Recently returned

10 things worth sharing this week

Hey y’all,

The heat has broken here in Austin, TX and back to school season continues. New routines, new school supplies… and new germs. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1. If you click on one link, make it my typewriter interview with Elisa Gabbert.
   
   

2. In Elisa’s latest collection, she writes about the magic of the “recently returned” shelf at the public library: “I like how it reduced the scope of my options, but without imposing any one person’s taste or agenda upon me, or the generalized taste of the masses suggested by algorithms. The books on that shelf weren’t being marketed to me; they weren’t omnipresent in my social media feeds. They were often old and very often ugly. I came to think of that shelf as an escape from hype. It was negative hype. It was anti-curation.”
   
   

3. Meg and I watched the documentary Umberto Eco: A Library of the World, which heavily featured his “antilibrary.” It paired well with this history of early bookcases, cupboards & carousels. After admiring the booktrucks at my branch of the Austin Public Library, I’ve been fantasizing about buying a bright yellow booktruck for my office. (If you know where I can get one locally without paying $200 for shipping, I’m all ears!)
   
   

4. Browsing the recently returned CDs at the library, I came across the now out-of-print 2018 box set of The Beatles’ “White Album.” I’d heard the remixed tracks back when they were released, but never the Blu-ray Disc with the mix in surround sound. So good! I spent countless hours with the album when I was a teenager, mapping out the instruments and trying to figure out how they made it. I found myself obsessed with the album all over again, reading all the essays in the hardback book, and listening to all the session tracks. (Here’s Rob Sheffield on why the “Esher Demos” are so special.)
   
   

5. I popped into Breakaway Records to buy the new reissue of Cocteau Twins and Harold Budd’s The Moon and The Melodies and ran into friend of the newsletter Ian McEnroe! He hipped me to a crate of jazz finds: I picked up Yusef Lateef’s Cry! Tender, Sonny Rollins’ A Night at the “Village Vanguard,” and Coltrane Plays the Blues. While we were talking jazz and browsing the stacks, I mentioned how much I love the music of Fela Kuti, and Ian picked up a 1st Nigerian pressing of Roforofo Fight. Ted Gioia just published a piece about how Nigeria literally went to war on its beloved musician — and lost. (Don’t miss the clip of Paul McCartney talking about hanging out with Fela when he was down in Lagos recording Band on the Run.)
   
   

6. Oh, brother! The band Oasis is reuniting, and I’m enjoying all the Gallagher brother shenanigans everyone’s been sharing online. My personal favorites: Noel’s commentary making fun of their music videos and Liam taking questions from a bunch of little kids. (If Oasis isn’t your thing but you like reading about working class musical brothers from the UK, check out William and Jim Reid’s new memoir, Never Understood: The Jesus and Mary Chain.)
   
   

7. Hit 'em: I love this story of how sharing a dream on Twitter led to a new musical genre. (An example of Show Your Work! I’d never dreamt of.)
   
   

8. “Preach the falsehood to know the truth.” A dumb tweet of mine complaining about finding great movies to watch with 10-year-olds went viral this week — an excellent example of Cunningham’s Law. If you are looking for movies to watch with little ones, here are the Kleon Family pizza night blockbusters 2021-2023, and here are my pizza night logbooks, and here is Meghan’s dough recipe.
   
   

9. RIP writer Steve Silberman. His book NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity was a huge eye-opener for me as the parent of two neurodivergent kiddos, and I enjoyed bantering with him in the good days of Twitter, when he’d send me something like this Walt Whitman collage he’d made. I will miss him. (If you don’t know him or his work, his interview on Fresh Air is one of the best I’ve ever heard.)
   
   

10. Five years ago we returned to Texas after what I now joke was our 8-month “Lake Erie Sabbatical.” Wallace Stegner put it well: “Some are born in their place, some find it, some realize after long searching that the place they left is the one they have been searching for.” I find myself very grateful to those people we were, who decided to return so we could be where we are now. “No matter how far / wrong you’ve gone / you can always turn around…” 

Thank you for reading. This is a hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm, completely reader-supported publication. You can help keep it going by buying my books, hiring me to speak, or becoming a paid subscriber:

xoxo,

Austin