The Inflatable Man

10 things worth sharing this week

Hey y’all,

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

1. “The Inflatable Man” is a metaphor Meghan came up with on one of our morning walks. I thought maybe there was an essay or a newsletter in it, and went looking for them around town. Once I shot this footage, I decided to make a Weird Little Something out of it. I believe we should all make Weird Little Somethings once in a while. (You can also watch it on YouTube and Instagram.)
   
   

2. “I think it’s really important to treat really mundane things as if they are important pieces of work. You’ll never run out of material by just embracing what’s outside.” Why John Wilson can’t stop filming.
   
   

3. “This feeling that you’re getting away with something is really important to the reading experience. Reading should feel a little subversive… because it is! To sit around and read a novel in the year 2025 is an act of resistance — you’re swimming against the current of the entire contemporary shitstream.” On sitting around and reading novels.
   
   

4. “You might experience this as a writer, where it’s doing you instead of you doing it. That’s the sweet spot, isn’t it? […] You’ve got to let the ego just go sit on the bench, and just hear what wants to be done through you…. See what wants to be born…. You’re not doing it, it’s doing you.” Jeff Bridges is digging it. (The Dude has a new album, a great website, and a touching story about meeting his wife.)
   
   

5. “When that portal opens, I don’t remember a single thing. I know which gigs are really good by how little I can remember. I do things on the drums that I never practiced and had no idea I was capable of.” I never imagined I would enjoy a 10,000+ word profile of the band Phish, but that’s the level of skill that Amanda Petrusich possesses. (I love that the band printed a daily newspaper during their Mondegreen festival.)
   
   

6. New mixtape: “April Showers” is a sort of sad dad bad had spring mix I made with a bunch of country weepers and other stuff I like. You can listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
   
   

7. It’s been a week here at Chez Kleon, but luckily, we have music, movies, and books: We went to see Kraftwerk for the second time, we’re watching The Empire Strikes Back for tonight’s pizza night, and my 10-year-old goth cartoonist is very excited for E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey. (I need to get him out to the Edward Gorey House.)
   
   

8. Eye candy: I love reading the newsletter Collé because I’m constantly finding new collage inspiration like the work of Marisa Bazan and Zeynep Dagli. (And I’m always in the mood to see somebody’s sketchbook.)
   
   

9. “I don’t think it’s melodramatic to say that journaling has saved my life.” An otherwise decent profile of Suleika Jaouad and The Book of Alchemy was tainted for me by the third paragraph in which the writer attempted to set up some kind of silly journaling vs. diary-keeping dichotomy. (On the vast spectrum of ways you can write things down: see Roland Allen’s The Notebook and my slideshow of notebooks that inspired The Steal Like an Artist Journal.)
   
   

10. A thought for this week: there can be freedom in knowing you're doomed. "Rocket from the Tombs was always doomed. Everything from Cleveland was doomed. Rocket From The Tombs is totally inconsequential and irrelevant. Pere Ubu is totally inconsequential and irrelevant. That is the power of Cleveland. Embrace, my brothers, the utter futility of ambition and desire. Your only reward is a genuine shot at being the best. The caveat is that no one but your brothers will ever know it. That’s the deal we agreed to.” (RIP Pere Ubu frontman David Thomas.)

Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is a Weird Little Something made possible thanks to the love and support of readers like you. If you want to help me keep making Weird Little Somethings, become a paid subscriber:

xoxo,

Austin

Listen to this month’s mixtape on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube