Along the line of reading a book on tennis, the book My Losing Season, by my favorite author, Pat Conroy, is a great book about his time being a point guard for The Citadel basketball team. I thought “I doubt I am going to like this book”, but I did!! It’s about so much more than basketball. And, of course, it’s Pat Conroy, my favorite author, so I should have known better.
I went down a hole I didn’t expect to, AGAIN. Austin does this every time and I don’t know how he manages to pull back from all this every week and still write about TEN things to share with us eager and hungry creatives. Not directly related but I just spent 19 minutes reading about 3M’s contamination of our bodies in a NewYorker article. Bastards knew it since the 70s but convenience and ignorance make them money, so why stop. At least tell us that you are aware and promise to phase them out ( but never have to admit wrongdoing! Bastards!)
But back to Kleon, this is what my dead week is for. Taking all this joy and inspiration to do more in the coming year that has art and creativity bind with proteins in our body like them damned PFAS forever chemicals.
Love the top ten and congratulations on the Segal mention! Did you by chance check out “With Peter Bradley”? PbS is streaming it in case you missed it, great bio of a noteworthy artist and pretty amazing story. It showed exactly once at AFS, and so I’m glad to see it streaming.
Not surprisingly, I associate LOTR with my country :) Thanks for the reminder - I'm overdue for a rewatch.
Have you seen the original "What We Do in the Shadows" by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement? Another (local) spin-off called "Wellington Paranormal", about the two police officers, is pure gold.
I love "10 things..." ~ I just have to remember to set aside plenty of time to follow many of the links!
I love that you mentioned "The Inner Game of Tennis!"
My mother Penny was a great player and had a tattered copy of the original edition. She loaned it to all her doubles partners and anyone else who she could convince to read it.
On the cover she wrote in black marker "Please return to Penny, it is her BIBLE!!!" It was one of the few things I saved as a memento of her life.
Also, Jason Segel! He came to BookPeople a few years ago around Halloween to promote his children’s book. He’s soo smart—he talked about Joseph Campbell for like 20 minutes, in answer to question about writing. Very sweet and interested in each fan as he signed books. One of my fave author events. He laughed at my costume—I was a Shakespearean sonnet.
Yes to the quote about faith from Conclave—I think I’m going to watch it this weekend. Nice to have yet one more recommendation for it. Comfort movies for me right now are Christmas Vacation, Finding Nemo & Dory, Moana, and Dr. Strange. I’m relying more on comfort TV shows: The Big Bang Theory is foremost. I have to catch up on What We Do in the Shadows, which is sooo brilliant. I’m also going to watch Season 2 of the MCU’s What If. . .?
It’s been a long, busy week at my primary job, as much as I love it; I’m grateful to have your post as a way to open my creativity pores and let the light uncramp my heart and soul.
'The Inner Game of Tennis' was recommended to me as a freshman in college struggling through music school. Very good stuff. Similar book that helped me with some of those anxieties is Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery. Music in particular is such an ephemeral art form. You really do have to just surrender to the moment that it's happening in.
It’s so funny you say that because I read Werner’s book last year and when I googled “inner game of tennis” a comment came up comparing the two. They really do talk to each other. I wonder if they can both be traced to ZEN AND THE ART OF ARCHERY, which came before but didn’t really do that much for me
I associate LOTR with Christmas too—the movies all came out mid-December so that's part of the reason. And oddly enough, I believe that in the appendices of the books, it's noted that the Fellowship leaves Rivendell on Dec. 25!
Along the line of reading a book on tennis, the book My Losing Season, by my favorite author, Pat Conroy, is a great book about his time being a point guard for The Citadel basketball team. I thought “I doubt I am going to like this book”, but I did!! It’s about so much more than basketball. And, of course, it’s Pat Conroy, my favorite author, so I should have known better.
I went down a hole I didn’t expect to, AGAIN. Austin does this every time and I don’t know how he manages to pull back from all this every week and still write about TEN things to share with us eager and hungry creatives. Not directly related but I just spent 19 minutes reading about 3M’s contamination of our bodies in a NewYorker article. Bastards knew it since the 70s but convenience and ignorance make them money, so why stop. At least tell us that you are aware and promise to phase them out ( but never have to admit wrongdoing! Bastards!)
But back to Kleon, this is what my dead week is for. Taking all this joy and inspiration to do more in the coming year that has art and creativity bind with proteins in our body like them damned PFAS forever chemicals.
Love the top ten and congratulations on the Segal mention! Did you by chance check out “With Peter Bradley”? PbS is streaming it in case you missed it, great bio of a noteworthy artist and pretty amazing story. It showed exactly once at AFS, and so I’m glad to see it streaming.
Not surprisingly, I associate LOTR with my country :) Thanks for the reminder - I'm overdue for a rewatch.
Have you seen the original "What We Do in the Shadows" by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement? Another (local) spin-off called "Wellington Paranormal", about the two police officers, is pure gold.
I love "10 things..." ~ I just have to remember to set aside plenty of time to follow many of the links!
Mere Kirihimete me te tau hou (Te Reo Māori)
I love that you mentioned "The Inner Game of Tennis!"
My mother Penny was a great player and had a tattered copy of the original edition. She loaned it to all her doubles partners and anyone else who she could convince to read it.
On the cover she wrote in black marker "Please return to Penny, it is her BIBLE!!!" It was one of the few things I saved as a memento of her life.
Great movie for right now - Flow - an animated film from Latvia with no dialogue (also no humans).
Also, Jason Segel! He came to BookPeople a few years ago around Halloween to promote his children’s book. He’s soo smart—he talked about Joseph Campbell for like 20 minutes, in answer to question about writing. Very sweet and interested in each fan as he signed books. One of my fave author events. He laughed at my costume—I was a Shakespearean sonnet.
Yes to the quote about faith from Conclave—I think I’m going to watch it this weekend. Nice to have yet one more recommendation for it. Comfort movies for me right now are Christmas Vacation, Finding Nemo & Dory, Moana, and Dr. Strange. I’m relying more on comfort TV shows: The Big Bang Theory is foremost. I have to catch up on What We Do in the Shadows, which is sooo brilliant. I’m also going to watch Season 2 of the MCU’s What If. . .?
It’s been a long, busy week at my primary job, as much as I love it; I’m grateful to have your post as a way to open my creativity pores and let the light uncramp my heart and soul.
I love dead week, particularly if we are not travelling to spend the holidays with family.
Regarding Jason Segal---have you seen tv series Dispatches from Elsewhere? Quirky, optimistic, wonderful.
I have not!
Thanks! Merry Merry
'The Inner Game of Tennis' was recommended to me as a freshman in college struggling through music school. Very good stuff. Similar book that helped me with some of those anxieties is Kenny Werner's Effortless Mastery. Music in particular is such an ephemeral art form. You really do have to just surrender to the moment that it's happening in.
It’s so funny you say that because I read Werner’s book last year and when I googled “inner game of tennis” a comment came up comparing the two. They really do talk to each other. I wonder if they can both be traced to ZEN AND THE ART OF ARCHERY, which came before but didn’t really do that much for me
Probably one of the first books I read to work on performing better on stage!
I associate LOTR with Christmas too—the movies all came out mid-December so that's part of the reason. And oddly enough, I believe that in the appendices of the books, it's noted that the Fellowship leaves Rivendell on Dec. 25!