My fiancée was out of town all week, so in her absence, I went into full goblin mode for a few days. 😈 By the time we got to Wednesday morning, the thrill was gone! Art This MoMA overview of Henri Matisse’s cut-outs is really cool. I learned his transition into "drawing with scissors" was partially a desire for speed: easier to edit a painting, or just cover a larger space, by slapping some paper on the wall. Running On Tuesday night I did Bakline’s open-course race from Brooklyn to Manhattan. Short and sweet, good times. (Dave Hashim took some great photos.) Funny to realize I’ve been in NYC for two years, but only just now ran in Manhattan at night. Nighttime running was my default in Atlanta and LA, but somehow fell out of it. I need to get back! Nice long run out to Sunset Park on the weekend. I love the Brooklyn Tower looming in the skyline like the Eye of Sauron (on the right). Squeezed in some trailrunning, too – also need more of that. Articles & Episodes & Twoots Nobutaka Aozaki made a large map of Manhattan, assembled from on-scrap directions from strangers. (via) Wikiflix is a nice UI for movies that have ascended into the public domain. Amazing what a smidge of design polish can do to sell the product. "OLLOS is an experiment that organizes everything in my personal computing environment on one unified timeline." I really like this experiment, one big river of items to flow through. "Montaigne turns your Apple Notes into a website." Like the above, I like this personalization of computing. It's going to be so cool to see how this trend develops, as the bots make it easier to PM something useful for yourself. There is a downside to the "TGIF" mindset – be careful about wishing your life away! "'There’s no sound I don’t like,' Aissam said, with the help of interpreters during an interview last week. 'They’re all good.'" We can heal forms of deafness with gene therapy. The next decade of medicine is going to be incredible. But on the other hand... "I worry that one of America’s superpowers is to spin up yarns to reduce the urgency for action." A story of a hate crime in a local park caught my eye this morning. I had a similar experience when I was out for a run at some point last year. (I got some homophobic slurs / violent threats when I dared to run with... running shorts?). No identity harm for me, and didn't really feel physically at risk. But nonetheless I was really shaken/sad/angry/baffled by the malice. Mercifully, I've had a briefer experience than the victim in the story, and one with none of the fallout that family has had. But I can relate to the jumbled feelings in the wake. Can't imagine what it's like when that's a normal risk in your daily experience. Music Dido & Aeneas is one of my favorite operas. The songs that close Act III – "When I am laid in earth…" / "With drooping wings…" – are rightfully celebrated. Beautiful stuff. But on this recording from Nuova Musica, the dance / "Often she visits…" section really caught my ear. I love the period instruments, and the recording is so spacious. Learned about Jah Division from a running buddy – Joy Division covered in reggae/dub form. "Fu Manchu Dub" is a good one. I've gone through the same pattern with just about every album in the Radiohead family tree: 1. Okay... 2. Hmmm I dunno... 3. Hold on a minute...! 4. Okay I love it. :) From The Smile’s latest album, the early fave is "Teleharmonic". We'll see how things change on replay after replay. I’m going to see André 3000 & flute-friends in concert soon. 😎 Movies Due to the aforementioned goblin mode, took in quite a few this week. Kimi is a perfectly solid 90-minute thriller. What jumped out on rewatch is the perfection of the corporate exec role – sympathetic and instantly suspicious. The Creator has very cool sets and setting, and I'm always open to more philosophical scifi. "Everything In Its Right Place" is a sick needle drop, the way it fills the ears. I remain frustrated that John David Washington has such a compelling presence and charisma, but scene to scene, in every movie, my trust in the acting waxes and wanes. :/ Scream 3. It’s total nonsense, in a good way. Like a soap opera, maybe. Hone in on a few elements, dial them up. Appreciate that all of these movies explore trauma exhaustion, the film industry, the press, bloodthirsty audiences, toxic fandom, etc.. Barbie. Wonderfully inventive and vivid... and repeatedly stalls out for talking points. And a little too much Ken, for my taste? Found it dazzling and frustrating, and I wonder what a shorter, zippier cut would feel like. Cast was great, and I really, really hope we see more movies with stylized sets and practical effects like this. The artifice can be so invigorating. Loved the the staginess and visible seams in Anderson's Asteroid City and Roald Dahl adaptations, for example, and the spare spaces in Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth. The Kid (1921). My first Charlie Chaplin. A clean 54 minutes. Sentimental, filmed with a doting smile on the lens. Fun to see signs in Spanish in old Los Angeles. But wild to see a major city in shambles, all those dirt roads, and even the average/nicer areas looking shabby. People who long for the days of yesteryear should spend more time looking at old film and photos. The past sucked! Flashdance. I remain fascinated with Pittsburgh, where this movie takes place. Probably the never-visited US city I'm most curious about. Anyway, this is perfectly overstuffed plucky-striver fun. The musical x gritty Midwestern industrial crossover here makes me itchy for a Streets of Fire rewatch. "This is one of those movies that goes for a slice of life and ends up with three pies." – Ebert says it like it's a bad thing! Phoenix (2014). Somehow Saturday afternoons have become my time for quiet European drama. Here we have a Holocaust survivor, the only surviving of her family, recovering from a major reconstructive surgery, and reluctant to leave the country to start over in Jewish sanctuary cities. She remains in Berlin in hope of finding her husband, who had likely turned her over to the Nazis. They meet and we see their relationship transform. It’s really good. This is the middle of a thematic trilogy from Christian Petzold – Barbara and Transit are also excellent. I’ll be watching more from him. TV Miami Vice, s1e9, "Glades". Don’t know where to begin here, it’s so strange, with our heroes doing guerrilla warfare in the swamp. But it had me thinking about the value of TV built for commercials: you get a break!

If it snows, I'm making a snow angel. Such a great gift to give yourself. 10/10, strongly recommended. Other highlights and happenings from the previous week... Art I love these weavings from Elsa Pärs-Berglund. Tremendous work. I also love these woodcuts by Gorden Mortensen. The crisp lines and gentle saturation remind me of the work I often see in the Masterpieces of Japan feed. Running Had my first 25º run of the year last week. So fun! So cold! New fleecy running tights make a big difference. Some dicy, icy weather killed my usual routine, but bright side: hesitantly embraced the treadmill and... it wasn't so bad! Worse in memory than reality. This week I'll be doing a cool Bakline race starting in my neighborhood and finishing in Manhattan. What makes it extra-cool is that you can enter in a "prediction" group, and the winner is the person with the most accurate estimate of their finish time. No pace gadgets allowed! Should be a blast. Articles & Episodes & Twoots Convention and disagreement in how maps are shaded. (thanks, James) Hakeem was so so good.

Hakeem Olajuwon is the NBA’s all-time leader in 5x5 games with six Hakeem is also the all-time leader in: - 5x4 games (24) (D. Robinson 13) - 5x3 games (94) (Robinson 73) - 5x2 games (327) (Robinson 224) - 5x1 games (787) (K. Garnett 723)

Music Lou Reed's Hudson River Wind Meditations was re-issued, and Move Your Heart is a great place to start listening. The album made me think of a couple from the 1970s – Catherine Christer Hennix's 1976 Electric Harpsichord, and the 1972 The Wind Harp – Song from the Hill. "Soave sia il vento" from Mozart's "Così fan tutte" was a revelation. My soul has been renewed. And building on that, I had a blast listening to this on repeat and making ChatGPT tell me about it.

M: So that opera "Cosi fan tutte", what's that song "Soave sia il vento" about? CGPT: "Soave sia il vento" is a renowned trio from Mozart's opera "Così fan tutte". This beautiful piece is often praised for its melodic and harmonic beauty. In the context of the opera, it occurs relatively early in Act I. The song is a moment of serene and tender beauty. The characters Don Alfonso, Fiordiligi, and Dorabella are at the shore, bidding farewell to Ferrando and Guglielmo, who are pretending to leave for war (as part of Don Alfonso's scheme to test the sisters' fidelity). The lyrics express a wish for the winds to be gentle and the waves to be kind during their journey. The words translate to something like: "May the wind be gentle, may the waves be calm, and may every element respond benignly to our desire." The trio is a sublime example of Mozart's ability to convey deep emotion and a sense of peace through music. The harmonious blending of the three voices, along with the orchestral accompaniment, creates a soothing and contemplative atmosphere. This piece reflects the themes of love, loyalty, and the bittersweet farewells that are central to the opera's narrative.

...and on from there digging into music theory, operatic conventions, similar works in music history. Opera tutor on demand, very cool. Otherwise, I loaded up on Gramophone’s best of 2023 list, and have been gorging on old stuff recorded anew. Books Lord of Chaos, continued. Almost 2/3 done, chipping away before bed. School Finished my project for Data Structures & Algorithms II. Exhausting and satisfying. Now transitioning into Linux en route to an LPI certification. TV X-Files, s1e13, "Beyond the Sea", s1e14 "Gender Bender", and s1e15 "Lazarus". This has been a really tough few episodes for Scully! Manipulated by a death row psychic, hypnotized and assaulted by a religious zealot, ex-boyfriend's dead body possessed with a killer's soul. Phew! Fargo, s1e1. Felt too similar to the film, but just colder, darker, nastier. Couldn't find the levity or warmth I appreciated in the original. I hear the full run is great, but I just couldn't continue with it. True Detective, s3e1-2. Off to a good start, I'd say. Movies Rewatched Love & Friendship, an understated chamber comedy with Kate Beckinsale starring as a selfish, plotting antiheroine. Incredible costumes and a lovely soundtrack. (Previously). Pulse is turn-of-the-century internet horror. Love this kind of horror where things are just... off. In one scene a person walks too slowly. In another, someone stands up in a way you know is wrong. Visceral, but rather than grisly. Admirable work on a lower budget, with horrible things revealed just with change of lighting or perspective, but in the frame the whole time. And I those beautiful beige-box computers did make me the slightest bit nostalgic.

January is passing with blazing speed Art I love old Japanese panel art on huge panels and it would be cool to own some one day. I also love a lot of Byzantine art, and saw a the cool Africa & Byzantium at the The Met recently. Related to those, I've been thinking about the slow-burn interests you develop over a lifetime. Lots of stuff 10- and 20-yo Mark cared about are still in effect – running, hiking, orchestral music, sculpture, etc.. Some others, never would have seen coming: Byzantine art, Native American history, tapestries and textiles. What a gift, to keep stumbling on new stuff. School I finished a project, and now feel 20x more competent with Python. Next adventure is all Linux, which is one of those areas where, all due respect to the super-fans, I've never bothered to look at for more than a second. Curious what's in store. Running In the last week, I ran the fastest 10k I've done in a couple years... which was so so much slower than what I did when I was younger. Funny to know, objectively, I'm not as fast today, but still feel so happy with it. It's been a great year of running. I've been a part of a local running club for most of my time in Brooklyn. I dabbled a bit in Atlanta, didn't have one at all in Los Angeles, and now have a hard time imagining not having one again. Again, something I never would have guessed in my '20s, a pretty dedicated solo (or duo) runner. Books Lord of Chaos, continued. Finally getting some bubbles in this pot. Blogs & Pods & Twoots Natural Fibers in Outdoor Performance Apparel. I've been a member of Backpacking Light for a couple decades now (!), and an episode like this is a perfect example why. Deep science nerdery into hows and whys of fibers, weaves, knits, fabrics, and how they differ in effectively keeping you cool/warm/comfortable/safe. Nicholas Cage has respect for the dollar. (Cf. "No amount of money, neither large nor small, ever should be taken for granted because somewhere along the way someone earned it".) Derek Thompson, in conversation with Oliver Burkeman: "Everything we radically oppose in life, we ironically revere. We give power to the things that we set up our life in opposition to." Burkeman is an excellent guest, here and elsewhere. Huge ancient lost city found in the Amazon. "Prof Rostain says he was warned against this research at the start of his career because scientists believed no ancient groups had lived in the Amazon. 'But I'm very stubborn, so I did it anyway.'" LIDAR is so cool. Feels like there are still so many old cities we haven’t found yet. We underestimate how much history the past had! Music

• Old-school-flavored soul/R&B from Jalen Ngonda
• Betty Benedeadly, "Mojave Mystic" – some kinship with Hermanos Gutiérrez in this one.
• This playlist of X-Files soundtracks has been on repeat during working hours.
• Brandee Younger's cover of "If It's Magic"

Movies Twister. The '90s were a great era for movies. It could be simply a formative-age thing, but they just... look right! Wear & tear, sweat, grain, a little softness in the image. This is standard adventure-romance fare, but you've got some terrific non-star star power here: Hunt, Paxton, Hoffman, Gertz, Ruck, Davies. What's not to like? Leave the World Behind. Very nicely introduces the tension and looming sense of... something... not quite right, but never ratchets up very much. TV X-Files, s1e12, "Fire" was a bit of a miss for me. Evil guy being evil. Three Pines, s1e4-8. I am bummed that this show didn't get another season. There are moments of rough dialogue, some characters sketched a little too sparsely, some dialogue that really insists you get the message, and yet... so much else working in its favor. Honorable heroes, and I can't think of any crime show that cares so much about its victims and makes time for grieving families. Here's hoping we'll get more someday. (Small consolation, there is a movie, and I'm curious how it interprets the characters in this world.)

At the start of this week, I spent some time talking through 2024 goals.  I'm excited for what's to come. One over-arching desire is to build more intention and reflection. A weekly review may become part of that. It's a beginning. See where it goes? School Last October I went back to school, scratching an itch, giving myself a chance to explore and learn where I hadn't given myself the chance in the past. This week's focus is a project around the traveling salesman problem, working in Python. It's felt great to see my progress, and see the project transition from googling every step, to more and more code coming from my fingers. Plenty of googling in the future, but that transition from "how to build from zero" to "how to fix what I just broke" is very satisfying. One of the biggest improvements is just making myself form very precise, discrete to-do lists, and knocking them out one at a time. Running Fully transitioned to winter-running mode over the last few weeks. Runs in the 30-40ºF range are the new norm for the foreseeable future. Every season, every temperature drop comes with some new anxiety. I never quite remember what I wore last time it was XX temperature. There's always that little bit of paranoia when setting out, a hard time trusting the wardrobe as I walk out the door – even when I've looked up previous runs and used the same setup. But everything settles in within a few minutes. There's a lesson here. (This is also inspiration for a coding project.) Pushed myself a smidge on a long run this weekend, just to check in on my fitness... and in the middle of that run I did the fastest 10k I've recorded in several years? Felt like I had plenty left in the tank. Really curious to see how much I can improve over these next few months. Books Lord of Chaos. In progress. I started a re-read of the The Wheel of Time series roughly a year ago? First read during high school/college. Book six now, and thousands of pages to go. It's a perfect bedtime read when school and life has me too fried for more. Blogs & Pods "One of the most interesting things you can do as a reader is to sit down and think about why you abandon a book." Music The start of the year is always so good for me. https://twitter.com/mlarson/status/1743674368046084176 This year I stole the idea of so many, to create an ongoing playlist of stand-out tracks as I go through the year. Sampling from a couple great albums so far: Nation of Language, "Sole Obsession" Portico Quartet, "On the Light" Bulgarian State Television Female Choir, "Polegnala e Todora (Love Song)" I also have a new running playlist. Most often I'd create them for an immediate need, and delete later on. For the current on, I've just kept adding more. I keep it playing from newest-to-oldest, so that the freshest stuff is always near the top as I sprint around town. Recent additions: Mýa, "Free" Ghost, "Spillways" Movies Bad Boys (1995) Will Smith before he was charismatic? It's very much the Martin Lawrence show. I was surprised to see Smith so muted. You have to be wary with comedies of a certain period. Plenty of juvenile crudeness, innuendo, prejudice lurking, and... I'm over it! I'll still watch the sequel – I hear it's got more Michael Bay-ness going on. R.M.N. Villagers in a small town in Romania grapple with accepting outsiders (room for improvement...) and with their own economic need to leave home to thrive (and how they are received in turn). Empathy as a function of location. A major scene takes place at the most toxic community meeting you've ever seen (and it's sad that you probably know exactly what that's like!). Influenced by true events, and clear Biblical-refugee echoes here, with its Christmastime setting. TV The X-Files I haven't watched much since the '90s. Late last year, decided to revisit. I'd forgotten how much wisecracking Mulder does. This week featured "Fallen Angel" and "Eve". Strong entries, but "Ghost in the Machine" and "Ice" still have my top spots for the first season. Three Pines Another rewatch in progress. I really like my first go-round with this unfortunately one-season show. Mystery series in rural Canada with a bit of coziness, oddball characters, and a season-spanning arc with an indigenous community. It's nice to watch a crime show where, like Columbo, you sense the lead detective is fundamentally good and decent. Dark heroes are a bit overrated. Life On Our Planet Seven episodes in, the mammals are taking over! LFG!

This weekend I took the train from New York City to Washington, DC. An experiment: 3hrs down, 8 hours on the ground, 3hrs back home. A rousing success. I was blown away how much nicer the train trip was. Took a subway to the train station, grabbed a coffee and snack, and then pretty much walked directly to my car and seat. My big fat cushiony seat with plenty of legroom, next to the big window. No security hoops to jump through, no rules for seatbelts and tray tables. What a dream. Definitely want to do more trips like this. The specific reason for the trip was that the Rubell Museum DC just opened late last year. I can't think of any other time in my life I was around "at the beginning" for a new institution like that. What a cool opportunity! The featured exhibition was What's Going On? – a nod to Marvin Gaye, who went to junior high in the building that now houses the museum. Really liked the Kehinde Wiley in the main hall – Sleep (2008):

(Seeing Wiley's work in person for the first time was one of my favorite art moments.) Also enjoyed a bedazzled and dazzling work from Mickalene Thomas, whose collaged paintings just burst out of the frame. After the Rubell, the next stop was the National Gallery of Art, East Building. Man, I love quilts. I loved this one, "Columns of Blocks" (2003) from Gee's Bend quilter Sue Willie Seltzer, "evoking ripples and reflections on the wide, wandering Alabama River", as the placard has it.

Perfect. And I'll close with Max Ernst's "A Moment of Calm" (1939). Love its dense details, making harsh, spiky angles somehow lush and warm. And those big birds are just silly.

In summary: 10/10, will train for art again.

I watched 166 movies this year. I'm proud of that, sort of? Appreciate that I put the time into something I love. But also... probably a good idea to cut back a bit. Or a lot. Stil, I don't quite regret it, not with some of the high peaks in this year's viewing. I tweeted some of the favorites I watched for the first time, and thought I'd expand on the stand-outs here. School Daze Really enjoyed catching up on a few Spike Lee films this year. His Pass Over made my second tier, and Malcolm X just missed the cut. The energy in School Daze is off-the-charts. I love Lee's willingness to blend genres, do whatever will drive the story in an entertaining way. It may not be a dedicated musical, but if we need to have a dance-off in a salon or enjoy a joyous, raucous step show, we are GOING THERE. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives Completely mesmerized me. The languid forest conversations, visits from the dead, blurring boundaries between this life and the next. This was only movie last year that I re-watched right away, the following day. Clouds of Sils Maria I like the everyday-ness of this, a view into a rarified world – being a celebrity seems pretty boring a lot of times! And the meta-commentary on its themes – losing your youth and your place in the world. It just glides along. Whale Rider This movie got me more emotional than just about anything else I watched. I love that our heroine is so direct, undisguised in what she wants. We get a glimpse into a community, and see the young teach the old. Ebert sums it up nicely: "There is a vast difference between movies for 12-year-old girls, and movies about 12-year-old girls, and "Whale Rider" proves it." The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) Just a slick propulsive action movie. They don't make'em like this anymore. Kimi An agoraphobe is forced outdoors. Love the blend of modern concerns – pandemic, surveillance, corporate malfeasance, cover-ups – and Soderbergh's usual zesty presentation. This would make a fun pairing with The Outside Story. Vesper I watched this one on 12/31 – a perfect example of why I don't finish my list until the new year starts. Vesper is a biotech scifi fairy tale in the sodden forests of the north. This is sort of perfect species of science fiction for me: give me a few characters to care about. And sketch their life with such precise details that you understand their broader world without being lectured about its rules. Haunting, hopeful. Very grateful to have seen these. Thinking about movies in 2023, I need more constraints. Too often, I skipped over things I wanted to see in favor of the zeitgeist, or feeling a need to "catch up". And too often, I chose movies as the lazy way out, something only to pass the time. Not inherently a problem, but the blend is off. I'd like this year's movies tilted more toward the ones I'm especially intrigued by, watched when I can bring them the energy they deserve.

I tossed off a tweet when I was making breakfast the other day:

Advice on leaving (your place of birth, social media platforms, etc.): Make sure you're running toward something, and not just away from something! ✨

What prompted it was I was cooking breakfast, and reflecting on my move from Atlanta to Los Angeles a few years ago, and then from Los Angeles to New York City. When I told my family about the first move, my dad was curious why, and shared something along those lines. He was nudging for details and trying to understand my mindset – was I hurting? Worn down? Desperate? Or alive, seeking, hopeful? It stuck with me. And luckily the second move was much higher on the "running toward" than the "running away" side of things. I was also thinking of a certain website that's been in the news lately for leaning into some of its worst qualities. I'm one of the lucky people with a small, friendly following that generally has a great experience. I see many people who seem increasingly frazzled and broken by theirs, though. I don't feel it directly, but I can understand it. It's valid, as all emotions are. I think the part of the advice above that I love the most is the attitude it implies – positive, constructive, optimistic. Reminds me in a slant way of the current tag line for Alan Jacobs' blog:

More lighting of candles, less cursing the darkness

I'd always want to leave with a promise of something better, not a curse on the past. I'm open to the idea that Mastodon or Post or Hive or whatever is a better Twitter than Twitter. And I hope if (when?) I leave I've got a good vision of what "better" looks like. Eventually every escape will come to rest, and when you look around, it helps to have some standards to measure by. Similar to Amy Poehler's perspective I shared a few years ago:

I see life as like being attacked by a bear. You can run, you can pretend to be dead, or you can make yourself bigger.

I don't want to wear out my shoes fooling myself. What will make me bigger? It may not be another app. I've got time to think it over. I hope you do, too.

Romantic comedy is the only genre committed to letting relatively ordinary people — no capes, no spaceships, no infinite sequels — figure out how to deal meaningfully with another human being. These are the lowest-stakes movies we have that are also about our highest standards for ourselves, movies predicated on the improvement of communication, the deciphering of strangers and the performance of more degrees of honesty than I ever knew existed — gentle, cruel, blunt, clarifying, T.M.I., strategic, tardy, medical, sexual, sartorial. They take our primal hunger to connect with one another and give it a story. And at their best, they do much more: They make you believe in the power of communion.

Rom-Coms Were Corny and Retrograde. Why Do I Miss Them so Much?

I think I miss blogging? I feel annoyed when I look back at the date of the last post here, and know all the interesting stuff that happened since. I moved across the country, for example. Twice. And there was a wee pandemic. But outside of my journal (kept daily, religiously), no record of my thinking, my influences. I also miss the attentiveness it cultivated in me, when that flow was at its best. I gave a little extra consideration to what I was taking in. The intake hasn't really slowed. But the processing and reflection, that background hum ("hmmm I might share this") tapered off. I miss it. So... yeah, I'm thinkin' I'm back. We'll see how it goes.