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​Friday Inspiration 562​

I saw the title of this film and was kind of waiting for something to happen, and then I realized it was just a really nice, brief collection of scenes from New York, which was kind of better, I think (video)

I am not sure how resonant these sentiments will be, but I’ve had this feeling for the past year or so of needing to protect, or maybe just preserve, some of the things that make me human—the friction, the inefficiencies, the ignoring of the voice in my head asking “is this the best use of your time?” So I made these mugs and this t-shirt. The “Resist Optimization” design I wrote using Jay’s crayons, writing it over and over until I had one I liked, and the other design I drew on my iPad. I thought they might capture a feeling other folks were having too. All three are available at this link (you can also click on the photo).

My friend Nick Triolo told me he walked into Bernice’s Bakery in Missoula a couple years ago on November 11th and saw several people reading Kurt Vonnegut books, and he realized it was Kurt Vonnegut’s birthday. So he went to Bernice’s last year, got a coffee, and read some Vonnegut, and invited a couple friends to join him this year. I went, and it was lovely, and I’m sharing this because if you happen to be a Vonnegut fan, maybe it’s something you’d like to do too, wherever you live, next year. And because Nick wrote this wonderful piece about it, including five Vonnegut quotes.

Hilary sent me this piece called "Everybody's a critic, but is anyone having fun?"a couple weeks ago and it got buried in my inbox until this week, and I’m so glad I finally read it, because it captures a feeling I’ve had but have never addressed—the tendency we have to feel like we need to criticize art instead of just enjoying it. Including this part: “On the other hand, enthusiasm requires vulnerability. When you admit you like something, you’re revealing a genuine interest. As a result, dismissing something (rather than wholeheartedly embracing it) can feel safer than admitting how much you enjoyed it.”

Sometimes you just need to read a 37-part live microblogging account of the search for someone’s daughter’s geriatric hamster, Sunny.​

Marty Brodsky (whose writing I have mentioned here before many times) is doing this super-fun thing: He’s reading his novel, Gold Forgets the Mountain, in short sections, on Substack (with video), and on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. They’re mostly between six and nine minutes (except the most recent one, which is 13 minutes), and essentially a free audiobook, in installments. You can start with the first section here.

My pal Matt Medendorp asked if I would contribute to a Huckberry feature called “30 Ways to Get Off and Stay Off Your Phone,” and I of course jumped at the opportunity to share my love/obsession with pocket notebooks, which I aspire to fill with poetry, but end up using for much less lofty stuff—but that still enable me to do something other than look at my phone. Lots of other good ideas in here too.

Do you work in Microsoft Excel? Wanna see a 76-second animated film someone made IN EXCEL?Yes you do. What’s really great is that Maria Tomazou is an animation director.

In 562 installments of this newsletter spanning more than a decade, this is the first time I’ve ever done this: My friend Mark’s son, Miles, is graduating from college in December with a degree in software development and he's looking for his first software engineering job or internship. If you are someone who works in those fields or know someone who works in those fields, you can check out Miles’ portfolio here. (Also relevant: Miles worked full-time through school because he didn’t want to rely on his parents)

And: If you missed it in yesterday’s email, Nick Triolo and I decided to try to run a mountain 50K with only one apple fritter apiece for fuel (and we got Andy Blow from Precision Fuel & Hydration to tell us why it was not a good idea):

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Books I’m Currently Reading:

• ​What If We Get It Right? Visions of Climate Futures by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

I heard about this book earlier this year but hadn't ordered it until recently, and I'm only through the introduction so far, a but I'm optimistic that it's going to be as good as people say it is (Smithsonian Best Book of the Year, NYTimes Bestseller, etc.) Author Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist, co-founder of the Urban Ocean Lab, and podcaster, who curated this collection of essays, interviews, poetry, and art, which I'm hopeful about.

• ​Bottom of the 33rd: Hope, Redemption, and Baseball's Longest Game by Dan Barry

I don't remember where I heard about this book, or where I bought it, but I do know I have a paperback copy of it, and I'm into it so far: A 1981 minor league baseball game that went into the wee hours of the morning, and that included future MLB superstars Wade Boggs and Cal Ripken Jr.

• ​Ninth Street Women: Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning, Grace Hartigan, Joan Mitchell, and Helen Frankenthaler: Five Painters and the Movement That Changed Modern Art by Mary Gabriel

Hilary was reading this for months and absolutely gushing over it, and there’s only so much you can hear about one book before you just say “I’ll go ahead and borrow that whenever you’re finished.” And I am happy to say it’s as good as she said it was (although I would be terrified of taking on the challenge of writing about five different [famous] artists all in the same book like Mary Gabriel did).

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