Books that suck you in and spin you out

10 things worth sharing: art as a souvenir, centripetal vs. centrifugal forces, ear and eye candy, and more...

Hey y’all,

The day after April Fools is a good time to remember that most personal progress requires first learning to play the fool. (On that note, here’s a new playlist.)

Okay, let’s get to it. 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. Some books suck you in, some books spin you out.
    

2. I’m in love with The Writer’s Map: An Atlas of Imaginary Lands. I’ve always been a bit obsessed with maps and even started my own collection of imaginary maps way back in 2008. (If I’d have owned this book when I was doing my undergrad thesis, who knows, maybe I’d be a novelist.) The Writer’s Map would pair well with Peter Turchi’s book, Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer. 
    

3. I’m doing a live online chat and Q&A with Jessica Abel this week and registration is free. (I met Jessica thirteen years ago when I drew her appearance at Austin Books and Comics. I look forward to catching up.)
    

4. Art: Ray Johnson’s photography, the Louvre’s entire collection of 480,000 artworks, and, for Texas Highways, I wrote about another weirdo who left Texas and brought back art.
    

5. Parents: give yourself what you needed then and give your kids what they need now.
    

6. I tickles me that we have Kevin Shields’s nephews to partly thank for My Bloody Valentine’s return. (See: Youth Spies and Curious Elders.) 
    

7. Ear candy: the new Pharaoh Sanders record is just terrific. I’ve also been spinning David Byrne’s score for The Catherine Wheel (after watching the Twyla Moves documentary) and Molly Joyce’s Breaking and Entering, which has an inspiring backstory. 
    

8. Watching: I’m a bit bereft from finishing The Knick, so I watched a young Clive Owen in the neo-noir, Croupier. I also laughed like crazy at all 3 of John Mulaney’s comedy specials on Netflix. 
    

9. RIP author Larry McMurtry. (Lonesome Dove is one of my all-time favorite novels and one of my time capsules. His book Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen is also a big influence on my ideas about community and creativity in mundane retail spaces.) RIP author Beverly Cleary. RIP musical pioneer Malcolm Cicel, who, among other things, helped Stevie Wonder make his incredible run of 70s records.
    

10. Art as a souvenir, made in gratitude. 

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xoxo, 

Austin

PS. The year is 25% over. Keep going.

photo by @brownpaperpress