Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.
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Thanks to everyone who completed last week’s survey! I ended up with way more responses than I thought I’d get (1400+), and I’m slowly making my way through your comments and suggestions. A few people were interested in the survey results, so here are some of them:
Ok then:
If you enjoyed Ryan Gosling’s performance of “I’m Just Ken” at the Oscars, you will probably also enjoy this very detailed breakdown of why it was so well-done, right down to Ryan Gosling worrying about the camera operator being OK with having his hand kissed.
I don’t know how old this kid is, but I agree with everything he says in this passionate endorsement of reading, and I think I can say this whole performance is objectively cute, and if you don’t agree, then I’m very sorry.
I have not quite yet pulled the trigger on buying Kevin Kelly’s book Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier, but I think this excerpt Jason Kottke shared, which he titled “Don’t Be the Best. Be the Only,” is probably going to push me over the edge.
In my never-ending search for “music to sort of listen to while working,” I have started to get really into DJ sets, which are often actual live videos of DJs in clubs or lounges. I rarely ever watch more than a few seconds of the video (because I’m busy in the 37 other browser tabs I have open, just like you!), but I think it makes the music a little more endearing? Anyway, here’s one I’ve been looping this week: Jazzy House Session By ROSSA at Lounge Bar in Paris
There’s this subreddit called “Contagious Laughter,” and it’s often quite funny, but I think this is actually one of the funniest clips I’ve ever seen on it—I don’t even know what these guys set out to do, and I am not sure they did either, but it just keeps escalating.
You know you hit it out of the park when you call your podcast “60 Songs That Explain the 90s” and then you have to extend it to 90 songs, and then 120 songs. I would call myself a huge fan of Rob Harvila and his podcast, and I could not be happier for him, and I also could not be happier for the rest of us, now that The Ringer put all 120 episodes on this page, organized by genre.
So the Onion is satire, but some of my favorite Onion articles/headlines of all time are the ones that are actually true—like “Ice Cream Eaten to Quench Thirst.” And this one also feels very true, although I’m a little self-conscious about saying that.
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Brendan Leonard
Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.
Friday Inspiration 430 One final book tour update: I'll be in Washington DC (May 6th) and Chicago (May 8th) next week! If you haven't RSVPed yet, the links are below. The DC event has a waitlist, but if you'd like to come, just sign up for the waitlist and show up to the event—we'll get you in no matter what. Also: The Chicago event still hasn't filled up as of Thursday, so I guess we have plenty of room (and plenty of books, unless someone buys like 15 copies). See you there! Washington DC...
Friday Inspiration 429 If you live in Washington DC or Chicago:I will be in your city May 6 (DC) or May 8 (Chicago) delivering a goofy presentation called “30 Questions You May Or May Not Have About Ultrarunning” at your local Arcteryx store. It’s based on my new book, which is only for sale at these events until May 23. I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, but the events we’ve done in Seattle, Portland, and Boulder have all been standing room only and not a single attendee has thrown a...
Moby-Dick Is My Literary Ultramarathon The evening of September 4th, 2013, freshly zipped into my sleeping bag next to my friend Jim, inside a lightweight backpacking tent near the ridge of the north end of the Sangre de Cristo range in southern Colorado, I opened a copy of Moby-Dick, Bantam Classic edition. I read the opening line, one of the most famous in the history of western literature: “Call me Ishmael.” Then I read maybe five pages before I clicked off my headlamp and went to sleep. I...