Ice and owls

10 things worth sharing this week

Bind drawings of the owls in my backyard

Hey y’all,

Another ice storm in Texas. We have power, thankfully, but a big branch took out my AT&T line, so I’m writing this with my laptop tethered to my cell phone. Nerves are frayed from the crackle, snap… boom! of falling branches.

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

1. Groundhog Day has passed, but as we know, “Every day is Groundhog Day.” This weekly newsletter functions as a kind of diary for me, and like any diary, it serves to show how cyclical life can be: Last February I was writing in an ice storm (“Trying not to spiral out”) and the February before that I was writing in an ice storm (“It ain’t grand.”) February, man! What can one do with it? I wrote about the possibility of the shortest month and y’all brought up such great stuff in the comments, including: the 13-month calendar, the Jewish New Year for trees (our poor Texas trees are going to need blessing), and how discipline is remembering what you want (or being obsessed). As always, your comments warm my icy spirit.
   
   

2. For people who want to be more mindful and creative, my friend Bill Keaggy recommends a 30-minute noticing workout.
   
   

3. I still haven’t found my reading groove quite yet this year, but I think I might be getting closer. I’m currently loving With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard Grant. So good, and only a couple of bucks on Kindle. (He has a new memoir coming out.)
   
   

4. I’m finishing up Peter Turchi’s (Don’t) Stop Me If You’ve Heard This Before: and Other Essays on Writing Fiction in anticipation of our online conversation next Tuesday. As Peter said in a recent interview, he tends to think “associatively, through analogue and metaphor, so I’ve found building stone walls, solving puzzles, and standing at the edge of a desert pool useful to my writing.” I think this is why his books appeal to me: they come at interesting angles, so you learn about more than just writing fiction. (You can register for our event here.)
   
   

5. RIP Television frontman Tom Verlaine, who, even if you didn’t take note of his other work, would be a legend forever for Marquee Moon. Patti Smith wrote a eulogy, “He Was Tom Verlaine.” Richard Williams wrote about recording Television’s first demos with Brian Eno. People have been sharing all sorts of live Television shows — I’m a big fan of their 1975 set in Cleveland, their first outside of NYC.
    
   

6. RIP Barrett Strong, who gave Motown their first hit, “Money (That’s What I Want),” and wrote a bunch of great tunes.
   
   

7. Watching: A great movie — Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing, which has obviously had a huge impact on Tarantino and other heist movies — and a solid documentary: Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound. (The latter featured film editor Walter Murch, whose book In The Blink of an Eye has lessons for artists of all kinds.)
   
   

8. Listening: Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind is one of my very favorite records, so I’ve been listening a lot to the new box set. Dylan has complained about the original mix, but the new remix and outtakes just make me appreciate Daniel Lanois even more. A good example of how sometimes an artist doesn’t know what’s best for him. (If Dylan’s not your thing, check out this ripping BLK ODYSSY cover of Radiohead’s “Myxomatosis.”) 
   
   

9. Thanks to a cheap spotting scope and a security camera app I put on my old iPhone, I’m getting great footage of the owls that live in our backyard.
   
   

10. How to read recklessly.
    

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xoxo,

Austin