It’s amazing how much difference a solid chunk of time can make. A couple days I had frustratingly chopped up calendar – doctor appointment, mid-day transit, meetings on and off every 30 minutes. And on another day: early morning, empty office, nothing on the calendar ’til after lunch. Blank slate for complete thoughts.
Each draining in their own way. Last week I found myself returning home completely flatlined. Enough energy to get out a few sentences but after that: …………. What a weird feeling.
It’s now the Year of the Fire Horse. Fun to read up on my own year. It’s all baloney, but like horoscopes or other divination, it still scratches that itch where it’s inherently compelling to recognize yourself in a description.
We’re set for another blizzard in a few hours, and I find myself wishing for a good ol’ fashioned snow day.
A great Saturday morning: coffee, pastry, and a date at the library.
Art
Fish and Mushrooms, woodcut on paper by Luigi Rist. Oiwa (Oiwa-san), from the series “One Hundred Ghost Tales (Hyaku monogatari)”, color woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai – “The title refers to a game in which people would gather at night to tell scary stories, putting out a candle after each tale until the room was completely dark.” Large Mowing Machine with Horses, oil on canvas by Jacques Villon. Avatar Reef Teapot, semi porcelain by Delfina Emmanuel. Monkeys on a Fruit Tree, ink and colors on silk hanging scroll by Mori Sosen.
Books
War and Peace. You spend 1000 pages with fictional characters and then Napoleon bursts into the room.
Running
Settling in nicely, somehow my biggest weekly mileage since September. Reminding myself that the short little runs as a daily dose still have huge positive spillover into the rest of my days. Note-to-self, treat exercise like brushing your teeth.
Around the Web
Don’t Call It Art!. Pre-ordered! Get on board.
“The other notion of playfulness that I find really useful is from Maria Lugones, the great feminist philosopher, in this beautiful paper called ‘Playfulness, World-Traveling, and the Loving Gaze.’ She says that playfulness is the ability to move lightly between worlds.”
“It’s not so much that we need to teach them these things, as much as we need to encourage them to keep believing these things.”
Resilient Children, Struggling Parents: Mapping American Parenting. “Using a composite score that measures the extent to which children have independent, playful, socially-diverse, and technology-lite childhoods, we find that kids in the Great Plains, Mountain states, and New England have the highest scores, while a cluster of states around Southern Appalachia are where children have the least independent, least socially-diverse, most technologically-dependent childhoods.”
“But needing and being needed—the bottomless empathy and vulnerability they require—are exquisite not because the feeling of love is so special but because the person you love is, to you.”
“Science fiction is often called upon to cast a line into the future to plumb the possible consequences of our modern ironies.”
“When I’m on set or thinking about a story, making sure that the audience is engaged and that I’m also excited, I have to fight through the sensation of, ‘Oh my god, another fucking over-the-shoulder shot.’ I have to push through that and go, ‘You’re building a sentence. Getting upset when you have to shoot an over-the-shoulder shot is like getting upset at using the word ‘and’ or ‘the’ in a sentence. It has to be done. It’s part of the grammar.'”
A color memory game. I got 44.07/50 on first and only attempt, happy with that. (via)
Women’s clothing sizes are a mess.
The Taxonomy of Merch. “Why does wearing merch in real time, in the place it belongs to, feel so icky?” (via)
Cut Gems. The art of retouching photographs of museum gem collections.
I turned my website into my feed reader. Very cool idea. 🤔
“The ‘America is behind Europe on trains’ narrative compares visibly mediocre service for passengers but ignores invisibly great service for cargo. Instead of asking why America lags Europe on passenger rail, we should be asking ourselves whether America can have better passenger rail and whether it should want to.”
Music
A few more from Weval this week (I really enjoyed their self-titled a few weeks ago) a few weeks ago…
- The Weight. Favorite tracks are “The Weight” and “Someday“.
- Remember. “Everything Went Well” is a little Washed Out-y, in a good way.
- Chorophobia. I like “Better“, especially the bassline.
Monteverdi, Madrigali e lamenti; Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi.
Eric Whitacre, Light & Gold. Some really nice choral music. I remember playing one of his pieces back in college (which I did not like very much).
Various Artists, WaJazz: Japanese Jazz Spectacle Vol. I and Vol. II. “Summer Wind” is cool.
Movies
The Rainmaker. Apparently I’ve seen this before but I didn’t remember a thing. Not bad, but not sure it will stick.
Sisu. Second viewing (the first). Holds up! Great warm-up to double-feature with the new sequel…
Sisu: Road to Revenge. Buster Keaton x Fury Road. So fun. For me, the best chases involve some degree of watching and waiting and sneaking around. This delivers.
TV
Dark, s1e7–10. The story has been scifi for a while, but this is the first time we the mechanics rendered on-screen. Loses a bit of mystery and magic that way, and maybe some of the weight?
Mark Larson 