📺 The Bad Batch: The first episode got the thumbs up from the little guy, who loved Clone Wars. May the 4th be with you.
🎮 Wonderbox: My son is really enjoying the single and multiplayer modes of this game. The levels and the puzzles feel so lovingly crafted. An Apple Arcade delight.
These Buy Nothing groups, which offer a way to trade goods with neighbors and reduce spending and waste, are a fantastic idea.
🍿 Wolfwalkers - A brilliantly and vibrantly illustrated movie. I was frustrated with the narrative that pagans were enlightened and Christians were backwards, but my wife thinks the contrast was more about the way the British saw the Irish.
Over at Brainpickings, Maria Popova writes about accepting reality and setting your expectations accordingly. Though most of the piece is focused on passages from Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, she also offers lessons in equanimity from Walt Whitman, who had to reset his outlook in the face of a debilitating stroke.
When Ursula Le Guin wrote the The Tombs of Atuan (published in 1970), the second book in the Earthsea series, female leads in fantasy books were almost nonexistent. It was countercultural for her to include Arha, a young priestess, as the main character. She discusses this in the more recently written afterward to the book.
via NPR
I hope this theory proves to be true for those effected by long viruses, other than COVID, as well.
Got my first jab today, but unlike most people, I walked in with a few of the symptoms that were listed as side-effects for the vaccine.
Nandi Bushell always puts on a great performance. She started with videos of herself playing a particular song with a single instrument and wowed a lot of heavyweight rockers (like Tom Morello and Dave Grohl). She recently branched out into covering all the parts of songs like “Under the Bridge” by Red Hot Chili Peppers and “Where is My Mind” by Pixies using a looper and recording each instrument independently in sequence. With the latter recording, she does a sublime job with the vocals that bookend the song and allows her instrumental loops to buttress the main vocal part. Her more-than-apparent enthusiasm for rock music is always infectious and her craft is inspiring.
Currently reading: The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚. The second in the Earthsea series, this one didn’t grab me right away. The focus on worldbuilding took away from character development initially, but the latter half of the book made up for it.
If you’ve ever heard J. Mascis perform Dinosaur Jr. songs solo on acoustic guitar, he goes about it in what could be described as a lazy way. He’s sloppy, which is part of who he is, or his brand, if you will. As one music critic once said of his cover of the Cure’s “Just Like Heaven,” when he says, “‘I must have been asleep for days,’ you really believe him.” A recently released live album actually has him singing “blah, blah, blah,” on one of the songs when he forgets the words. Though he’s a much revered guitar player, his acoustic guitar playing is rough on live recordings.
Apple Arcade is killing it right now and I wish I had the energy to play more of the games.
For those who may be interested, this is the Q&A where I was able to ask the Catholic nuns how the practice of Memento Mori could apply to chronic illness.
The Lord is risen.
He is risen indeed! 🐑🪨
Have you ever thought about how hypnosis so closely resembles guided meditation? Especially the beginning of hypnosis, called induction, which is designed to put you into a state of relaxation in which you are more susceptible to suggestion. The watching of the breath, the attention on sensations in the body that focus and settle your mind are integral to both beginning hypnosis and to mindfulness meditation.
Dreaming Of How It’s Supposed To Be (a collage)
I am so stoked that Kumail Najiani is going to be in the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series. I only hope that they have a scene where The Danny Band plays the Stargazer Lounge.
I’m not sure I fully understand why the generic almond milk I use for my cereal needs a social media presence across multiple platforms.
Austin Kleon writes about blogging as a forgiving medium. It doesn’t carry the risk of social media (particularly Twitter). It allows for editing even after a post is originally published. I was happy to read that I’m not the only one that goes back and edits my blog posts several times after they are published.
R.I.P. Larry McMurtry. The author was nothing if not prolific. I went through a period where I binged his books. I especially loved The Last Picture Show and its sequel, Texasville. Alan Jacobs has a remembrance.
The IA Writer blog has a post on how the app can be beneficial to those with ADHD (especially in comparison to a typical word processor, with its myriad of in-your-face options).
Casey Newton very publicly left his job at The Verge for building his own brand on Substack. However, he continues to work with The Verge in some capacity, and they just published his piece on problems at Medium.com. As most have come to expect, Medium is doing yet another pivot in their strategy and is letting go a large chunk of their editorial staff, admitting that their rapid ramp up of publications had been too aggressive.
I just got to ask a question of some Catholic nuns about how the practice of Memento Mori can be applicable to chronic illness and they had some very insightful answers. Some days I like the internet.
I was recently in search of something to to read after finishing the sprawling epic that was The Count of Monte Cristo. I pored through lists on Amazon, and recommendations I had read elsewhere. I typically read a fiction and a non-fiction book and and I needed something to fit into the former category. Nothing was grabbing me and Dumas’ masterpiece is a hard book to follow.
Happy name day to my lady friend! It was great that we could celebrate with family.
