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

I already had a lot of experience when I joined my team at work. Through some internal moves and a wave of new hires, I've accidentally become one of the longest-tenured. I am The Veteran. Welcoming the recent crop of ~new-grad hires and helping them find their footing has made me realize how much I take for granted. So much just comes easily. Makes me think back to my days working in a public library when I was shortly out of college. I had a couple teammates nearing or past retirement age. Nothing phased them. Objectively, I understood why – they'd seen it all for decades. But of course I couldn't muster the same ease in the same way, though I tried. And I was glad to have the model. So, on my mind lately: what do I want my version of leadership to look like? What's the stamp I want to make? And who am I looking up to now?

Art
Landscape (Bordeaux II), oil on canvas by Amédée Ozenfant. Hautajaiset (Funeral), sculpture by Axel Robert Petersson. Portrait of Joaneta Obrador, oil on canvas by Joan Miró.

Books
Winter's Heart. Done. 9 down, 5 to go?

Old in Art School: A Memoir of Starting Over by Nell Painter. DNF. Memoir just isn't for me.

Brave New World, Huxley, DNF, dreadful.

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Just started.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
In Praise of More Hangout Modalities.

Summer Travel: Less Phone, More Sketchbook. (via)

"That's why I encourage everyone to walk and take buses whenever you can, because you end up dealing with people who remind you what humanity actually is. Not the polished cartoonish version we're supposed to aspire to, but the far more common messy, complicated, and resilient version."

"We owe our electric age to scientists who were crazy, ignorant, or both."

Idea for a "cover index" to measure great songs.

RIP, Mark Snow.

Music
Mozart Piano Sonatas perf. Angela Hewitt. Cool to hear how much change there can be over a decade and a bit. You can hear really Beethoven bubbling up by the time you reach K.457.

• Piano Sonatas K.279–284 & K.309
• Piano Sonatas K.310–311 & 330–333
• Piano Sonatas K.457, 533, 545, 570, & 576

A bit of nostalgic return to Washed Out…

• Life of Leisure EP. "Feel It All Around" feels like stepping into a shower. "Hold Out" has the perfect drive for a workout.
• Within and Without. "Soft" has a nice mix of melancholy and hopefulness. I have such a vivid memory hearing "You and I" for the first time at one of their shows, bass player vamping in front of a box fan tilted up and blowing his hair.

Addison Rae, Addison. It's not for me, but it goes down smooth and leaves no aftertaste.

Movies
Fast & Furious. This didn't hold up at all for me. It was sad that I felt so remote from it all. Action pieces didn't land, relationships felt thrown together. Felt like I was mixing essential context from a TV show or something. (Has it really been 12 years since the last time I saw it?)

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Now this is a movie! Dudes being dudes. Naval warfare is one of the craziest things we've ever done.

TV
The X-Files, s4e24 "Gethsemane". A bit of an underwhelming season finale, but maybe there's some courage in not relying on traditional cliffhangers. We've been watching every Sunday night for the last 18 months or so. Taking a break for a little while!

Ballard, s1e1–2. So far, scratches the itch. I need a beach house.

Art
A Mayan blackware ceramic vessel modeled in the form of an owl. [Untitled] (Sax Player), print from engraving on plexiglass by Scott Smith. Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx, oil on wood by Joachim Patinir.

Books
Winter's Heart. Homestretch.

Running
Feels good to steadily pick up my volume and consistency since late winter. Yesterday I went on my longest run of the year so far, and today, no ill effects. Still one of my favorite ways to explore the city. (Mill Basin is a strange little self-contained world. Felt like I was in Florida.)

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
From a profile of an archaeologist couple: "One of the reasons we’re able to make as many contributions as we have is that we stayed put at one site for a long period of time and we just kept asking questions."

"Given Canada’s vast size and low population density, I was surprised to discover that the country feels more urban than the US, with far more skyscrapers per capita."

Young families have stopped leaving big cities, for now.

Thoughts from buses across America. "In any town such as Harrisburg, you can have two very different experiences, one optimistic, the other pessimistic, and that is the defining feature of the US."

‘No One Else Has a Bike Like Mine’: How Deliveristas Trick Out Their Rides.

"AI feedback (“you raise a profound point”) creates a new market niche for the offhand, the critical or slightly dismissive, the kinds of response only a slightly jaded human being can currently provide."

"I painstakingly printed out my social media feeds FOR AN ENTIRE MONTH so I could read them like a newspaper, as god intended."

NYC art schools see record-high application numbers as Gen Zers clamber to enroll.

"I’ve been sober for six years now; and that kind of milestone does something to your perception of time. It creates a before and an after, and it invites you - gently at first, then insistently - to take stock."

Growth, not gain.

A visual research tool that maps out a Wikipedia rabbit hole.

Music
Cerrone, Christine and the Queens, Catching feelings. Fun! Good pop/EDM/disco feel.

Laura Cannell, A Compendium of Beasts, mixing olde medieval and folk traditions:

• Volume 1
• Volume 2
• Volume 3

Domenico Scarlatti, Sonatas, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 perf. Angela Hewitt. I'm partial to the B minor, Kk.27 and the G minor, Kk.426 seems to anticipate Chopin or the like.

Movies
Red Eye (2005). Tight thriller. I like the focus on only two actors for most of the runtime. Helps that both are charming.

Battle Royale. Second viewing. I love the melodrama – heightened with teenage hormones – and how we learn about so many relationships in the school. Beautiful soundtrack mixing in classical orchestral work.

The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Still so fun. I think the characters actually work on their cars more than any other film in the franchise. That's cool. I think this is the third or fourth time I've seen it? (Previously.)

TV
The X-Files, s4e23 "Demons".. Feels like I've seen this one a few times before (i.e. Mulder perseverating on sister trauma → unhinged behavior → getting arrested).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Why are movies about research so addictive?

The Sustained Two-Shot.

Ryan Coogler talks about film stock and aspect ratios.

Beatrice Chebet breaks the 14-minute 5k barrier.

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

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

Muslimgauze, Single #One.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Couples Therapy, s4e13–18.

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

CSI: Miami, s8e19. Young Alan Ritchson!

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

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

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

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

macOS Icon History.

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

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

NYC bakeries that sell one thing.

Can AI speak the language Japan tried to kill?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Couples Therapy, s4e7–12.

Our Great National Parks, s1e2.

Dept. Q, s1e7.

I got a photo from family recently. My grandpa was a lifelong craftsman, mechanic, carpenter. On the day he died, three tools had been left out on the table saw in the barn. A combo square to plan and check; a notched wooden guide to steer boards safely over the blade; a screwdriver for the hundred little tasks that screwdrivers are useful for. Measure, plan, push forward, adjust.

Art
Exhibition coming soon to the High Museum: Faith Ringgold: Seeing Children. See you in ATL!

Man of the Night, statue in bronze by Germaine Richier. The Tilled Field, oil on canvas by Joan Miró.

Books
The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. Maybe it's because I'm too familiar with them, but surprised by how… dry? factual? the stories were. Like reading very straightforward reporting. Not bad, though. Just not as dramatic as you'd think in this telling.

It. DNF. I've never read Stephen King before! I think I should look to his other, shorter works.

Between Two Fires. Historical Christian horror? Interesting! Getting a better sense of the time period (Black Death-era France), how desperate and destructive and confusing it must have been.

Running
I'm acclimating to summer weather. This weekend I continued my irregular series of running to the end of various subway lines, with a journey east through Forest Park to the Jamaica–179th Street end of the F line. There's something interesting on the other side of every intersection.

Articles & Episodes & Twoots
Captchas in textiles.

"Your time and energy are the key bottlenecks in your life, and thus choices are always being made."

What Happened to Working Your Way Up from the Mailroom? "The measure of how efficiently talent is allocated in a society is how young you are when your dreams are crushed."

"We learned this about platforms a long time ago: following the old newspaper schematic, they aren’t the printing presses, but rather the assignment editors."

"'What about x, y, z? They’re really pushing the boundaries of fiction as a medium.' I don’t want to be mean, but I doubt it."

Is embracing AI intellectual or anti-intellectual? and the value of academic silos.

Invite knowledge through randomness with WikiRadio and WikiTok.

"The basic fact is that you cannot defend democracy if you cannot meaningfully contest a wider range of Senate seats."

Music
Two more from The Knife this week:

• Deep Cuts. I like "You Make Me Like Charity" and videogame melancholy of "Behind the Bushes".
• Silent Shout. "Silent Shout" feels like it has a lot of early synthwave Kavinsky-type sounds percolating in there. Not a complaint. "Like a Pen" is great, too.

Movies
Avengers: Infinity War. Captain America's phone has an Atlanta area code! The deaths of Vision and Spider-Man hit hard. Respect for movies willing to end on a sour note. Well done.

Gosford Park. I'll just echo everything I wrote about my first viewing. Still one of my favorites seen in 2024.

TV
Couples Therapy, s4e1–6. What an addictive show! And so rare for me to feel emotional about any reality TV. So much hurt that goes so deep.

The X-Files, s4e20 "Small Potatoes". Another good silly one.

Dept. Q, s1e4–5.

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

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

---

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Things To Do While Waiting.

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

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

Nice rocks.

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

Music
A couple albums from Of the Trees…

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

André 3000, 7 piano sketches.

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

Ghost, Skeletá. Theatrical metal, so fun.

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

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

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

Some quiet piano albums from Elijah Fox…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What happens when the intelligence goes out?

Scott Sumner suggests some overlooked films.

The Entity: On the Technologies of Late Cruisedom.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Words of Wisdom
"Nibble, and your appetite will grow."