A very educational week to start: doctor visit, webinars, trainings, reading. I was glad for the change of pace on the back half, a more gentle slope into the weekend.
We moved some furniture around the house and reset the energy a little bit. Friday night fingerpainting on the roof. Saturday snoozing after a long hard run.
I wish Spotify were more adventurous and opinionated in its recommendations. So often it's playlists and singles. The small section with full-album recs is so often more of the same, so rarely the adjacent possible. Take a chance on me! Take a stance!
Art
The Matterhorn Quilt in hand-pieced and appliquéd cotton by Myrtle Fortner. Temple Hanging for the Autumn Full Moon (Picchavai Sharad Purnama), 1800s watercolor on cloth from Rajasthan, India. Tramonto a New York [Sunset in New York] Seating System, sofa by Gaetano Pesce. Within/Between/Corpus (11), photograph by Keisha Scarville. A 19th-century Qing dynasty wedding headdress, in silk, kingfisher feathers, copper alloy, turquoise, glass, and ceramic. Jeune marchand ambulant, oil on canvas by Alioune Diagne.
Books
Emma. Who among us has not been high on their own supply?
Running
Highlights of the week: Tuesday morning trailrun, and a Saturday morning long run to Shirley Chisholm State Park, and being the first one in when they unlocked the gates. :) (I wonder what it was like for long-time residents, seeing the old landfills changed to parkland.)
Around the Web
Does it matter if you don't like the characters?
"No matter how endangered the movies become, we still get to choose what moves and delights us. Why settle for less?"
"The stronger people’s political commitments, the less accurate their understanding of what the other side thinks. The politically disengaged have the most accurate picture of their fellow citizens’ views."
All US cities which used to have more than 100,000 people but don't anymore.
Music
All Bach, baby! A couple weeks ago I had a breakthrough with The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080. I wanted to seal that in, so that's pretty much all I listened to, a few different recordings:
- a piano version by Evgeni Koriolov, meditative bordering on ponderous, but you want to sit up and respect the listening a bit more than the others?
- a viol consort version by Fretwork, warm and reedy, "old-timey", modest.
- a harpsichord version by Davitt Moroney, more clinical but the percussive nature of the instrument keeps it interesting.
- a version by Emerson String Quartet, polished and lively and propulsive, maybe the friendliest version.
Also listened to a collection of Bach's Flute Sonatas with Basso Continuo, perf. Francesco Padovani, Roberto Loreggian, Francesco Galligioni. Really liked this album, especially the second-movement Allegro from the sonata in E major, BWV 1035 and the Adagio e piano third movement from the G major sonata, BWV 1039. The opening Andante from BWV 1033 draws you right in. Maybe the Andante from the E minor sonata, BWV 1034 takes the prize?
Movies
A Few Good Men. They don't make'em like they used to.
Hokum. Straightforward haunted house sort of thing told well.
TV
The X-Files, s6e18 "Milagro". John Hawkes!
The Expanse, s1e6–7.
Dark, s3e1–2. We're back, and I'm not sure when/where that is, exactly.