On this date...
TGIF. Next month I’m being interviewed by comics legend Tom Hart and the event is open to everyone.
Here are 10 other things I thought were worth sharing this week:
A question that’s haunted me like a friendly ghost the past few weeks: “You’re someone who’s so curious about so many things — why aren’t you curious about this?”
On Tuesday we threw an art show in our paid subscriber chat and y’all blew me away with over 500 posts of flower arrangements, origami, oil paintings, pottery, blackout poems, collage, weavings, quilts, photos, drawings, jewelry, artist books, crochet, comics, screenplays, rugs, patterns, books, sketchbooks, paper cache, watercolor, bookmarks, video installations, felt, printmaking, stained glass, mandalas, encaustic, zines, and more. If you haven’t joined us yet, it’s really the best crew on the internet. More chats to come.
A half decade ago, after I started keeping a good ol’ fashioned daily diary, I got obsessed with a daily “on this day” reading of Thoreau’s journal and Peanuts cartoons. I’ve started re-reading my old diaries in the same way, and it got me thinking it’d be cool to time-travel on my blog, too. So I used AI to help me make a “On This Date” widget for my website.
I tried reading The Hobbit to my boys. They shut that down real quick, so I decided to read it myself before bed. I’ve joked before that the most valuable book on your nightstand is the one that puts you to sleep, but it took me two months to finish?!? The whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking, ridiculously, “Elves? Gigantic eagles? It’s like he’s just making this stuff up as he goes!” (I am terrible at following my own rules.)
If you’re a big music nerd like me, you might enjoy Ethan Hein’s blog. Here are excellent posts on the guitar solo in Prince’s “Kiss” and John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things.” (I’ve been meaning to give Apple Music Classical a spin — I still, unfortunately, use Spotify for their superior UI and playlists, but the lossless quality on Apple Music sounds so much better.)
Some great cover reveals for books I cannot wait to read: Carlo Rovelli’s White Holes and Lauren Groff’s The Vaster Wilds. Both authors made my best of 2021 reading list — I’ve read 4 or 5 Rovelli books and I think Matrix is one of the best novels I’ve ever read. (In other publishing news: Questlove gets an imprint, and the first book is Sly Stone’s memoir.)
Movies: I didn’t realize it was PG-13 until it was too late, but the boys loved Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle, a movie much more clever than you’d think it’d be. (Also: Take me down to the Asteroid City where the grass ain’t green but the girls are pretty.)
“Don’t overlook the value of not having what you don’t want.” I am on a diet and I am relying heavily on my willingness to be bad for as long as it takes. Tomorrow is April if you want to do a 30-day practice and suck less challenge.
“Light is everything. Light is life.” RIP light designer Howard Brandston and RIP composer Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou. The Ethiopian nun made some of my favorite music. (Do not miss Ethiopiques, Vol. 21. I’m also fond of The Vernon Spring’s cover of “Mother’s Love.”)
A journal is a magic space to hang out.
Thanks for reading! This newsletter is a completely reader-supported publication. If you love it and want to support it, the best ways are to buy my books, hire me to speak, or become a paid subscriber:
xoxo,
Austin
PS. Just got my hands on the Spanish translation of the 10th anniversary edition of Steal Like An Artist:
I came across Tom Hart's memoir Rosalie a few years ago and bought it, though I had no idea what it was about. It blew. my. mind. Not just the subject matter, which is devastating. But the artwork also, which is so roughly and freely executed that it had a real influence on my own work. I joined SAW's memoir comics group for a time at the beginning of the pandemic, but eventually had to move on to other things. I've read Rosalie twice, and have also read his The Art of the Graphic Memoir twice.
I too was blown away by all the art from such an amazing group of people. It’s a good reminder of all the art quietly--or not--being created out in the wild. It’s easy to get caught up in thinking the art is only worthwhile if it’s for something especially money! But I’m doggedly working on a 100 Day Project of just practice and curiosity.