.

TV

The X-Files, s7e1 "The Sixth Extinction". I like the Scully-narrated episodes, but we're kinda spinning our wheels here.

Furious, s1e6–8. Great show. I'm wary of a second season, which I don't really want or need, but curious about the old movie it took for some inspiration.

Reacher, s4e1–2.

Newborns are mostly pretty boring? And at least a little annoying. The first week or so has not been as hard as I'd imagined, from hearing from others. Relentless, a constant slow drip of stuff to do, but not crazy-making. Maybe that will change. Another difference from what I heard vs. what I experienced: I didn't have the transcendent wash of love that several other people described to me, when they first held their kid. I felt daunted, curious, attached. Love is there, but I think I'm experiencing another version of normal.

We also had a visit from family this week, and much more arriving in the coming weeks. We don't do a ton of hosting, so learning this part on the fly, too. How long is too much time hanging out? When do we want to delegate or ask for help vs. get the time to do it ourselves? Etc..! Time will tell.

Books

The Sagas of the Icelanders.

Running

Another short one in the books this week. It's weird to run so little. I notice not just how out of shape I am but also how uncoordinated I am. Like I'm re-learning it every couple of days.

Around the Web

You could argue that these kitchens aren’t even real — they’re stage sets where creators perform stories about food and style and health for vociferous audiences.

Movies

Emma (2020). Back to opulence in this rendition. Lots of lovely scenery and sets and costuming to look at. Some more "movie moments" in the intimate close-ups and swelling strings and delicate framing &c. But: I didn't like that this Emma is so much more snobby and cold. The portrayals in the Beckinsdale version and especially the Paltrow version have more warmth. Paltrow's Emma's snobbiness comes across as more oblivious, off-hand, lightly carried; Taylor-Joy's seems more chosen, intentional, acid, and for me, it makes our protagonist much less charming. Similar for Isabella – a minor character, but bossy and controlling here, where I read her as more affectionate, nervous type. This one does have the best Mr. Elton and the best Jane Fairfax, though.

TV

Furious, s1e4–5. Overall enjoying it. Some bad writing here and there when they need to make a sociopolitical point, but overall weird and compelling characters and I could not have predicted where we got to at this point in the show.

We had a baby last week. I am a dad. We are parents. The best is yet to come. ♥️

Books

I've read nothing since the birth, but before that...

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth.

The Sagas of Icelanders. I loved reading Njál's Saga many years ago. Looking forward to digging into this one more.

Running

N/a, minus the shortest sunny morning run for coffee to bring back home. It was perfect.

Around the Web

The Doomscroller.

Men also want it all.

Music

Global Communication, Mark Pritchard, Tom Middleton, Transmissions Sampler.

Change, Change of Heart. I like "Change of Heart" but "Warm" is even better.

Movies

Jane Austen's Emma (1996). This one was more tame, more muted than the Paltrow version, with everything looking appropriately shabby by modern standards. Also a lot more class subtext going on, and a richer portrayal of the surrounding village. Much to appreciate in both.

Jurassic World Dominion. Watched for completionist reasons. It's not good, but it was good as smooth-brain entertainment to watch across multiple sittings in postpartum delirium.

TV

Dark, s3e6–8. The last few episodes really really dragged, with so many characters standing and narrating at each other. Worth the watch, though.

Furious, s1e3.

CSI: Miami, s5e7. Three crime lab montages! Let's go!

Last week I donated my bike. I originally bought it after I moved to Santa Monica. When I moved to Brooklyn (almost five years ago now!), I brought it with me. And never touched it. Train and bus and walking was too convenient. And as we reinvent our living space, it was time to let go. Funny feeling. I won't say I had strong sentimental attachment to it. But there were a lot of memories represented there, in a particular time, and in a particular place. Those will have to be enough (until I get a new bike...).

Too many webinars last week! They were all good and worthwhile, but I've had enough zooms for a little while.

Books

This Time Tomorrow. Light and breezy. I didn't love the mini-essays, sketches of social commentary, but the main plot and easy acceptance of scifi premise was refreshing.

Offshore. Gave it a couple dozen pages, didn't click, DNF.

The Hour of the Star. Gave it a couple dozen pages, didn't click, DNF... and then came back. It is miserable and depressing to read about a main character in miserable circumstances, and to deal with the intrusive self-conscious narrator, but seems that's also part of the whole point here.

Running

Minimal, healing!

Around the Web

What I Learned About Loss While Skateboarding at Costco.

Review of middle age: 3.5 / 4 stars.

"My number one tip for blogging is to lower your standards! Aim to hit publish while you are still actively unhappy with what you have written, because the only alternative is a huge folder full of drafts and never publishing anything at all."

Reader as actor.

From the world of dance: Concerto Barocco, choreographed by George Balanchine, and Esplanade, choreographed by Paul Taylor.

A couple daily stitching projects, super cool. (via)

"Hospitality, at least the version I respond to most, isn’t really about impressing people. It’s about creating evidence of thought. A room changes when it appears to have anticipated company. Even if nobody touches the water all evening, it has already done its job."

Photographs of kudzu in near-infrared. (via)

A lost civilization is baffling experts and rewriting China’s origin story and mysterious shapes hidden beneath the Amazon canopy reveal a sprawling ancient civilization "They note that their study area amounts to less than 3 percent of Amazonia. They think other regions may have had similar population densities, raising the possibility that the Amazon was once home to tens of millions of people before European colonization."

Music

Audrey Hobert, Who's the Clown?. Lyric-driven pop, decent.

Evgueni Galperine, Theory of Becoming. Slower meditative ambient stuff. Liked this one.

Bach: Harpsichord Works perf. Tilman Skowroneck.

Julee Cruise, Floating Into the Night. Didn't realize I already knew so many songs on this, great album. See "Rockin' Back Inside My Heart".

Mark Pritchard, The Four Worlds.

Katseye, Wild. It's fine. "That Way" is the most interesting.

Movies

Emma (1996). Loved this. Collette is marvelous in everything. Paltrow has a certain charm but also a bit of coldness here, maybe more haughty than I'd imagined her in the book. Re-watched the picnic scene and subsequent reprimand and I'm tearing up again.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum. Holds up! The knives always leave me cackling.

Obsession (2025). "It's not a romance, it's a love story." Really strong stuff. Our main character is the evil one. I like the blend of references and meta-commentary we get from movies like this, gesturaing at the main character as Pedrolino, the Green Man, voodoo dolls, "GenieAI", the Hansel & Gretel and willow tree folklore. Be careful what you wish for!

TV

The X-Files

• s6e21 "Field Trip". Mushrooms!
• s6e22 "Biogenesis". I like that we ended the season on a mystery rather than a crisis.

Dark, s3e5.