Friday Favorites 28

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Friday,

Cue the music, brew that pot. The Minnesota Fair officially kicked off, marking the end of summer, and I can’t wait to eat every pickle-related item.

Here are 10 interesting things worth sharing this week:

RIP Dolly Parton, RIP Tim Curry; two phenomenal human beings who made the world a brighter place. A nugget of wisdom I read about them both this week: take your cause seriously, but don’t take yourself too seriously. Help others, but don’t let your ego get in the way. Now it’s time to watch “9 to 5” and “Clue.”
Forget reading in season, I’m reading out of season and spending the end of summer reading about a bunch of sailors whose ship froze stuck to the pack ice during an arctic winter while a mysterious creature stalks them.
At night while I read “The Terror” I’ve been listening to this dark 2007 ambient album “Erebus & Terror” by David Bickley inspired by Sir John Franklin’s doomed expedition in the 1840s. I like it more than the official soundtrack to the miniseries of “The Terror.”
“The Terror” was included in a discontinued “Winter reads” series from The Guardian, which has 20 other wintry book recommendations I might dip into before the temps cool down.
Brendan gets it.
Loved hearing Adrian Tchaikovsky’s approach to good writing — mostly by starting with worldbuilding to create realistic characters, allowing the plot to unfold from there.
In extremely good news for me and my coffee habit, the American Heart Association released a review of many studies found that most adults can have up to 5 cups of coffee a day without adverse effects, and 2 to 4 cups can be good for you.
So excited for the upcoming concert film of David Byrne’s “Who Is the Sky?” tour. I missed his show when he came to Minneapolis, but we came through when his violinist’s five-string instrument
“It’s a bit like making dough: the resting is the most important part of the recipe. You cannot skip it or rush.” Lofi Cinema on giving your creative ideas time to rest.
Coming back to this George Saunders letter, where he writes “what if we tried to believe that everything we did and felt (and avoided, and screwed up) was, not only part of our long artistic journey, but was the journey?” Which reminds me of Anne Lamott saying it’s not that writers need to have really interesting experiences to tell good stories, but that they have to actually observe — to really notice and be aware of their experiences — to tell good stories.

See you on down the dusty trail,

Dollyparton on Isak's Blog

Friday Favorites 28