10 things worth sharing this week
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| Hey y’all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: “There are two mes, the one that you see / and the real me, who I’m not supposed to be.” RIP Sinéad O’Connor.
O’Connor said one of the only people she was ever starstruck by was Lou Reed, and she writes warmly of their encounters in her memoir, Rememberings. I’ve been tearing through Will Hermes’ forthcoming biography, Lou Reed: The King of New York, which is pretty much exactly the book I wanted it to be: the same kind of kaleidoscopic page-turning collage as Love Goes To Buildings On Fire, just focused on a new subject. (Reed albums that hit a little closer to home for me these days: The Blue Mask and Songs for Drella — Reed was around my age when he recorded them.)
“Life teaches you how to live it if you live it long enough.” RIP Tony Bennett, a legendary singer who also painted and stayed curious. (I’ve been meaning to get his albums with Bill Evans.)
Jillian Hess on deciphering Emily Dickinson’s notes.
“I sometimes think poetry is best caught in snatches, like snippets of song from a passing car.” Elisa Gabbert on short poems.
Newsletter worth reading: I was already an Audrey Watters fan, but now that I have a minor health issue that means I have to watch what I’m eating, I’m really enjoying her new writing project, Second Breakfast, which explores the future of food and fitness technologies. (If somebody can make oatmeal interesting you know they’re a good writer.)
Musical podcasts I enjoyed: NPR on the history of cumbia, Max Richter’s five favorite songs, and Ray Wylie Hubbard on Willie Nelson’s “Whiskey River.” (Funny story about how I found that last one: my bike riding partner and I always swap earworms and one of his frequent visitors is “Snake farm! Just sounds nasty!” I never knew what the hell he was singing about until I turned on Austin City Limits a few nights ago and here’s this dude singing “Snake farm! Just sounds nasty!”)
The 100 best movies of past 10 decades according to one of my favorite movie critics, Stephanie Zacharek. I love how she frames it as “an annotated list, determined not by a poll or a committee but by one human being… Your own personal list would, and should, be different, but this is mine.” (Could be a description of this newsletter!) Looking through her list I realized I need to watch more movies from the 1920s and 30s. There’s even a handful that might be okay for family pizza night!
Eye candy: Graphic design archives and scrapbooks of pop fandom.
PJ Harvey puts it beautifully: “I think children are also the most brilliant artists, don’t you? There’s nothing more perfect than a child’s drawings. In order to create work, I often have to try and reach back to that open-mindedness, I suppose, and the naïveté that children have. Things pour out of them in such a natural way. I keep trying to get closer to that.”
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