Travel selfie

10 things worth sharing this week + Eastern Pennsylvania adventures

I get the weird urge to take selfies when I travel to make sure I still exist 😂

Hey y’all,

One piece of business before we get started: If you’re coming to the Texas Book Festival this weekend, the time and the place of my talk has changed! I’ll be speaking at noon Sunday, Nov. 6 in Capitol Extension Room E2.036. Details here.

Last weekend I did something I haven’t done in about two and a half years: I got on a plane! I flew to Philadelphia then drove out to Lancaster, PA to speak to a wonderful bunch of arts educators and get a much-needed dose of real fall weather.

My 10 things worth sharing this week are almost exclusively from my trip:

1. Upon landing in PHL, I had to ask a bunch of Phillies fans to explain why they were singing a Robyn song. Here’s the story of how “Dancing on my Own” became their playoff anthem.
   
   

2. I read the entirety of Andrew Sean Greer’s novel Less Is Lost on the plane and in the hotel room before I fell asleep. A good and worthy sequel, but if you haven’t read Less, start there!
   
   

3. An album I listen to whenever I can’t sleep or the hotel is too noisy is My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless. Saturday morning after walking for coffee, I popped into the Barnes and Noble in Rittenhouse Square and they actually had Mike McGonigal’s 33 1/3 book on the album. I read that on the flight back. (In another magic Philly moment, I shared an elevator with John Fetterman?!? He is very tall and not someone who looks like he wants to be bothered at 8AM in a hotel elevator.)
   
   

4. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is one of my favorite museums, and the Matisse in the 1930s show did not disappoint, but even more delightful was the juxtaposition of the Macho Men exhibit of prints next door. (It reminded me of the time I went to see the Hilma af Klint show at the Guggenheim and they had Robert Mapplethorpe photos up in an offshoot.) But best of all was this Cézanne I fell in love with. The whole drive through eastern Pennsylvania I wondered how Cézanne would’ve handled the hills.
   
   

5. Ear candy: I got a great tip to leave the city on Kelly Drive, just north of the museum. The thing that sent the beautiful drive to Lancaster over the top was listening to this 2-hour radio show of Iggy Pop chatting with Brian Eno. (I love the BBC Sounds app. Check out this Sounds Iconic series of interviews.)
   
   

6. Lancaster is a cool place. Highlights: Shoofly pie and the Central Market. Sunday I drove to Longwood Gardens, which was just stunning. I could’ve spent all day there. I ended the trip on a high note a few miles down the road when I stopped at the Brandywine Museum of Art and discovered they had my books on sale. Impromptu book signing!
   
   

7. After a brief hiatus, I’ve fallen back in love with plain ol’ Paper Mate Flair felt tip pens. (Just don’t put your notebook through the washing machine — they’re not waterproof!)
   
   

8. Social media companies are coming “for every second of your life.”
   
   

9. RIP New Yorker cartoonist George Booth. RIP writer Julie Powell.
   
   

10. Ray Bradbury’s 1000-night plan for being more creative.
    

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xoxo,

Austin

PS. Enjoy this photo of my kids’ halloween costumes: