I fear that I haven’t paid much attention to my day-to-day life lately.

Art
Approaching Storm, print by Grant Wood. A 19th-century Earthenware pitcher, made in Bangor, Maine.. A male figure in the Nomoli style.

Books
Winter’s Heart. It feels good when you learn how to read a particular book.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
“It wasn’t because I was smarter or more dedicated, but simply because I’d been looking directly at a specific problem they only encountered as part of a much larger institutional landscape.”

“By their late thirties, nearly two-thirds of people born in Wyoming have moved to other states.”

“Here I pause for one moment, to exhort the reader never to pay any attention to his understanding, when it stands in opposition to any other faculty of his mind. The mere understanding, however useful and indispensable, is the meanest faculty in the human mind, and the most to be distrusted.”

Road House: The Perfect ’80s Western. “Dalton is Fonzie-cool, Eastwood-mysterious, and physically pristine.”

Why are movies about research so addictive?

The Sustained Two-Shot.

Ryan Coogler talks about film stock and aspect ratios.

Beatrice Chebet breaks the 14-minute 5k barrier.

Music
Taylor McFerrin, Early Riser. Jazz/soul/electronic. I like all all the layering in “Postpartum“, and I think that’s also what I respond to in “Already There” – something to latch onto no matter where you put your ear.

Daoud’s soda single. “plato’s twins” has been on repeat, with a restlessness that reminds me of Harmony of Difference-era Kamasi Washington. The full GOOD BOY album was merely good.

Muslimgauze, Single #One.

Movies
You Hurt My Feelings. Such good heart in this one. Love how it portrays how we all seek and need validation outside ourselves (even though we might know better?), and the payoff that can come from trusting, again and again.

The Hunger Games. The shakiest camera you’ve ever seen. (Previously.)

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Charming as usual. I always wish these were paced just a hair faster.

Transporter 2. Cross an Audi commercial with CSI: Miami b-roll, mix in some Jackie Chan-tics, you got yourself a stew.

Skyfall. So dreary. I give up! I don’t like James Bond! (Previously.)

TV
The X-Files, s4e22 “Elegy“. The events/mystery side of this is a mess, but appreciated some nuance in the Scully/Mulder relationship.

Couples Therapy, s4e13–18.

Department Q, s1e9. I don’t like watching someone get tortured for a full season, but hard not to like a grumpy, swaggering detective.

CSI: Miami, s8e19. Young Alan Ritchson!

I’m just hunkering down and avoiding the heat as much as I can.

Art
Bird on a branch in front of a skyline, illustration by Leo Gestel. Illustration (Typhoon), woodcut by Edward Alexander Wadsworth. Mithila/Madhubani school illustration of Three Figures: woman with two children playing ball. Drying the Linen, or Moonrise at the Priory, oil on canvas by Maurice Denis.

Books
Winter’s Heart. I guess we’re doing this!

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
How to Surf the Web in 2025, and Why You Should. “To surf, you must begin on a normal website with outbound links, and avoid all the algorithm-driven thoroughfares (Reddit, YouTube, X, any ‘apps’) that direct most of today’s internet traffic. You also have to be on a real computer, not a phone. If you end up on social media, you’re no longer surfing.”

macOS Icon History.

The trend in book covers with bright type over a painting.

Which book genres are men or women more likely to leave reviews for?

NYC bakeries that sell one thing.

Can AI speak the language Japan tried to kill?

Why Does Every Commercial for A.I. Think You’re a Moron?

Heir Ball: How the Cost of Youth Sports Is Changing the N.B.A..

Music
The Knife, Tomorrow, In a Year. Reminded me of mid-19th-century opera.

Bronski Beat, The Age of Consent. I like the slinky, bluesy city feel in “Love and Money“.

Billy Idol, Rebel Yell. So good! “Rebel Yell” is eternal. Ditto for “Eyes Without a Face“.

Mark Pritchard, Thom Yorke, Tall Tales. “Back in the Game” and “The Spirit“.

Movies
Avengers: Endgame. Too many speeches, and the number of storylines to touch on kills the momentum, and its too timid to land the sentimental Americana register it dabbles in here and there… but still a good conclusion to this arc. (Maybe I just prefer the gloom of Infinity War?)

TV
The X-Files, s4e21 “Zero Sum“. “A man digs a hole, he risks falling into it.” See Proverbs 26:27.

Couples Therapy, s4e7–12.

Our Great National Parks, s1e2.

Dept. Q, s1e7.

I remember getting really grumpy that first Sunday in June. Lots of waiting, and random empty timeslots to fill. Nothing clicking. This last Sunday, stark contrast: up at 530am, out the door before 6am, and a morning of trailrunning ahead of me. Always the balance of planning enough that I don’t feel lost, but not so much that I feel hemmed in. Self-management is hard!

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Last Friday evening we went to see the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater at BAM. Treading was an excellent duet (Steve Reich soundtrack!), but I looooooved Grace. It opens with a delicate solo that had this edgy restlessness lying underneath, then turns into a huge ensemble piece switching between gospel, house, afrobeat soundtracks. High energy, super cool, great costuming, too.

---

I got a new laptop and it’s great and perfect and… underwhelming. I no longer feel the quiet fury and resignation and impatience I’d feel watching the old one slowly grind through clicks and keystrokes. But in the end, just another screen and keyboard?

---

Some friends visited the city earlier this week, their kids in tow, and enjoyed the brief window into the kookiness and chaos that is the young mind. The one who barely looked at me when introducing myself soon latched on, eating up every morsel of attention. The distinct personalities with just a handful of years. The way brothers alternately admire and despise each other in 5-minute cycles. What a ride.

Art
Tapestries by Sam Dienst. Meditating Frog by Sengai Gibon. Aztec figure carrying corn.

Books
Extinction. Finished, glad I read it, good change of pace. The Bullet Swallower by Elizabeth Gonzalez James, a magical realist western, didn’t click with it, DNF’ed. The Story of King Arthur and his Knights by Howard Pyle, just started.

Running
Most recent highlight was doing some trailrunning up along the Hudson River valley. We took the Metro North train up to Manitou, stepped off onto a quiet country road, ran up into the hills and ridges, eventually descending back to Garrison (where we saw the train coming around the corner and finished with a desperate, exhausted last-minute sprint) to catch the train back home.

I’m feeling… excited for summer long runs!?

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Musical stars we’re forgetting and when pop music went supernova.

Italo Calvino’s 14 Criteria for What Makes a Classic. (via)

How to Live on $432 a Month in America. “For the right young person — there are many opportunities to stop pointing the finger at the boomer and to become the boomer, if they so choose.” (via)

Things To Do While Waiting.

It’s a great time to be a human philosopher.

“[LLMs] devour schlep, and clear a path to the important stuff, where your judgement and values really matter.”

Nice rocks.

Federal law enforcement funds would be better spent solving all murders instead of deporting people.

Music
A couple albums from Of the Trees…

• Harvest
• The Tale of the Elegos. I like this one more, felt more cohesive, more natural flow.

André 3000, 7 piano sketches.

Zeena Hawkins, Three Harps, Tuning Forks & Electronics. I feel like this album title is directly marketed to me, specifically. “Tuning Forks” is great.

Ghost, Skeletá. Theatrical metal, so fun.

Brahms: Symphony No. 4 perf. Wiener Philharmoniker cond. Carlos Kleiber.

Two from Justice, both fun in the moment, but not a ton of staying power for me…

• Justice. “Genesis” is a good start, like a movie overture. Then turns into a good stank-face romp.
• Hypderdrama

Some quiet piano albums from Elijah Fox…

• Ambient Works for the Highways of Los Angeles
• City in the Sky

Steve Reich, Music for 18 Musicians. Heard this again at the Alvin Ailey show and remembered why I love it.

The Knife, The Knife. I like the messy jagged guitar reverb in “I Take Time“

Movies
For a good while there I was burned out on superhero movies and Marvel specifically. I’ve been playing catch-up, and enjoying it.

The Incredible Hulk (2008). I’ve never spent much time with Hulk comics or otherwise. I think I prefer how Ruffalo carries the role, but I love how this one looks, and gave me a new appreciation for the character.

Avengers: Age of Ultron. Probably the best villain in the whole arc?

Spider-Man: Homecoming. Spider-Man/Peter Parker is at his best when he’s a teen, rather than a bumbling adult. (Or maybe you need to be Christopher Reeve to pull it off the type?)

Thor: Ragnarok. It’s fun. I wish more of the movies were this colorful and silly.

TV
The X-Files, s4e18 “Max“. “Men with spartan lives, simple in their creature comforts, if only to allow for the complexity of their passions.”

The X-Files, s4e19 “Synchrony“. Surprised it took so long to do time travel. Or am I forgetting other episodes?

Reacher, s3e8. Each season has gotten worse. Disappointing trend!

I don’t miss Twitter and for the first time in a long time, I gave serious thought to deleting my account. Doesn’t feel the same when I hop on. The magic is gone. Some change in audience and content over the last decade+, sure, but maybe it’s just I have changed? I keep bringing this up (like in week 18) because I didn’t full expect it to happen. I thought I was just going to take it off my phone, refocus a bit. In the past, while never a heavy poster, I was a diehard at-least-daily reader and generally unabashed fan. It felt like the nerve center for all my interests. Now, it’s a place I find interesting for a few minutes every week or so. Things change.

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Highlights from last week include the Liberty vs. Valkyries game (wiped the floor with them), and the Powerhouse Arts Community Day, where I learned about Mucky the Dolphin.

Art
Almondsbury to Temple Quay, map in stitched canvas with hand painted silk applique by Kate Tarling. Edtaonisl (Ecclesiastic), painting by Francis Picabia. Bōtarō’s Nurse Otsuji Prays to the God of Konpira for His Success, color woodblock print by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi. A 2nd-century Roman brooch in the form of a dog attacking a boar.

Books
Rainbows End. Finally done! Appreciate the amnesia revival, wearables, competing augmented realities, asshole protagonist

Extinction, by Douglas Preston. Fun murder mystery with debts to Jurassic Park. There’s a lot of value in “whatever keeps the pages turning”.

Running
After a great stretch last week, this week I barely ran at all. On the bright side, got to fill in some big gaps in my map. I really love learning all these Brooklyn neighborhoods first-hand.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
The case for more public youth art.

Adjusting for demographics and income, the South is an educational powerhouse.

In the U.S., more people work for the MTA than in coal mining.

Very strange and cool to see an LLM talk about how it thinks.

What happens when the intelligence goes out?

Scott Sumner suggests some overlooked films.

The Entity: On the Technologies of Late Cruisedom.

Clint Eastwood: “There are directors who lose their touch at a certain age, but I’m not one of them.”

Music
A few more form Jon Hopkins. Enjoyable, but none of them latched onto my soul the way my first exposure did back in week 15.

• RITUAL (nothing is lost)
• Opalescent
• Late Night Tales
• Immunity

Blackbraid,”War Drums at Dawn on the Day of My Death“. Metal!

Elliot Cole: Percussion Music. Inventive, exploers the full spectrum of possibilities. Enjoyed this more than I expected.

Movies
Now You See Me. Did not enjoy! Wish we spent more time with the magicians instead of the cops. Maybe it all works better on a big screen?

The Return. I like how this film takes the events of The Odyssey for granted. We see everyone exhausted with this era of their lives, reckoning with what must come next. Ralph Fiennes is shredded! I hope I look as good in my 60s as he and Binoche do.

TV
The X-Files, s4e17 “Tempus Fugit”. A hangar and a cliffhanger!

Reacher, s3e6-7. Ready for it to end.

Words of Wisdom
“Nibble, and your appetite will grow.”

One of those periods where life runs away with me and other things fall away. A busier period than usual. In the middle of the worst of it, I felt oversaturated and exhausted. After the fact, not too bad? There’s a lesson in there.

All started on Sunday night a couple weeks ago, random dinner out at a new place… before leaving the next morning for a three-day work retreat the next morning. (One big adjustment: my wife travels for work much more often than I do, so it felt weird to be the one leaving her behind.)

Our company went up to MASS MoCA, and took over the museum. What a treat to have a place like that to ourselves. One morning, after a 5am wake-up, I got to have a James Turrell piece all to myself for a while. The huge Sol Lewitt collection was probably my fave, though.

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Came back to reality and been playing catch-up since then. But I lucked into a concert on Friday with Caroline Shaw and Sō Percussion at BAM. Really awesome performance. Loved how they played with lamps, and used the instrument blankets to build out the set as the show went on.

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Last Saturday and Sunday, I took a two-day workshop about weaving at the Textile Arts Center. I know how to use a loom now! Started from yarns, measured out the warps, strung it all up, and then played with different patterns.

Mission accomplished for me: I have a much, much deeper appreciation for the history of the tradition, and the incredible labor and thoughtfulness that goes into this craft. And I’m really happy with how my little sampler turned out:

Maybe it will move from casual exploration to a classic hobby?

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I continue to be Twitter-less or Twitter-lite these days, keeping it desktop-only. Yesterday I put it back on my phone, stayed up too late scrolling for nothing in particular… and then woke up and immediately started scrolling for nothing in particular lol. It’s amazing to watch the casino addiction re-form so quickly – deleted again!

Books
Rainbows End. Library loan expired. Guess I gotta buy it now.

Winter’s Heart, cont.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Designing for constraints in education. “We have to design for the standard days not the ideal ones.”

Mississippi Schools Are Better Than Yours. “Painting the Deep South as an embarrassing cultural backwater is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice among elites.”

3 thoughts while pushing a wheelbarrow.

“If the United States had matched the rate of improvement in road safety since the 1970s seen in, for example, the Netherlands, Sweden, or Spain, it would have prevented 2 out of every 3 road deaths.”

Appreciating the architecture and optimism of Radio City.

Music
Inspired by the concert, dived back into Shaw/Sō again, all strongly recommended…

• Let the Soil Play Its Simple Part
• Partita for 8 Voices
• Ringdown, Lady on the Bike and Ghost
• Fleishman Is in Trouble OST
• Glenn Kotche: Drumkit Quartets

Also played:

• Žibuoklė Martinaitytė, Ex Tenebris Lux. String orchestra texture and swells.
• Francisco Mora Catlett, Outerzone. Free-spirited jazz and noise.
• Howie Lee, Event, Fact, and Those which are emphasized. Glitchy electronic patches and samples and explorations.
• Harald Grosskopf, Synthesist. German electro!
• Songs from the Kitchen Disco: Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Greatest Hits. Listened to this after hearing “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” on the dancefloor.
• Leyla McCalla, A day for the hunter, a day for the prey. Haitian-inflected folk.
• Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, The Melody of Rhythm. It’s an interesting mash-up from insanely talented people, but I don’t think it’s a successful one?

Movies
State of Play. Fun re-watch. Journalism can be really compelling – underdogs, persistence, troublemaking.

Practical Magic. Totally charming! Really enjoyed it, and appreciated how many odd little turns it took, and tension drawn out from people who aren’t sure why they’re behaving the way they are. And briefly, one of the best road trip scenes you’ll ever see.

The Order. Really like this one, too. A crime drama that’s not quite gritty or grim, just… worn down? (And maybe I need a mustache again…)

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Desert sandstorm shootout is really cool, the chase scene with the little yellow car is still perfect, and so is the fight in the narrow alley. Warming up for the grand finale.

TV
The X-Files, s4e16 “Unrequited“. Vietnam vets again!

Reacher, s3e4. Reacher is too sociopathic. I’ll still finish the season, I think.

CSI: Miami, s7e18.

I don’t remember when I took Twitter off of my phone. A month ago, a month and change? It’s become more like a weekly treat on a Saturday or Sunday morning on the laptop. I feel like I’m missing out on a ton, but mostly don’t think about it. I feel less distracted, less twitchy, reading more, having fewer “where did the evening go?” moments. It’s a good change.

Art
Vessel in the Form of a Circular Pyramid from Colima, Mexico, c. 300 BCE–300 CE. Blue House (from Food Clothing Shelter portfolio), 1996, photogravure on paper by Laurie Simmons. Pueblo vase in sterling silver, 1893 by George Paulding Farnham. Brooklyn Summer Friday Night, 1954, oil on canvas by Diana Korzenik.

Books
Rainbows End, cont.. Favorite part so far is this idea of reviving people afflicted with Alzheimer’s, what they might experience as they return to full understanding of the world.

Running
A fun week of running – a Sunday long run visit to Marine Park and the salt marsh, another touring through Red Hook this morning. Running with new friends, a sunset run on Tuesday and an impromptu club run before work on Friday. It’s felt pleasantly erratic.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
An appreciation of Revenge of the Sith. Do we make “downer epics” anymore?

Robert Daniels and Odie Henderson talk about Sinners.

Your next best friend.

Who’s most likely to change (or hyphenate) their name after marriage?

“The TikTokers documenting themselves wading into the sea, reading by the beach, drinking espresso, and riding Vespas for the sake of #eurocore are live-action role-playing Europeanness, in Europe. Which is, of course, what tourists have been doing for centuries.”

“People like to psych themselves up by talking about how there’s no point in winning elections if we’re not going to stand up for our core values, but the converse is equally if not more true — there’s no point in articulating a policy agenda that stands no chance of being enacted.”

Lamenting the kerning on Pope Francis’ tomb.

Music
Various, Sinners OST. Ginz Zilbalodis and Rihards Zalupe, Flow OST. Harald Grosskopf, Ümit Han, Magnetfeld. Darkside, Nothing.

Movies
Gone Girl. Fourth viewing (my notes on the previous three). It has such a mesmerizing pace. The media angle really struck me this time, the need to play to the cameras.

Ex Machina. Third viewing (the first two). Felt a little impatient this time, but I think I appreciate each of the individual performances more. Nuanced work.

Along with The Social Network last week, these made for a fun accidental trilogy on tech/media/misogyny.

TV
The X-Files, s4e15 “Kaddish“. Golem!

Reacher, s3e1–2. When I say this I mean it literally: I don’t know what’s going on.

Felt like a bit of auto-pilot this week, activities on most evenings and packed days in between.

Books
Bright Young Women by Jessical Knoll. A little disappointed in the end, as it veered away from what I was most interested in, but it kept me turning pages, and that’s victory enough.

Rainbows End: A Novel With One Foot In The Future by Vernor Vinge. Just begun – lively!

Running
A return to a higher-mileage week after winter dormancy. Also ran with a group from the office, which was novel. (Running in Manhattan at 6pm is really annoying!)

Explored a new park this morning, a rare bit of quiet.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
“what does it seem like everyone else is mysteriously bad at? That’s probably a sign that you have good taste there.”

I feel for the owners, but I like the vandalizing woodpecker.

Overhead view of Manhattan looking south, 1931. (via)

Dispatches from my year of classical music.

Why Have Sentence Lengths Decreased?

Music
Paolo Fresu, kind of MILES. Cool jazz covers.

Mark Pritchard, Thom Yorke, Gangsters. “Back in the Game” is just about perfect.

Kuniko, Steve Reich, kuniko plays reich. The steel pans in the first movement of “Electric Counterpoint” was unexpected and completely perfect.

Mandrill. I overheard “Chutney” playing at my go-to burrito place, and had to know what it was. Blues rock, hippie flute jams, west african drumming, they got the whole stew. “Peace and Love (Amani Na Mapenzi) – Movement V (Beginning)” was another fave.

Blanc du Blanc, Scientist, Scientist Meets Blanc du Blanc: Before the Beginning. Trippy reverby headspace dub. See: “Taming Power of the Small: Dance of the Celestial Beings“.

Movies
The Social Network. Still great. Filed under: David Fincher.

Sinners. Overstuffed to its benefit and detriment. A lot to say but I don’t now what it means to say. At its best when leaning into music-video excess and reality-bending. Too many endings!

Flow. Pleasant and kinda boring. Like watching someone play an open-world video game, but more aimless and cloying. Beautiful, though.

Dark City. Second watch, just as good as the first. A weird little masterpiece.

A Poem
“Walk On” by Donna Carnes

You walk on
Still beside me
Eyes shadowed in dusk;
You’re the
Lingering question
At each day’s end.
I have to laugh
At how
Open-ended you remain
Still with me
After all these years
Of being lost.
I carry you like
My own personal
Time Machine,
As I put on my lipstick, smile,
And head out to
The party.

Yesterday we took a day trip to Washington D.C., which is a kind of trip I don’t do often enough. I got the idea when I spotted a new exhibition at the Renwick Gallery, We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists. And so a couple months ago we scheduled a trip to see it, and I was so looking forward to it…

…and I left the building disappointed. I think I’ve long had resistance to political or activist or tribute art. There was plenty here. And I had trouble seeing past it. I remember having the ungenerous though for a few of them, “Why is this a quilt?”. And leaning into my cynicism further, feeling like it was roughly equivalent to, e.g. bronze sculptures of military heroes. I like portraiture, but memorial work, message work, documentary work… not quite as much. So I left there feeling a little deflated. Nothing like the thrills I’d gotten from previous quilt stuff recently.

It’s not fair, but that’s the way it happens sometimes. I walk in with hopes and curiosity and it just doesn’t land. But then we walked across the Mall (passing through huge protest crowds that renewed my faith in America a little bit), and saw some cool stuff at the National Gallery.

Art
Some favorites from yesterday:

• Miss Ruby’s Crown, 2009, an awesome quilt by Gwendolyn Aqui-Brooks.
• From Traditional to Contemporary, 2021, sweetgrass woven basket by Corey Alston.
• Marriage in Form, 1996, a pair of bowls made from Pacific yew by Bob Stocksdale, and hornet’s nest paper by Kay Sekimachi.
• The Return from the Hunt, Flemish tapestry c. 1525-1550, workshop unknown.
• New House in the Suburbs, gouache on canvas by Paul Klee.

Books
Life and Fate, cont.. Enjoying the vignettes but also hoping to find some larger arc to hold on to.

Running
Enjoyed another evening trail run in the middle of the week, and a Friday evening run to fully transition away from the workaday work. I’ve not run with my run club much lately, for accidental reasons. It’s funny how quickly the ties can dissolve if you don’t regular invest in them. I bet when I go back again this week I’ll think, “why did I ever fade out?”

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
“From 1984 to 1988, I worked in the Telephone Reference Division of the Brooklyn Public Library.” (via) When I worked at a public library, reference work was one of the more stressful and satisfying parts of the job, a rollercoaster that could go from “How am I supposed to know?” to “I can’t believe I pulled this off.” in a few minutes.

Good conversations have lots of doorknobs. (via)

“My scheduling principle is to do the thing I hate most on my to-do list. By week’s end, I’m very happy.” (via)

“Business is a lot like the law, in that it doesn’t necessarily work the way you feel it should. It works the way it does whether you like it or not.”

RIP, Val Kilmer. I liked Scout Tafoy’s tribute, and Adam Nayman’s on “a mercurial A-lister who toggled between total immersion and resistance“. In the “if only” category: “My dream is to play Frankenstein with Werner Herzog directing.”

Why domestic prices rise with tariffs.

Music
Deniece Williams, This Is Niecy. ’70s soul, big fan of “Cause You Love Me Baby“. Like Jara said, a great roller-skating song.

Some regional compilations, various artists…

• Qat, Coffee, & Qambus: Raw 45s from Yemen
• Melodii Tuvi: Throat Songs and Folk Tunes of Tuva
• Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll

Two from Terje Rypdal…

• Blue. I love the bass and heaviness in original version of “Last Nite“, whic doesn’t come through as clearly when it soundtracks the balcony scene in Heat. And “I Disremember Quite Well” made me think of The Place Beyond the Pines soundtrack, e.g. “Schenectady“.
• Lux Aeterna, with orchestra and organ. Echoes of Arvo Pärt?

Nils Petter Molvaer with The Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Certainty of Tides. Jazz trumpet and moody strings. I liked it.

12 Ensemble, Metamorphosis.

TV
The X-Files, s4e12 “Leonard Betts”. A headless man eats cancer. Classic.

The Pitt, s1e2.

Severance, s1e9. Clearing the stage for the finale.

This sentence aside, I find myself in a less reflective mood lately. A few highlights this week:

• Working from home on Tuesday just because, and going for an early evening trail run
• Knowing exactly what I need to do and getting into The Zone™ to crank it out
• Recognizing when my brain was toast after a few long days, letting go of my usual instinct to resist, and just going to bed at 915pm
• Appreciating the different joys that are available when I’m solo vs. when I’m not
• Touring a new arts center at their open house and imagining myself there for future shows
• Understanding new coffee beans well enough to get what I want out of them

Art
Mother and Daughter at Penn Station, NYC, photo by Ruth Orkin. Ma Vie En Rose, hand-stitched silk collage by Billie Zangewa. Female figurine from Guerrero, Mexico, ~1500–500 BC, made of earthenware with pigment decoration in the Xochipala style.

Books
The Modern Myths. DNF. I didn’t expect this, but I think I wanted more essay-like editorializing/theorizing, and fewer academic analyses of other examples? Not bad, though.

My Brilliant Friend. DNF. Kind of amazing in its compulsive readability, very colorful, but I never felt like it was adding up to anything. I wonder if I’d feel differently with older protagonists.

Life and Fate. Enveloping so far. Might be my next Big Book™ for the year.

Finally got around to renewing my library card, so now I have Libby access again if this one falls by the wayside.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
“Around a dozen members is the sweet spot of social motivation: small enough to know everyone, yet large enough that the group won’t collapse if one or two members’ enthusiasm wanes; small enough that you are not daunted by competing with the whole world, yet large enough that you still need to be on your toes to keep up.” (via)

“Don’t end the week with nothing. Prefer to work on things you can show. Prefer to work where people can see you. Prefer to work on things you can own.” (via)

“If you are blaming people for gentrification (in most of its meanings), you are forming a circular firing squad.”

“Today, the Old Leatherman is one of those stories that you either really deeply know or have never heard of at all.”

The Neighborhoods visits my neighborhood, Crown Heights.

I had an idea this morning, and I was sure that/hoping that someone had done it before: Walking the Length of Long Island. Hmmm. HMMMMMM. 🤔

Bilge Ebiri and Michael Mann talk Thief.

“In our hyper-digital age, it’s increasingly the context and framing of information (not the content itself) that drives debates.”

“Dynamism does not just mean saying hello. Dynamism also means saying goodbye.”

Music
Favorite of the week: Gino Vannelli, Brother to Brother. I first heard “I Just Wanna Stop” in the grocery store last week, and I just wanted to stop and tell you what I feel about it! So good!

Fairport Convention, Liege and Lief. Hippie rock.

Masahiro Takahashi, Humid Sun. Delicate electronic, like RPG village music.

Max Oazo, Moonessa, Once Upon a Time (Melodic House & Techno). Maybe I should listen to more remix albums? Played this a lot in work crunch-time this week. It’s a good thing I’ve never tried any drugs – there’s a plausible alternate timeline where I got lost in the club scene.

Movies
Rumble Fish. A story of a younger brother and an older brother and forming yourself on your own. With the benefit of hindsight, a totally loaded cast. Matt Dillon! Nicolas Cage! Laurence Fishburne! Diane Lane! Dennis Hopper! Mickey Rourke! Sofia Coppola! Tom Waits!

Elevation. An economical monster thriller. I had fun with it.

His Girl Friday. Madcap screwball antics. I wish they still wrote dialogue like this.

Birth. I love the way this movie looks, and Nicole Kidman puts on a show. Disturbing and depressing.

Den of Thieves. Compared to my week 3 viewing, not quite as fun. I like seeing the MARTA trains scoot by during the shootout.

TV
Bosch, s1e2.

The Pitt, s1e1. Under-recognized part of being an E.R. doc is you must repeatedly walk away from people who are in crisis.

The Residence, s1e4. Just parachuting in for a quick taste. Good example of the power of storytelling by charismatic people.

Severance, s2e7-8. I’m glad that Gemma is no longer an icon, but something more grounded. Cool to see factory town roots of Lumon.

Words of Wisdom
“Breaking the problem down and then actually changing behavior to get different results works surprisingly well provided you’re willing to do it. Often success doesn’t come to us the way we want to receive it.”

It’s nice to spend time differently, to give a familiar situation a new flavor. I worked Monday, a holiday for many, and so I was working largely solo. And then took the Friday off, so I could feel the reverse – goofing off when most were plugging away. I also had the chance to catch up on admin stuff in the morning, at ease, when usually that gets filed away for the evening time.

This weekend we had a “spa night”. Where ordinarily the evening might be pizza and movie, we put on face masks, moisturizers, serums; listened to a spa treatment playlist; ate fresh ceviche, granola bowls, probiotic juices, etc.. It’s not something I want every day, but the change gave me a new appreciation, like stepping into a parallel universe and arriving back to the norm refreshed.

Art
Constructive City with Universal Man (Ciudad constructiva con hombre universal), oil painting on board by Joaquín Torres-García.

Composition, by Maria Helena Vieira da Silva. “The many colorful patterns […] derive from azulejo, decorative ceramic tilework common in Portugal and Spain, which the artist collected and admired.”

Books
Middlemarch. Steadily chipping away and just past the halfway point. Let’s do some more quotes:

• “We are all of us imaginative in some form or other, for images are the brood of desire.”
• “I can’t wear my solemnity too often, else it will go to rags.”
• “Mr. Casaubon, indeed, had not thoroughly represented to those mixed reasons to himself; irritated feeling with him, as with all of us, seeking rather for justification than for self-knowledge.”
• “Time changes the proportion of things, and in later days it is preferable to have fewer sonnets and more conversation.”
• “Will was not without his intentions to be always generous, but our tongues are little triggers which have usually been pulled before general intentions can be brought to bear.”
• “She was no longer struggling against the perception of facts, but adjusting herself to their clearest perception.”
• “They were looking at each other like two fond children who were talking confidentially of birds.”
• “Will not a tiny speck very close to our vision blot out the glory of the world, and leave only a margin by which we see the blot? I know no speck so troublesome as self.”
• “Her anger said, as anger is apt to say, that God was with her – that all heaven, though it were crowded with spirits watching them, must be on her side.”
• “What is the use of being exquisite if you are not seen by the best judges?”

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
The wisdom of Tom Cruise: “You know, no one asks Gene Kelly, why do you dance? If I do a musical I want to sing, I want to dance. And I want to see how I can do it. You got to figure it out, it’s not just doing it. It’s how is it part of the story? How do we invest the audience in that? It’s always better to go for it, it’s always better to try than to tend to not do it. It’s always better to ask the question, and don’t be afraid.”

A map of obscure islands.

Taking an Internet Walk, good ideas if you need to (re)learrn how to browse!

From Chat → Tools → Tasks → Crons? (via)

I’m glad I never spent time in school pickup lines as a kid. A bunch of times, we’d talk our bus driver into letting us off early so we could take a shortcut through the woods, rather than sitting on the bus another half-hour to wind its way to our door. It’s smart to stay on good terms with your bus driver!

Ask for no, don’t ask for yes.

“Blogs are a backwater (the web itself is a backwater) but keeping one is a statement of how being online can work. Blogging as a kind of Amish performance of a better life.”

“CA attitude to US like Calif attitude towards Texas: many stereotypes, little knowledge, and getting crushed on growth.”

Running
My first run back after illness was deflating. So much lost, so much to regain. :'(

Music
Marshall Allen released New Dawn at age 100. When you listen, you can understand why this guy would get along with Sun Ra. “African Sunset” and “Boma” are my faves.

Paolo Fresu, Richard Galliano, Jan Lundgren. Mare Nostrum. Jazz with piano, trumpet, accordion. You might recognize “Que reste-t-il de nos amours?“, later adapted as “I Wish You Love“.

John Luther Adams, big orchestra stuff in An Atlas of Deep Time and Waves & Particles. I prefer the first one.

Individual songs on repeat: Roger’s “I Want to Be Your Man” and James Holden’s remix of The Smile’s “Don’t Get Me Started”.

Movies
Da 5 Bloods. “War never ends for those involved.” We’re so lucky to have Spike Lee. Complicating complex issues, no one comes out innocent. Familiar methods at work: lots of history lessons and documentary imagery mixed in, direct address to the camera when reading letters.

Sisu. Nazis try to steal gold from a lonesome Finnish miner out in the countryside, and… he is not pleased. Carnage! Pretty ideal 90-minute taciturn action-western.

The First Omen. Now I understand why kids named “Damien” are always evil. The suspense is better than the climax, but that’s most of the movie, so, thumb-up.

The Last Samurai. Scratches the The Last of the Mohicans or Dances With Wolves itch in a different way – more focus on the budding friendship, less on the personal stakes.

Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny?
Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.

TV
Severance, s2e3. Reintegration!

I got sick this week, catching some local plague that had me down, but not out. This is what happens when I laugh in the face of the gods. I’d just had a conversation last week about my run of good health.

In hindsight, pushed it just a little bit too far on run last Sunday – heading out to run in the snow because it’s fun, regardless of that slight hint of a sniffle and tickle in the back of my throat.

It turned into an opportunity of its own. To skip the commute and work from home so I don’t infect people. To take a little extra time with the morning coffee ritual. To cut out evening commitments and recognize how much time I have, to recognize the choices available when I get back in the swing of things.

Art
Terra cotta vase by Fritz Albert. I love the twisted pedestal base, like long leaves.

A Pende carving of a man riding a buffalo.

Books
Middlemarch!

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
I wrote about my favorite movies seen in 2024.

A woman has been journaling for 90 years. (via)

“This is a map of my life, where each week I’ve been alive is a little box.”

Citibike Stories. Bike rental travel patterns in NYC neighborhoods, lovely mapping.

Jane Austen Math, “ranking all of Austen’s single men across four weighted dimensions — fortune, morals, manners, and [sex appeal] — to develop secondary insights, calculate their individual total status, and analyze their relative marital desirability.”

What people get wrong about today’s NBA. A great counterpoint video on the idea that “they all just shoot threes”.

Kevin Kelly offers 50 years of travel tips. I like his model of “R&R” vs. “E&E”. A few philosophies that caught my eye:

• “Organize your travel around passions instead of destinations.”
• “The most significant criteria to use when selecting travel companions is: do they complain or not, even when complaints are justified? No complaining! Complaints are for the debriefing afterwards when travel is over.”
• “Although it tries, money cannot buy what time delivers.”
• “Laser out, meander back.”

You Need More Lux. “Lux are the measure of how much light you get. Summer sunlight is about 100,000 lux. An overcast winter day is 1,000 to 2,500 lux. This is a huge difference!”

Test Driven Writing (or Test Driven Documentation).

“Aim to be 90% done in 50% of the available time.”

Movies
To Live and Die In L.A.. Good to finally cross this one off the list. Corruption is contagious!

The Blue Gardenia. Raymond Burr! I grew up watching Perry Mason re-runs on daytime TV. So it was fun to see him in movies, and so young, in this and Crime of Passion last week. Also features a Nat King Cole spot! We need more stars popping in for musical interludes.

Nosferatu (2024). Seductive, horrifying, beautiful, crushingly sad. Eggers is such a talent. Has me thinking about revisiting The Northman again.

Love & Basketball. A sweet story with characters are charming and frustrating. I really like the parallel sequences of games/practice, with each on their same-but-different journey.

I Saw the Devil. Korean revenge flick. We spend a lot of time with the villain, and he is tremendously haunting. Seeking vengeance will poison you.

Arcadian. Post-apocalyptic monsters out on the farm. Nicolas Cage delivers, and the monsters are right up there with the inventiveness in Attack the Block and Annihilation. There’s a few moments of counting here, feels like they could have extended that somehow. It’s fun!

Music
Giridhar Udupa, My Name Is Giridhar Udupa. The opener “Aadhi – The Beginning” is exemplary – woozy pulsing electronics with ceramic drum cross-rhythms. Really fun album.

Jeremy Ledbetter Trio, Gravity. Tight, crisp jazz pieces. I really like the patterns in in “Two Cousins“.

n.o. Arts Ensemble, Deaths and Entrances. Melancholy operatic chamber work, some hints of olde Renaissance music.

Ambrose Akinmusire, honey from a winter stone. “MYanx” has some hard funk, spoken-word, very freewheeling.

TV
The X-Files, s4e8 “Tunguska“. Frickin’ Krycek, I swear…

I watched 125 movies in 2024. That total was down from 178 in 2023, and I’m glad for that. The year before felt like too many, too indiscriminate. I took 2024 at a healthier pace, and I feel like my choices were pretty dialed-in. The top ~20% of those 125 are easily recommendable, so I’ll share those.

For the very top tier, I’ll excerpt my previous write-ups. These are the first-time viewings that really moved me, or stuck with me long after, listed in the order I saw them:

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Coming of age that pays attention to the parents, too.

You see that Margaret is different – or at least that this won’t (only) be a typical coming-of-age/tween romance story – early on when we first see her bedroom. We see maps and star charts, and in her voiceover prayers, a search for place and meaning.

Godzilla Minus One. Melodrama at its finest.

I appreciate this as a period piece, and not just in costume – also works in an orchestral soundtrack, and heightened acting and staging that wouldn’t be out of place in the late 1940s. Fascinated by this idea of Godzilla being a creature known to locals, but barely a rumor elsewhere. Unresolved shame will keep you from love!

Das Lehrerzimmer (The Teacher’s Lounge). Perfect rendition of how our actions can ripple out unexpectedly.

A school community frays when a thief runs loose, frustrations rise, and accusations start flying. This will make my best-of list at the end of the year. But you don’t have to take my word for it: “It’s probably the best thriller of this type since “Uncut Gems,” another movie where just watching realistic characters making bad decisions was so nerve-wracking that it made you want to crawl under your seat.“

Crooklyn. What’s that line about happy families being alike, and unhappy ones in theor own way?

Love the hilarious chaos of a 5-kid household, and the variety of “characters” on the block, and the lively soundtrack, and the shock of travel to foreign lands (Virginia).

Gosford Park. Not sure I’ve seen any movies that juggle a web of relationships as well and as lovingly as this one. Flows effortlessly from scene to scene.

Gossipy upstairs/downstairs intrigue and murder mystery, constantly mocking Americans, Hollywood, buffoon cops, catty elites. Kristin Scott Thomas is a natural at snobbery. Love how it takes huge cast and makes it feel natural. You assemble the collage as you go along.

Hundreds of Beavers. No other movie pushed its ideas as far, and then further, and then a little bit more, and why not, how about a little bit more.

Made me feel alive again! Talk about a palate cleanser. A masterclass in escalation. Zany blend of animation and practical effects, Looney Tunes silliness and an improv troupe’s “why not?” go-for-broke attitude.

Red Rooms. Can’t recall any recent movies that burrowed under my skin like this one. It is true horror in the moral sense. A cautionary tale for the web!

This draws you into the most queasy, vile territory. We never directly see much violence, but we see the harm it does to people who feed on it. Our protagonist is uncomfortably lacking in affect – except a horrifying climax where she participates in an auction.

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Here are the other worthy contenders from my watching year. If you told me you were going to watch one of these, I’d be excited for you and curious to hear what you think. Links are to my previous posts, again in order I saw them.

• The Creator
• Phoenix
• Zone of Interest
• Picnic at Hanging Rock
• Aniara
• Passing
• Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
• Jagged Edge
• The Rental
• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
• Beast
• I Saw the TV Glow
• Presumed Innocent
• Master Gardener
• Deathtrap
• Freaky Friday (2003)