Fledging season

10 things worth sharing this week

Hey y’all,

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1. I spent an afternoon scanning diaries from 2023 for a speaking gig and I came across all the spring entries from when we had owlets in our backyard owl box. I was obsessed with those owlets and I couldn’t help comparing them to the two young humans we had in our house, except the owlets developed at super speed: They hatched in April, and by this time of May they had already fledged. (To fledge is to leave the nest after you get your feathers.) Our youngest is fledging from elementary school later this month. Counting down the drop-offs we have left. Fledging season.
   

   

2. I’m quickly coming up out of “The Gulp!” I spent the past week and a half recording podcasts. I was a little nervous, but it was a huge relief to finally get to hear what people who didn’t work on Don’t Call It Art think about the book.
   
   Oh, also: I got to hold an actual copy of the book for the first time! It’s truly the most beautiful object I’ve ever published. Crazy proud of it, though I do have a confession:

3. I shared two brand-new issues of the Don’t Call It Art Deleted Zines — #6 and #7 are called “Not-knowing” and “Complexity.” You can get the first 5 issues in the pre-order goodies, and in case you missed it, I shared issue #8 last week: “Mothers!” (Here is a very nice writeup of that issue.) Issue #9 is, you guessed it, “Fathers!” It’ll drop before Father’s Day. 

   

4. “All human wisdom is contained in these two words: ‘wait’ and ‘hope’!” I finished all 1,000+ pages of The Count of Monte Cristo. It’s a (long) ride I wish I’d taken when I was younger and felt more like taking my revenge on the world. But it’s a page-turner, and a worthy big book for summer. I’ve heard the PBS Masterpiece adaptation is great and look forward to watching it. At some point I might pick up Tom Reiss’s The Black Count, the incredible story of Alexandre Dumas’s father. (Someone recently asked me if I had a summer reading recommendation and I basically said, “Read a classic you think you know that you’ve never read. It will probably be much weirder than you expected.”)

   
   

5. Austin, Texas: Here Be Monsters is a “two-day exploration of Austin's most celebrated indie-classical artists and creators.” May 24 & 25 at Radio East. (Speaking of live music: I saw Grandaddy at the Mohawk with all the other sad dads and they covered Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer,” which I later found out was actually written by Mike Campbell for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers when he was messing around with a LinnDrum and an Oberheim synth.)

   
   

6. More musical treats: 45 minutes of Elvis Costello and The Attractions live in 1978, Timmy Thomas doing “Why Can’t We Live Together” on Countdown in 1986, the XX on recording “Crystalized,” and Phoenix playing a stripped-down table-top version of “1901.”
   
   

7. I can’t remember if I’ve recommended the Washington Review of Books or not, but the latest issue includes a bunch of good stuff like smart thoughts about Pet Sounds and Brian Wilson, Iggy Pop reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and a cool-sounding book of Rosa Montero’s called The Danger to Be Sane: Creativity and the Eccentric Mind.
   
   

8. Printmaking eye candy: big ol’ block prints and a searchable database of Japanese woodblock prints. (Thanks, Clive!)
   
   

9. You might know about the “golden hour” — that pretty period of daylight after sunrise and before sunset — but did you know there’s also a “blue hour”? It’s the period of twilight before sunrise and after sunset. (Thanks, Rob!)
   
   

10. Your assignment this week comes from FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper in Twin Peaks: “Harry, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. Everyday, once a day, give yourself a present. Don’t plan it, don’t wait for it. Just let it happen. It could be a new shirt at the Men’s store. A catnap in your office chair. Or two cups of good, hot black coffee.”

Reminder: I have Austin, Nashville, and Cleveland events coming up in June to celebrate the release of Don’t Call It Art. If you’re around, I’d love to see you there.

Thanks for reading! This hand-rolled, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. The best ways you can support my work right now: pre-order the new book and/or become a paid subscriber!

xoxo,

Austin