Something New (This Week)
A slower, different weekly installment.
I’ve been in Denver this whole week, a non-skier vacationing with a family of skiers, which has put me out of touch with anything new. That means we’re gonna bend the format a little bit. Here’s what I consumed and would recommend to you this week:
Following a Sport with Trades
As an NBA fan without a “home team” that I root for, this past Thursday’s trade deadline, a five-hour Twitter refreshing extraeganza, has completely refreshed my interest in the league and it’s teams — nearly all 30 of them. Hall-of-fame-ers getting traded, teams trading five 2nd-round picks for one player, the local team, the Portland Trailblazers, making smart moves on the margins, a must for teams in these smaller markets. There is nothing like this day, every year, even though sometimes it passes without a single note. This year, there were 50 notes. Thrilling stuff.
One of my favorite “big picture” sports and NBA writers dubbed it “a good day”.
Fiction Writers’ Non-Fiction
I demolished Haruki Murakami’s “Novelist as Vocation”, a short non-fiction peice originally written in 2015 that just got an English translation. I love novelists and writers dipping their pens into different genres and styles, especially when in the name of educating or sharing themselves with their audience. “Novelist” is a light affair, bouncing around different topics loosely based in the idea of being a fiction novelist, and earning your livelihood within that creative act. I’d recommend it to anyone who loves reading, or who is currently/potentially seeking a creative career.
Sad Millenial Music
Sitting at the dinner table with my partners’ family last night, her father asked the three 30-somethings at the table “what loss does your generation have to mourn?” while talking about the content of the music that we listen to. It was a fun conversation, and in my attempt to answer him, I opened up Spotify, and was handed this automatically-generated playlist: “text me back”
A perfect if slightly off-center answer to what is ailing us. Listen, and enjoy:
They’re Back
I haven’t listened to it yet, because I’m probably on an airplane right now, but:
One of our greatest, on one of our weirdest
Imogen Sara Smith, one of our finest film historians, thinkers, writers, wrote a piece about Damien Cahzelle’s most recent oddity Babylon. She’s right on with her assessment of a movie I think about all the time, despite not liking it.
Thanks, everyone, for reading. As always, share what new things have filled your cup recently. I’ll be writing about another album next week, and will be back home with movies to catch up on.
TTFN,
B