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Gretchen's avatar

Ann Friedman knows exactly how ex-pats can have one foot in their hometown and the other in where they now reside. I’m an expat from the Northeast living in the Midwest, and after 25 years I am very much connected to both communities. Thanks for including the quotation.

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Lynn Mason's avatar

Love the cactus propagation. Plant propagation is addicting!

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K. Paradis's avatar

Reminded me of this Luddite graphic from the Nib.

https://thenib.com/im-a-luddite/

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Anne Murphy's avatar

Adding that book about Luddites to by TBR list straight away!

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Rick Eckhardt's avatar

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PnsvWPi5tJtPzGHA7

Look whose book is in a display at my local library (Guilderland NY).

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Austin Kleon's avatar

Alright!!

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John's avatar

Love looking up the influences for your favorite bands. For one, it helped me climb out of a pretty narrow lane of music growing up, plus you start to pick out stylistic influence and recognize music for the tapestry it is (not singular moments of brilliance). Plus the network effects of following musical influences and collaborators is so rewarding in discovering new music. Nothing exists in a bubble and that's what makes it all so great.

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Tim Pynes's avatar

NORTEÑO! Such great music. Thanks for including that link. The accordion player on that song is first rate. The best I've heard since the OG (and native Texan), Flaco Jiménez. Saludos!

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MrsMc's avatar

Austin, his is such a great newsletter, thank you as usual. I am definitely Luddite-ish. I reluctantly agreed to my first smartphone about 4 years ago. All of my friends and family had bought into them a couple of decades ago. My service told me that my old phone could not be used with new technology so I had to get one. I like it now of course. I have a family movie recommendation you may have already discussed/watched... its call Whale Rider about a Maori girl and community living in modern New Zealand - ancient traditions in modern times. It is rated PG13 - most say appropriate for 10 year olds. tweens. Not sure how old your kids are but there is a lot of information about it online and you can decide if it's appropriate. thank you again.

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Mitchell Volk's avatar

When I learned about the luddites a couple years ago I thought, “Woah those people were a little extreme!” Now I get it.

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Mike Paul's avatar

Anyone else start signing the Monty Python spam song when you saw the header image, or was it just me?

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Christine Havens's avatar

Love point #2. [AI] reduces the amount of intention in the world” summarizes much of what concerns me about this technology, especially in relation to faith and spirituality.

Playlists—the one Daniel Levitin created to accompany his new book on music as medicine, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, is marvelous—a wonderfully eclectic mix. The book’s interesting, too.

Thank you, as always, for the inspiration and more titles for my TBR list.

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Rebecca Tolley's avatar

love this criterion channel feature and agree that bookstores should riff on it with their visiting authors!

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David Lauterstein's avatar

Brilliant, refreshing and heartening as usual. Thank you, Austin!

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Sam's avatar

Thanks for the playlist! I will always think of the White Album as the first album I really *listened* to (even though I’d *heard* so many before it), so this is a treat.

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