Fun, play, and discovery

10 things worth sharing this week

Hey y’all,

To quote Virginia Woolf: “I feel entirely dehumanised by the sun now and wish for fog, snow, rain, humanity​.”

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

1. “I write for fun. I write for play… I write to discover what I want to say and how to say it… and the nerve to say it.” Greil Marcus on why he writes.
   
   

2. “I have to find out who the hell I am.” A profile of Martin Scorsese at 80.
   
   

3. “It’s not about looking great. It’s about just filling up a notebook and just getting it done.” Singer/songwriter Aimee Mann posts diary comics on her Instagram — something she learned after her friend the cartoonist Emily Flake gave her Lynda Barry’s books Syllabus and Making Comics. Lynda herself says of Mann’s practice: “I’ve always thought making comics and songwriting had a lot in common. They both move and loop through a relatively short period of time using images which expand that time.” (A million years ago I drew Mann at an Austin City Limits taping.)
   
   

4. “We need to hear the process of a musician working on himself.” Keith Jarrett on music and time.

   
   

5. “It is odd to have somebody write in a way that’s sort of cinematic.” Wes Anderson on his new Roald Dahl films, and why he decided to include the writer in his writing hut. I watched The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and The Swan and I’m looking forward to Poison and The Ratcatcher. The first two Dahl stories can be found in the book The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, and all four can be found in volume two of his Complete Short Stories. (I will watch anything Anderson puts out — I loved Asteroid City and I’ve been thinking of doing a full watch-through of his movies.)
   
   

6. Ear candy: If you liked the angelic a cappella singing in the soundtrack of Henry Sugar, check out the story of The Swingle Singers, a group started by Ward Swingle in the early 1960s. (If you want more swing and less a cappella, dig this footage of Bud Powell in Copenhagen in 1962.)
   
   

7. “If you steal from everybody, nobody can put a finger on you.” I enjoyed the new remixed edition of The Replacements’ Tim, especially the outtakes documenting the evolution of “Can’t Hardly Wait,” my favorite song of theirs, which I first heard during the credits of my favorite teen movie.
   
   

8. TV: Reservation Dogs was a miracle. (I also enjoyed the end of Sex Education — I’m happy for those kids and all the sex they are having, but what I really want is their cycling infrastructure! Maybe one day I, too, can ride through Cwmcarn Forest, one of their shooting locations in Wales.)
   
   

9. “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” A century later, and Yeats’ “The Second Coming” still comes in loud and clear.
   
   

10. “You just do it. That's what acting is.” RIP actor Michael Gambon.
    

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xoxo,

Austin

photo by @juroneyofficial