This week I was called to jury duty. I was so excited, and hoped to get on a case. But alas, I was not needed. As on previous jury calls, it's nice to see a big random-ish slice of your community, and to get a view of how things work. I was surprised how much paper-shuffling goes on. All those perforated mailers getting torn and re-sorted and passed around over and over and over.

School
Oh boy. Should be able to knock out one of three course projects tomorrow. Hopefully the next two not far behind. Two classes to go.

Running
I'm doing mid-week hill workouts this month. Mostly "just because". It's been fun to red-line and learn where the limit is, if only for 20-30 seconds at a time.

Books
Native American Folklore and Traditions. Last weekend I went to the library and picked up some coffee table books to keep lying around. This one has cool old photographs, illustrations, and as-told-by vignettes of the lives from a few different cultures.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Maybe it's because I kept trying to read this in bed with my mental battery at ~3%, but I simply could not follow a word he was saying. Another time! Great movie, though.

We Had to Remove This Post. A novella about a content moderator at a fictional social media company. Best when it touches on the socioeconomics that could lead someone into these roles. It is unrelentingly dark.

Music
Depeche Mode Week, cont.. Hit a rough patch and recovered!

• Exciter. "Dream On" has some outlaw country flavor to it, and also that slide guitar in "The Sweetest Condition". "Comatose" has some interesting electronics whoops and gurgles. I appreciate the experimentation, in the abstract, but did not love this album.
• Playing the Angel. Distorted noise? That's definitely "A Pain That I'm Used To", and appreciate. Overall, not into the vocals.
• Sounds of the Universe. "Fragile Tension" and "Jezebel" are the winner, maybe?
• Spirit. The processing on the vocals isn't my favorite, but I like the steady grind of "You Move".
• Memento Mori. We're back! What a rebound! One of my most-played albums last year. "Ghosts Again" and "Always You" both have a desperate achiness that gets me every time.

The Pointer Sisters, So Excited!. Saved By The Bell memes aside, the title track is so so so good. Honky-tonk piano adds a lil' somethin' you don't hear much anymore.

Candi Staton, Young Hearts Run Free. Again, that title track is electric – perfect blend of depressing lyrics and intoxicating disco. Stuck in my head for days. "Summer Time With You" delivers the Barry/Marvin/dancefloor/orchestra/whispered romance you need this time of year.

Koffee was recommended by a run club buddy who's into dancehall/reggae. Listened to Rapture and Gifted. I like "Gifted" and really like "Lonely".

Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 1.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Against optimization. "Optimization presumes a kind of certainty about the circumstances one is optimizing for, but that certainty is, more often than not, illusory."

"Mr. Jarndyce called me into a small room next his bedchamber, which I found to be in part a little library of books and papers, and in part quite a little museum of his boots and shoes, and hat- boxes. 'Sit down, my dear,' said Mr. Jarndyce. 'This, you must know, is the Growlery. When I am out of humour, I come and growl here.'" (via)

"When you’re learning a trade, it’s almost impossible to be patient. You have no idea how it’s supposed to go, so you’re often doubting yourself. You charge through and see what it’s like first. It makes patience impossible."

The collage-wall immediately communicates to an audience: “here lies a teenage girl.”

NSYNC – I Want You Back. Looking at their music video is so revealing. The varying levels of comfort on-camera, showmanship, dance precision. Contrast with "It's Gonna Be Me" just a few years later (production value aside) – it's easy to forget the development from beginners to experts!

The Musical History Lesson Buried Beneath the Song of the Summer.

Look how neat this tiny little TV is.

Our Incredible Journey catalogs when companies get acquired and throw their customers to the wolves, lol.

Movies
Godzilla Minus One. Loved this movie, and it has taken the crown for favorite movie of my watching year. 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!

TV
The X-Files, s2e16, "Colony". A bit disorienting, didn't get the usual time to settle in. Clones being hunted down!

Abbott Elementary, s3e13, "Smith Playground". Are Janine and Gregory getting together or what?

Bodkin, s1e5. Most interesting episode so far in terms of structure. Also appreciate the mostly-Elvis soundtrack.

Build all the scaffolding you like, nature will follow its course.

Wardrobe Upgrade PSA
Prescription sunglasses are great! I've been wearing glasses since 8th grade, and contacts almost as long. My new prescription sunnies are perfect for when I'm going to be out in the sun for a while, but not long enough to "waste" a pair of contacts and wear sunglasses. For daytime runs, errands, morning walk, etc., I love being able to do a quick swap and head out the door.

I also got some roomy, light-wash khakis. Summer dad style: activated. 😎

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
"Don't apologize for your interests. Sell your interests." Can't speak for him, but I think Joe was using "sell" in the broader sense of promotion/persuasion, rather than simple transaction. In any case, I choose to read it that way!

Zadie Smith: "Generally speaking, I don’t make notes. I sit down. I write a novel. But already this non-novel that I was refusing to write had generated a drawer full of notes and a shelf of books."

Jumping, a really interesting animated short with a first-person "through the eybeballs" perspective. (via Funkaoshi)

I've only seen a handful of Howard Hawks movies, and didn't love them all, but love this description: "his movies feel like motorized airport walkways — life, but a little bit quicker, a little bit smoother than normal people can manage." Along the same lines, and great reason to listen to podcasts at 2x: people are funnier when reactions are quicker, snappier! Bonus: an interview clip of Howard Hawks talking about overlapping dialogue. (via Bright Wall/Dark Room)

I love Tyler Smith's re-appreciation of Congo. "Marketing, critical consensus, box office; while these are impossible to ignore, they do tend to fall away on their own as the years go by, leaving only the movie itself, free of baggage and ready to be seen from a fresh perspective." It's been a few years, I need another re-watch.

"Moments that get ‘gridded’ are highly economical. They refine an entire story to a few key images less for their formal memorability (meaning, they don’t look particularly special) than for what they symbolize: critical emotional flashpoints that, taken together, constellate the fantasies that shows like [these] reflect and cater to."

"The gender gap in higher education is wider today than it was in 1972, when Title IX was passed, but the other way round, with men earning only 42% of degrees".

RIP Bill Walton. A remembrance from my friend James and from the Trail Blazers.

Movies
Alien. Terror, in deep space! I guess I've seen this 5-10 times now? Never once let me down. I'm reminded again of Ebert's note on the cast's age: "By skewing older, "Alien" achieves a certain texture without even making a point of it: These are not adventurers but workers".

Aniara. Despair, in deep space! A spaceship bound for Mars is knocked off-course, sending immigrants into a years-long voyage to nowhere. The crisp hotel/cruise-ship vibe wears off and we see passengers moving through stages of grief, despair, escapism, cult beliefs, false hopes. What I found most intriguing here is the AI service/entity called Mima from which the passengers get a sort of spa experience, lulled into hypnosis by their own experience and memories. Not too hard to imagine…

Music
Depeche Mode Week. I didn't quite finish, but spent most of the week listening through their discography. I wasn't prepared for how zany/computer-y their early work was.

• Speak & Spell. Interesting how upbeat, pop, and chip-tune-y this is. Good choice doing single promo for "Just Can't Get Enough".
• A Broken Frame. "Nothing to Fear" sounds like SNES RPG music, great instrumental. Also dig "The Sun and the Rainfall".
• Construction Time Again. This feels like the album where the distinctive open baritone voice really comes to the fore. I think "And Then…" is my favorite here. "More Than a Party" is solid.
• Some Great Reward. I LOVE the disjointed melancholy lullaby of "It Doesn't Matter", with its occasional sour bursts.
• Black Celebration seemed like a more blandly consistent album. No strong stand-outs. I'll take "World Full of Nothing" on this one.
• They must have been saving up for Music for the Masses, where it feels like all the familiar pieces have fallen into place. I love the long lines of "The Things You Said" – a bit of Kraftwerk flavor in the counterpoint organ bits? I also like the murky haunting of "Agent Orange".
• 101 (Live). Do I like live albums? I think get too attached to perfect studio vocals to appreciate most live recordings. I tend to like the instrumental ones more. And I don't want to listen to those dorks in the audience have a sing-along. I want to be there! There's a new book about this album that sounds promising.
• Violator. "Enjoy the Silence" and ominous "Memphisto" win the day.
• Songs of Faith and Devotion. Here it feels that we're more fully transitioned into stadium/industrial rock, with added electronics. Add a touch of blues? Vocals are more belt-y. It's not quite as fun for me. I'll still shout out "Judas", I think.
• Ultra. "It's No Good" feels like a return to form – maybe that's why it's gotten so much play? I want to fix their sound to a certain point in time. Also, some of these songs are really long – 7/12 over 5.5 minutes! I get restless...

Maybe I'll make a playlist of favorites when I catch up to today, and see what themes I can spot?

In other listening, since "Water" was the big hit last week, I continued with Tyla's TYLA. This week, I'll shine a light on "On and On".

Inspired by my friend Will, I revisited Mastodon's Remission. The opening riff of "March of the Fire Ants" is a classic.

Antonio Salieri, Piano Concertos.

Alice Coltrane, The Carnegie Hall Concert.

Books
Infinity Gate. Enjoying this scifi so far. Given an infinitude of Earths in different realities/dimensions and development paths, imagine a paranoid super-civilization develops among them.

School
Another class down, two to go.

TV
X-Files, s2e14, "Die Hand Die Verletzt". A small crew of (half-hearted?) devil worshipers meet their match.

s2e15, "Fresh Bones", Haitian voodoo stuff. I was nervous about this one being more clumsy or offensive, but not too bad in the end. I like the military and refugee aspects – sadly relevant for NYC right now.

Bodkin, s1e3–4. I'm enjoying the "Sunshiny Yankee" trope in this series. Seen also in Catastrophe, for example – an "aw shucks" friendly and gullible American, so easily bullied.

This week I got a new bucket hat. I have not owned a bucket had since I was maybe five or six years old. And "owned" is a strong word here. I have no understanding of my relationship to that hat. It's more like: I can see I was photographed wearing it, and I remember it being in my bedroom.

But now I'm an adult, and I intentionally bought a bucket hat, and I found myself with a funny feeling: do I look weird? After 41 years, I've got things pretty dialed in at this point. I can't remember the last time I stood in front of a mirror and wasn't sure. Took a second to gather my courage, damn the torpedos, and step out into society. Still growing!

(Btw, I look I great. And now I own two bucket hats.)

Running
Hot days are back. Wardrobe is shifting to lighter fabrics. Sunscreen is slathered. Shade is precious. Pee is orange. I designed a hilly route for run club's weekend long run and everyone hated me for it. 😈

School
This week was a struggle. I found it difficult to focus, but in a physical sense. Like my body itself was bored and restless, didn't want to stay put. Managed to finish a project and submit, hopefully doesn't need too much revision.

Music
Cantus Thuringia, Time Stands Still. "Come Again" is beautiful.

Brahms: Complete Choral Works all blended together for me. I struggle with Brahms! Couldn't name a single piece that's stuck with me. :(

Inspired by Craig Mod's latest newsletter, went back to listen to Tony Williams' Tokyo Live.

I spent some time with Jamiroquai. On Travelling Without Moving, "Everyday" is smoooooth! And from Synkronized, are you sure you've played "Canned Heat" enough recently?

Mozart, Clarinet Concerto (+ Oboe Concerto & Bassoon Concerto).

Bach, Oboe Concertos (BWV 1053, 1055, 1056, 1059, 1060). The adagio movement in BWV 1059 is perfect, I tell you.

Tyla, "Water". I've had/will have this on repeat for a while.

Movies
Space Is the Place. Sun Ra! I wouldn't recommend it but it's an interesting slice of history. And I appreciate that Sun Ra has been doing this space thing for decades. If you go long enough without breaking character...

The Swimmer. At opening, it captures the feeling of a boundless perfect day. By the end, nothing seems possible. The character seems to be well-known but long missing. Have to fill in the blanks as you go. I love all the image blurring, fuzzy focus, leafy obstructions, lens flare, warm comforting haze. Also: young woman meeting her boyfriend "through a computer"!

Dune: Part Two. Blah. Felt more choppy, episodic, ponderous. The movie insists you understand that everything is so Important! I found myself wondering what a non-widescreen version would look like. Even a 4:3, there's a lot of real estate, that doesn't always have that much going on. Entire planets with nothing but humanoids, vehicles, and vaulted rooms.

Scream VI. Really appreciate that they continue the opening schtick. The goriest one yet, but it's not an improvement. And a bit too much plot-splaining to wrap things up. New York City, though! Change of scenery is welcome, as is new energy from cast turnover. I've decided that I love this franchise.

The Silence (2010). Good thriller, left me feeling icky (complimentary?). I like that it has some frustrating protagonists, a few people you just need extra time to figure out.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
The morning after I watched the movie, I listened to "The Swimmer" as read by Anne Enright on the The New Yorker Fiction podcast.

"Storytelling is the well-orchestrated withholding of information." George Miller on making Mad Max and collaborating with wife and editor Margaret Sixel. Loved this, too, on gardening/editing parallels:

She happens to be a really great gardener, on any scale—whether a big thing like a farm or a small back-yard garden. And she’s comprehensively good: everything is taken into account. I think that is where the same skill sets overlap. To make a great garden, you have to understand all these hidden processes and dimensions to a ridiculous degree: the soil, the geology, the sun, the light, the weather. You have to know the plant and when to put in the seed or seedling. But here’s the thing: somehow, in that process, you have got to anticipate what will happen a year down the line, or five years down the line, and how all those variables will fit into a graceful whole. I knew that’s how she approached gardens; I have seen gardens that she has done that are twenty-five years old. And I knew that is how she approached editing.

"In the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, only about 6 percent of forty-year-olds had never been married. Today it is true of one in four."

"The Earth receives about 173,000 TW [of solar energy] continuously, more than 10,000x humanity’s current needs."

The Rise of Rapid Regional Rail.

How Might We Learn?.

TV
X-Files, s2e13, "Irresistible". This was the saddest, creepiest, most unsettling episode yet. Good to see some meta conversation about the trauma and the toll of their work.

Bob's Burgers, s8e9. Watched immediately after the X-Files episode above – needed a palate cleanser!

Bodkin, s1e1-2. Off to a strong start! A "quiet little village" mystery in the vein of Deadloch, Broadchurch, Three Pines, etc.. Podcasters, smh.

Words of Wisdom
"Boundaries are the distance at which I can love you and me simultaneously." Prentis Hemphill, quoted in an essay on the men vs. bear debate.

A few years ago when I lived in Santa Monica, I walked every street in city limits. And I did the same in downtown Atlanta a couple years before that (along with other silly walks).

After my run yesterday, I'm getting close to filling in the map of my neighborhood here in Crown Heights, Brooklyn – only 9 or 10 miles left! 🔜 There is nothing like knowing every inch of where you live. Can't recommend highly enough.

School
The last two courses were the most tedious I'll come across. Definitively in the homestretch now.

Running
This week I focused on working through fatigue. So: a couple short runs with weights beforehand, and ending my longer chill runs at a faster tempo. It's been fun to practice like this for a little while. To feel that extra bit of tired resistance, and insist on pushing through it. Cultivates an interesting focus, and I suppose it's good to annoy myself with slightly-higher expectations every now and then.

Books
I just started Medieval Horizons: Why the Middle Ages Matter, and it's already rewiring my brain a little bit. It starts with an important corrective: our tendency to see "progress" through a mostly technological lens tends to exclude as much as it highlights. The flourishing of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, etc. was percolating long before.

Music
Big nostalgic highlight this week was seeing a twitter convo that reminded me of the "Birdman" track from Pilotwings 64. One of my favorite videogame tunes of all time. and then saw a message from the composer Dan Hess. He's got a fun "Birdman" remake on his own channel.

This was very much a week of re-visiting classics. One interesting thing I seeing the disparity between hits and long tail. Not everything you do will be celebrated. Happens to the best of'em.

Aretha

• Get It Right. I like "I Got Your Love".
• Sparkle. It's too bad everything on the album so completely overshadowed by "Something He Can Feel". The orchestration on e.g. "I Get High" is so good.

Diana

• Diana Ross. "Where There Was Darkness" reminds me of the Prayer of St. Francis lol.
• Everything Is Everything. Wasn't expecting two Beatles covers!

James Ingram, It's Your Night. "Yah Mo B There" is great – see also the music video with Michael McDonald.

Fatback Band. Is This The Future?. Funky! I like the title track and Sunshine Lady.

Quick hits…

• From Deodato's Motion, "Are You For Real?"
• From Teddy Pendergrass, Life Is A Song Worth Singing. "Close the Door" has the hoarse Barry White delivery + orchestral backing I love.
• Monteverdi, Duets & Solos
• Galina Grigorjeva, Nature morte

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
"I will give you my three real keys to life. No jokes in this part, okay? They are number one. Bust your ass. Number two. Pay attention. Number three. Fall in love."

"In 1985, I asked my brother David (age 15) to be the rotoscope model for my new game, Prince of Persia." Very cool to see that old VHS footage. (I loved the way that game looked – there was nothing like it – but man, it was infuriating to play!)

Generative AI Is Totally Shameless. I Want to Be It. There is a humorous/lightly cynical tone here, but I think there's an interesting silver lining: it's pretty much always willing to try. No small thing!

No Web Without Women.

"The same thing happened in the United States, though not to quite the same extent. In 1980, there were around 28,000 drunk driving deaths there, while in 2020, there were 11,654. Despite this progress, drunk driving remains a substantial public threat, comparable in scale to homicide (of which in 2020 there were 594 in Britain and 21,570 in America)."

Movies
Taken 2. Does what it says on the tin! My previous review holds up.

TV
X-Files, s2e12, "Aubrey". I haven't seen many unrepentantly ugly characters in this series, so the ex-con in this one was a bit jarring. One of the more down-to-earth episodes?

Shōgun, s1e10. Great show. I have my quibbles here and there, but really happy I put the time into it. I hear they're already signing people to come back for second and third seasons. I think I got enough out of this one that I'm not sure I need more, but maybe I'll be swayed.

This week I celebrated my anniversary (until the new one!) with the aforementioned gumbo and a big ol' cake that lasted a few days. Recommended!

Another highlight of this week: I printed my old iPhone journals into hefty hardbacks. One of the most satisfying little projects I've done. Five or six years of material in a form I can hold. The cloud is vapor; paper is forever. What's a body of work without a body?

And another: a weekend stroll on the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail, rambling 11-12 miles from Tarrytown to Yonkers through backyards and local parks, much of it with the Hudson River in sight. I need to go back and run it.

Books
Still Life. I loved the Three Pines TV show, and this is the book that started the Inspector Gamache franchise (and inspired the awful movie :\ ). Enjoyed going back to the source, comparing the characterizations in the book with the two acted versions. Like the hero, the plot gently takes its time to observe and absorb.

School
Structure makes a big difference!

Running
My highest-mileage week in the last year or so, I think. Mostly from mixing in more frequent, shorter weekday runs. Feeling more tired, but looser? I registered for a couple more races in the fall, so there's lots to look forward to in the back half of the year.

Music
Amanda Whiting, "The Liminality of Her". Spacious lounge harp! "Facing the Sun" makes me think of… lazy days in Central America. I like how forward the rhythm section is throughout the album.

Shaboozey, "Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die". Can't say I like it, but it's interesting.

In the barely-30-minutes-long category: Juaneco y Su Combo, El Gran Cacique. Peruvian rock & roll x cumbia x psychedelia.

In the barely-16-minutes-long category: Benedikt, Jag är sen igen. I like the insistent heartbeat in "Til fordel for ny".

In the 18.5 hours long category, a compilation of Keith Haring's mixtapes. It's a cool capsule of a certain slice of radio and subcultures. Also, listening to stuff like Good Life, it's obvious why the Streets of Rage II soundtrack hits so hard.

The Beloved, Happiness unlocked a memory I didn't expect – one of my roommates in college had an EDM mix that featured "The Sun Rising" on it. Hadn't heard that in a couple decades (!). In its gentle, direct vocals, "Don't You Worry" made me imagine a Arthur Russell x Depeche Mode crossover.

I listened to Fauré's Requiem three times on Friday (and a few more times in my head). It's the perfect way to start your weekend.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
"Bureaucratic hell is always about one person's ease coming at the cost of someone else's frustration, time wasted, and busy work."

How a migrant farmworker built generational wealth, penny by penny. Beautiful story.

Movies
Air Force One. Incredible watch, lovely momentum. It holds up so well. And there's something comforting and reassuring about films of the 1990s. They just look right. Special effects can be "good enough" if you care about what's going on!

Scream 4. It's been really fun to catch up on this franchise. "All through the movie, 'Scre4m' lets us know that it knows exactly what it's up to — and then goes right ahead and gets up to it."

TV
X-Files, s2e11, "Excelsius Dei". When elder care goes bad, toxic mushroom edition.

Bodies, s1e6–8. I'd give the series a solid B. Unlikely to rewatch or think about it much, but I don't regret any of it. That's something!

Shōgun, s1e9. Mariko's persistent death wish is heartbreaking. Curious how they're gonna wrap this up. (I hear rumors of season 2, but kinda don't want it?)

There is no substitute for journaling on paper. I first started keeping a regular journal, in fits and starts, back in 2014. I used the Day One app back then. Over time it became a several-entries-daily habit. I'm grateful I had Day One back then. It was the first thing that finally got the journaling habit to stick, and it's the habit that led to me to start putting things on paper.

I eventually tapered off of Day One around 2020, when I had fully transitioned to the ever-growing stack of paper journals. But seeing my beautiful journals accumulate on the bookshelf eventually made me annoyed that my older journals were trapped on my phone/in The Cloud™. Luckily, old Mark anticipated this, and exported the JSON archive from the app. I figured I'd do something with it someday. Last year, I lazily poked at the file, trying to get it into something usable. Then I put it on the backburner for a while, as my skill and attention level was too low to manage it at the time.

After a few months of school, I decided to revisit. My goals were fairly simple: extract the worthwhile stuff, make it look decent, and get it printed & bound. And so I took a nebulous cloud of memories and feelings and put them into a pair of 600-page A5 hardbacks. I think they turned out pretty well!

I wanted a two-column layout so I could easily search/skim by the date. The left column also has the location, weather, and tag metadata for each entry. I had the thought to use the tags to create an index, but skipped implementation because I just really needed to get it finished. I was pretty rigorous with tagging, though, and think I could have done some cool things with it.

I used a pretty straightforward Python script to parse the JSON to grab the journal entries, assemble them into HTML blocks, and stitch them all together. I added a dash of CSS to get the layout where I wanted it. With all entries assembled, the script converts the HTML to a PDF. And the PDF, I sent that off to a printer – I used Mixam without really doing much research. I'm happy enough with the results, and appreciated their simple interface to upload and preview the content. (Funny surprise to see the actual printing and shipping was done in the UK. These journals have traveled more than I have lately.)

I'll share my script below. It's tailored to my particular vision for the final printed book and their standard export format circa 2020, but should be easily adaptable for other goals.

---

import json import re from datetime import datetime from weasyprint import HTML

Define regex to find unused image references

example: \n\n

image_pattern = re.compile( r'^\s*!\[\]\(dayone-moment:\/\/[A-Z0-9]{32}\)\n*$', re.MULTILINE) p_break = re.compile(r'

\s*<br\s*/?>')

Initialize HTML document as list of entries

html_parts = [ """

""" \]

Read the JSON file

with open('DayOneSample.json', 'r', encoding='utf8') as file: data = json.load(file)

Iterate over entries, parse data, append to list

for entry in data['entries']: # convert datetimes raw_date = datetime.strptime(entry['creationDate'], '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ') date_line = raw_date.strftime('%A, %B %d, %Y at %I:%M%p')

# use regex to remove image references journal_entry = image_pattern.sub("", entry['text'])

# process text to remove extraneous newlines journal_entry = journal_entry.replace('\n\n', '

') journal_entry = journal_entry.replace('\n', '
') journal_entry = journal_entry.replace('



', '
') journal_entry = journal_entry.replace('


', '
') journal_entry = journal_entry.replace('

', '

')

# parse location data location_info = entry.get('location', {}) city = location_info.get('localityName', 'Unknown') place = location_info.get('placeName', 'Unknown') lat = location_info.get('latitude', 0) long = location_info.get('longitude', 0) country = location_info.get('country', 'Unknown')

# parse weather data weather_info = entry.get('weather', {}) wx_temp = ((weather_info.get('temperatureCelsius', 0) * 9) / 5) + 32 wx_description = weather_info.get( 'conditionsDescription', 'No weather data') wx_line = f"{wx_temp}°F, {wx_description}"

# fetch the tags tags = ', '.join(entry.get('tags', []))

# append HTML entry + metadata to list html_parts.append(f"""

""")

Close and assemble the HTML entries

html_parts.append("""

""")

html_content = ''.join(html_parts) html_content = p_break.sub('

', html_content)

Write entries to HTML file and generate PDF

with open('sample.html', 'w', encoding='utf8') as file: file.write(''.join(html_content))

HTML('sample.html').write_pdf('sample.pdf')

Maybe the most important event this week was re-learning how important it can be for me to have order and momentum in what I do. A while back I had to table a personal project so I could focus elsewhere. When I tried to come back to it on Tuesday: immediate frustration. I'd forgotten where I was, the original goals didn't seem to matter at all, I wasn't sure where to pick things up. I was lost, and desperately furious with myself for having lost the plot.

After a few hours to settle down, I figured out the relevant goals and made a list of to-dos. Came back the next day and had an absolute blast, ended up renewed by all the progress. What a difference a day made – twenty-four little hours.

ಠ_ಠ → (✿◠‿◠)

I'll launch into the coming week boosted by my first-ever visit to Brooklyn Botanical Garden. I traveled across the realm to the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx before I visited the one down the street. I've lived in walking distance for a few years, sure I'd get to it "some day". All's well that ends well, a perfect dewy morning stroll.

A few other highlights of the week:
- making pancakes for a weekday lunch
- visiting an elementary school's plant + bake sale
- making gumbo!

Art
So much personality in the Makonde Portrait Mask (lipiko).

Figure (akua ka'ai). "Sometimes also referred to as 'god sticks,'' they would have been planted in the earth, positioned on altars, or located in the rafters, thatched roofs, or walls inside temples."

Up and Going (New York), by Gerald K. Geerlings.

Running
My running club did a course preview run for an upcoming half-marathon, so our route took us down to Coney Island. I added a few miles when we were done, and was amused to see the vibe shift. One one end of the boardwalk: amusement parks, hot dog stands, runners, tourists, parents with strollers. On the other: old Russian retirees chatting on benches. A beautiful day to be outside.

Books
The Explorer. Another kids book from Katherine Rundell. In the first three pages, we crashed an airplane. This is the kind of active plotting my brain needed this week. It also feels like a rewind for me, staying true to some core piece of myself. – Hatchet, The Swiss Family Robinson, My Side of the Mountain, Robinson Crusoe, Island of the Blue Dolphins – since childhood, I've had a thing for getting stuck in the wilderness!

School
My latest class has required a lot of "grinding it out", mainlining vocab, making ChatGPT summarize the essentials at a high level before I wade into the muck. The only way out is through.

Music
TECH, from Owen Kleon. My far-and-away favorite is the found-sound layers building up in "Typing". The melody/chord progression of "AI Buddy" made me think of "Suspicious Minds". Not sure if that was intentional or not, but the pairing resonates well. Great dark energy in "Cards" and persistent development in "Television". Cf. an interview with the artist.

Shaboozey's "A Bar Song" is more catchy than I thought it would be! I'll find more of his work soon.

Pure dumb luck to stumble on Sabrina Carter's "Espresso" – perfect pop confection. My incessant replays eventually led me to her "emails i can't send". "Read your Mind" and "Feather" are similar upbeat disco-inflected dancefloor magnets.

Cocteau Twins is one of those bands where I fell so hard for a few albums that I never really looked further. My loss! I took time this week to fill in the gaps:

• On the "The Pink Opaque". I like the vaguely-ominous "Pepper-Tree" (like the cavern level in a video game?).
• From "Blue Bell Knoll", it's gotta be the open strings of "The Itchy Glowbo Blow".
• And same rationale for "Squeeze-Wax" on "Four-Calendar Cafe".
• From "Milk & Kisses", it's "Calfskin Smack" by a mile, for those jangly open strings again, and the fun backing vocals.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
"It feels like being too serious online skips a generation.
Boomers: Not funny online (at least not intentionally)
Gen X: Funny or at the very least not too serious
Millennials: Sanctimonious, virtue-obsessed, much too serious
Gen Z: Funny"

Interviews with New Yorkers who work in tight quarters.

"Is there anything out there like Stumbleupon that will just show me weird, creative websites if I click a button?" Lots of good stuff in the thread – Marginalia Search and Kagi Small Web are especially promising.

"Creating a culture where people can try new things and be ‘a little good’ is the way forward."

Movies
Redemption / Hummingbird. I wasn't expecting this to be so dark! And wasn't expecting to see Statham smile, either.

TV
X-Files, s2e10, "Red Museum". Look, there is just a lot going on here! Possession, serial killers, vegan cults, factory-farming conspiracies. But we got an iconic dinner scene moment out of it.

Shōgun, s1e8. The very far-reaching limits of absolute loyalty and sacrifice, phew.

This week I celebrated one year in the new apartment. But at what cost?!!?! Moving here meant leaving my favorite local food spot. It's only 3/4 of a mile away now, but that's a big difference from when it was literally right around the corner. Even today I refer to it not by its proper name but as "Around the Corner". It's that kind of love.

It's become less of a routine visit, and more of a rare treat. But on Friday afternoon, with a fresh school victory and sunny afternoon to soak it in, I went for a long walk and paid a visit. For a few hours, the world was right again.

Running
I had two long runs bookending the same calendar week. Felt the toll, a little sluggish on yesterday's, but also felt decent enough for a light run on today, day 8. The last couple years, I've had a pretty steady drumbeat of running on Tu/Thu/Sat, usually with one of Sun/Mon/Wed mixed in, depending on schedule. Now I'm thinking I'd like to introduce those light, short runs more frequently, bump it up to ~5/7 days each week. Motion is lotion.

Books
There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension. "It is one thing to experience death and another to understand it to be possible on its own terms. To grasp the certainty of its arrival but still cling to a hope for that certainty to come in a very specific way, at a very specific time, after a life has fulfilled all of its promise." Hanif Abdurraqib is a tremendous writer. This has a more memoir-y, reflective, prayerful? voice than I've heard from him before, took a bit of adjustment to learn to fly with him. I'd recommend it and especially the ones I read previously: A Little Devil in America: Notes in Praise of Black Performance and They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us.

School
Finish one class, start a new one. Rinse, repeat. I'm ~86% done with this degree, and feel a breeze at my back.

Music
Another great playlist from Matthew Perpetua took up most of my listening week, spinning me out in a few directions: The Dawn of Alternative, 1988-1990. So cool to hear stuff I recognize from childhood alongside stuff I only learned about later in life, and seeing how those contemporaneous threads all flowed together. I ended up doing a lot of scattered samplings, and not much full play-throughs. The main effect was to get me listening Depeche Mode again.

But I did dip into The Sundays, Reading, Writing, & Arithmetic. I like "A Certain Someone".

And I listened to The Church and realized they're the ones who sing "Under the Milky Way".

Unrelated to the initial playlist, I liked Vanishing Twin's "Choose Your Own Adventure". In particular: "Eggs" and "Truth Is Boring" (tabla!).

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Problems need solutions, not explanations. I might suggest "not only", but still an underappreciated point.

Compelling thread of research on crime victims. It's very good and worthwhile to combat all manner of crime and its causes!

Jerry Seinfeld on The New Yorker Radio Hour. "I don't like old people, period. They don't look good. Everything's going, everything's deteriorating, I don't wanna see this. […] I feel like God is like, 'I'm with ya up to about 38. If you wanna stay, you can stay. But I'm moving on.'"

"There’s no secret sauce, no special workout or electrolyte drink that will unlock your potential and fuel your dreams. At the end of the day, there’s just you, doing the best you can with what you got, day after day and run after run."

A series of posts about writing/illustrating a bikepacking manga.

Movies
Road House (1989). I've watched this a handful of times – TBS afternoon staple – but I think I'd never seen this without commercial breaks. And it had been a long time since the last time. Patrick Swayze's charisma is on another level. I dig the traditional orchestral soundtrack, with moment-to-moment exclamations and punctuations that feed into the action. A lost art.

Anyone But You. Something is off here. I appreciate a few elements of the production design, like the scene transitions – neon sign in the bar and a diegetic piano backing score in particular. The line delivery from our mains feels a little dry sometimes. Too neat, too calm? I could see it being "in character", with our protagonists not wanting to lose their cool or show weakness. But the effect is cold. It's such contrast with their initial meet-cute, and later escalations and resolution of the romance. Need more consistent voltage to keep us attached. The parents are stronger roles. Here I'll again register my complaint of defaulting to wealthy/comfortable people on screen. It's fabulous to look at, but boy can it be stale. A few genuine laughs, though, and maybe it will get you to read more Shakespeare.

The Warriors. Contrasting with the above – such zest here! Scrappy energy, style, grit, invigorating soundtrack. With a few years in New York City under my belt, it's gotten more an more enjoyable to see things I recognize on screen. The subway in the 1970s-80s looks like a nightmare. I like how they capture the fundamental spookiness of an empty platform. Really appreciate the variety in costuming, and each gang's schtick. The radio DJ had me thinking about the switchboard ladies in John Wick, broadcasting the bounties. I don't want to see a straight-up remake (I'm glad we've largely gotten rid of homophobic slurs, by the way. It's so jarring.), but it's still fun to imagine what those contemporary gangs and costumes might look like.

The Clovehitch Killer. A straightforward thriller – what if you learned your parent was a long-dormant serial killer? – that starts well and stumbles toward the finish line. I think they show us more than we need to see. Dylan McDermott and Charlie Plummer are both great. There are few things I like in a movie more than riding bikes around small towns.

TV
X-Files, s2e9, "Firewalker". I remember this one from childhood. That kind of body horror sticks with you. Leland Orser and Bradley Whitford guest appearances!

Bodies, s1e3. I didn't know Samuel Barber adapted his Adagio for Strings into the Agnus Dei we hear at the close of the episode.

Shōgun, s1e7. Things aren't looking good for Toranaga-sama.

On Saturday, I took the train up to Harlem and walked through a few parks (St. Nicholas, Morningside, Cenral), looking at flowers (tulips everywhere), art, and New Yorkers out for fresh air. Lovely day, also got to work on my black coffee no-sugar crossover into step-back fadeaway from mid-court.

Books
The Emigrants. I appreciate the shifting characters from section to section, and the detailed look at each, wandering down biographical rabbitholes as much as our narrator's curiosity or attention allows.

To Hold Up the Sky, cont.

Household Upgrade PSA
These SinkShroom sink strainers have the best draining power of any I've used. The hollow handle and high-level hole seem to make a real difference. (Lesson: There is still so much room to improve every life!)

Music
Sault is "a British music collective that make a mixture of R&B, urban contemporary gospel, house and disco". Sign me up. I loved Earth this week. The combo of drums, harmonies, chant, and dub-like echo/reverb on "The Lords With Me" gets me HYPED.* Love the polyrhythms and groaning (lol) on "Power" and "Soul Inside My Beautiful Imagination", and the steady march of "Fields" transforming into Hendrix-y blues-rock stadium riffs. * (Realizing I have a thing for chanting: see also the end of "Acknowledgement", "Khawaja Tum Hi Ho", "Love Is Everywhere", etc.!)

The Past Lives soundtrack turns the dreaminess dial a little tooooo high sometimes, but it's great when you need it.

From Maze and Frankie Beverly "Silky Soul" delights with heavy Marvin Gaye influence/homage. In "Change On Our Ways" couldn't help but hear Michael McDonald's "I Keep Forgettin'"

The NID Tapes: Electronic Music from India 1969-1972. An hour of perfect weird computer noises. A+.

I listened to a few Kiasmos albums – self-titled, Blurred (my favorite), Flown. Solid upbeat head trip/working music. I like the high suspension/pedal point in "Paused".

Yat-Kha's Yenisei-Punk is worth a sample, if only to remind yourself of the variety the planet has to offer. Don't get stuck!

Running
Feeling plateau-ish lately. I've been running-by-ear for the last few weeks, taking the pressure off. I need to turn the screws again.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
ArborVille is such a cool mix of ASCII maps and memories. (Via Naïve Weekly, a great newsletter with consistent pointers to the more adventurous web of yesteryear, today.)

An interview with Giancarlo Esposito. "I mention my children because I learned a lot from them, now that I’m able to hear them. Hearing with your heart is different than hearing just with your ears."

"Harlem is a vision as much as a place, in all of its incarnations; and in all of its incarnations, there is always, somehow, a catch."

Repairing undersea cables is one of those quiet labors that keeps the planet stitched together. Jealous of journalists who get to do reporting like that.

Movies
The Listener. Tessa Thompson takes phone calls. It's like a gentle tour through society's various illnesses and hang-ups, so to speak. A few other mostly-one-person films I'd easily recommend: All Is Lost, The Shallows, Locke, The Guilty and its remake.

The Beekeeper. A man with a secret past, etc.. I like the variety of killings, but perhaps he's a bit too invincible? Maybe they're playing into the mythical angle, "when society needs a hero". Our heroine side character is a bit of a waste, doesn't add enough. Have to say, it's very refreshing when action heroes – like Statham here, and Keanu – have some credible martial arts background from their younger years, and aren't just sluggers. There's an ease and a precision to it, not easy to fake.

Picnic at Hanging Rock. I love how nebulous and haunting this is. A perfectly lovely sunny day ruined, sickening because you have no idea what happened, and you're just left to stew in your own imagination and distraught gasping into a kerchief. Can definitely see the influence on The Virgin Suicides.

TV
3 Body Problem, s1e1. It was cool to recognize/remember parts of the book, but just couldn't get into it.

X-Files, s2e8 "One Breath". Scully's back! Appreciated the "strength of your beliefs" call-back. 🥲

Bodies, s1e1–2. Decent little detective drama, told in parallel scenes in vastly different eras. Not all of the period stories are hitting the same way, but their relative rankings shifted from first to the second. We'll see what develops.

Abbott Elementary, s3e10. This show does so well at balancing the goofy and the sentimental. I've seen collectively maybe ~64 minutes across all the seasons, and it still had me choking up a bit.

Shōgun, s1e6. Ochiba is on the rampage.

Words of Wisdom
"I put time and love and too much energy into this finished project just to put it on Instagram and forget it about it. Like, no, promote your shit, let people know, be proud of the shit that you made."

I watched the eclipse. It was cool. The real highlight – which I saw echoed over and over – was seeing everyone stop for a few minutes, seeing neighbors I've never met, seeing the staff at the grocery store take a break and pop out on the sidewalk, everyone just looking up and having our private little cosmic moments.

Another highlight of the week: finding a new diner. It's no Waffle House, but it will have to do.

Art
Faith Ringgold, rest in peace. "I don’t like doing negative art, unless there’s something good to transmit in it. I’m looking for the good part." Seeing her work two years ago was eye-opening – incredible range!

School
Learning more than I want to about computer architecture and how CPU instruction sets work on a bit-by-bit level. I have a bad case of senioritis.

Running
Springtime running, man. Only thing better is autumn running. The few days off while traveling were a good reset for me, a few aches smoothed over. I felt really unusually fresh on the long run yesterday, accidentally doing my second-fastest 10mi on an invigoratingly windy, gusty morning.

Books
The Iliad. War bros are still yelling to/at each other about honor and glory, before inciting/killing each other.

To Hold Up the Sky. A collection of Cixin Liu's short stories, just begun.

Music
Four Tet, Three. "So Blue" is the winner by a mile. Something in that opening guitar melody seems so familiar. The song that precedes it "31 Bloom", has a nice subdued oontz-oontz house/trance style.

Toumani Diabaté & Ballaké Sissoko, New Ancient Strings. An equivalent of Hermanos Gutiérrez from last week? Intricate string instrumentals that will eventually bleed together in your mind, but you can both listen attentively or use it as wallpaper, and be rewarded either way.

"A Toast to the People".

From Rapsody, GOATED: Rapsody. Good to hear Anderson.Paak on the opener "Ooowee".

Flat Earth reminds me of the Stars At Noon soundtrack (complimentary).

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
"If you're an organ donor in the U.S., there's a 25% chance your kidney ends up in the trash."

Dawn Staley, gospel edit.

On the use of anamorphic lenses in Shōgun and other TV shows.

Matt Zoller Seitz writes an appreciation of Zendaya.

John Ortiz appeared on the Miami Nice podcast to talk about his career up to taking on the José Yero character, working with Michael Mann, etc.. Seems like a solid dude.

Movies
The Fist of the Condor. Martial arts at a gentle pace, like a slow Western. A straightforward tale of masters, students, betrayals, duels – all the good stuff. I'd like more movies told in chapters like this. It's an under-used approach. I love that the ending swerves a bit, leaves a little hungry. The hero keeping a tally on a quipu at his waist is nice touch. Speaking of, I really appreciate the lead in this role, Marko Zaror. Like our greatest action stars – Cruise, Keanu, Statham – he seems comfortable in grim and silly modes. Whatever serves the work.

Her. My fourth viewing, apparently. Crazy how much can change in a decade. First saw this in theater, thinking sure, I could see that happening someday. Next thing you know… we've got ubiquitous earbuds and ~convincing AIs that can hold conversations. The rest isn't far behind. Appreciate the opening and closing with dictated letters – one ghostwritten for an unknkown stranger, the other direct, to a dear one estranged.

TV
X-Files, s2e6 "Ascension". Krychek the traitor! Scully abducted! Agh!

X-Files, s2e7, "3". Wow, I loooooooooved this episode. X-Files in erotic thriller mode is A+ material.

Shōgun, s1e5. I appreciate this episode leaning into the culture clash again, but this time in a more philosophical sense – duty, freedom, purpose, etc..