This morning I used my extra fall-back hour to do some trailrunning, and it’s just a perfect way to start the week. (Some people will try to tell you that the week starts on Monday, but it does not.)
Art
Exquisite Corpse paintings by Kerry James Marshall. (via)
Coptic Tapestry with a Shepherd Milking a Goat.
A gorgeous snuffbox from ~1740s Paris, crafted from gold and mother of pearl.
Running
On Tuesday night the run club when down to a spooky Halloween house.
I used to take Sundays all or mostly off. One change I’m enjoying lately is following my Saturday long run with a short-to-medium run. Squeezing a little bit more out of tired legs, keeping it chill and exploratory.
Books
The Saltwater Frontier. The book has moved on from the more conceptual, sweeping summary material to more nitty-gritty dates-and-facts-and-stats. I’ve enjoyed it, but looking forward to wrapping up soon.
Florida by Lauren Groff. Just started, reserving judgement.
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Prep for next year’s Halloween viewing: 24 Hours of Horror with Robert Eggers, director of The Witch and the upcoming Nosferatu remake. Also on Letterboxd.
A collection of movie visual techniques, like dolly zooms, match cuts, and wipe transitions.
How to Make Pixel Art From an Existing Image.
“Friends, I encourage you to publish more, indirectly meaning you should write more and then share it.” I like the notion that “not every gift needs a bow”.
“The exact reason I recommend people learn foreign languages: smart people need the experience of being wrong.”
“The bottom line is this: men do not differ significantly from women in the importance they attach to various policy issues; and their positions do not appear to have shifted much over the last two years.” I find this somewhat reassuring. Vibes are powerful.
How I write code using Cursor: A review.
Movies
I Know What You Did Last Summer. Been a while since I’ve seen it, gets the job done. My 100th movie of the year.
Longlegs. Gross and unsettling at times, but maybe would have found it scarier in the theater? I enjoyed seeing Maika Monroe settling in as a distinctive oddball character, and Nicolas Cage is an all-timer.
The Naked City. Interesting for its snapshot of 1940s NYC neighborhoods, and a decent little procedural mystery.
Presumed Innocent. I need to watch more 80s/90s legal thrillers. Great courtroom scenes, always love when they approach the bench and hash things out. Harrison Ford has a lot of range in stillness.
Music
After hearing one of his songs at the vinyl bar, I dove into Doug Carn’s soulful jazz explorations from the 1970s…
…and from there into more jazz…
Sun Ra, Kingdom of Discipline. The organ in “Sophisticated Lady” is so good. I also liked his recent “Lights on a Satellite” single.
Ryo Fukui, Scenery. Check out “I Want to Talk About You“.
Two from Alfa Mist, Antiphon and Variables
Walter Smith III, three of us are from Houston and Reuben is not.
Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah, Yesterday You Said Tomorrow. Covers “The Eraser“, so that’s cool!
…and eventually, the genre started to feel a little stale. Or like I’d kept taking spoonfuls without chewing. To change things up I re-visited Camille Saint-Saëns’ Symphony No. 3. It hit like a truck, great stuff.
TV
The X-Files, s3e16 “Apocrypha“. The black oil backstory. I like when Mulder and Scully go off on separate adventures and then team up again after swapping clues. One of the better-shot episodes, good mood.
Batman: The Animated Series, s1e31 “Dreams in Darkness“. Scarecrow episode, a rare one with Batman narrating previous events, like a film noir detective.
Mark Larson 