A very educational week to start: doctor visit, webinars, trainings, reading. I was glad for the change of pace on the back half, a more gentle slope into the weekend.

We moved some furniture around the house and reset the energy a little bit. Friday night fingerpainting on the roof. Saturday snoozing after a long hard run.

I wish Spotify were more adventurous and opinionated in its recommendations. So often it's playlists and singles. The small section with full-album recs is so often more of the same, so rarely the adjacent possible. Take a chance on me! Take a stance!

Art

The Matterhorn Quilt in hand-pieced and appliquéd cotton by Myrtle Fortner. Temple Hanging for the Autumn Full Moon (Picchavai Sharad Purnama), 1800s watercolor on cloth from Rajasthan, India. Tramonto a New York [Sunset in New York] Seating System, sofa by Gaetano Pesce. Within/Between/Corpus (11), photograph by Keisha Scarville. A 19th-century Qing dynasty wedding headdress, in silk, kingfisher feathers, copper alloy, turquoise, glass, and ceramic. Jeune marchand ambulant, oil on canvas by Alioune Diagne.

Books

Emma. Who among us has not been high on their own supply?

Running

Highlights of the week: Tuesday morning trailrun, and a Saturday morning long run to Shirley Chisholm State Park, and being the first one in when they unlocked the gates. :) (I wonder what it was like for long-time residents, seeing the old landfills changed to parkland.)

Around the Web

Does it matter if you don't like the characters?

"No matter how endangered the movies become, we still get to choose what moves and delights us. Why settle for less?"

"The stronger people’s political commitments, the less accurate their understanding of what the other side thinks. The politically disengaged have the most accurate picture of their fellow citizens’ views."

All US cities which used to have more than 100,000 people but don't anymore.

Music

All Bach, baby! A couple weeks ago I had a breakthrough with The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080. I wanted to seal that in, so that's pretty much all I listened to, a few different recordings:

• a piano version by Evgeni Koriolov, meditative bordering on ponderous, but you want to sit up and respect the listening a bit more than the others?
• a viol consort version by Fretwork, warm and reedy, "old-timey", modest.
• a harpsichord version by Davitt Moroney, more clinical but the percussive nature of the instrument keeps it interesting.
• a version by Emerson String Quartet, polished and lively and propulsive, maybe the friendliest version.

Also listened to a collection of Bach's Flute Sonatas with Basso Continuo, perf. Francesco Padovani, Roberto Loreggian, Francesco Galligioni. Really liked this album, especially the second-movement Allegro from the sonata in E major, BWV 1035 and the Adagio e piano third movement from the G major sonata, BWV 1039. The opening Andante from BWV 1033 draws you right in. Maybe the Andante from the E minor sonata, BWV 1034 takes the prize?

Movies

A Few Good Men. They don't make'em like they used to.

Hokum. Straightforward haunted house sort of thing told well.

TV

The X-Files, s6e18 "Milagro". John Hawkes!

The Expanse, s1e6–7.

Dark, s3e1–2. We're back, and I'm not sure when/where that is, exactly.

The weather lately – temps consistently over 90º, AQI at 150+ for several days – was really dragging me down. So much mental health and motivation comes from stable routines to click into, and a huge part of that is getting outside. When that's taken away, or just more annoying to do... things get tricky. But then Sunday morning was crisp and clear and all was right as rain.

Went to Lincoln Center to hear Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 and a couple other pieces. It's long been a favorite, but I'd never heard it live. So lovely to get a new angle on it – bass plucking I hadn't noticed, counterpoint in the woodwinds, and just to see the camaraderie among the violinists in the moment. Great experience.

After dilly-dallying for weeks on boring admin stuff, sometimes locking in on a good 3-hour block is better than a plan to chip away and make incremental progress. Better yet if you have a companion to lock in with you.

I think my art section below ↓ is one of my favorite weekly rituals. I should go to museums more often – the concert a couple days ago is a good reminder that "there's nothing like the real thing". But also: I'm always free to go looking for things that delight me. Glad I make time for it.

Art

Scholar's Books and Objects (Chaekkeori), nineteenth-century Korean four-panel screen in ink and color on paper. 'Contained' Crazy Quilt of printed cotton, circa 1880. Chinese Ascetic, 18th century Japanese sculpture in bronze. A Hand Holding Prawns, Indian watercolor on paper, ca. 1850–1900.

Books

Caliban's War. This is such a slippery franchise. I like how it operates on a solar system strategic level but so many characters I just can't get a hold on, or find annoying. Ditto some of the writing, where sometimes we get lovely allusions to a broader world you're allowed to dream up on your own, and sometimes themes and motivations are just right there in tedious move-the-chains dialogue. And yet... I'd be open to book 3 after a break. We'll see.

Emma. I've read the first few pages of this at least a dozen times. Always seems to come up when I'm on a hunt for a new book – maybe this one? – and feeling like now is the time.

Running

Smoke put me on the treadmill for the first time in a long time. Whatever it takes! Glad to be back out in the neighborhood, though.

Around the Web

A Magazine With One Subscriber. DIY periodical, what a neat idea.

"All adaptations are acceptable. The real question is simply: is it good on its own terms, in itself, as a movie, standalone?"

"An easy way to tell if you’re really trying is to ask yourself, 'How would someone who is actually determined to do this go about it?'' Right away, you know whether that’s you."

Where is downtown?.

American suburbs are better than you think.

When AI is a member of the family.

Why American ambulance rides are so expensive.

Music

Sophie Dervaux, La Folia Barockorchester, Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerti and Vivaldi: Bassoon Concerti II. These were nice. I wonder if I get more out of different recordings, as it's easy for bassoon to get a little buried in the mix.

Flying Lotus

• Ash (OST). Glitchy and queasy and ominous electronics, fit the movie very well. The opener, "Oxygene" is great, also like the breathing in "It's Out There".
• Los Angeles More of a beat-lounge sorta vibe. I like the all the hand percussion in "Melt!".

Max Bruch, Violin Concerto No. 1, perf. Itzhak Perlman, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra cond. Bernard Haitink.

Passepartout Duo, Pieces from Places.

John Tavener: Eternity's Sunrise, Academy of Ancient Music cond. Paul Goodwin.

Movies

Shelter. Statham is a man with a dark past he can't leave behind, etc.. I hope to move as well when I'm his age.

Cleaner. Daisy Ridley does compelling actionm, and the whole scene is a decent gimmick.

Babygirl. What an odd one! I felt impatient sometimes, and baffled throughout, but never bored. "When characters have metaphor-heavy jobs, you know there’s trouble in paradise."

TV

The X-Files, s6e17 "Trevor".

Couples Therapy, s5e7–9. Another solid season! Always good conversation material.

The Expanse, s1e5.

I've been thinking about a new role in my company. I never consciously declared "this is my path and my passion", but building up expertise over time, identity sort of forms itself. So it feels weird to even consider it, opening up deeper and longer-term questions than when I was first toying with the idea. We'll see!

A problem of affluence: muffins and cupcakes today are too tall. Food is better when you can get the full experience in one bite. Make them smaller!

Art

Three Houses, watercolor by Paul Klee. Couple drinking beer, inner tube floating party, Apple River, Somerset, WI, photo by Alfred Eisenstaedt. Tapestry: Greenery by John Henry Dearle. Heavy Metal Stack: Fat Cyan Three, sculpture by Angela Bulloch.

Books

Caliban's War. Going into the last quarter or so. I'll switch to something older next.

Running

Feeling summer's ticking clock. I need to reevaluate my running to-do list and make sure I'm prioritizing some of the more ambitious and novel ones in addition to routine maintenance.

Around the Web

"Every day is all there is."

How—and Why—to Cull Your Book Collection.

The rise of grocery tourism. "It’s anthropology with a basket."

On Japanese electric baths. I tried one of these on my first trip to Japan a long time ago, Yakuza guys laughing at us as we sizzled.

An audio journey on the Yamanote Line.

Abuse (I presume) of disability accommodations in elite higher ed kinda sickens me.

If you want to make money, be useful to rich people.

America's most prosperous neighborhoods are its newest.

Meet the next generation of New York City Skateboarding.

Does American have a fun shortage?

"I contend that the 21st century has seen a dramatic loss of information on screen, making for a less luxurious and less satisfying experience for the viewer, and trace how this loss was manufactured, department by department."

How to listen to a Tarantino movie.

Music

Spent a lot of time with these two Bach albums and I think I'm finally starting to piece them together a little bit.

• Bach - Busoni: Goldberg Variations & Other Works perf. Chiyan Wong.
• Bach: The Art of Fugue (1978–1981) perf. Grigory Sokolov.

Adrian Johnston, Primate OST. Electronic music for murderous chimps. Echoes of "Halloween", maybe. I like "The Pool" and "Run Hannah".

Songs of Passion, works from Henry Purcell and John Dowland, perf. Thomas Dunford, Lea Desandre, Ensemble Jupiter. Dowland's "Now, o Now, I Needs Must Part" is very nice.

François Couperin, Second Livre de Pièces de clavecin perf. Christophe Rousset. "Les Barricades Mystérieuses" is a banger. I hear it as one of those songs to play at a morning wedding during a hopeful walk down the aisle, quiet sobs as everyone overflows with joy and love. Many others to like on the album.

Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, Rosenkranzsonaten, C90–105, baroque violin works perf. Gunar Letzbor with Ars Antiqua Austria. It's good! Great companion when you say your morning rosary prayers.

Parle qui veut: Moralizing Songs of the Middle Ages perf. Sollazzo Ensemble dir. Anna Danilevskaia.

The latest from Four Tet aka ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ, and I will not bother to transcribe the album title, but will definitely listen to it more!

Movies

The Bourne Supremacy. The ending never gets old, but I think I've seen the movie too many times.

Apex. Going in, I was hoping more for battles with nature (like The Revenant, say), and less crazy villain, but still a good ride. Interesting to see the main character keeping her cool in situations where every single alarm bell is going off, a wary confidence. Charlize Theron is good for that.

The Greatest Showman. The music is overall not good, but also not for me. But also: sometimes the heartstring-plucking works, and I love the pace and choreography and melodrama. It's a fun watch. "When you're careless with other people, you bring ruin upon yourself."

Ash. Sturdy trippy paranoid spooky scifi. Perfect for a midnight screening.

TV

The X-Files, s6e16 "Alpha". "Scary dogs in the city", indeed.

The Expanse, s1e3–4.

Couples Therapy, s5e6.

What's happened lately... Had rainy date night in the city – starting very grumpy, but I came around – where the rained-delayed outdoor dance performance made a good excuse to pop into a library exhibition on Martha Graham. Took an online class. Spent a whole Sunday on my laptop on a project for work, and loved the happy buzz of relief when I got it all done and went to bed late. Got an idea on a lark and started (inaugural?) Meat Week™, eating a different animal every day, and finding a new encouragement to cook creatively instead of phoning it in. Found a good flow at work lately – maybe just more breathing room from a summer lull, but also bigger chunks of focused time. Made cyanotypes for the first time and loved the rush of ideas and excitement from new possibilities. Life is good.

Art

Untitled (Blue Plant Woman), crayon, colored pencil and pencil on paper by Nellie Mae Rowe. Untitled (Blue Man on Red Object), poster paint and pencil on cardboard by Bill Traylor. The Baptism of Jesus in wood and paint by Leroy Almon. Multiple Housetop quilt, artist once known.

Books

Caliban's War, cont.. Still enjoying it. It's my morning subway book and my nighttime before-bed book. I often end up re-reading a fair amount that I slept-read, but it's worth it.

Running

Struggling with the heat, but getting through it, sweating through it. An early Saturning on forested trails was the right move to avoid triple-digit meltdown.

Around the Web

Gotta teach the young about meanderware. The kids don't know what they missed.

The year is 2063 and you were never interesting.

Heretic, 1931 dance performance choreographed by Martha Graham. Modern dance is so old!

Optimism is the ultimate lifehack.

How did vehicles get so expensive?

How Europe became the world champion of heat deaths.

"Whatever listening plans you might have, you should always disrupt them.."

And in that spirit, The 40 Best Albums from the Last 40 Years That You Probably Didn't Hear (but Should've) should help. Time for some crate-digging.

Music

This week was back to Bach, though. 😈 Don't think I've ever listened to so much harpsichord in such a small period of time. Never had strong feelings either way, but the instrument is growing on me.

Bach: The 6 French Suites, perf. Francesco Tristano.

Italian Concerto, BWV 971; Toccata, BWV 911; Duets, BWV 802–805; English Suite, BWV811, perf. Angela Hewitt.

And several performed by harpsichordist Lillian Gordis...

• ...Plays Bach
• Bach: Partita No. 6, English Suite, and Preludes & Fugues
• Zones, Scarlatti recordings

Jean Rondeau, Thomas Dunford, Barricades, an interesting collection of harpsichord & lute duos, and some songs.

And also...

Marconi Union, Multiforms: Ambient Transmission, Vol. 3.

Boren & Der Club of Gore, Sunset Mission. Good one for when you pour yourself a drink and go out for a smoke on the fire escape on a hot summer night, and it's only getting hotter, and you're in black and white and are a scrappy private detective or something, as in "Prowler".

Jon Hopkins, Biggi Hilmars, Wilding OST.

Movies

Zootopia. Fun and funny. Maybe I should make more room for my life for animated movies.

Zootopia 2. Felt a little flat? Better in plot and theme, but not as funny as the first.

Another Round. Affirming and heartfelt. One of my favorite movies of 2023 when I first saw it. Still love it.

Primate. One of those horror movies where once you meet everyone you know exactly who is going to die and who will survive. It's fun!

Dante's Peak. The disaster epic is a comfort-food genre. You know they'll hit all the main beats. Ebert's review sums it up well.

Fast X. Jason Momoa brings a much-needed spark. Probably the most compelling villain in the franchise?

Undertone. Solid horror. I like movies where audio plays a big role: like the podcasting in Monolith, the helpline in The Listener, and radio show in The Vast of Night.

TV

The X-Files, s6e14 "Monday" and s6e15 "Arcadia". So good when they get in this silly register.

Couples Therapy, s5e4–5.

Big Little Lies, s2e4–7. Confession, repentance, inherited sin, false idols. Our characters have to transform their lives and reject their illusions before they can address the collective lie. Great show.

This week I had to adjust to getting back to work, and having opportunities fall in my lap. After my time away, definitely noticed myself just being nicer than I was before – saying hello, being more willing to detour into office patter, less rattled by distractions. I was riding on a vacation high... and then Friday I fell face-first into a rut. Too much time on the phone aimlessly scrolling, and envying, and doing nothing productive about it! One of those where I eventually could recognize the cycle but not quite recover from it right away. Decided to take the L and sleep it off. The next day brought the predicted rebound: a great run, a wonderfully community-oriented Saturday jaunt – glad I got to see the revival of the June Balloon festival – and all the good things.

Art

Gray and Gold, oil on canvas by John Rogers Cox. The Forest, painting on folding screen by Katayama Bokuyō. Carol, JoJo and Lisa hanging out on Mott Street, Little Italy, New York, photo by Susan Meiselas. Untitled (Rain), pastel on wove paper by Nam June Paik. Head of a Young Girl, terracotta sculpture by Henri Laurens.

Books

Caliban's War. I watched a good bit of The Expanse tv show, a while back, which made it easier to settle in here so long after reading Leviathan Wakes.

Running

More exploration in Canarsie this weekend, and a big jump in mileage. Feeling it, feeling glad I got out for a longer one even though much of it was a struggle.

Around the Web

You can't comb a hairy ball.

"Romance rewards transformation; horror punishes failure to transform."

My Experience as a Juror on a Cold Case Rape Trial. Interesting experience that we don't usually hear about.

Traveling from NYC to Boston on foot.

Sailing is a full-time job. "There is a saying in the sailing community 'cruising is doing boat repairs in exotic locations'."

Footage from the 2026 US Sumo Open and I guess at the end of the day they do random, mixed-weight match-ups?!

Took this for granted, but wonder how my experience of elementary/middle/high school would have been different if I could just call my friends directly:

Phones were attached to homes, not people, and to reach a friend you had to make a phone call to their house. More often than not, someone else answered the phone and you had to speak politely to that person before the phone was handed to your friend. Everyone who made phone calls in those days was formed by those conversations, by the need to be respectful to your friend’s family, by the understanding that your friends lived in their own family unit, that your call was noted by others, that you might not be assured of privacy.

The past is a foreign country, and I am more and more a emigrant!

LA Metro: Ambient, in the spirit of NYC train jazz.

Music

Paul McCartney, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Had a hunch it wasn't for me, was right, but no worries.

The lesson of this week: it pays to keep your ears open.

While touring some open studios in Greenpoint a while back, I spotted a couple LPs on a shelf:

• Alturas, a collab by Kawabata Makoto, Richard Pinhas, Manongo Mujica, Juan Luis Pereira, and Hiroshi Higashi. Trippy multi-instrumental/cross-genre stuff.
• Suso Saiz, Resonant Bodies, pleasant ambient.

My first time listening to Billie Eilish was this week via Hit Me Hard and Soft. Hearing "Birds of a Feather" in a restroom was the initial hook, had to go look it up later.

And from Labi Siffre, Crying Laughing Loving Lying. I first heard the title track during a taxi ride in LA last week. Love the open, jangly, stereo guitars.

Movies

The Ballad of Wallis Island. I loved this movie and expect it will be near the top of my favorites at the end of the year. Dances between silly and serious and bittersweet, and bitter, and sweet, and that's just life isn't it?

F9: The Fast Saga. These aren't getting better, so just get comfortable and let it wash over you.

Significant Other. Didn't know where it was going. That counts for something! A bit like Annihilation in that it all starts when something falls from the sky...

TV

The X-Files, s6e13 "Agua Mala". I love how this one escalates, just throwing it all into the pot and bringing it to a boil!

Big Little Lies, s2e2–3.

Couple Therapy, s5e3.

Back from a trip to the west coast. A week off came at a good time. Found myself becoming a keyboard warrior at work. I'm usually on the more diplomatic side of the spectrum, so when I'm coming in hot on a regular basis, good sign to step away. It helps to have good colleagues who can hear you grumble and rumble but refuse to feed your worst instincts.

The trip started with a wedding out in Pajaro Dunes, and then we were off to a few days of adventures in Santa Cruz (and a quick dip in San Francisco) and in Los Angeles.

The early early morning flight is always so brutal. I feel mounting dread the night before (though track: "I have a day off tomorrow! I should be able to stay up as late as I want!"), and regret the decision when I wake up... but then on landing with a full wide-open day to work with, it's all worth it.

One highlight of the trip for me was seeing some giant redwoods in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, first time in one of those big cathedral groves. A good nature fix at the Arboretum at UC Santa Cruz as well.

Another highlight was driving up Highway 1 and using Apple Maps and Google Maps at the same time, both shouting directions and talking over each other, no social graces. The chaos had me cackling. Also interesting to hear the differences in how much info they give ahead of time, and with how much precision, and the in-the-moment encouragement.

Netted seven museums on the trip. Easy winner, by a mile, was the new Geffen galleries at LACMA – beautiful space, lots of room on a sunny weekday to mosey and absorb. The Broad continues to underwhelm and MOCA is an unsung hero in DTLA. Cool exhibition for the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Central Library and riding the new D Line subway extension rounded things out. Maybe in future trips I should keep making time to revisit like I did on this one. It's cool to see a city change, to pile up new memories in a place you don't see that often.

For no particular reason, I put my phone's camera in black-and-white mode and left it there for the last week or so. Given how much photos can influence memories, I wonder how that will affect what I recall a decade from now. We'll see!

Art

Hit and Miss, quilt by Mary Lue Brown. Ginza, quilt by Yvonne Porcella. Things on the Wall, oil and magna on canvas by Roy Lichtenstein. F.P.I. 19, pen on folded paper by Dorothea Rockburne. Seek, Find; Knock Open, glass beads and cotton by Liza Lou. Susannah at the Bath, collage with paint, ink, and graphite on board by Romare Bearden. Standing Woman with Jar, slip-painted earthenware from unknown artists of the Jalisco cultures, 200 BCE–400 CE. La Gerbe, ceramic tile embedded in plaster by Henri Matisse. Path of Light, stoneware with inlays of colored clay by Miyashita Zenji.

Books

On the Calculation of Volume, Book IV. Finished this week. What a great series. It'll be a long wait until book five in November...

Don't Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again. All the condensed wisdom and encouragement we've come to know and love.

Running

Taking my running shoes on vacation is very good for me. Ran along a quiet beach all to myself, along a quiet river with ducks, and into dense shrubbery where coyotes gotta annoyed and yipped at me.

Around the Web

On launching a nonprofit. "While waiting on approvals, I was churning out ideas at a rate that became absolutely unmanageable, immediately."

"You must imagine yourself happy in any number of worlds. There is nothing 'higher status' than excelling joyfully at what you do."

Art for Our Sakes.

"The quality of this relationship between Present Self and Future Self shapes your whole life."

The western hemisphere produces more oil than than the middle east now.

Where are more people dying than being born?

Chinese immigrants overtake Dominicans as NYC's largest foreign-born group.

Public Transport Magazine.

Alternatives to free parking in NYC.

Current Rothko, weather-based art curation.

82-0 lets you try to draft an NBA roster that could go undefeated, each round limited to a specific team and decade. (Best I got on hidden-stats mode was lucking into a 65–17 roster with Walt Frazier, Tyrese Halliburton, KD, LeBron, and Anthony Davis.)

Music

Caroline Shaw, Andrew Yee, or, The Whale. An opening track where the lyrics are tree names, and a song about quilting and craft? Shaw keeps moving up my list of favorite musicians.

INRITUVM, Ex Nihilo Ad Nihilum. Metal, didn't click with me this week.

Boards of Canada, Inferno. I don't think I've ever listened to them before? Maybe heard some here and there, not sure. All that to say: I have no emotional tie to their reappearance, but glad I tapped in after hearing all the buzz. It's good!

Laurence Pike, Possible Utopias for Jazz Quintet. I like "Night Bird".

Vivaldi: 14 Concertos (for Mandolin, Flute, Trumpet, Violin, etc.) perf. New London Consort dir. Philip Pickett, and The Academy of Ancient Music dir. Christopher Hogwood. It delivers.

Britten: War Requiem perf. London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Choir of Eltham College cond. Gianandrea Noseda. Not for me!

Movies

Goodfellas. It has such fluidity, momentum, you just get carried along but ultimately I deeply hated all these miserably awful people and their terrible choices.

Bend It Like Beckham. I laughed, I cried, I had my heart warmed! Mission accomplished.

The Great Wall. Flame but no heat.

Ballerina. Slow to start, but gains momentum. At its best when it lightens up.

Influencer. Enjoyed this twisty little thriller. Villains and victims stumbling into different roles, swapping who's on the backfoot.

TV

The X-Files, s6e12 "One Son". Spender's redemption? Once again, Scully stays on track.

Big Little Lies, s2e1. Meryl Streep is gonna torment everyone and it's gonna be fun.

Hannibal, s3e12–13. And with that, the rewatch is finished. Glad I did. The first half of this season is a drag, but once we transition from the Vergers to the Great Red Dragon, things pick up again.

Couples Therapy, s5e2.

Said goodbye to friends and neighbors last week, as they prepped for a move across the country. What a weird feeling to look over your friends' house from a stoop sale perspective. Trying their life on for size.

This week I tried some basic plumbing tasks that started with excitement, entered into a flow state, detoured into quiet fury, to desperation, and quiet calm resignation to try again later. Fun to learn, though, and cool to be able to take pictures of random parts and get help on the internet.

Art

Breakfast Time, oil on canvas by Hana Pauli. Artisten, weaving by Sten Kauppi. There was something with the sky, batik, appliqué, embroidery by Ida-Lovisa Rudolfsson. A Diver, woodcut by Lars Eriksson. Thinking Through Clay I, stoneware by Mårten Medbo.

Books

Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors. Finished with this one. I like the mix of thematic interlude chapters that talk about "what this was like" along with straightforward "this happened then this happened" narrative history.

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. It reads quickly but didn't love it. But it didn't make me want to re-watch the movie, so that's a win.

And now to find the next one!

Running

Canarsie Park is very nice on a bright spring morning.

Around the Web

Dad books are a dying breed.

Larry McMurtry's home library.

The Mystery of the Backward Index. Clever and obvious, now that I know! (via)

A Great Day in Harlem.

Urban spelunking in Brooklyn Heights.

The Cherokee Bible.

"One of the lessons of the synthesizer is that the first generation often imitates. This is not a failure of imagination so much as a necessary stage of grief: mourning the loss of the old constraint."

Americans are leaving the US in record numbers.

Scammers use AI for empathy bait now. So gross. :(

Tracking a spouse succumbing to Alzheimer's. "It’s awful missing someone while they’re standing right there."

Music

Lots of electronic this week. Starting with two from Max Cooper, Feeling Is Structure and On Being. Harmonia, Musik von Harmonia. Roedelius, Selbstportrait I. Floating Points, Shadows. Ear, The Most Dear and the Future. Kangding Ray, Sirāt OST.

Bill Evans, You Must Believe in Spring was a lovely contrast to the rest.

Movies

Sirāt. Looooooved it. I wish I'd seen it in a theater. The sound and landscape overwhelm.

One Battle After Another. Great energy through the whole thing. I felt nothing but it's fun.

Annihilation. Scifi where the thread is more biology than technology, and truly alien. Third time I've seen it, never regretted. (first, second)

Brotherhood of the Wolf. Period horror with a swashbuckling wink. Why not?

In Cold Light. Second favorite of the week at after Sirāt. Neo noir in cowboy Canada, what's not to like?

TV

The X-Files, s6e11 "Two Fathers".

Hannibal, s3e11.

Couples Therapy, s5e1. Bracing for stress and catharsis.

According to my notes this week, I had a good idea for something to write here and I forgot it. "Jotting this in case it comes back...?" It did not. But for the record, it was "pretty good".

Holiday weekend, don't waste it!

Art

1/24/80 #2, color monoprint by Lynda Benglis. A 19th century grass basket from the Congo. A Lady, watercolor on ivory. Woman in flowered dress sitting with hands clasped in lap, platinum print of photograph by Herbert Greer French. 2,000 Turkeys, Albany, Ohio, gelatin silver print by Nancy Rexroth. Seminarians Playing Football, photo by Ramón Masats.

Books

As I wrap up Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors, I've been poking around for my next read. And striking out. Something will come along.

Total Recall by Piers Anthony. I had no idea this was a novelization. DNF, switched to watch the movie instead. Maybe I'll check out the original PKD story at some point.

The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Dangerous to spend too much time on the preface, foreword, translator's note, biography, introduction...

The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch. We'll see!

Running

Yesterday's long run wiped me out. But I think my fitness is finally back up where it was before I went to Japan and took a few weeks off. It's good when your ability can meet your desire.

Around the Web

"By 1872, a trade journal was running the first advertisements for books labeled specifically as "summer reading", a category that hadn't existed before."

"A perfect day is waking up knowing no one is mad at me. I'm not late on anything. I'm not procrastinating."

The Barbican Estate: What it's like to live in an architectural icon.

The hidden cassettes: Excerpts from calls my dad secretly recorded and Paul Brown's iPod.

Rediscovering the handcart. Beautiful website, too.

"Underneath the task of writing a particular piece is the general one of making a self who can make the work you are meant to."

"The right question is what habits of mind, what kinds of relationships, what capacity for judgment under uncertainty, what tolerance for slow understanding, will let a person remain economically and humanly viable across a working life in which the specific tasks they were trained for will be repeatedly absorbed into machines on a tempo no one can predict."

Quaker parents were ahead of their time. "Let your life speak."

We're still not done with Jesus.

What Wikipedia page was everyone looking at yesterday?

Enjoyed strolling the rooms in this gif gallery for a while.

Ideas for slash pages on your personal site.

Music

NFM Choir cond. Lionel Sow, Dialogue, featuring choral works by Penderecki, Daniel-Lesur, Marçot, Poulenc, Messiaen. Proud to have clocked Penderecki by ear on my first listen. Messiaen's "O sacrum convivium!" might be my favorite of the bunch.

The British Project, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra cond. Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla. "Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis" always hits.

Ellen Reid, Big Majestic. Great album. The title track has something of the Apollo: Atmospheres energy. "Alone on Mulholland", maybe dial this one up next time I'm in LA.

Angine de Poitrine, Vol. II. Erratic jazzy funky progressive rock stuff. Reminds me of Primus a little bit?

Tenebrio, Golden Boy, Miss Kittin, Rippin' Kittin.

Movies

Ideally movies do not look like the movies people watch in movies. Glad I've been choosing wisely of late.

Total Recall (1990). Good momentum throughout, and a good thinkpiece, too. I like when scifi futures so closely resemble our own world, just polished up a bit. Not everything ages well here but the practical effects still have visceral impact.

Too Late for Tears. Sturdy film noir. I love how our lead just instantly gets the greedy glimmer in her eyes – no mystery as to exactly when the trouble starts.

Married to the Mob. Loved this. So many oddball characters, "why not?" moments just to keep you on your toes. Movies don't feel weird like this anymore? Is it us?

Caddo Lake. Suspenseful and natureful science fiction, nicely done. I think one of the perks of an acting career would be picking up random skills like running a johnboat. Also, this movie helped me learn about the 160-mile long (!) Great Raft logjam that led to the lake's formation.

TV

The X-Files, s6e10 "Tithonus". So good! Appreciate the modern-day exploration of the new-to-me Greek myths. Top-tier acting. I like when Scully is uneasy and questioning, more engaging for me than Mulder's paranoid-obsessive questing.

Hannibal, s3e10.

Big Little Lies, s1e6–7. Great climax. I still wonder when the trivia part happens.

It can be very nice to have family nearby, whatever the occasion, however long or short.

Took my first trip to Cape Cod last week. It's pretty much exactly what I imagined: beautiful, pleasantly boring, charming. I took Amtrak there and remembered that I don't use it enough. It's so very nice to sit by the window with your book or laptop or whatever and just zip across the landscape with zero effort. If we ever leave the northeast, I'll miss the trains a lot.

I was in Cape Cod for a work retreat. The company I joined with 60-something teammates is now six or seven times as large. I am the grizzled veteran among a bunch of younger and newer hires. I hope I can be as chill and kind and wise and encouraging as the older colleagues that helped me find my feet earlier in my career. An enriching and exhausting experience, lucky to have it, hope we'll do it again.

Travel hack: a slice of pizza in plastic wrap packs easily, tastes great at all temps.

Art

The Barbed Noose with the Mice, watercolor and gouache on paper by Paul Klee. Victorian Interior I, oil on canvas by Horace Pippin. The Triumph of Fame, Netherlandish tapestry in wool and silk. Ear ornament with winged runner in gold, turquoise, sodalite and shell from the Moche cultures of Peru.

Books

Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors, continued...

Running

Trail runs in Cape Cod were nice, and simply having the time to run for longer in the mornings. When I'm packing I always resent the extra bulk from the running shoes and clothes, but always so glad to have it.

Around the Web

Clout as a service. Always a great time to stop following lifestyle influencers.

The internet has no benches. "Like guerrilla public improvement projects put benches in public spaces, repopulate foliage in neglected intersections, or transform dumping sites into neighborhood gathering spots, we can also retrofit and reshape our digital space."

"The truth is that I went to Singapore because of the playgrounds." and How Singapore builds playground culture.

Historic bird's-eye view drawings of New York City.

Heatmapping New York City travel times.

Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise.

Farmers and foragers.

The git commands I avoided for nine years.

Music

Tristan Perich, Ensemble 0, Open Symmetry. Three vibraphones, electronics, and 20 speakers. It's great.

Daniel Avery, Drone Logic. Trippy high-energy acid/house or whatever. Also great. "These Nights Never End" is instant stank-face. "Simulrec" covers the washy, flow-ier side of the spectrum.

Alexandra Nepomnyashchaya, J.S. Bach: Transformations. Bach! Harpsichord! I think I have a new perspective on the Adagio from the D minor concerto, BWV 974.

Movies

Dream Lover. Erotic thriller, femme fatale, etc.. It's fun, and I loved the weird dream-state interludes.

Absolutely Anything. Harmless little scifi comedy. It has its moments.

To Die For. Dark satire, femme fatale, etc.. If Elle from Legally Blonde had an evil streak. Like Dream Lover above, I appreciate proper opening credits!

Insidious. This did nothing for me! We all have different fears, I guess.

TV

The X-Files, s6e9 "S.R. 819". Love a Skinner episode. Nanobots, Mike Tyson references, and frickin' Krychek.

Hannibal, s3e9. "Even if you know the state of who you are today, you can't predict who you'll be tomorrow. You're defined up to now, not beyond."

Big Little Lies, s1e5.

Lord of the Flies (2026), s1e1. Refreshing to see a show with a distinctive look and feel, with the queasy fisheye and shallow focus distortion. I think the characterization in this episode is forcing our sympathies a bit, but I wonder if that will shift as the series goes on.

Hitting a patch of seasonal depression, I realized a few weeks late. Tally up the symptoms and recognize I've been through this before. Remembering when to ignore myself, to keep doing the good things that get me to the other side in one piece.

We took the train up to Greenwich, CT this weekend. Breakfast at Méli-Mélo hit the spot. The main destination was The Bruce Museum, which was more than I'd hoped, rewarded the visit. Greenwich the town was what I expected (suspected?). Not for me, and that's okay.

Art

Baigneuse (sur les galets), oil on canvas by Georges Braque. I've seen so much of the canonical Andy Warhol stuff that I tend to breeze right by it in museums, so seeing his hand-colored flowers was a breath of fresh air. Number 311D, wood, compressed cotton, and pulped paper on paper by Leonardo Drew. She Offered You a Garden, quilt by Sarah Nsikak.

Books

On the Calculation of Volume, Book III. Breezed through this one. Strangely plain yet mesmerizing like the previous two. Loving how each book takes a particular lens on the situation – seasons, relationships, responsibility to society.

Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors. Need to pick up again.

Running

A bit of active recovery and reset. More weights to shore up weaknesses revealed on previous harder runs.

Around the Web

To all my teachers, a beautiful collection of memories.

What have you tried? and Do ten times as much.

"The dailiness of it meant that I knew I’d do it again the next day, and it took pressure off whatever I was working on right then. Nothing was final. It was all part of an ongoing conversation and observation I was having with the woods."

Names that increased in popularity from 2024 to 2025.

In reading about the Celtic cultures and what led up to them, I learned about rare golden hats and the Ogham alphabet, which has a great look.

Let moms have Waymo. Reduced labor, increased safety. I'd guess there's a tradeoff with bonding/together-time, which I also guess would vary with age, but maybe the rewards come in other forms – rest, independence, etc..

Emotional regulation is a dying art and "The social return to a positive world view, and avoiding negative emotional contagion, never has been higher."

Maximizers and focusers.

Walter Tschinkel used molten aluminum to create 3D maps of ant colony architecture.

Spots, stripes and more: Working out the logic of animal patterns.

"Not only does walking speed typically decrease with age, greater levels of hearing loss are linked with slower walking speed for adults of all ages."

Music

From Brian Reitzell, the soundtracks for the Hannibal TV show...

• Season One, Vol. 1
• Season One, Vol. 2
• Season Two, Vol. 1
• Season Two, Vol. 2
• Season Three, Vol. 1, I think my favorite of the set.
• Season Three, Vol. 2

A couple more from Jon Hopkins (a bright spot in my 2025 listening)...

• Contact Note. I like how "Second Sense, starts with "Spem in alium", nice.
• Insides

Tristan Perich, Drift Multiply for 50 Violins and 50-channel 1-bit Electronics. I eat this up. Love how things disintegrate into static every now and then.

Movies

The Last Witch Hunter. I don't watch a lot of witchy/fantasy material. Really like how earthy and creepy the magic is here, the other-worldliness of the visuals.

Send Help. I think it dawdles a bit when it should race, but love a good villainous turn.

TV

The X-Files, s6e8 "The Rain King". Fun! Lighthearted matchmaking, sentimental Wizard of Oz vibes.

American Gladiators (1991), s3e26. I was obsessed with this show as a kid. Fun to rewatch. People were different in the '90s, and sportscasting has come a long way.

CSI: Miami, s5e6.

Had a bit of a minor reset this week: new glasses, new shirts, new pants on the way. Reinvention by acquisition!

I managed to unblock myself a bit at work recently. Brain feeling too bottled up, fragmented, sludgy. I think it happened because – I'm mildly ashamed to say – I made myself focus more and also let go of knowing about other things. Always pride myself on having my finger on the pulse but, if I get more of what I want done, it's probably worth learning about things a few hours later.

This morning I had the house to myself for a few hours. I didn't do anything that different. Coffee, chores, breakfast, music. But I felt myself expanding and unshriveling a bit, easing into a larger container. It makes a difference.

Art

Embroidered hanging of wool on linen depicting a pomegranate tree, roses and other flowers, foliage and birds by May Morris. A crib and another crib by Keith Haring. Tres figuras danzando, gouache on cardstock by Victor Brauner. Celebration of el dia de los muertos in Xalitla, Guerrero, acrylic painting by Cleofas Ramirez Celestino.

Books

Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors. I knew generally about all the viking incursions into England in the early middle ages, but don't think I appreciated the how deep and lasting the impact has been.

Running

Back into my rhythm for now. Took a while to get revved up again on my morning runs. Also pushed it a bit too much on the weekend long run after my down week last week, but no regrets, just a little creaky.

Around the Web

"There are a lot of instances on the internet where people are telling their story, but the audience is hearing a roadmap. And the gap between those two things is where the mud happens."

American mushroom farming is on the decline.

American fatherhood on the rise.

Are movies getting darker? and Why movies don't feel real anymore.

What goes into designing art exhibitions.

What makes art great?

Disappearing book reviews and disappearing paperback nonfiction.

Vacation brain.

Music

Several with James McVinnie on the organ...

• Bach, Clavier-Übung III. I love all the layers in "Jesus Christus, unser Heiland, der von uns den Zorn Gottes wandt", BWV 688, just incredible. (And I didn't know that Martin Luther wrote hymns!)
• Dreamcatcher. "The Unquestioned Answer" is a favorite here, shout-out Charles Ives.
• Samuel Sebastian Wesley: Organ Works

Kacey Musgraves, Middle of Nowhere. I think I'll say "Rhinestoned" is my favorite for now.

Movies

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. Deeply uncomfortably nihilistic and grisly, and then pleasantly unhinged. Iron Maiden! Fiennes is a gem.

The Town. Third time I've seen it (first, second). Noticing more slice-of-life Boston this time around.

Bone Lake. This was just okay. Props for at least one jaw-dropping moment I've never seen on film before. Learning that I prefer horror with more supernatural menace, and less of the sadistic/zany human sort.

TV

The X-Files, s6e7 "Terms of Endearment". Some episodes can be intense, but they don't usually get into material this dark/traumatic. Interesting!

Hannibal, s3e8.

Big Little Lies, s1e4.

Last week I traveled to the Bay Area, adding layers a place I know pretty well (4-5 trips?) but not deeply. Time in Palo Alto, and San Ramón, and Oakland, and SF. Managed to visit five museums visits and two public libraries while we were out there. Libraries in particular are a good way to get a sense of the community. (Oakland is not happy with ICE right now!)

I also got sick a few days after we arrived, and it all came crashing down. I was hoping to work from one of our SF offices, but ended up holed up in the hotel for several days, working from a blanket mere blocks away so as not to infect everyone.

Speaking of hotels, a soapbox: by and large, today's "nice" hotels have have overly-soft beds! It's one thing to have a squishy mattress, but then also the extra padded top, and then putting a padded bedsheet on top of that? People, come on. I'm over 40! I need more support! And then covering it with floofy down comforter? It's a recipe for overheating. Gotta rethink this whole thing from the ground up.

Art

Preserve Your Peace, acrylic on canvas over wood panel by Greg Ito. Foothill Cabin, oil on canvas by Pacita Abad. Where Dreams Flow, handmade pigments on linen by Rupy C. Tut. Coup de Chapeau II, painted and patinated bronze by Roy Lichtenstein. Textile Fresco, linen, silk, cotton, and synthetic fiber by Sheila Hicks

Books

The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom. Finished. Very detailed and meticulous. Gave me new appreciation for: how much cultural blending was taking place at the time and how big that world was, even though travel was atrocious; how much organization / bureaucracy there was even in the olden days... but also how power on paper ≠ power on the ground. Also fun: historians using basically meeting agendas/roll call to identify social climbers vs. who was falling out of favor among the elite. Interesting for the historical period, but also a good view into how history gets done. There is cleverness in every job done well.

Foundation: The History of England from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Tudors. Just begun. Seems like the breezy counterpart to the previous.

Running

Had a nice run in Palo Alto, but then too sick to do any others while I was in the Bay. Alas! Saw some new streets in East Flatbush on a long run this weekend.

Around the Web

"God created you with 3 Claude skill files and you're supposed to figure out when to call consequentialism, deontology, & virtue ethics. Make no mistakes".

Who shows at the Whitney Biennial. (Thanks, Jara.)

Jazz based on the flow of NYC subway cars.

A stroll through the Mall of America.

Eames kit house.

"When you decide what to consume, you ask: 'What do I want?'. When you decide what to produce, you ask: 'What do other people want me to do?'. The former is a lot more individuating than the latter."

The people do not yearn for automation.

Music

Kali Malone, The Sacrificial Code

Sam Gendel, Josiah Steinbrick, Mouthfeel / Serene

Tristan Perich, Infinity Gradient perf. James McVinnie.

Following on the promise of week 14... Mathieu David Gagnon, Flore Laurentienne, Volume III. I like "Navigation VII" and "(À travers les) Chablis"

Movies Ratatouille. It's fine? This might be a victim of hearing so many good things about it for so long before I got to it. Didn't land at all. Also too much swirly moving camera.

Frybread Face and Me. Some stilted acting but a good heart.

Love, Brooklyn. Maybe some home court bias, and I love pointing at the screen like Leo when I recognize local places, but I really liked it. Several views on several key relationships, and we get to see them sympathetically from each side. Benefits from the compression in a shorter film. "Don't say it." Bittersweet, hopeful. Andrê Holland reliable as always, but Nicole Beharie especially stood out. Perhaps pair with Past Lives?

X-Men: Days of Future Past. Better than expected! I like how we have several ~villains to work with here.

The Outfit. Still good but lost some of the zip the first time had. Narration like The Prestige now that I think of it.

TV

The X-Files, s6e6 "How the Ghost Stole Christmas". This was fun! I like this kinda silliness. Lean into the cliches and heightened storytelling and you get someting special.

Hannibal, s3e7. So glad the Verger arc is winding down.

Big Little Lies, s1e3.

CSI: Miami, s4e16.

I've gotten back into coding more recently. Well, vibe-coding. Maybe that's the right speed for me. I coooooooouuuuuuld learn more, and incrementally I do, sniffing around the edges. But lately a more mercenary approach from zero to one. Did some work to update a browser extension and other tools for work stuff, updating my white noise app from late last year, and moving this blog to 11ty for no particular reason. It's fun!

Last week I went to the A's–Yankees game. It felt weird being at that stadium, enemy territory for a kid who went through a period of staunch Braves loyalty. But a lovely night out. I think that's my fifth or sixth MLB stadium – two in Atlanta, Baltimore, Denver, and San Francisco, and a handful in the minor leagues.

I also went to the dentist. I miss my old one, even if she did try to sell me whitening treatments all the time. At least I could count on some gospel music.

Not much can top a sunny Sunday morning stroll in the city with a little coffee in your system.

Books

On the Calculation of Volume, Book II. Finished up. The container theory of time is right there out in the open huh. What about all the Roman stuff though?

The First King of England: Æthelstan and the Birth of a Kingdom So far, so good.

Running

More consistent than previous, and by Friday morning, I could feel it all adding up. Fun long run into new-to-me parts of Queens.

Around the Web

Portraits of father and sons holding hands. (via)

How 'Zombie Flow' Took Over Culture.

Touring the mannequin storage room at FIT.

A catalog of AI writing tropes.

I didn't know Café du Monde has been open since 1862.

A Bay Area travelogue.

Music

Julianna Barwick, Mary Lattimore, Tragic Magic. Including a cover from the Blade Runner soundtrack.

Jeremiah Chiu, Marta Sofia Honer, Recordings from the Åland Islands.

Blake Clawson, Renova New Music Ensemble, Aric Vyhmeister, Peyton Magalhaes, Myrkvun. There's a melody in "Haust" that I can't quite place. It sounds so similar to something, just can't put my finger on it. Maybe a tune from Holst, Grainger, Delius, Vaughan Williams?

Dianna Lopez, Earth Expressions. Nature + kora, guitar, etc.

Mozart: Piano Concertos No. 20 in D minor K.466 & No. 27 in B-flat Major, K.595 perf. Mitsuko Uchida with The Cleveland Orchestra.

Movies

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You. I like how reality bends and blends. Good to see Rose Byrne's comedic talent used for something much darker, but often still funny.

Boiling Point. Stressful little ensemble piece with a lot of empathy. Really growing to appreciate Stephen Graham.

TV

The X-Files, s6e5 "Dreamland II".

Hannibal, s3e6. The reunion scene! "If I saw you everyday, forever, Will, I would remember this time." The romance you don't want to see (but kinda do?).

Big Little Lies, s1e1–2. Let's see where this leads...

I went to the eye doctor and faced mortality. I don't right now, but someday in the next year or two or three, I will need bifocals.

Art
Wild Beast Wood, painting by Sidney Sime. Basketball (Convention Hall, Philadelphia), 1935 watercolor by Michael Leone. Monuments at G., gypsum and watercolor on canvas by Paul Klee. Moomin and the Mymble paint an Easter egg by Tove Jansson. Collages made from ecurity envelope patterns by Amber Williams (via, via).

Books
War and Peace. Done! Finished in a hot sprint before March came to a close. I think the latter parts of the book dragged. Much more focus on the warfront, troop movements, and theory-of-history essays. I was itching for closure on the characters we started the story with. I'd read it again, in abridged form.

On the Calculation of Volume, Book II.

Running
Dialing back just a tad on the mileage. First proper warm-ish run in the city this year on Saturday morning, t-shirt and shorts. It's going to take some adjustment.

Around the Web
Title Scream, graphics from 80s–90s videogames.

Akira Kurosawa's painted storyboards. And here are more side-by-side Kurosawa paintings and stills.

The visual language and fashion in Sailor Moon.

A family genealogy project turns into a personal encyclopedia.

Those frogs that hang out in trees and chirp are called pinkletinks in some regions, spring peepers in others. "Their Latin name, pseudacris crucifer, can reveal a lot, […]. Pseudo means false in Latin, and cris denotes cricket or locust."

The Ozempicization of the Economy and Body Futurism

Stop trying to make me buy a house.

"We are all made smaller by the pursuit of unproven and unprovable purity."

"Strong works of art exceed any single paraphrase of their meaning. They remain open enough to support serious disagreement."

Black Bart was a stagecoach robber with a grudge against Wells Fargo.

Music
Highlight from my listening week was an almost-trio of albums from Mathieu David Gagnon:

• Volume I. I love the toothy strings in "Fleuve I" and the way the anxiety ratchets up and up and up in "1991".
• Volume II. "Voiles" is a nice little romance and "Navigation IV" maybe even more so.
• Volume III (soon!)

Nilam, Ganavya. I like "Land".

Atabasca, Atabasca. It has some Hermanos Gutiérrez flavor, but a bit more variety in sonic palette.

Tomaga, Intimate Immensity.

Fazer, "Khanda".

Movies
Crime 101. Ah, such fun! Mashes up a bunch of things I love but a bit more than a simple reheat, pun intended. I love seeing Hemsworth so bottled up and socially awkward. I will watch again some day.

TV
The X-Files, s6e4 "Dreamland". Not sure these early-season two-parters work for me. I do like the switcheroo, though!

Hannibal, s3e5.

Some highs, some lows, forward we go.

Art
This weekend: various Keith Haring artworks at the Brant Foundation. Bank of the IJssel near Hattem, painting by Jan Voerman.

Books
War and Peace. 87% through. So close.

Around the Web
I should build a Superchair.

On expanding awareness around emotions.

For the love of God, learn to paragraph and Why LLMs are good editors but bad writers.

Music
Suzy Sheer, Euphoriphilia and The One. Echoes of Crystal Castles (compliment).

GoGo Penguin, Between Two Waves

Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin:

• Ghosted
• Ghosted II
• Ghosted III

Chris Abrahams, Oren Ambarchi, Robbie Avenaim, Placelessness.

Movies
The Naked Spur. Really liked this western, sort of a moving chamber piece. James Stewart as greedy bounty hunter, Robert Ryan's sly intellectual villain needling him along, like we later see in 3:10 to Yuma. Protagonist sort of crumbles rather than triumphs into a better state. We hope.

Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man. It doesn't work for me, but it's fine. I have no attachment to the TV show, so I'm not the audience anyway. At least I know what a toff is now.

TV
The X-Files, s6e3 "Triangle". The will-they-or-won't-they has been answered… sort of.

Hannibal, s3e3–4. Everyone using each other to sharpen their motivations.

DuckTales (1987), s1e1. "Uhhhh yes and no, Uncle Donald".

One of the highlights of the last week is "hobby night", where we took a couple hours just to scratch a creative itch. I pulled out my new loom and weaved a couple inches of progress. Then pulled out my old guitar, basically the first time in several years.

One thing that struck me was just more awareness of my body, in a different way than the everyday stuff I can do on auto-pilot – laptop work, cooking, running, chores. When weaving, so often something would feel difficult and I'd realize it's because my shoulders had gotten all scrunched up, or posture was wacky, or fingers too tense. (It also felt difficult because I'm new and bad at it.) Ditto when playing guitar. I know enough to get too far ahead of myself, so I had to stop, rewind, force myself back to basics: focus on simple finger placement, just enough tension, making clean transitions, staying relaxed, etc..

The creative outlet felt really good. Keep your hobbies available to you!

Books
War and Peace. Down to the last 30%.

Running
Trying to find my morning flow again. Still not adjusted to the time change, and it's been hard to get through everything efficiently. For the weekend long run, more exploration in Bushwick/Ridgewood.

Around the Web
A glimpse of my future, I hope: "Years may wrinkle skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul."

Middlemarch is a novel about sympathising with everyone and The Moral Beauty of Middlemarch. (Thanks James!)

The Best Guide to the AI Revolution May Be Victorian Fiction.

What do Americans consider immoral?

It seems that youth sports promote zero-sum thinking in parents.

"Humans tend to over-index on this presumed precision of language, as if it were like a laser pointer aimed at a Rembrandt. It’s more like lobbing water balloons at cave shadows."

American Diner Gothic.

Music
Ivo Jannsen, Mallet Collective Amsterdam, Canto Ostinato: Live at the Concertgebouw.

Oren Ambarchi, Shebang. The momentum in "III" makes me want to get stuff done.

Biosphere, The Way of Time. I like the bass pulsing in "Like the End of the World".

Little John, Sly & Robbie, Give Thanks and Praise.

Three works by Anton Bruckner, from Orchestre de la Suisse Romande cond. Marek Janowski. Bruckner remains an unsolved puzzle...

• Symphony No. 1 in C minor, WAB 101
• Symphony No. 2 in C minor, WAB 102
• Mass No. 3 in F minor, WAB 28. The fifth movement Benedictus may be the only thing that stuck with me.

Three from Scott Tennant and his classical guitar...

• The Segovia Sessions
• Mysterious Barricades
• Wild Mountain Thyme – Celtic Music for Guitar. When the title track came on I thought, "Hey I know that from somewhere…"

Movies
Best in Show. DNF. Couldn't hang with it. The quirky characters semd to trend in the same direction, maybe the tone flattening them. Too unmotivated to reel me in this time.

Sorry, Wrong Number. Loved this one! Suspense and intrigue, and an immobile protagonist like Rear Window a few years later. NYC movies hit different when you've lived here a while.

After Hours. Fun little film. Scorsese! A weird-as-dreams or sharper-than-life Oz-/Odyssey-like attempt to get back home over the course of a long night, thwarted again and again.

The Pelican Brief. Solid thriller. Roberts and Denzel just leap off the screen in ways that few others do.

TV
The X-Files, s6e2 "Drive". Really fun episode, great pace.

Hannibal, s3e1–2

Last week I went back home. Visited old friends, bopped around Atlanta, got my Waffle House fix, sat for an impromptu photoshoot, walked by a lake, walked in the woods, worked for a few days from my parents' house, ate too much, slept too late, went on gentle hikes, and explored some parts of the state I'd never been to before.

Hadn't had a proper museum visit this year, so we fixed that thrice over at the Museum of Papermaking at Georgia Tech, Emory's Carlos Museum, and the Etowah Archaeological Museum at Etowah Indian Mounds. Also paid a visit to the New Echota historic site. The mounds were the coolest of the set – just about every place on Earth has the echoes of a previous civilization…

Coming back home with a full heart, and very pleasantly tired.

Art
Seated male figure in basalt from the Cartago-La Cabaña cultures.

Books
War and Peace.

Running
Very glad I took my running shoes with me on my trip. Didn't run as much as I initially thought I would, but there's no outlet like it, and came back home in better shape than I usually do after week-long trips.

Around the Web
There is nothing about being a parent that isn’t a cliché.

Reviving Atlanta's south downtown neighborhood.

"You can’t have craft without being at peace with pride and embarrassment existing."

"Have Oscar voters’ tastes improved since I was a teenager, or have I become a boring, middle-aged establishmentarian who likes boring, competent movies?"

UTF-8, Explained Simply.

How to end your extremely-online era. "Most of a good life is simply refusing to do what is bad."

2026 is 20% complete.

Music
Catrin FInch, Seckou Kaita, SOAR. The kora is such a good instrument. "Listen to the Grass Grow".

Ishmael Ensemble, A State of Flow.

A few from Erik Hall…

• Simeon ten Holt's Canto Ostinato. Really sings in
  "Sections 31–40".
• Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. One of the best from one of the best.
• Solo Three

Movies
Peter Rabbit. Pleasantly charming, good for a couple laughs.

TV
The X-Files, s6e1 "The Beginning".

Dark, s2e4-8. Second season complete.

Pokémon: Indigo League, s1e2. The plot didn't do much for me but at least the theme song rips.

Last week was Sunday afternoon reggae into Sunday evening blizzard. It's nice to feel cozy inside while outside is chaos. But you have to take care to get back out again.

Last year I went to a weaving workshop. This year I got a loom. Just a small one to scratch the itch. Now the question is figuring out where this thing fits in my life. I feel like it'll be a great evening time-passer.

My latest lifehack – from lazy accident – is doing (some of) my chores on weekdays. It's a great way to wind down productively – engaged, but not stressed – and helps the weekends feel more spacious.

Art
Far Echo, Red Rock Variation: Lake Superior Landscape, acrylic on canvas on board by George Morrison. There's some really, really cool stuff in the QuiltCon 2026 Winners Gallery.

Books
War and Peace.

Running
I've now run every street in Red Hook. ✔️

Around the Web
Redefining makeovers.

"Phoniness wasn’t a sign I was fundamentally, intrinsically unworthy of my aspirations. Phoniness was, in fact, an essential part of any aspirational project."

How to get into something new.

How to make use of books you don't read. "You do not always know where to find what you are looking for."

Research as leisure activity.

A British explorer’s quest to reach all the middles of nowhere.

The nine lives of the Franklin Avenue Shuttle.

Saturday Storm, poem by Phyllis McGinley.

I love the format for Jennifer Mills' weekly updates.

Why Are So Many Teen Girls Still Tearing Their A.C.L.s?

"At this point, how many more leggings can we buy?"

Music
Listened to a few from Sly & Robbie, after learning of Sly Dunbar's death. It all sort of blurs together for me, but it's a good vibe.

• Hordcore Dub
• The Unmetered Taxi
• Crucial Reggae
• Raiders of the Lost Dub
• The Sting

Biosphere, Shenzhou. Good one! Moody and floaty and slow. Listen: "Ancient Campfire" and "Houses on the Hill".

Terry Riley, A Rainbow in Curved Air. A certified classic, and a great companion to…

Laurie Spiegel, The Expanding Universe.

The Tallis Scholars, Renaissance Radio. Solid compilation. "If Ye Love Me".

Elori Saxi, Henry Solomon, Seeing Is Forgetting. Electronics + sax/woodwinds. "Reno Silver".

Apparat, The Devil's Walk. "Goodbye".

Jamie xx, In Waves.

Absolutely, Cerebrum.

Movies
Ghostwatch. Maybe a progenitor of the found footage horror genre. Interesting more for historical reasons. Maybe would have landed more if I'd watched it at nighttime!

Juror No. 2. This one had been lingering on my watchlist forever. Glad I made time for it. Need to keep going with legal thrillers.

TV
Dark, s2e1–3.

CSI: Miami, s4e23.

It's amazing how much difference a solid chunk of time can make. A couple days I had frustratingly chopped up calendar – doctor appointment, mid-day transit, meetings on and off every 30 minutes. And on another day: early morning, empty office, nothing on the calendar 'til after lunch. Blank slate for complete thoughts.

Each draining in their own way. Last week I found myself returning home completely flatlined. Enough energy to get out a few sentences but after that: …………. What a weird feeling.

It's now the Year of the Fire Horse. Fun to read up on my own year's animal and element. It's not for me, but like horoscopes or fortune-telling or other divination, it still scratches that itch where it's inherently compelling to recognize yourself in a description.

We're set for another blizzard in a few hours, and I find myself wishing for a good ol' fashioned snow day.

A great Saturday morning: coffee, pastry, and a date at the library.

Art
Fish and Mushrooms, woodcut on paper by Luigi Rist. Oiwa (Oiwa-san), from the series "One Hundred Ghost Tales (Hyaku monogatari)", color woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai – "The title refers to a game in which people would gather at night to tell scary stories, putting out a candle after each tale until the room was completely dark." Large Mowing Machine with Horses, oil on canvas by Jacques Villon. Avatar Reef Teapot, semi porcelain by Delfina Emmanuel. Monkeys on a Fruit Tree, ink and colors on silk hanging scroll by Mori Sosen.

Books
War and Peace. You spend 1000 pages with fictional characters and then Napoleon bursts into the room.

Running
Settling in nicely, somehow my biggest weekly mileage since September. Reminding myself that the short little runs as a daily dose still have huge positive spillover into the rest of my days. Note-to-self, treat exercise like brushing your teeth.

Around the Web
Don't Call It Art!. Pre-ordered! Get on board.

"The other notion of playfulness that I find really useful is from Maria Lugones, the great feminist philosopher, in this beautiful paper called 'Playfulness, World-Traveling, and the Loving Gaze.' She says that playfulness is the ability to move lightly between worlds."

"It's not so much that we need to teach them these things, as much as we need to encourage them to keep believing these things."

Resilient Children, Struggling Parents: Mapping American Parenting. "Using a composite score that measures the extent to which children have independent, playful, socially-diverse, and technology-lite childhoods, we find that kids in the Great Plains, Mountain states, and New England have the highest scores, while a cluster of states around Southern Appalachia are where children have the least independent, least socially-diverse, most technologically-dependent childhoods."

"But needing and being needed—the bottomless empathy and vulnerability they require—are exquisite not because the feeling of love is so special but because the person you love is, to you."

"Science fiction is often called upon to cast a line into the future to plumb the possible consequences of our modern ironies."

"When I’m on set or thinking about a story, making sure that the audience is engaged and that I’m also excited, I have to fight through the sensation of, 'Oh my god, another fucking over-the-shoulder shot.' I have to push through that and go, 'You’re building a sentence. Getting upset when you have to shoot an over-the-shoulder shot is like getting upset at using the word ‘and’ or ‘the’ in a sentence. It has to be done. It’s part of the grammar.'"

A color memory game. I got 44.07/50 on first and only attempt, happy with that. (via)

Women's clothing sizes are a mess.

The Taxonomy of Merch. "Why does wearing merch in real time, in the place it belongs to, feel so icky?" (via)

Cut Gems. The art of retouching photographs of museum gem collections.

I turned my website into my feed reader. Very cool idea. 🤔

The argument for free buses.

"The 'America is behind Europe on trains' narrative compares visibly mediocre service for passengers but ignores invisibly great service for cargo. Instead of asking why America lags Europe on passenger rail, we should be asking ourselves whether America can have better passenger rail and whether it should want to."

Music
A few more from Weval this week (I really enjoyed their self-titled a few weeks ago) a few weeks ago…

• The Weight. Favorite tracks are "The Weight" and "Someday".
• Remember. "Everything Went Well" is a little Washed Out-y, in a good way.
• Chorophobia. I like "Better", especially the bassline.

Monteverdi, Madrigali e lamenti; Madrigali Guerrieri et Amorosi.

Eric Whitacre, Light & Gold. Some really nice choral music. I remember playing one of his pieces back in college (which I did not like very much).

Various Artists, WaJazz: Japanese Jazz Spectacle Vol. I and Vol. II. "Summer Wind" is cool.

Movies
The Rainmaker. Apparently I've seen this before but I didn't remember a thing. Not bad, but not sure it will stick.

Sisu. Second viewing (the first). Holds up! Great warm-up to double-feature with the new sequel…

Sisu: Road to Revenge. Buster Keaton x Fury Road. So fun. For me, the best chases involve some degree of watching and waiting and sneaking around. This delivers.

TV
Dark, s1e7–10. The story has been scifi for a while, but this is the first time we the mechanics rendered on-screen. Loses a bit of mystery and magic that way, and maybe some of the weight?

I love surfing the web. On a long holiday weekend, a perfect way to slosh around and almost-but-not-quite totally waste a few hours. Over the last couple weeks, I've seen more and more posts referencing nostalgia for the Old Web™. If you're over 30 years old, you have a better sense of it. Before the big social platforms, when all the sites were personal or academic, or even the corporate ones that were moderately inept (like the rest of us) and/or experimental. Such a great feeling then, when you caught a good wave. Slipping into the flow and hopping from site to site, finding all the warp portals between the good spaces where you see the best of our collective weirdness. Captured that again for a little while today.

Books
War and Peace. Almost halfway! Some of these people are super messy.

Running
Trying to find a rhythm again.

Around the Web
Why holidays are on Mondays!

"Here’s an idea: Appoint yourself the weekly columnist of whatever your subject is." And the self-appointed artist residency.

"The meta-skill is this: learning to spot what becomes possible when a constraint disappears."

The Origins of One of the Most Beloved Video Games of All Time.

A game(?) that rewards patience.

A Year in Drawings.

Searching for Birds.

Where do parents find the time?. Basically, less sleep and less screen time.

Parents and affordability in New York City.

The World Is Forever Ending.

Music
Choir of New College, Oxford dir. Robert Quinney, Like as the Hart: Music for The Templar's Garden. What a great, great album, all choral interpretations of Psalm 42. Came across it when looking for recordings of Palestrina's "Sicut cervus", itself beautifully done. The real show-stopper for me is Buxtehude's. "Quemadmodum desiederat cervus", BuxWV92. I keep coming back over and over.

Ninajirachi, I Love My Computer.

A couple from Yosi Horikawa, good electronic stuff often with nature sounds, city sounds, field recordings. On Spaces, I like "Crossing". And on Impulse. "Soil" is the winner.

El Jazaah, El Jazaah.

Sabri Brothers, Ya Habib.

Movies
The X-Files. The "will they or won't they" is so agonizing and fun.

Runaway Jury. Legal thriller is an under-rated genre. Seems like we're just not making them as much?

TV
The X-Files, s5e19 "Folie a Deux" and s5e20 "The End". Weird season, on to number six.

Dark, s1e6.