I arrived at today’s blank page (minus the first music bit below), just not feeling it, with a sense of “ehh… can’t I just do this tomorrow?” The answer is yes, but as with so many things: push on a bit, try to enjoy the ride, see what happens.
Art
Went to a gallery opening on Friday. Susan Chen’s paintings have some really lovely chunky globs, building up texture and detail the closer you look.
Books
Finished…
The Heart Goes Last. (DNF) The characters have a sort of manic interiority, and much of the book moves forward through their neurotic daydreams, fears, speculations. It’s light and funny (Saunders-y?), but too much of it for me right now.
Cheerfulness: A Literary and Cultural History. Some of the later close-reading of Austen and Dickens wasn’t as fun for me – in contrast with the parts I read last week – since I didn’t know all the stories. And on the final segments, on e.g. Boy Scouts, the self-help industry, and marketing, maybe we just don’t yet have enough perspective. It’s not the future yet. Cool to trace an idea in this way across such a long timespan, in a very tangible form. I’d read more like this!
In progress…
Babel-17. There’s a really fascinating premise in here, where our protagonist understands words, speech, communication, body language so well it’s effectively telepathy. And she’s recruited by the military, who are facing a novel language used as a weapon. I feel a DNF coming on, though. We’ll see.
Music
Kacey Musgraves, “Deeper Well“. First heard this right when I was publishing last week’s post, played it 4-5 times, and it was the first thing I put into this draft.
Listened to a lot of John Tesh this week, and if there’s one thing going for it, it’s heavy use of major-key optimism. If you listen to live version of “A Thousand Summers“, and just earnestly let it soak in, you may not feel like you can take on the world, but it won’t feel unreasonable.
ScHoolboy Q’s Blue Lips. Love the variety in the production. Just throwing everything out there. The orchestra on “Blueslides” is the winner for me.
When I saw Ramanan’s post about a recent Feist show I realized I hadn’t heard any of her albums since Reminder back in 2008. Spent some time catching up on everything since then. I like “In Lightning” on her latest, but it’s not really in keeping with the rest. The collab work on “Hiding Out in the Open” is nice – singing in harmony is one of those simple pleasures we don’t get enough in modern pop.
Kamasi Washington’s latest single, Prologue, has me intrigued for the bigger release in May.
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
The 2024 Vulture Stunt Awards celebrates the best movie stunts in a variety of forms – fights, cars, guns, goofs. Includes lots of clips, fun to relive those.
NYT film critic Alissa Wilkinson hosted an AMA.
I knew I wasn’t crazy!: Jalapeños aren’t as hot as they used to be.
Anil Dash shared an important PSA on making better documents. “You almost never want to be building dramatic tension in a professional context”
Dwarkesh Patel interviews Patrick Collison. “Maybe one version of what people in their twenties should do is get some ideas to domains you’re interested in or care about, but then figure out: where can you learn the highest standards? Where are the highest standards embodied and where can you go and experience that firsthand?”
Reading about the history of public transit in Atlanta always makes me ache for (a better version of) the old streetcar system.
These 3D diagrams of NYC subway stations are so… validating? My experience walking through these clicked into place when I saw these! There are so many angles and inclines and turns that I can sense but never could have described accurately, much less illustrate.
“Running has never lied to me.”
The power of television: “HBCU enrollment increased 26% between 1976 and 1994, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. But the agency noted, ‘virtually all of the increase occurred between 1986 and 1994.’ “A Different World” aired from 1987 until 1993.”
Movies
Drylongso. A young art student, uncomfortably caught between neglect at home, a demanding night job, and precarious safety in the community, works on a photography project to document Black men in her neighborhood. Lovely local characters, down-to-earth telling, and fun genre detours.
1976 / Chile ’76. This was a fun watch, will probably get mention in my annual favorites. A comfortably retired woman, casually busy redesigning the family beach home, is drawn into political intrigue during the reign of dictator Pinochet. Really great score, colors, style, paranoia.
Michael Clayton. Still love it. Fourth time I’ve seen it, at least, and just now caught the horse on the hill in his son’s book!
TV
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, s1e10, “Cinderella“. It’s fun to see the dazzling two-hour spectacles of modern animation, but nice to be reminded how little you need beyond a good story.
X-Files, s2e1 “Little Green Men”. We’re already at the point where my memory of the show is fading out. Really dark opener! Everyone is sad and scarred from the ending of the first season. :( Hoping we see more of Director Skinner. He’s a compelling, enigmatic presence.
Mark Larson 