Love is not a gadget
10 things worth sharing this week
Happy Valentine’s Day. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:
Love is not a Gadget is the title of my February mixtape, borrowed from the lyrics of Little Anthony and The Imperials’ “Tears on My Pillow.” I leaned heavily into a Side 1 / Side 2 dichotomy on this mix — see if you can tell where the “Lonely” side ends and the “Lovers” side begins by listening to the playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. (Yes, “love is a mixtape.”)
“The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.” Here are some of my favorite poems and quotes about love.
They say “soup is love,” but I had no idea how many of y’all had feelings about soup until I shared my Soup Lessons zine! I learned all kinds of things in the comments. (For example: “perpetual stew” seems like a rich metaphor.)
I really love making zines, and I can’t seem to stop making them — here is a blank zine you can fill out as a Valentine to yourself or to someone else:
Here is a video of the instructions for making it:
A few people have asked me how I make these zines — I make them the way I make pretty much everything I do: by doing a little dance between my analog and digital desks. (Robin Sloan calls this “dancing the flip flop.”)
“No excuse for me not to.” I love this story of a 100-year-old North Dakota woman who has kept a diary every day for 90 years. “Every night, when I finish writing, I always look back one year to see what I was doing the year before.”
RIP conceptual artist Rutherford Chang. I have long thought of the artist as a kind of collector, and Chang was a prime example — I was a fan of his project of collecting The Beatles’ “White Album.” Here’s what Aki Sasamoto said about people who might’ve thought him obsessive: “I find it is more like a thoroughness, in line with personal ritual and devotion. I relate it to someone who meditates every day. There was something spiritual about him.” (As Carl The Collector teaches us, for some brains, collecting can be a form of love.)
“More people, tired of staring at computer screens, are interested in taking up drawing during their travels.” The travelers capturing their vacation memories with sketching. (One of the most eloquent proponents of sketching while traveling was film critic Roger Ebert.)
I love this story about Luddite teens who carry flip phones, host book clubs, write a print-only snail mail newsletter, and yes, make zines! I think we could all learn a thing or two from these young people. You don’t have to get rid of your smartphone completely, but I have one suggestion that has helped me tremendously: Don’t start (or end) your day by checking the news on your phone.
Thanks for reading. This love letter is hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm, and made possible thanks to the love and support of readers like you. If you want to help keep it going, buy my books, hire me to speak at your event, or, best of all, become a paid subscriber:
xoxo,
Austin
P.S. Here’s one of my favorite poems from my first book, Newspaper Blackout:
Love #8 especially! A really good friend once asked me “why do you deny your passion?” I keep that question in my heart. Letting myself be dissuaded from going deeper into what I love can be easy, especially when I’m interested in so many things, or the world tells me or I tell me it’s “pointless.” Trying to keep Chase Jarvis’s advice about attention in my mind, too. Letting go can be hard. I feel like a dog, sometimes, and there are so many squirrels that need chasing.
Love the 90 year old journaller! I mean I guess I’m up to almost 60 years but I can’t claim it was consistent!