I passed this junk barge and towboat when I was out with my run club this weekend. Another runner joked it was a metaphor for his life. But, it’s kind of a good one? Not glamorous but quietly powerful, useful, persistent, full of material to transform into something better. I’ll take it.
Running
The highlight of my running week was visiting the first Summer Streets of the season, up in Queens. The event area was a bit desolate, but fun to take my first trip running over the Pulaski Bridge, visiting the The Hydration Guy, and coming back through Domino Park.
Art
NBA legend Bill Russell made art for the Olypmics.
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
The Ten Muses of Poetry.
Guinea worm is disappearing and that’s one reason Jimmy Carter will always be a top-tier President.
Kamala Holding Vinyls. My contributions:
I really like this metaphor: “The way a lawsuit works is that there’s music and then there’s lyrics. The lyrics are the technical legal theory. But if you don’t have a good tune, often it’s hard to get the judge to sing along, so the music is the emotion behind the lawsuit.”
“When you deliver work you’re really proud of, you’ve almost certainly done too much and taken too long.”
“Late last year, we invited students to participate in an experiment: We gave them $100 and a disposable camera each and asked, What is it like to live where you live?”
“Intelligent people are just as prejudiced as less intelligent people – but toward different groups.”
“The class gap leads to an awareness gap, which leads to an empathy gap.”
Movies
Upgrade. AI plots seem so much more real these days! Just a few years into this era, and I’m sitting up in my seat a bit more with these stories. I really appreciated Logan Marshall-Green’s acting in the early fight scenes: surprise and fear at his new abilities, still merciful for his enemies.
Dead Reckoning (1947). “What to do in a hot wind smelling of night-blooming jasmine except wait and sweat, and prime the body to sweat some more?” We need more writing like this! And more wise guys narrating their way down a trail of clues.
Non-Stop. I need to check out the other Collet-Serra/Liam Neeson collabs. I’ve only seen Run All Night.
Music
Really liked Oval’s 94Diskont., especially “Cross Selling” and the insistent “Commerce Server“
Talk Talk, Spirit of Eden. “Wealth” makes me think of Pink Floyd – is there a “Money” tie here?
Tonstartssbandht, Petunia. Lots of reverby guitar. I love “What Has Happened” – the stereo effects wobbling, brushes on the drumset, soft vocals, pulsing, hypnotic. A bit of electronic x folk vibe.
BACH. Still undefeated. One thing I really appreciate about classical is the ability to compare interpretations side-by-side.
- Tianqi Du, Bach: Keyboard Concertos. Lighter, smoother, more reserved. Has a polite, sophisticated feel for me.
- Gile Bae, J.S. Bach: Keyboard Concertos. This recording seemed more dark, driving, intense piano against a brighter sound in the orchestra. More Romantic-style variation in volume, more spacious echo-y. Not sure I liked it more, but appreciate the contrast.
Brian Eno, Eno (OST). Effectively a greatest hits album, so yeah, pretty great. Forgot how perfect “Spinning Away” is, and “Regiment“, phew, always gets me hyped. The movie seems really cool.
Books
A Crown of Swords, cont.
The Cyberiad: Stories, cont.
School
I submitted my capstone project, and it got rejected for a couple little deficiencies. Ironed those out on Sunday morning, maybe get across the finish line before the end of the month.
TV
X-Files, s3e1 “The Blessing Way“. Didn’t love this season premiere, but appreciate how consistently this series works in spiritual/afterlife/astral plane sort of stuff. And I still love Skinner.
Lost, s4e1. We’re never going back!
The Leftovers, s1e6. I love all the speculative stuff here. Like how groups hold conferences about the Departure(?), there are markets in mannequin corpses so people can have tangible funerals for the missing, the spike in charismatic opportunists, etc..
House of the Dragon(s), s2e5. Lots of dragon talk.
Words of Wisdom
“Almost nobody hears too many sincere compliments.”
Mark Larson 