A big adventure with the baby in Manhattan last Sunday: coffee shop, Madison Square Park, Central Park, MoMA, and plenty of subway navigation. The longer outings seemed daunting at first, but at this age, it's mostly the same things I've done a million times before, on repeat, just in difference places than I'm used to. Thousands of people do it every day!

Another round of family visits this past week, exhausting and fulfilling, and we're done for another month or so. I return to work at the end of the week. Parental leave has been great, 10/10, highly recommend.

a plastic mat of a portable chess set ripples and flexes across an uneven surface, causing pieces on the black-and-white checkered surface to tilt in different directions in the morning sunlight. a tube of lipstick is being used as a bishop for black

Art

Pigeon Within, animated film by Emily Hubley, a highlight of the MoMA visit. More locally, the kachina doll exhibition at Brooklyn Museum was super cool and I also liked seeing Matsunaga Hisahide smashing his teacup, a woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.

Books

The Hard Way. I'll finish one day! A page or two at night is all I can manage lately.

Around the Web

"For every message you put out, start by saying what you mean. Don’t work backwards from what the algorithm wants or what a platform permits."

AI-generated posters don’t have to be horrible. You can find skill in everything, and have to remember you might not have it yet. (via)

What happened to yoga?

Music

Stevie Wonder, previously-unreleased tracks on the Songs in the Key of Life EP. It would have been nice to have enjoyed these for the last 50 years, but better late than never.

Higher Intelligence Agency, Biosphere, Birmingham Frequencies. Solid ambient/experimental electronic stuff.

a row of five colorful kachina dolls in a display case in the Brooklyn Museum

Movies

Toy Story 5. Odd one with the Buzz / Woody parallel stories. Good moments, and overall good. I think my Toy Story rankings are... 4, 3, 5, 2, 1? I have a feeling I'll never re-watch to confirm anyway.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Very brief moments of fun in a "hey, I recognize that" kind of way, but I didn't enjoy it much at all. Oddly choppy and chaotic and unsubstantial storytelling.

Disclosure Day. Sometimes it's nice to be confused for a bit, rather than have a movie hold your hand and make the characters yap the orientation material at you. Blunt shows great talent, and her character can be interpreted not just as a hapless vessel but an eventually-willing prophet-type character. So easily accepted? A few hours passed and I had a good time and I'll forget about it soon.

(Tough week!)

TV

The X-Files, s7e4 "Millenium". The ending!!! Love how they transitioned the soundtrack at that moment, too.

WandaVision, s1e6.

Neagley, s1e7–8. I'm ready for season two.

a morning view of the Brooklyn Bridge as seen through leafy trees in Brooklyn Bridge Park