It’s finally feeling like spring: the sun is melting, migratory birds are chirping and flying through the trees in their little flocks, and a fox left prints in my yard.
Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week.
- I love looking at flow charts of how different genres of art — from types of books to genres of music — have changed and morphed over time. So I had a blast scrolling around Music Map this week, but I wish it were way, way more in-depth.
- I got into typewriters during the pandemic: I needed to write without distractions. But using it always put me in a much different headspace than the one I had writing on a computer. So I really enjoyed this video about another guy who’s come to love typewriters.
- RIP to Chuck Norris. I feel like Chuck Norris jokes were one of my earliest internet meme memories? I printed out a bunch of Chuck Norris jokes and taped them to my school locker in junior high, and we’d all memorize and parrot them to each other like one-liners.
- Loved this profile of Willie Nelson. My very first concert was a Bob Dylan-Willie Nelson show! It ruled. I love reading about artists that live to make their art, spending their entire lifetime committed to the craft. Inspiring.
- Really love this Instagram account sharing daily David Byrne dances.
- I went to the Mall of America this week (I am still sad it’s not named Camp Snoopy!) and hadn’t yet heard that the MoA Hooters restaurant is closing — and people have thoughts.
- I never thought I’d feel so understood by Charles Darwin? Turns out there were a lot of days he’d rather stay home in bed than go do science?
- This week I nearly caught up on my stack of unread New Yorkers. I finally got current, only to discover a few long reads that are, ahem, very long: The Atlantic gave $100k to a staff writer to gamble on the NFL season, and Reuters spent a lot of resources tracking down the identity of Banksy. I kind of like the mystery of not knowing about Banksy though!
- I’m sad about the downfall of the mass market paperback. There’s something very nostalgic and accessible about them, like something you don’t have to treat as precious or high-brow, but something that can carry around and love and beat up and share with a friend with folded, torn covers. In the meantime, I’ll keep ordering 70’s mass market paperbacks from bookfinder.
- I finally caved and ordered this beautiful illustrated edition of Lord of the Rings to match my Silmarillion edition I got a few years back. I went back and forth between this and the newer Alan Lee box set, the 2000 set I had, the 1973 set my dad had, and the hilarious 1993 set my friend Tom has. I finally relented that I’ll probably collect them all eventually.
See you on down the dusty trail,
Isak