Welcome to Reasonable Things, an occasional newsletter about music, language, and meaning from Joel Heng Hartse.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Americans! I myself “converted” to Canadian Thanksgiving some time ago, having lived here for 16 years; I now refer to the one in October as simply “Thanksgiving.” People can change, it turns out!

Allergic as I am to self-promotion, I don’t really have anything interesting on the go at the moment in terms of public-facing ‘work,’ though I have really been enjoying my teaching lately, which is a blessing.

So I thought I’d let you know about some cool things I am enjoying these days which, I just realized, could also double as a Christmas shopping list.

• This one is cheating, but: you can get one (or both!) of my books about music for 50% off plus free shipping in the US for the next couple of days if you go here and use the code CONFSHIP. This is by far the best price possible for these books!

• My friend Kevin is a great musician and artist, and you could read his newsletter for free, or you could pay him for it!

• John Van Deusen, who I’ve known since his band spent the night at our house in Eureka, California in 2006, has a new album out, which I wrote about for Christianity Today. The thing is, since it came out, I can’t stop listening to one of his older albums, Marathon Daze, which I think is by far his best. (Annoyingly, it’s one of his only solo records not available in a physical form, but I still recommend buying it on Bandcamp.)

• My friend Mischa has been promoting the Whitworth Writer’s Workshop, a new MFA program he has begun directing in Spokane, WA, my hometown. I get excited for him and for it every time I see it mentioned. I guess you could enroll in it as a Christmas present to yourself? Listen to him talk about it here.

• I met up with Mischa and a few other friends at the tail end of summer this year to see one of my all-time favorite bands, Poor Old Lu, play their first show in two decades in Seattle. They’ve put out two singles covering the Cure and Tears for Fears which are worth your time.

• The Beths are my absolute favorite band of the last 5 years or so. I saw them in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago and it was just a joy. I’ve been loving both their new album, Straight Line was a Lie, and their first album, Future Me Hates Me, lately. Just exquisite pop songs played by a band that feels like a band, if you get what I mean.

• I happened to get a free copy of the short book On Reflection: An Essay on Technology, Education, and the Status of Thought in the Twenty-First Century by Ellen Rose almost on a whim, and I am so glad I read it. This book, among other things, inspired me to create a whole class centred around the things it talks about, which I’ll teach starting in January.

That’s it for now. Happy holidays!

🖤JHH
Vancouver, BC