I got sick this week, catching some local plague that had me down, but not out. This is what happens when I laugh in the face of the gods. I’d just had a conversation last week about my run of good health.
In hindsight, pushed it just a little bit too far on run last Sunday – heading out to run in the snow because it’s fun, regardless of that slight hint of a sniffle and tickle in the back of my throat.
It turned into an opportunity of its own. To skip the commute and work from home so I don’t infect people. To take a little extra time with the morning coffee ritual. To cut out evening commitments and recognize how much time I have, to recognize the choices available when I get back in the swing of things.
Art
Terra cotta vase by Fritz Albert. I love the twisted pedestal base, like long leaves.
A Pende carving of a man riding a buffalo.
Books
Middlemarch!
Articles & Episodes & Twoots
I wrote about my favorite movies seen in 2024.
A woman has been journaling for 90 years. (via)
“This is a map of my life, where each week I’ve been alive is a little box.”
Citibike Stories. Bike rental travel patterns in NYC neighborhoods, lovely mapping.
Jane Austen Math, “ranking all of Austen’s single men across four weighted dimensions — fortune, morals, manners, and [sex appeal] — to develop secondary insights, calculate their individual total status, and analyze their relative marital desirability.”
What people get wrong about today’s NBA. A great counterpoint video on the idea that “they all just shoot threes”.
Kevin Kelly offers 50 years of travel tips. I like his model of “R&R” vs. “E&E”. A few philosophies that caught my eye:
- “Organize your travel around passions instead of destinations.”
- “The most significant criteria to use when selecting travel companions is: do they complain or not, even when complaints are justified? No complaining! Complaints are for the debriefing afterwards when travel is over.”
- “Although it tries, money cannot buy what time delivers.”
- “Laser out, meander back.”
You Need More Lux. “Lux are the measure of how much light you get. Summer sunlight is about 100,000 lux. An overcast winter day is 1,000 to 2,500 lux. This is a huge difference!”
Test Driven Writing (or Test Driven Documentation).
“Aim to be 90% done in 50% of the available time.”
Movies
To Live and Die In L.A.. Good to finally cross this one off the list. Corruption is contagious!
The Blue Gardenia. Raymond Burr! I grew up watching Perry Mason re-runs on daytime TV. So it was fun to see him in movies, and so young, in this and Crime of Passion last week. Also features a Nat King Cole spot! We need more stars popping in for musical interludes.
Nosferatu (2024). Seductive, horrifying, beautiful, crushingly sad. Eggers is such a talent. Has me thinking about revisiting The Northman again.
Love & Basketball. A sweet story with characters are charming and frustrating. I really like the parallel sequences of games/practice, with each on their same-but-different journey.
I Saw the Devil. Korean revenge flick. We spend a lot of time with the villain, and he is tremendously haunting. Seeking vengeance will poison you.
Arcadian. Post-apocalyptic monsters out on the farm. Nicolas Cage delivers, and the monsters are right up there with the inventiveness in Attack the Block and Annihilation. There’s a few moments of counting here, feels like they could have extended that somehow. It’s fun!
Music
Giridhar Udupa, My Name Is Giridhar Udupa. The opener “Aadhi – The Beginning” is exemplary – woozy pulsing electronics with ceramic drum cross-rhythms. Really fun album.
Jeremy Ledbetter Trio, Gravity. Tight, crisp jazz pieces. I really like the patterns in in “Two Cousins“.
n.o. Arts Ensemble, Deaths and Entrances. Melancholy operatic chamber work, some hints of olde Renaissance music.
Ambrose Akinmusire, honey from a winter stone. “MYanx” has some hard funk, spoken-word, very freewheeling.
TV
The X-Files, s4e8 “Tunguska“. Frickin’ Krycek, I swear…
Mark Larson 