A week of winding down, shifting focus, senioritis gradually reaching a crescendo.

Art
Wake, oil on canvas by Lee Mullican. Ancient Flutes, turned bowl in cocobolo wood by William Hunter. Nature Sets Her Hound Youth after the Stag (from The Hunt of the Frail Stag), Netherlandish tapestry in wool and silk. Expo Mouth #10, oil on canvas by Tom Wesselmann.

Books
Mistborn. DNF.

Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future. This has been my morning subway read (daydreaming about east coast HSR).

Crossroads of Twilight. Chipping away at the WOT series until I find my next novel. Seems like consensus ranks this as the worst of the franchise.

Running
Kept my mileage in check, short and steady except for a very fun weekend loop. Looking forward to a couple weeks off.

Around the Web
Will it internet? Spencer Chang time-travels with a watch.

"Subway Builder is a hyperrealistic transit simulation game. Build a new subway system from the ground up while dealing with real-world constraints and costs." Made by @Colin_d_m.

Why Are So Many Pedestrians Killed by Cars in the US?

What happens to college towns after peak 18-year-old? "By 2030, 20.7% of Americans will be 65 or older, while just 20.2% will be under 18."

"Even when telling the history of a country, Shakespeare’s worlds are small; Melville’s, despite being substantially hemmed to a boat, is somehow large. Maybe Shakespeare in some way captured all there was to be captured at the time; if so, in Melville we can see how much larger humanity has become: industry, trade networks, energy, science, anthropology, firms with multinational labour, knowable continents beyond great seas."

Daniel-isms: 50 Ideas for Life I Repeatedly Share, Part 1 and Part 2.

"One thing that I always have, especially if you go to a big concert hall, is that I very frequently want to turn up the volume."

Russell Crowe on maps. Stars! They're just like us! (Thanks, Jara)

Music
Myrkur, Spine. Scandinavian folk + metal.

Klaus Schulze, Deus Arrakis. Been killing it for decades. I should spend more time with his work.

Fusilier, Ambush. I didn't end up loving the rest of the album as much, but I audibly said "wow" on my walk to work when I first heard one of the transitions in "LLC". I love how adventurous the album feels.

DjRUM, Under Tangled Silence.

Various, Tron OST and Nine Inch Nails, Tron: Ares OST. Fun compare/contrast – the electronic+orchestra hybrid in the first, with some pop mixed in, and then the more stark band/studio sound in the most recent.

The Consolers, Jesus Brought Joy. Gospel duets. You can't not smile.

Movies
The Silence of the Lambs. Still great! Would love to see it in theaters someday. When the lights go off and the night vision clicks on…

Manhunter. Still great! On this watch, struck my how quiet and thoughtful so much of the runtime is. Newly appreciated the climax, with our hero fully inhabiting the villain's mindset and behavior, creeping through the moonlit forest to approach the house.

Tron. The cutting-edge visuals of the time are so different in style, and relatively crude compared to what we can do today, that they circle back around to become foreign and strange and wondrous again. Love that the in-computer world also had a bit of silent film look. Beautifully lived-in live-action interiors, too.

TV
The X-Files, s5e1–2 "Redux I & II". We're back! Tough watch in the first , so much talk talk talk talk talk talk. Things picked up in the second one. Mulder is getting so affectionate! I'm ready for Scully to get out of bed, and for both of them to get back to weird middle-America spooky investigations. This main government conspiracy arc is never going to go anywhere! Remember who your friends are.

Hannibal, s1e1. Revisiting this for a third perspective on the Hannibalverse. I think Mikkelsen is my favorite Lecter of them all.

Words of Wisdom
Irving Berlin: "Life is 10 per cent what you make it, and 90 per cent how you take it." (Thanks, James)

This weekend we celebrated our anniversary. A highlight was a trip to the Metropolitan Opera, on my local bucket list. I love that we still have grand occasions and spaces like this: tuxes, chandeliers, gold, red velvet, broad curving staircases. Rituals and visuals that dial up your expectations, call your attention to share something outside yourself.

As for the opera itself, we saw Mozart's Don Giovanni, which I've only heard a few excerpts of – the overture and the Commendatore's re-entrance Great music and great singing (an untrained ear on this part), but I struggled in the second act a bit, where it felt like the momentum lagged. I was most disappointed by the bland staging, tough. Just like the spare set in the production of The Tempest I saw last year. It was all solid blue-greys colors and empty planes, uniform costuming. The transformation at the end was nice, but saving it for the very last few moments made for a leaden visual experience for most of the run – "It's a famine of beauty, honey!"

"Crudele? Ah! no mio bene" was my favorite aria. There's a romance to the lyrics, and an earthy practicality: the loving, patient, compromise sometimes needed when committing to a shared vision.

Worked late a lot this week. It eventually caught up with me – I wonder if it contributed to my late-week sniffles? – but i don't regret it. I had a thought that maybe I've been leaving too much buffer, not enough pressure. I default that way, a natural caution and conscientiousness. But it leaves opportunities on the table.

Books
Sense and Sensibility. Finished this yesterday and loved it. I'd rank it below Pride & Prejudice, along with most other books.

Running
A steady but lighter week, tapering a bit before a race next Sunday. This morning was a map-filling run to finish off the last few streets in the Carroll Gardens neighborhood.

Around the Web
Brian Eno in conversation with Ezra Klein. A fun idea: "Children learn through play and adults play through art" (of course not the only way). And this was nicely put: "When we look at any piece of art, we are not looking just at that piece of art; we are looking at this piece of art in terms of our personal history. It’s like you are hearing the latest sentence in a conversation you’ve been having for your whole life."

Alain de Botton in conversation with David Perell. On following the news too closely: "Our inner lives have been industrialized."

"A lot of anxiety can disappear if you stop trying to solve things once and for all and just accept that some questions are meant to be asked."

"Parties are a public service".

"If it hurts, do it more often."

"Technologists and techno-optimists need to realize that the way we talk about innovation in articles, in ads, and in manifestos is often suboptimal for the goal of trying to convince skeptics of the value of progress."

Selling Lemons: The hidden costs of the meta game. "If a buyer can’t distinguish between good and bad, everything gets priced somewhere in the middle. If you’re selling junk, this is fantastic news"

"Absent legacy-media prestige or any earlier outdated marker of status, a way to distinguish yourself, to exhibit prestige, is to be an ambassador for a more prestigious brand." and We are the slop.

Music
Curtis Harding, Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt. Self-described "slop 'n' soul" that grows on me day by day. I like the lead guitar in "The Winter Soldier".

Star Feminine Band, Jusqu'au bout du monde. Upbeat, Beninese garage rock. Big fan, check out the title track.

Marshall Allen, The Omniverse Oriki. Heavily chant-inflected noise, jazz, exploration? Didn't click.

Daryl Johns, Daryl Johns. Throwback-y pop/muzak/mall jazz/sitcom intro music, calling back to Sting or Toto or Rick Springfield or the like. "I'm So Serious" is a good example.

Clipse, Let God Sort Em Out. "E.B.I.T.D.A." is so, so fun.

Witchcraft, Idag. Open bluesy metal that made me think of Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, etc..

Christopher Stark, Fire Ecologies. Orchestral spookiness. I like the ticking-clock edginess of "Scene 4: Infernal Dance".

A co-worker mentioned Midland, "Final Credits" as a favorite. (Dance music is often great for work, too. Discuss.)

Two albums from Takashi Kokubo, like vaguely dark and sentimental lullabies with nature sounds: Forest and Gaiaphilia.

Movies
Crimson Peak. The third time I've seen it (first, second). Love it. Horror needs more romance – passions heighten danger!

TV
Line of Duty, s4e5–6. I love this show.

Alien: Earth, s1e3. Circled back for one last try. The cyborg guy is intriguing, but for the most part it's just not working for me.

Last week I went bouldering for the first time in 6 years or so. So great! I need to work that back into my life. For me it's one of those pleasures like playing guitar or videos, where I never got very good, don't particularly care, and find a lot of satisfaction in re-learning the basics every now and then.

Books
Sense and Sensibility. Things I'm appreciating: mixing dialogue with summary of dialogue and the way the narration undercuts and pokes fun at its subjects. Also appreciating how primogeniture and entailment make even the most comfortably wealthy women so vulnerable. An incredibly enjoyable book.

Running
This weekend I ran a long loop touring some of my least-favorite neighborhoods, and had a great time. It's not only where you are, but what you make of it.

Around the Web
Zadie Smith on The Art of the Impersonal Essay. "It’s in that optimistic spot that I set out my stall, yes, and my ideas and arguments such as they are, sure, but without demanding to see anyone’s identifying papers in the opening paragraph."

"Just remembering that everything is connected to the heart can spare you a lot of suffering."

Encourage purposeful friction. "In general, if you can reduce the friction required to start doing or continue doing a thing, you’re more likely to do that thing, and keep doing it longer. Great! Helpful. Unless the thing is something you don’t want to keep doing."

"We specialise in whatever whoever has recently died specialised in."

A 13-meter long table made from a 5000-year old oak log.

Illiteracy is a policy choice. "If you live where I do, in Oakland, California, and you cannot afford private education, you should be seriously considering moving to Mississippi for the substantially better public schools."

"I decided to deconstruct the linguistic memes that dominated the Twitter-waves this year."

Who's Getting Rich Off Your Attention?

"Rich people want middle class culture but delivered in a bespoke, upmarket form".

Why Warm Countries Are Poorer? "A big percentage of equatorial population actually lives in mountains: The closer to the equator, the higher up the capitals!"

Good phrase: "mapping the space between one-off demo and load-bearing infrastructure".

"Aphorisms never accomplish anything. Their whole talent is traveling beyond their occasion, gathering force as they go, to end up on a refrigerator magnet."

"If you want to be able to finish large, complex projects, you have to practice finishing things. which usually means doing smaller projects."

My website is ugly because I made it.

Music
Cappela Romana cond. Alexander Lingas, A Byzantine Emperor at King Henry’s Court: Christmas 1400, London. Very very cool album, love the concept: "Go back in time to 1400, when Byzantine Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos, seeking foreign aid for besieged Constantinople, spent Christmas in the court of English King Henry IV. […] medieval Byzantine and Sarum chant and royal ceremonial performed by two very different historic choirs, one singing in Greek and the other in Latin, as they celebrated the feast of Christmas at London’s Eltham Palace." Favorite might be "Kalophonic Polychrónion", a baritone and a drone, can't beat it.

James Blackshaw, Unraveling In Your Hands. Twelve-string acoustic meanderings. Second favorite album of the week. I'll keep this one around for a bit.

Aryeh Nussbaum Cohen Sings Gluck Handel Vivaldi. The sweet melancholy of "Che farò senza Euridice?" is quite lovely.

Arias for Guadagni: The First Modern Castrato. Here's another version of "Che farò senza Euridice?".

More Mozart: Concertone KV190, Horn Concerto No. 3 KV447, Piano Concertos No. 2 KV39 & No. 4 KV41. He has a very high floor but didn't fall in love with any of these recordings.

Movies
Weapons (2025). Fun to watch but nothing lingering afterward. The vignette structure is a welcome change of pace.

28 Years Later. This is a good blend of high and low. References to Bible stuff, Bergman, Hamlet. I like the use of montage to unsettle and give some historical resonance. Appreciate that the father and mother are very imperfect. What's with movie dystopias leaving all the women in floral dresses?

TV
Line of Duty, s4e2–4. I love Hastings. An imperfect but forcefully moral leader, endlessly disappointed that others set such a low bar for themselves.

SpongeBob Squarepants, s1e1. I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ready!

Last week I was out of town for 3 days, out in San Francisco for a work conference we were hosting. I've been there maybe a half-dozen times now, and I think it's gotten better each time. Or I'm just different, finding it a bit easier to get on its wavelength.

On the day of the conference itself, I didn't have formal responsibilities. So just tried to be a welcoming and friendly presence, using the opportunity to strike up conversations with customers, prospects, vendors. Not my natural inclination in a crowd – I was completely fried by the time I went to bed, after the after-after-party – but at the very least, a nice change of pace from the usual.

Two trips to the Pacific coast in the last month, but the view from the plane had me itching for a mountain edition.

Art
The Mellow Paid, oil on canvas by Stuart Davis. The Flatiron, platinum print photograph by Edward Steichen. Departure of Summer, oil on canvas by Man Ray. LA 8, oil on canvas by Shirley Goldfarb.

Books
Sense and Sensibility. Inconsistency is hurting my moment. Need to get back on track.

Running
Heading out of town threw off my rhythm, and cut into my mileage but I rallied for a great long run yesterday. Cooler weather seemed to boost everyone's mood – lots of greetings and smiling faces. Even the seedier neighborhoods couldn't deny it.

Around the Web
Oliver Burkeman on threading the beads of life.

Questions to ask when you think need to finish something.

All leaders are GPT-5s.

Policing and prosecution, inside vs. outside of NYC.

The closest you can get to walking around New York City, 1670?.

Music
Invocazione Mariane perf. Andreas Scholl, Alessandro Tampieri with Accademia Bizantina. I really like the countertenor sound. See "Chi mi priega" and "Quis non posset contristari".

Old Harp Singers of Eastern Tennessee, Old Harp Singing.

Phantoms, This Can't Be Everything.

Movies
Get Out. Masterpiece, gets better every time.

Challengers. So fun! Sexy, messy, shot in interesting ways, makes dramatic mountains out of molehills. Interesting to watch a movie where I've heard the soundtrack before seeing it.

TV
Abbott Elementary, s4e22. I think I've seen more season finales than regular season episodes? Always surprised how gently they close things out.

Line of Duty, s4e1. They know how to start with a bang.

Last weekend felt like I barely had any time. Felt good to get back to routine, and by comparison, feels like I've been luxuriating in vast expanses of time to work with, happily filled. A good feeling.

Art
Polaroid-style paintings by Edward Cushenberry. Untitled (Harlequin), paper and box construction by Joseph Cornell. Wise Elders Portraiture Class at Centro Tyrone Guzman with En Familia hay Fuerza, oil on linen by Aliza Nisenbaum.

Books
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV. Finished. Maybe my favorite of the year, after Middlemarch. I was sad when it ended.

Sense and Sensibility. Just started! (Turning into an accidental Brit Lit year...)

Running
Yesterday's long run was tough. I bet the layoff/irregularity of the travel week threw things off, and odd timing last week. Filled in a few more pockets of the Brooklyn map, which feels good.

Around the Web
"Instead of Depression", poem by Andrea Gibson.

"I do not think reading is morally good, creates empathy, or a duty. Take all that off the table. We’re just talking about fun here." (via)

Reading with AI.

"The chat context is, among many other things, a handy illusion that conceals a great weakness of current LLMs: their slowness."

From burner phones to decks of cards: NYC teens are adjusting to the smartphone ban.

"The way that we manage temptation as a society is through manners, expectations, and peer pressure."

The percentage of Americans saying college is "very important" has fallen to 35%.

Field Noise is back!

What is an American? and "National" conservatism is un-American.

A 160-pound hiker carries about 44 liters of body water. Losing 1% of body mass as water (i.e., 0.73 liters, about 25 ounces) is the first threshold where performance starts to slip.

Music
Phantoms, Phantoms, and the "Perpetual Motion" single are both fun high-energy dance albums.

Nourished by Time, The Passionate Ones. A genre-crossing, a very "headphones" album. "It's Time".

Duffy x Uhlmann, Doubles.. Intimate guitar duo, no stand-outs, but all of it worth a listen.

Ezra Collective, Dance, No One's Watching. Dancehall funk, I like "The Traveller".

Baby Rose, BADBADNOTGOOD, Slow Burn. I like the backing music/arrangements a lot but the singing style, and the shound of awll the chewred-up shlurrred wuordsh, is really grating for me. :(

La Harp Reine: Concertos for Harp at the Court of Marie-Antoinette perf. Les Arts Florissant, Xavier De Maistre cond. William Christie. I like how the limited volume of the harp forces the orchestra to stand back a bit, even more than usual for concertos.

Movies
Knives Out. Re-watch, still fun, and funnier than I remembered.

District 13. Another re-watch, still fun. There is a certain delight in seeing physical/athletic greatness on screen, often worth the drop in dramatic/acting talent.

Saved!. Light teen comedy skewering a certain strain of Christian moralizing. We don't often see people sincerely wrestling with their religion on screen.

TV
Alien: Earth, s1e1–2. Some interesting additions to the mythology but something is just slightly off. Not sure if I'll continue (but I might!).

CSI: Miami, s6e18. One of the worst-written/looking episodes.

Words of Wisdom
"The people close to you can make their exit out of your life, either by choice or by death. Act accordingly." and "Call your mom. Call your brother. Call the homeboy you used to party with in college. Forever is a long time."

Last week I went to Los Angeles. My first time back since I moved here to Brooklyn. Took some trips down memory lane – my old apartment, favorite coffee shop, neighborhoods and restaurants with good memories – and also remembered what a lonely and strange time it was. I'd arrived there just a few weeks before the first inklings of a new virus, and a couple months later, lockdown. Happy to be there, and remembered what drew me west, but lots of old emotions shook loose, rose to the surface.

I remember when I first left I had a feeling that I might need to go back at some point and try again. I'm not sure that itch is there the same way. I'd be happy to live there again, but it's less… mysterious now? A known quantity for the right time of life, whenever that may be.

I rode in a Waymo for the first time while I was out there. It was such an odd mix of mind-blowing experience – wow! it's really happening! – and just completely mundane. After a few minutes, it felt totally normal and safe and pleasant. Hard to imagine going backwards from here. (I think I also feel safer as a pedestrian, seeing how well it picked up on runners!)

I also had my first experience on a diverted flight when thunderstorms shut down JFK, and my first time visiting (a hotel on the fringes of) Detroit. Lucky that I don't have more travel scars of this kind.

Art
California Copied from 1965 Painting in 1987, acrylic on canvas by David Hockney. Seated Male Figure, burnished ceramic with slip from Colima, Mexico ca. 200 BCE–500 CE.

Relative to the Getty and the Broad, I think LACMA – the We Live in Painting: The Nature of Color in Mesoamerican Art exhibit was super-cool – and the Hammer Museum – really liked Rising Sun, Falling Rain: Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts – deserve much more attention.

Books
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV. Now firmly into Henry IV's reign. I might keep reading history in this region or era for a while? I've enjoyed pairing with some LLM Q&A as I go along.

Running
Last week all of my running was in my old Santa Monica neighborhood. Mostly around 5am, to squeeze it in before work on east-coast hours. Nothing beats a run on a quiet moonlit street.

Around the Web
Why our house is a library.

"The beautiful thing about travel is that it teaches people how to enjoy themselves in spite of a near-constant stream of small disappointments."

"Air conditioning use in European countries remains around 19 percent overall, with much lower rates in specific countries—only about 5 percent of homes in the UK have cooling systems, and just 3 percent in Germany." And speculations on the class dynamics of air conditioning in Europe. I'm enjoying this beat.

Maybe trains are not abundant?

Music
Gabriela Ortiz, Yanga perf. Los Angeles Philharmonic cond. Gustavo Dudamel. I like the hand drums and general expansion of the percussion section, but I just could not get into this.

Marconi Union, The Fear of Never Landing. Final track – "Cloud Surfing" is one I had on repeat for a while.

Until Death Overtakes Me, Diagenesis. Gloomy droning funeral metal. I like it!

Mozart!

• Flute Concertos perf. Anna Besson, Clara Izambert, Reinoud Van Mechelen, A Nocte Temporis. The Andantino from the concerto for flute and harp is undeniable.
• Violin Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 perf. Francesca Dego, Sir Roger Norrington con. Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
• Piano Concertos perf. Jeremy Denk with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. I used to read Jeremy Denk's blog quite a bit, so a novel surprise to see this one pop up in search. Timpani adds so much to the opening of the D minor piano concerto – a punch you simply can't get with just the strings and winds.

Nei giardini d'amore: Baroque arias for 2 alti perf. Carlo Vistoli, Hugh Cutting, William Christie, Les Arts Florissants. "Sempre piango e dir non so" was the stand-out for me.

Movies
Ingrid Goes West. The influencer cliches feel a bit dated and worn already, but luckily it's more focused on the obsessive fandom turned sour. Good physical comedy, too.

Zodiac. I think this is the 4th time I've seen it? It's so easy to watch this movie.

Drumline. Love seeing Atlanta on film. The main character is very annoying but loved Orlando Jones as the band director.

TV
Binging a new TV obsession one week, and then completely abstaining the next week.

Line of Duty, s2e6 and Line of Duty, s3e1–6. Interrogation scenes are consistently great in this show. Not sure I've seen many other TV shows use them as effectively.

Words of Wisdom
"One band, one sound!"

Last weekend we made gumbo. Today, pralines. Rounding out the repertoire from my New Orleans side of the family. I've been making the oyster dressing for family holidays for a good while now, and I've got a decent handle on red beans & rice. These treats used to be reserved for special occasions, or the summer vacations down to Louisiana. Now as an adult, good reminder that I can… just cook them? Whenever I want?

Had breakfast with a friend this morning and reflected on how nice it is to learn about all the small little tidbits – grad school progress, the new hobby, work challenges, reflections from a recent trip – the collection of small facts (for me) that make their life their life. It's nice to have a rooting interest in other people's lives.

Sometimes reading my Kindle in the dark in bed feels like a very primal experience. Like being near a campfire, calm and quiet, safety and interest nearby, darkness surrounding.

Art
Wooden face mask from the Bembe region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. #49, oil on canvas by Cy Thao. Portrait of Tah-Bo-Ho-Ya, oil on panel by Elbridge Ayer Burbank. Stokrozen quilt by by Ans Schipper-Vermeiren.

Books
The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV. Steadily chipping away, and really enjoying it. So much of progress and coalition-building(/-ruining) can depend on quirks of personality, temperament, reputation.

Running
Much lighter week. Wish I'd spent a bit more time stretching or cross-training or the like, but glad I took a lil' break.

Around the Web
Frank Chimero took a sabbatical. "There’s a pressure to have noticeable outcomes to life choices like this. I made space, and after 3 months, all I have is a more internalized sense of that space."

"Asking for help in a way that ppl actually want to help is the number one skill it's literally the most important skill".

The Four Players That Span the Entire History of the NBA.

Moderation is not overrated. "One of my rules of internet discourse is that whenever I see people talking about how something is not a “silver bullet” or a “panacea,” I know I’ll need to take the rest with a grain of salt."

"The death rate from heat in Europe is almost twice the death rate from guns in America". Not good!

Music
Joe Hsaishi Conducts. Maybe the first time The Desert Music has really clicked for me.

While I've been reading The Eagle and the Hart, decided to put on some late 1300s/early 1400s music to keep the mood going. Can't say I deeply connected with any particular works in these collections, but they're all great, and a good reminder of how much talent you con find in any niche you care to look into:

• Gothic Voices, Echoes of an Old Hall
• Pro Cantione Antiqua, Ars Brittanica: Old Hall Manuscript, Madrigals, & Lute Songs.

Mozart, Piano Concertos Nos. 9 in E-Flat Major, KV271 "Jenamy" & 12 in A Major, KV414/3585P, Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Major, KV211. The second movement of KV414 stole the show for me.

Disasterpeace, It Follows OST, after watching the movie last week.

Radiohead, Hail to the Thief, (Live Recordings 2003–2009). I'll take the studio recordings over these, but reliable as always.

Movies
Goodbye, Dragon Inn. Quiet, observant mood-piece, rainy night at a movie theatre during its final screening.

The Invitation (2015). Third viewing. I really like this movie. (The first time I saw it), I liked for plot/suspense reasons. The second time, I appreciated but felt like I was missing something. This time, I connected much more on an emotional/character level. Repeat viewings can pay off!

KPop Demon Hunters. It's fun! I like how the animation style borrows from manga and such in more expressive moments. Also interesting that the fight scenes are largely "something to do", and presented as artificially high stakes – we know the heroes are going to survive, so let's just make it look cool and keep the story going. I know nothing about the musical scene, so I'll spend some time with the soundtrack, and I think I'll line up a deep-dive into K-pop in general later on.

TV
Line of Duty, s2e3–5. I love how quickly this show moves along. There's not a lot of meditative artistry or glamour. Just the facts, and messy people, and turning the screws a little tighter. Great interrogation scenes recently.

Words of Wisdom
"Skills expand the effectiveness of your kit but they don't substitute for its essential components. The best system is one where gear and training are aligned, with neither one of them overcompensating for the other."

Art
Moses and the Burning Bush, acrylic on canvas by Keith Haring. Stahlwork, aerial photography of steel production by Bernhard Lang.

Books
Wolf Hall. DNF. Good read, but I lost my momentum somehow. Maybe just need more plot, less character?

On the Calculation of Volume, Book 1. Boring in the details it covered but somehow mildly addictive. (Maybe a little bit like My Struggle?) I think I'll probably skip the sequel and the other five books, but you never know.

The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV. So many details, but I'm into it.

Running
For my work run club, we got custom singlets. 😎

Around the Web
"If your hobby looks exhausting to someone else, that means it’s really yours."

I need to get back to England for the Stanley Donwood/Thom Yorke exhibition at the Ashmolean.

Is air travel getting worse?

ldial: Listen to the best independent and community radio stations in the US. Felt really good to flip on Atlanta's WREK 91.1 on a Sunday morning.

The Social History of the Code Machine. "Timeless values like remaining disciplined under pressure are expressed in actions like marching in a straight line and we become attached to those actions rather than the values. When technology changes those actions, it feels viscerally wrong to us."

NYC's Median Rent is ~$1.6k, and How That is Even Possible.

Where to Look: The Silence of the Lambs (1991).

A 2000-year-old Roman sun hat.

Skateboarding Into Middle Age. And "Skateboarding is the only recreational activity that my kids have pursued in the city that has not required a membership, formal belonging to an organization, or that is dictated by a specific schedule". I started skating a bit at the office, a few minutes each morning when I go in. I'm terrible and it's great.

Music
Marconi Union, The Fear of Never Landing. "Eight Miles High Alone" and "Crystalline" are my faves.

Jenevieve, Crysalis. Haven't stopped listening since I started it. We need more albums with songs that just crisply end, instead of fade out! "Crysalis", love the big bass and splashy cymbals. "Haiku" and "Naive" are lovely ballads. "Missing Persons" sounds like something I'd hear from Kacey Musgraves (complimentary). I love the echoes of R&B predecessors – "Head Over Heels" is kind of a waste lyrically, but the Quiet Storm production is great. "Hvn High" revives the Michael Jackson era. "Nocturne" has the '80s keyboard woodwinds and backbeat. "Faded Lve" with the 70s disco/funk rhythm guitar and walking bass. I love the soda-shop harmonies in "Damage Control". All that in 42 minutes. What a fun album.

Four Tet, There Is Love In You. I like the faster-paced, glitchier stuff like "Sing".

Blackbraid, Blackbraid III.

Movies
It Follows. Second viewing (the first). Holds up! I didn't remember how Detroit-y this movie is. Abandonment of the city echoed by the abandonment of the youth. I want to spend more time with the soundtrack soon.

A Working Man. Jason Statham is just trying to be a regular guy! Give you one guess what happens next.

TV
Ballard, s1e9–10. I hope they find better writers for the next season, but I like the little family they've formed in the basement.

Line of Duty, s4-5. Has some of the most maddening protagonists you'll ever find. I'll return for a second season.

This morning I spent a couple hours listening to Bach, loudly, while I puttered around the house. As good as earbuds or headphones get, there's nothing that can replace big speakers moving the air, recreating the space and reverb and texture from when it was recorded. (Of course, the extension of the argument is to go to a more live shows…)

I'm enjoying cooking as a creative outlet lately. I think I always have – thinking back to attempting scrambled eggs with a childhood best friend after every sleepover (surely one more spice will make them good?) – I just never point my time or energy in that direction on a regular basis. This weekend: an apple tart, and savory quiche. I think my "I don't care about cooking" identity might be helping. I'm not invested that much in the end result, as long as the vision is clear and ideas are flowing and the process feels fun. Probably better this way.

Art
Spring, study for the Jusélius Mausoleum frescoes, tempera on canvas by Akseli Gallen-Kallela. Evocation d'une forme humaine, lunaraire, spectrale, sculpture in polished bronze by Hans Jean Arp.

Books
Wolf Hall. Predicting a DNF, but slight chance I'll dip in again.

On the Calculation of Volume, Book 1. A woman relives the same day over and over. Will probably finish this today. (Will I do it again when I wake up?)

Running
More morning runs over the last week, even managed to squeeze one in before I went to the office. If I'm going to wake up naturally at 5am for no reason at all, might as well take advantage of it.

Around the Web
Why is Rear Window so tense?

37 takeaways from 200 hours with Bach. "How much of Bach do you know? You’ve tasted only a morsel of the world’s biggest cake."

A narrative on fulfilling jury duty in DeKalb County, Georgia.

"Managers don’t often think about their power collectively, but you have it and you can use it."

A Treatise on AI Chatbots Undermining the Enlightenment.

How AI, Healthcare, and Labubu Became the American Economy. "We need to live in the future to build the future!"

100 years of Art Deco: a movement comes of age. (Thanks, James)

Music
Balimaya Project, When the Dust Settles. Tight jazz / west African blend. "For Aziz" is good; the riff in "Anka Tulon" got stuck in my head for a couple days.

Boards of Canada, The Campfire Headphase. I was vaguely aware of this act two decades ago, but never gave it any time. So now my 2025 ears can't help hear "chill vibes to study to".

Two albums of classical guitarist Jason Vieaux playing Bach: Lute Works, Vol. 1 and Violin Works, Vol. 2. Can't go wrong.

Movies
Smile. Had to watch because I heard the second was even better. It's good, and the lead is so good, but couldn't help thinking the roots-in-trauma horror is getting a little worn out.

The Princess Diaries. What an absolute treasure. So glad I saw this.

Smile 2. Thematically richer than the first, maybe less haunting, with another intense, capitivating lead performance. Undermined a little bit here and there with repetitious moments, but it's good.

TV
Ballard, s1e7–8.

CSI: Miami, s7e3.

Line of Duty, s1e1–2. Off to the races.

Last weekend I went back home to Atlanta. After a 6am flight, the first order of business: breakfast order at Waffle House. Felt good – and strange – to be back in my old stomping grounds downtown.

Second mission: a visit to the High Museum for their exhibition Faith Ringgold: Seeing Children, which was just about perfect. Especially liked the low-mounted art on the walls, and the storytelling area where they had a ceiling-mounted video of Faith Ringgold reading Tar Beach on a loop. (The opening sentence is one of the greatest in all literature.) The collection for Kim Chong Hak, Painter of Seoraksan was a really nice surprise. Beautifully lush, dense plant-tangled landscapes.

Aside from that, lots of time with family, seeing our local 700-foot waterfall, picking blueberries in the back yard, pondering "Western Art", playing on the floor with paper collage and Legos, eating too much, and sipping evening coffees.

Going back home made me fall in love a little more. Seeing people care about someone you love is inspiring. Like when friends show up to your amateur concert or sports events. It's validating. You want to live up to their encouragement.

Art
The Conversion of St. Paul, a bas relief in stone and glass by Lumen Martin Winter. Ran by this one on the face of St. Paul the Apostle Catholic Church, had to pause to admire for a moment. A Maori feather cloak (kahu huruhuru) in a checkerboard pattern.

Books
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik, interesting twist on Rumpelstiltskin folklore.

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. Only ~20% into it, but so far so good.

Running
Lovely long long run to and through Central Park yesterday, along with Riverside Park and the Hudson River Greenway. (It's so nice to be able to pop into a deli for a mid-run snack.) The biggest breakthrough was bringing some running shoes to Atlanta and making sure I got a few miles in. It's more the commitment than the value of the workout itself.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Geo Gerard biked every road in Atlanta and shares an accompanying photo collection: All the Roads Taken.

Dan Pelzer read a lot of books and kept a hand-written list for decades.

A man who puts jet engines on things.

What 300 Years of Firewood Prices Say About the Economy. Odd Lots is such a good podcast.

Indonesia climbs the value chain and The only thing worse than sweatshops is no sweatshops. A lesson here in not being too picky about how the poor grow wealthier. There is so much at stake!

"One big benefit of traveling is the diversity of places you can see. But another big benefit — not to be neglected — is the diversity of eras you can sample. I am so, so glad I saw what those places were like in the late 1980s, China most of all and also the hill tribes. No history books can compensate for that. So that is a very good reason to travel NOW. And to travel to places that are going to change a lot."

"Learning is not the product of teaching. Learning is the product of the activity of learners."

What if you could search every visible word on New York City’s streets?

One Photographer’s 50 Year Quest to Capture the Chrysler Building.

Music
Hamid Al Shaeri, The SLAM! Years: 1983–1988 (Habibi Funk 018). Like this one quite a bit! "Tew'idni Dom" (I love the key modulations) and "Ayonha" made it on my "2025 Bangers" playlist.

Doctor 3, Danilo Rea, Blue. Clean modern piano jazz.

corto.alto, Bad With Names. Horn-forward beats-lounge.

Mulatu Astatke, Mulatu Steps Ahead. The usual jazz/latin/funk blend, see "Mulatu's Mood".

Yamaneko, Pixel Wave Embrace. Video game-y bleeps and bloops, just a little grimey.

Sophye Soliveau, Initiation. Soul + harp, hard to go wrong. "Initiation II - Wonder Why" and "Simple Pleasures".

Movies
Predator (1987). Still enjoyable. Arnold was so much slimmer back then. (Previously.)

Woody Woodpecker. I have my nephew to blame for this one. It's not good.

The Wild Robot. A rewatch, another nephew selection. It's fine! (Previously.)

Los cronocrímenes (Timecrimes). Pleasantly surprised with this little time-travel thriller.

The Illusionist. Good old-fashioned magical romance. Would pair well with The Prestige.

TV
Peaky Blinders, s1e1–2

Ballard, s4–6