Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.
Friday Inspiration 452
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This is from 2015,but as a fan of old sports photos, I was definitely interested in why they all (at least the indoor ones of basketball and boxing) had a bluish haze, and photos taken nowadays don’t have the same haze. I laughed when I found out it basically has nothing to do with photography. (via Kottke.org)
Someone in the comments of this post on the Things Cut In Half Porn subreddit reminded me that I saw so many illustrations like this when I was growing up (and wow did I love them), but it seems like it’s kind of a thing we don’t do anymore. But I wish we would.
I love Marty Brodsky’s Substack, and when I saw the headline of this post, “Hitting the Doomsday Prepper Convention,” I knew he would write something interesting about it, while still holding on to empathy, and give me something to think about.
My friend Kevin sent me a copy of Delinquents and Other Escape Attempts by Nick Rees Gardner, the latest book he edited and published through Madrona Books, and I am happy to say I really enjoyed it. It’s a collection of linked short stories around addiction and recovery, and the easiest comparison is Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, another book of short stories with a substance misuse theme (and also set in the Midwest). People say short story collections are a tough sell, but I’m a sucker for them, especially when they work well together. It's not in the public library but you can buy copies here (and your local indie bookstore can order it too):
Amazon | Bookshop | Barnes & Noble
A few weeks ago at The Rut Mountain Runs, I delivered the presentation I made for my Ultra-Something book tour for the last time (I’m pretty sure). I did shows in DC, Chicago, Boulder, Seattle, and Portland, in April and May, and afterward, I recorded a video version of the presentation (titled “30 Questions You May (Or May Not) Have About Ultrarunning”) for Patreon supporters who couldn’t make it to one of those five cities. I just made it public on YouTube this week, sort of as an afterthought, but it seems like it’s getting a lot of views and interaction, so if you’d like to watch it, here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyT8wkbMbLE
This is maybe a little more cynical than the usual stuff I put in this newsletter, and I kind of considered not including it, but then I laughed so hard at it, I felt like I should keep it.
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Semi-Rad
Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.
Friday Inspiration 509 I think I was vaguely aware of Track Star before my friend Pitt sent me this video, in which Jack Coyne plays songs for MC Serch to quiz Serch on his hip-hop knowledge—but I hadn’t ever watched one. Now I’ve watched a few of them, but I think this one is still my favorite because of the enthusiasm Serch still has for the music and the culture. (video) This is a great story about making time to write, and sometimes making desks to write on, and also about stealing—well,...
Friday Inspiration 508 May your inner physics nerd (and chemistry nerd, too) keep you sucked into watching this entire video from 1987, which just keeps going and going, even though at times it looks like the chain reaction is millimeters away from being upset, and maybe that’s why it’s so compelling. (video) (thanks, Eric) A hundred years from now, when historians are looking back at the communication styles we developed in the first couple decades of social media, I really hope they are...
When You Can Walk Anywhere You Want I don't often re-publish stories I've written, but I remembered this one this past week when I was tagging along on a rock climbing trip in the desert with my mom and her friends. I think this essay, back when I wrote it in 2013, was a sort of expression of gratitude through a story about my grandma (my mom's mom), who was in the last 14 months of her life at the time I published it. I hope it still resonates. -- I flew to Iowa to visit my grandmother in...