Isak's Blog

Happy Friday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. When did summers get so busy, and how is it already late July! I’m trying to soak in some sunny days, but they’re passing me by.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

1. “Writing is hard because your human brain, the one that’s been running and updating the biological human survival software for roughly 200,000 years, is genuinely convinced that putting words on a page might kill you.” There’s neuroscience behind why our brain sees writing as quietly dangerous and how meditation can help.
2. Hot people read books, as it turns out. It’s funny how we collectively lament the end of reading thanks to social media and AI, but simultaneously there are so many book clubs and buzz over new subgenres.
3. The Lo-Fi Cinema YouTube channel have the best video essays about the creative process and identity, and their latest about uncertainty and rigidity in your artistic path really hit home for me. It reminds me of a Rumi quote I stumbled upon this morning, serendipitously: “As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
4. Everyone’s talking about “The Odyssey,” and I’m waiting until Tuesday to see it at our old three-screen theater (cheap movie night is the best night!), but it has me remembering this great interview with Emily Wilson, the first female translator to put The Odyssey and The Iliad into English. (Tyler Cowen quickly jumps between topics with guests, which is jarring at first but youg et used to it).
5. Emily Wilson also knows how to have fun: When we were all quarantining over the summer of 2020, she decided to read and act out a bit of “The Odyssey” every day, complete with wigs, sunglasses, and other props she had in her home. Having fun with your work is important!
6. That reminds of of Austin Kleon’s chapter “Don’t Take Things Too Seriously” from his new book “Don’t Call It Art”: find who’s having fun, pretend it’s all a comedy, and play the fool. “Ask yourself frequently, ‘Am I having fun?’ The answer needn’t always be yes. But if it’s always no, it’s time for a new project or a new career,” says Stephen King.
7. I’ve lifted a few pens from restaurants I love as a memento to a good memory (a few restaurants of which have now closed), so this tight essay about pilfering restaurant ephemera is very relatable. (I also share a love for Field Notes, Pilot G2s, and abhorring Bic Clic Stics)
8. Brendan’s latest video about why we run is really about why we do anything: to keep doing it. (See: writing, reading, lifting, going for walks)
9. Nearly every day, Kent Peterson types up a short, interesting essay or thought on his typewriter, pushes a few hand-carved ink stamps onto the paper, snaps a photo, and uploads it to YouTube — and this recent post “Lessons in Slowing Down” gets at why, I think, and also shows off a particularly old typewriter (he has a big collection!).
10. Finally, a watch that tells the time and also shows exactly how I plan to spend my weekend.

See you on down the dusty trail,

Happy Friday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. One of my favorite camping spots in northern Minnesota had an AQI above 1,600 this week, and my mouth tastes smoky while I’m typing this many hours south of there.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

1. PurpleAir is my favorite way to track air quality and monitor the summer smoke situation, recommended by someone who’s dealt with more wildfires in Colorado.
2. “There is such a thing as righteous anger, because that is not about you and your personal ego; it really is the anger you’re feeling on the behalf of the vulnerable.” Anger can be a powerful, empowering, and positive force when facing systemic injustices like climate change. (It’s been my main climate emotion for 7 years and I recommend it.)
3. I’m also a fan of having a creative nemesis. (My former nemesis wrote climate disinformation in Minnesota.)
4. “’It’s much worse than we think, and sooner;’ [the child in my dream said] to whom I said ‘no duh child in my dreams, what do you think this singing and shuddering is, what this creaming and reaching and dancing and crying is, other than loving what every second goes away?” Ross Gay’s “Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude” is one of my favorite poems, and it’s great set to Bon Iver.
5. Adults are seven times likelier to be advocating/taking action against climate change if their primary emotion is anger rather than hope. For every two clicks a person moves on the anger scale, they move one click on the activism scale.
6. I’ve apparently replaced “Big Book Summer” with “Stephen King Summer” after finishing “The Body” now listening to “Duma Key” and reading “Fairy Tale.” Something about King’s characters, from 11-year-old boys to high school teenagers to adults, makes his stories interesting even when the plot lags or the endings are unfulfilling. I grew up in a small town, and there’s something genuine in his simple, rural characters.
7. “Humans are not as dysfunctional as we think, we can work together to produce something joyful.” David Byrne on why he replaced one drummer with six so they can move around on stage.
8. I’m fascinated by people who commit to a seemingly pointless and time-intensive project , like Van Neistat typewriting, cutting out, and arranging every word of Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five” or the local legend riding Valley Fair’s Excalibur Roller Coaster (my childhood favorite) over and over, day after day, in search of — something.
9. When I grew up, the internet was a place; specifically, a computer tower and monitor on a desk in a room in our house. Now it’s in my pocket (and seemingly in my hand without me noticing), so I like this idea of using a scrolly phone and a scrolly chair to make it place-based again.
10. Very excited that Adventure Journal, a quarterly print mag that’s my ride or die (been subscribing since Issue 18 and want to buy the first 17) has archived their entire catalog to subscribers.

See you on down the dusty smoky trail,

Happy Friday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. It’s been a long, hot week and I could use a lake.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

1. This New Yorker owns so many books in his studio apartment, his landlord is trying to evict him. (Goals?)
2. “I always loved this slogan used by the New York State Lotto: ‘Hey, you never know.’ As someone who’s taught writing for many years, I don’t know a better mantra for anyone involved in the arts.” This George Saunders article has so many good nuggets in it. Another: “Someone might have to live a long time before the thing they were born to say becomes fully formed and accessible to them.”
3. You can now browse every Criterion Closet pick in a virtual closet on this cool web app.
4. Today is the last day to bid on the American Library Association’s iconic READ posters of celebrities holding their favorite books. (Of course Nicolas Cage’s is Siddhartha.)
5. I like when people a) make arbitrary stupid goals, and 2) use them as an interesting hook for doing something, so I’m still thinking about how Beau Miles ran a marathon from home by running one mile around his house every hour for 24 hours straight and fitting in as many chores as possible in-between.
6. I wrote about Henry David Thoreau’s Type II Fun trip camping in the woods, foraging for food, and using some old lumber as a sleeping bag to stay warm at night, which reminds me of this old Dirtbag Diaries podcast episode about the three types of outdoor fun.
7. How I work isn’t all that different from a Large Language Model: I read a bunch, let the ideas simmer, and then draw on them all — consciously or not — to write. The problem is that now a bunch of stuff I read is AI-generated whether I know it or not, which is affecting the whole process like a genetic mutation.
8. I’ve been missing the fried bologna sandwiches and classic country bands of Robert’s in Nashville from this time of year last year, so I’ve been listening to this Vintage Country playlist on Spotify a bunch this week.
9. My Stephen King kick continues with “Different Seasons,” a collection of novellas including “The Body” — which is probably better known for its adaptation into the movie “Stand By Me.” I loved this movie when I was younger: a group of boys hiking, telling stories, getting into mischief and adventure — and I’m delighted how well it was adapted and sad it was banned in Utah schools this week. (I guess they also banned “Bag of Bones” which I also just finished?)
10. I like this idea of using a typewriter to write a cover of an essay/book you like, like a shorter version you make for yourself.

See you on down the dusty trail,

There are two kinds of vacations I take: the relaxing ones where you visit a new city, stay in a hotel, and explore a new part of the world. Then there are the dirtbag vacations, where I’m sleeping in a tent, hiking and camping somewhere, and come back a bit stronger and wild.

This isn’t a new thing.

Back in the mid-1800’s, two of the more influential writers that kicked off the American Renaissance were Ralph Waldo Emerson, the spiritual figurehead of the Transcendentalist movement, and his student/protege/apprentice Henry David Thoreau.

Happy Friday Sunday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. I spent a few days at a lake in Minnesota floating and listening to loons a c fireworks, so this newsletter’s coming a few days later than scheduled (someday I’ll code a “publish in future” option on my website).

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

1. Typewriters acted as a “meeting technology that enabled White women to marry above their socioeconomic backgrounds and achieve upward mobility.”
2. Twice a year LitHub publishes a long list of upcoming books, and great for 1) finding interesting new books (obvi), 2) guessing which ones will be mega-popular prize winners, and 3) finding niche titles I’d never encounter otherwise.
3. All of us contain a variety of selves, and “a piece of writing succeeds when the writer invokes the best self to tell the particular story at hand.”
4. Very excited for Peter Heller’s “The Dog Stars” to hit the big screen this August. His literary wilderness thrillers are a go-to beach (lake?) read for me, and this is one of his best (I just hope the movie doesn’t lose the emotional tenderness of the protagonist!)
5. Goth Babe on why luxurious RVs can never capture the same experience as simplicity and companionship of camping with friends.
6. I think that semi-myth about writers writing in a frenzied bout of inspiration so intense the rest of your life recedes to a small echo is that state we all aspire to be hijacjed to - no matter how real or fleeting it might be. The dream: to be inspired with such certainty no doubt or judgement gets in the way of output!
7. “There are such obvious benefits to not scrolling your life away, and yet we do it all the time.” I think phones suck our energy, curiosity, and agency away from our interests and self-expression, but I still find advice like “find moderation and intention” to not be ass effective as I’d like.
8. This video from 10 years ago still crops up in my mind as on of my favorite examples of good (unexpected) storytelling.
9. There’s purpose and peril in daydreaming of “could be’s” in your future and “could have been’s” in your past — and this book sounds like an excellent teacher for not becoming too weighed down in the latter.
10. Still videos of nature doing its thing set to chill music like this invariable 1) calms me down, and 2) simultaneously gives me an existential crisis about how we’re spending our existence in this place.

See you on down the dusty trail,