Thinking about disappointments lately, and the opportunity to double down on what I want regardless. Renewing efforts, aiming for maximal success helps minimize regrets.
Fun exercise: get a big sheet of paper and tape it on the wall. Turn it into a calendar. Add sticky notes for all the travel you plan and want to do in the coming year. Dream it into existence!
A few moments at my favorite burger place a Saturday afternoon:
Art
Tibetan skeleton dance costume in silk and flannel. [Untitled] (Picnic – Fancy Hat), drawing by William Steig. Phoenix and Lobster, woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi. Ceramic shark from the Tolita-Tumaco cultures of coastal Ecuador/Colombia. Silhouettes, woodcut print by Jeanne Amato.
Books
Richard II (Shakespeare). I read a bunch of Shakespeare back in 2021, and this one ranked pretty highly back then. Enjoyed even more after reading The Eagle and the Hart earlier this year. I like the differing gifts and deficits of the main actors, the contrast of moral clarity vs. political success. Richard’s a wastrel in his position as king, but has a depth as tragic figure where you can’t help but feel for him. Everyone else is similarly compromised in some way.
Not sure what’s next. 🤔
Running
More adventures in Bushwick. A lil’ persistent cough keeping the mileage down.
Around the Web
Romanticizing running outside in the winter. “Overcoming your own disapproval of a season will remind you of the impermanence of life around you. Everything is malleable.”
“We’re losing the ability to be influenced by things we don’t fully understand yet.”
“It seems like, by default, you are stuck with whatever level of resourcefulness you brought to a problem the first time you encountered it and failed to fix it.”
How men and women spend their days.
Gender gaps run both ways: the data.
Where do the children play? (via) Pretty wild:
some statistics on the American childhood, drawn from children aged 8-12:
- 45% have not walked in a different aisle than their parents at a store;
- 56% have not talked with a neighbor without their parents;
- 61% have not made plans with friends without adults helping them;
- 62% have not walked/biked somewhere (a store, park, school) without an adult;
- 63% have not built a structure outside (for example, a fort or treehouse);
- 71% have not used a sharp knife;
Even if those are inaccurately inflated by let’s say 2-3x, this seems impoverished!
I like this idea of “resumability“.
A walk around Prospect Heights.
Music
Eleanor Daley: Requiem and Other Choral Works The Choir of Royal Holloway dir. Rupert Gough. Great album. Favorites here are “grandmother moon” and “Open thou mine eyes“.
Sabrina Carpenter, Man’s Best Friend. Glad someone is keeping disco alive: “Tears” is so fun. The rest of the album, I could take or leave. It all sounds very… saturated?
Marc-Antoine Charpentier: Messe de minuit pour Noel. perf. The Virgin Consort cond. Kyler Brown. Preparing my ears for an upcoming concert.
Oneohtrix Point Never, Tranquilizer. All the perfect bleeps and bloops you could hope for! I’ll keep this one in the rotation for a bit longer.
Karina Canellakis conducts Tchaikovsky perf. London Philharmonic.
Bach: The 7 Toccatas perf. Francesco Tristano.
Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 cond. Kirill Petrenko cond. Berliner Philharmoniker.
Faye Webster, Atlanta Millionaires Club. I like the bass and Rhodes and slide guitar in “Right Side of My Neck“.
Movies
Train Dreams. Loved it. I liked the book, too. Joel Edgerton is a natural at the contained, hesitant, introspective roles. as in Master Gardener. (Hereby issuing a challenge to filmmakers, though: show a nostalgic happy memory scene without filming it at golden hour! It’s lazy. People have good memories in all kinds of weather and times of day…)
The Insider. Third viewing, I think. (The first.) This time around, better recognized how the title applies to Bergman as well as Wigand, how he ends up as a sort of whistleblower, too.
TV
The X-Files, s5e7 “Emily”.
Hannibal, s1e11–13.
All Her Fault, s1e1–2.
Mark Larson 