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10 things worth sharing this week
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Here are the 10 things I wanted to share this week:
“When you read children’s books, you are given the space to read again as a child: to find your way back, back to the time when new discoveries came daily and when the world was colossal, before your imagination was trimmed and neatened, as if it were an optional extra.” As my kids get older, their reading is becoming more private and self-guided, so I need encouragement to keep visiting the children’s section at the library. I found the perfect little book to get me back in the spirit: Katherine Rundell’s Why You Should Read Children's Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. (Discovered via my friend Mark Larson, who also linked to Rundell’s excellent appearance on the podcast Conversations With Tyler.)
After sharing my new hobby of making old-fashioned mixtapes, I’ve spent the week listening to all the mixes you sent me in the comments. (Please send me more! I love them.) My 11-year-old has even caught the bug: We listen to a weekly radio show here in Austin called The Joystick Jukebox, and I suggested he make his own playlist of video game music. Sending each other songs we love is such a fun way for us to connect. (To quote Rob Sheffield, “Love is a mixtape.”)
Electronic ear candy: the 11-year-old and I both absolutely love the latest album from Four Tet. (Worth pointing out again that DJ and producer Kieran Hebden keeps up a massive playlist on Spotify.)
Eye candy: A look inside Lynda Barry’s comics classroom.
Video game: Mark got us addicted to the “relaxing stress” of Tetris Attack, which you can play online. (If you have a Nintendo Switch, you can also play the original Japanese version, Panel de Pon, with a Nintendo Online account.)
Trash movie: If you’d like to watch a raunchy, depraved stoner comedy about writer’s block, I thoroughly enjoyed Harmony Korine’s The Beach Bum. It kind of reminded me of a twisted, perverted version of Wonder Boys. (For one thing, they both have excellent soundtracks with mid-life vibes in Floridian and northerner varieties.)
“I’m pretty sure everything I’m writing is shit. I’m just trying to make the best shit I can.” A profile of Percival Everett. (His book I Am Not Sidney Poitier made this list of 22 of the Funniest Novels Since Catch-22. John Warner made some additions to the list, including a mutual favorite of ours, Charles Portis’s True Grit.)
“You can’t carry a painting around with you, but if you’re feeling low you can always recite a Shakespeare sonnet.” Artist David Hampton on painting and memorizing poetry at 97.
“Emmet came to set with 2 things: a copy of his credits, which was a small-type single spaced double column list of modern classics that filled a whole page, & two-dollar bills which he passed out to the entire crew. ‘Don’t spend it and you’ll never be broke.’” RIP actor M. Emmet Walsh.
A very Show Your Work! ethos: “If you love a book, talk about it! If you love a story, let other people know!”
Thanks for reading. Next Tuesday I’m taking the hand-rolled, anti-algorithm nature of this newsletter to another level and sharing an extra-special interview with one of my favorite poets via typewriter, so if you’re not already a paid subscriber, now is a really great time to take advantage of this offer:
xoxo,
Austin
PS. I thought of this page from Keep Going this week:
Like everyone who has worked in showbiz for the last 50 years, I got to work with M. Emmet Walsh on a movie called "The Music of Chance." My favorite memories are when he called the director's wife a bitch, and when he shouted "Aw, blow it out your ass!" after I told him it was a pleasure working with him. Truly one of a kind. And yes, I still have his resume (circa 1991) and my two dollar bill.
Here’s one of my favorite old school playlists.
https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/awb/pl.u-55D6ZD5UVmy6py
It takes me back to when I was in high school in the 70s.
From 2004 to 2008, I worked on a MFA in creative writing. Started in poetry, switched to creative nonfiction and never finished the final manuscript. ( Life was lifing) However, one of the poetry mentors insisted we memorize poetry. I’ll never forget Shakespeare’s Sonnet 65 about writing, aging, nature, and immortality. I think memorizing poetry is a good way to ward off memory loss and dementia.
SONNET 65
Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea, But sad mortality o'er-sways their power, How with this rage shall beauty hold a plea, Whose action is no stronger than a flower?
O, how shall summer's honey breath hold out Against the wreckful siege of battering days, When rocks impregnable are not so stout, Nor gates of steel so strong, but Time decays?
O fearful meditation! where, alack,
Shall Time's best jewel from Time's chest lie hid?
Or what strong hand can hold his swift foot back?
Or who his spoil of beauty can forbid?
O, none, unless this miracle have might, That in black ink my love may still shine bright.