Water in the well

This week’s 10 things worth sharing

Hey y’all,

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

1. “The important thing is to have good water in the well.”
   
   

2. Why resistance is necessary for creative work. (So! Many! Good! Comments!)
   
   

3. I’m really enjoying Craig Brown’s 150 Glimpses of the Beatles. As someone who considers himself a pretty big Beatles fan, I’m surprised how many of these stories I didn’t know. (I’m told his Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret is good, too.)
   
   

4. I’m also reading The Wes Anderson Collection, a deluxe art book that covers the filmmaker’s first seven movies and has a bunch of interviews and behind-the-scenes stuff. (It’s hard for me to pick a favorite — I think The Royal Tenenbaums is closest to my heart, but I find myself wanting to re-watch The Grand Budapest Hotel the most lately. Probably time for a full watch-through, beginning with Bottle Rocket, although a filmmaker pal tells me I should start with a re-watch of Harold and Maude and A Clockwork Orange if I want the primary Anderson DNA revealed.)
   
   

5. The folks at Substack interviewed me about my reading habits.¹
   
   

6. Podcast: I enjoyed the first episode of Book Exploder, the spinoff of Song Exploder.
   
   

7. TV: We’re about halfway through The Last Movie Stars, Ethan Hawke’s six-episode pandemic project about Hollywood couple Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. (Here’s a very generous review from one of my favorite critics, Stephanie Zacharek.) A friend of mine joked that Hawke is “pretentious in the best way.” I had somehow forgotten his documentary, Seymour: An Introduction, but not his TED talk, “Give yourself permission to be creative.”
   
   

8. Photography: the surreal world of LIFE photographer Nina Leen. (Here’s another slideshow of her stuff and a little more about her.)
   
   

9. Youtube gem: Roxy Music doing “In Every Dream Home a Heartache” on The Old Grey Whistle test in 1973. (I am a huge fan of 70s musical TV shows — if you want to lose a few hours in one the best ways, just type “Old Grey Whistle Test” or “Beat Club” into YouTube.)
   
   

10. RIP actress Nichelle Nicols, who played Lieutenant Uhura on Star Trek. RIP Malvern Books owner and founder Joe Bratcher. RIP to true Austin weirdo and radio host John Aelii. RIP artist and friend of this newsletter, Jeff Tidwell. (The last time I talked to Jeff on Twitter he said he was eager to hear what I thought of Paris, Texas, one of his favorite movies. I told him I was excited to watch it, and not knowing he was sick, followed up with, “So many good movies still to see!” I guess one never knows how many movies one has left to watch, so I’m gonna watch it this week and think of him.)

Thanks for reading. This newsletter is a reader-supported publication. The best way to support it is to buy my books, hire me to speak, shop for some of my favorite gear (I get a cut), or become a paid subscriber:

xoxo,

Austin

1. I was sad they didn’t use this photo 😂