Writer, artist, filmmaker, columnist for Outside Magazine. My newsletter about creativity, adventure, and enthusiasm goes out to 15,000+ subscribers every week.
Friday Inspiration 460
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NEWS FROM ME: In response to several requests about my How To Tell One Story online writing course, we’ve added the ability to give it to someone as a gift. If you purchase it as a gift, you’ll enter the recipient’s first name and email address, and the date you’d like the course to start for them (i.e. January 2nd). If that sounds like a good fit for someone on your list, here’s the link to buy it as a gift. [All the information about the course is on this page]
There are a bunch of links to shirts and books and stuff at the bottom of this email, but I wanted to mention that I’m once again doing my Grand Canyon Groovers calendar and the Semi-Rad Dog Calendar.
Since it’s the time of year when [some] people listen to the full 18-minute version of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”: I didn’t know a) that Alice’s Restaurant was based on a real place b) the lady who owned it was named Alice in real life and c) that she and Arlo Guthrie stayed in touch up until her death last week (via Kottke.org)
This is some next, next, next-level dedication to mapping, running, Strava, and … just wow. (Thanks, Adam)
You might be familiar with New York Times writer John Branch through his work covering the first ascent of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan a few years back. He of course writes about all sorts of things, and this recent piece is tough but incredible: He tracks down the young women he wrote about in 2012—players from a winless basketball team on a court-run day high school for girls in trouble in West Tennessee—to see how they’re doing now. It's not exactly a Hallmark movie, but it's real.
[GIFT LINK]
I found this new-to-me Substack post, “Home is a Cup of Tea,” through Jillian Hess’s Substack, Noted, which is about notes and notebooks, and she called it “magical,” and I am not inclined to disagree, especially as a fan of illustrated essays.
This is kind of a long read about community, and why it gives Charlie Jane Anders hope, but I have to recommend it based on the strength of this, my favorite line: “And yeah, I prefer a future where everybody has good ideas to one where all the ideas are handed down from one fancy bitch."
I would not have said I was in the market for a live cover of Somewhere Over the Rainbow, but YouTube fed me this,and I am not mad about it. Not mad at all.
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FINALLY:
SOME MATERIAL GOODS THAT MAY BE SUITABLE GIFTS FOR PEOPLE ON YOUR LIST:
My Grand Canyon Groovers Calendar is back for another year!
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(and so is the Semi-Rad Dog Calendar, thanks to JT messaging me about it)
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Signed copies of a bunch of my books are available here
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The Practice Maximum Enthusiasm Hoody:
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The "Anything Can Be A Taco" t-shirt:
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The Grand Canyon Subway Map Poster:
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The "This Fucking Sucks" Mug:
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Put In The Miles To Put In The Miles T-shirt:
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Practice Maximum Enthusiasm T-shirt:
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I Hate (Love) Running T-shirt:
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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 467 When The Secret Life of Walter Mitty came out in 2013, I loved it, and I remember for some reason looking up the New York Times review of the movie, which was not so positive, and I thought, “I am not going to let that affect my enjoyment of the movie as I rewatch it for the next decade-plus.” So when I saw the title of this short YouTube film, “when film critics clearly just do not get the movie,” and the thumbnail was a shot from Walter Mitty, I had to watch it, with...
Friday Inspiration 466 Honestly, it’s very hard for me to not share an episode of Hot Ones in this space whenever I find one I like (which is quite often). But I’m sharing this, which is not a full episode, but a 5-minute compilation of 2024 guests’ reactions to Da Bomb, the most vile of all the hot sauces ever used on the show. I actually laughed out loud when Sean asked Lupita Nyong'o the question about … you know, I won’t spoil it for anyone. (video) I have been very interested in the idea...
Here's A Nice Thing: Weekday Biophilia It seems like it always happens at the worst spot, but luckily, not this time: I was running, outside, and I needed a place to hide for about 90 seconds. The situation wasn’t desperate, but it was going to be desperate soon. I was on a multi-use path that paralleled a two-lane highway, not that busy, but busy enough. Luckily, I found a small bridge over a drainage, providing just enough cover for me to do my thing, and be thankful this hadn’t happened in...