Last week I went bouldering for the first time in 6 years or so. So great! I need to work that back into my life. For me it’s one of those pleasures like playing guitar or videos, where I never got very good, don’t particularly care, and find a lot of satisfaction in re-learning the basics every now and then.
Books
Sense and Sensibility. Things I’m appreciating: mixing dialogue with summary of dialogue and the way the narration undercuts and pokes fun at its subjects. Also appreciating how primogeniture and entailment make even the most comfortably wealthy women so vulnerable. An incredibly enjoyable book.
Running
This weekend I ran a long loop touring some of my least-favorite neighborhoods, and had a great time. It’s not only where you are, but what you make of it.
Around the Web
Zadie Smith on The Art of the Impersonal Essay. “It’s in that optimistic spot that I set out my stall, yes, and my ideas and arguments such as they are, sure, but without demanding to see anyone’s identifying papers in the opening paragraph.”
“Just remembering that everything is connected to the heart can spare you a lot of suffering.”
Encourage purposeful friction. “In general, if you can reduce the friction required to start doing or continue doing a thing, you’re more likely to do that thing, and keep doing it longer. Great! Helpful. Unless the thing is something you don’t want to keep doing.”
“We specialise in whatever whoever has recently died specialised in.”
A 13-meter long table made from a 5000-year old oak log.
Illiteracy is a policy choice. “If you live where I do, in Oakland, California, and you cannot afford private education, you should be seriously considering moving to Mississippi for the substantially better public schools.”
“I decided to deconstruct the linguistic memes that dominated the Twitter-waves this year.”
Who’s Getting Rich Off Your Attention?
“Rich people want middle class culture but delivered in a bespoke, upmarket form“.
Why Warm Countries Are Poorer? “A big percentage of equatorial population actually lives in mountains: The closer to the equator, the higher up the capitals!”
Good phrase: “mapping the space between one-off demo and load-bearing infrastructure“.
“Aphorisms never accomplish anything. Their whole talent is traveling beyond their occasion, gathering force as they go, to end up on a refrigerator magnet.”
“If you want to be able to finish large, complex projects, you have to practice finishing things. which usually means doing smaller projects.”
My website is ugly because I made it.
Music
Cappela Romana cond. Alexander Lingas, A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court: Christmas 1400, London. Very very cool album, love the concept: “Go back in time to 1400, when Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, seeking foreign aid for besieged Constantinople, spent Christmas in the court of English King Henry IV. […] medieval Byzantine and Sarum chant and royal ceremonial performed by two very different historic choirs, one singing in Greek and the other in Latin, as they celebrated the feast of Christmas at London’s Eltham Palace.” Favorite might be “Kalophonic Polychrónion“, a baritone and a drone, can’t beat it.
James Blackshaw, Unraveling In Your Hands. Twelve-string acoustic meanderings. Second favorite album of the week. I’ll keep this one around for a bit.
Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen Sings Gluck Handel Vivaldi. The sweet melancholy of “Che farò senza Euridice?” is quite lovely.
Arias for Guadagni: The First Modern Castrato. Here’s another version of “Che farò senza Euridice?“.
More Mozart: Concertone KV190, Horn Concerto No. 3 KV447, Piano Concertos No. 2 KV39 & No. 4 KV41. He has a very high floor but didn’t fall in love with any of these recordings.
Movies
Weapons (2025). Fun to watch but nothing lingering afterward. The vignette structure is a welcome change of pace.
28 Years Later. This is a good blend of high and low. References to Bible stuff, Bergman, Hamlet. I like the use of montage to unsettle and give some historical resonance. Appreciate that the father and mother are very imperfect. What’s with movie dystopias leaving all the women in floral dresses?
TV
Line of Duty, s4e2–4. I love Hastings. An imperfect but forcefully moral leader, endlessly disappointed that others set such a low bar for themselves.
SpongeBob Squarepants, s1e1. I’m ready! I’m ready! I’m ready!
Mark Larson 