I’m typically in the office ~5 days every week. The rare, random days when I decide to work from home are a real treat. That may be the key for me – regularity, with potential for a surprise here and there?
I was supposed to run in a race in Central Park on Saturday: an irregular event in a place I’m very familiar with. The thought of it became less and less appealing as the day grew closer. Going out of my way to do two laps I’ve already seen plenty of times?
So I skipped it. And did my usual Saturday morning long run (regularity), filling out my map in Brooklyn, exploring some new-to-me streets (potential surprises) on a sunny 28º morning. I’ll never know what sticking to the plan would have been like, but can’t say I regret my choice.
Art
“Woodland Elves VII“, bone china with transfer-printing, hand-painting, and lustre glaze by Daisy Makeig-Jones.
On Brooklyn Bridge, oil on canvas by Albert Gleizes.
A Zapotec ceramic vessel in the form of a seated male figure.
A tatanua funerary mask from the New Ireland area of Papua New Guinea.
La Pythie Philippise, bas-relief terracotta by Emile-Antoine Bourdelle.
Books
Build a Large Language Model (From Scratch) by Sebastian Raschka. Part of a weekly book club at work, we’ll see how far I make it.
Meditations for Mortals, cont.
Native Nations, cont.
The Path of Daggers, cont. (again!)
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
10 Rules for Students and Teachers. “Consider everything an experiment.”
Bilge Ebiri’s top 20 films for 2024, for now?
MGMT playing “Kids” in 2003. Clearly came a long way since the self-conscious beginners in the video, a lesson for us all.
Big-city people walk faster than they used to. (via)
“Cruise ships continue to grow: a natural experiment in what can be achieved outside the constraints that have stifled progress on dry land.”
“Conversation with others often emphasizes the most well-understood elements of an idea.”
I’d never thought about citation in the age of AI, until now. Chicago beats MLA?
Every UUID and a write-up on building it.
Music
Highlight of the week: Kevin Puts, Marimba Concerto, The City, & Oboe Concerto No. 2 “Moonlight” perf. Katherine Needleman, Ji Su Jung, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra cond. Marin Alsop. Marimba was my favorite instrument to play, back when I was deeper into music in high school and college. The concerto is a beautiful piece, had me falling in love again.
I continued the old-school French from last week with a couple more from Guillaume Dufay…
- Le Prince d’amours perf. Ensemble Gile Binchois.
- Choral Music perf. Cantica Symphonia.
- …and Johannes Ockeghem, Missa “De Plus en Plus”; Chansons, perf. Orlando Consort. I remember studying the mass in college. Funny feeling, that little tickle of recognition after 20 years.
- …and Guillaume de Machaut, Sacred and Secular Music perf. Ensemble Gilles Binchois. Monk chanting kinda stuff.
The Human League, Dare!. It’s sad how many bands I know for one (1) great song (“Don’t You Want Me“), and only many decades later do I learn they have a lot of great songs (like “Do Or Die“)! A good reminder as the year wraps up and best-of lists arrive: there are treasures to find everywhere you care to look.
Lucio Battisti, Una giornata uggiosa. Italian pop recommended to me at work. Reminds me a bit of Gipsy Kings crossed with… something else I can’t quite put my finger on. The guitar in “Gelosa cara” made me think of “Used Ta Be My Girl“. The soft rock in “Con il nastro rosa” made me think of “Seabird“.
Anne Paceo, S.H.A.M.A.N.E.S. “Reste un oiseau” is the pick here.
Movies
Monolith. A disgraced journalist-turned-podcaster goes kooky when chasing down a story. A solo performance, like The Listener and others I recommended in week 16. I’d recommend The Vast of Night for other powerful over-the-phone storytelling. Echoes of Annihilation at the climax.
Red Rooms. Along the same lines of tech-enabled perversion when chasing down a story… phew! This draws you into the most queasy, vile territory. We never directly see much violence, but we see the harm it does to people who feed on it. Our protagonist is uncomfortably lacking in affect – except a horrifying climax where she participates in an auction.
Lots of medieval allusions at play. She uses the screenname “LadyOfShallott“, and has a painting of the character on the wall of her mostly-empty apartment (which is high in a tower, where she observes the darkest parts of life remotely from the web, mostly nocturnally, and comes out because she finds a male figure so compelling…). The killer’s last name is “Chevalier”. She drinks wine from a silver chalice, and wears a cross bottony. And there’s an olde-style period instrument soundtrack, but with modern (dis)harmonies.
Really solid movie I probably can’t bear to watch again. An even better movie about a woman obsessed with criminal court proceedings: Saint Omer.
Hundreds of Beavers. Made me feel alive again! Talk about a palate cleanser. A masterclass in escalation. Zany blend of animation and practical effects, Looney Tunes silliness and an improv troupe’s “why not?” go-for-broke attitude. One of my favorites of this year.
TV
The X-Files, s3e23 “Wetwired“. TV transmission brainwashing! A reappearance of Mr. X and the Smoking Man. Surprising impact from the scene of Scully paranoiacally tearing apart her hotel room in search of a bug – really well done.
Cross, s1e2–3. The main villain seems a little too perfect, too slick. His chaotic sidekick is more uncomfortable to watch. Props to grandma for cutting the wires. I like the scenes where we see Cross flexing is psychology expertise, drawing connections, following hunches from longtime experience – more of that, please.
Words of Wisdom
“Never listen to people who want you to enjoy fewer things.”
Mark Larson 