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 465 I just love Global Cycling Network videos—they do some serious stuff, sure, but mostly they seem to be sitting around throwing out ridiculous ideas to each other, and then filming them. (video) A quick note from me: I'm excited to share that Precision Fuel and Hydration is sponsoring this newsletter starting this week. It's a genuinely authentic partnership since I've been using PFH chews, gels, and electrolyte mix since May 2024, and I've been drawing illustrations for...
Friday Inspiration 464 I’m just going to preface this by saying you might not be the type of person who wants to deeply nerd out about wildlife crossings, but if you are, you will enjoy this, and perhaps even moreso enjoy this line: “I love a good federal highway administration handbook” (video) NEW YEAR, SAME DISCOUNT: Given that a lot of people like to use the beginning of the new year to try something new, we've decided to keep the $50/20 percent discount going on my How To Tell One Story...
Recommendation: Make Your Own 'Best Of 2024' List On my year-end list of “Best Meals of 2024”: a steel mug of maple-walnut instant oatmeal with a glob of peanut butter melted into it, eaten at a picnic table next to a not-quite-two-year-old kid eating his own bowl of oatmeal, next to his mother (also, of course, eating oatmeal). The campsite was nothing spectacular, really, just the first one we found open that May afternoon, but it was important: It was Jay’s first camping trip. He survived,...