Labor and wait

10 things worth sharing this week

Hey y’all,

In case you missed it, on Tuesday we talked about taste and judgment. Thank you to the paid subscribers who keep this newsletter going!

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

1. I have stolen my new slogan for the writing process from a vintage label on a can of tomatoes: “Labor and wait.” 
   
   

2. On Friday we re-watched Kenneth Branagh’s splendid 1993 production of Much Ado About Nothing, then I spent the rest of the weekend reading Iris Murdoch’s novel The Sea, The Sea. I could’t figure out why this pairing seemed so perfect at first until I found out Murdoch was a huge Shakespeare freak, as is the main character. It’s a long book, some 500 pages — I’m about halfway through and it’s been a wild ride so far.
   
   

3. “All communication is lossy.”
   
   

4. Art: I wrote about “ex-votos,” the folk paintings that inspired artists like Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Saul Steinberg. (Speaking of, I love this Diego Rivera sketch on graph paper.)
   
   

5. It was the 50th anniversary of Wattstax and the 20th anniversary of Shazam. (That app still feels like magic to me.)
   
   

6. “The best art is, of course, stolen.”
   
   

7. Music: It took me a few spins, but I really like Cass McCombs’ new album, Heartmind. I’m also loving Buck Owens and His Buckaroos’ Carnegie Hall Concert. If you’re a PBS passport member, they’re streaming Prince and the Revolution: The Purple Rain Tour. Holy moly is that a show. I might have to get the Blu-Ray set.
   
   

8. Watching: I love the show Reservation Dogs, which is in its second season. And a good movie with the kids: Mary Poppins. (I’d never seen it? It’s 2 1/2 hours long? The kids really liked it?!? Chim chim cher-ee!) I feel like A Hard Days Night, also released in 1964, would be a great chaser.
   
   

9. RIP Q Lazzarus, singer of “Goodbye Horses.”
   
   

10. A note pinned to artist Alex Katz’s wall: “I dedicate this show to all the people who did not take me seriously. You provided the fuel for my rage.” (Anger is an energy.)
    

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xoxo,

Austin