Tension and Release
(Hi all. Long time no see. Keeping it simple: one good thing as the opportunity arises. No plan, no schedule, no big ideas. You can always unsubscribe here....
the compagnon’s staircase
the compagnon's staircase Niklas Luhmann always worked with a collaborator, whom he scrupulously credited: his Zettelkasten, a slip-box of pieces of paper on...
working from home
working from home Adolf Loos, dandy and architect, gave a series of talks in Paris in 1926: Der Mensch mit den Modernen Nerven, “Man with Modern Nerves,”...
flat land seen from above
(For breakfast, Rossini would have two hardboiled eggs and a glass of good Bordeaux. Chekhov would make pancakes to eat with gooseberry jam and a glass of...
the unusual solution
(Hello, my dears, to the end of the “Passing Current” newsletter and the beginning of something new. The day before the stay-in-place order, the man ahead of...
Passing Current 40: Tune a brook by moving the stones in it
Theme: "Yellow Mercury 4," off Empathy Moves the Water by the Crooked Jades (And we're back. I had to take a break from writing the newsletter to finish some...
Passing Current 39: Dancers at Akasaka Space Capsule Disco, 2
(Hello again, again.) Dancers at Akasaka Space Capsule Disco, 2 (This is a sequel to Passing Current number 8: the stories of the people dancing at Akasaka...
Passing Current 38: Futurist Tango
(Hello again.) futurist tango They didn’t know what to call jazz when they brought it to Russia. Parnakh came back from Paris in 1922 with the instruments...
Passing Current 37: Sister squares are reconciled
(Introducing a new recurring segment, “every yes” – ideas, sketches, and materials for things I’ll never get around to writing, and should stop thinking...
Passing Current 36: Run
(If you’re American and angry about the amazingly terrible tax plan and state of politics, may I recommend making a donation, however small, to some local...
Passing Current 35: Corner of Prince and Wooster
(Happy birthday Amy!) corner of prince and wooster They started with a space, at the corner of Prince and Wooster in SoHo in New York City, and an idea: the...
Passing Current 34: The human always (1/3)
(Glad to be with you again! Back from the road for the fall. (Recent offices: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) Cranes, golden plovers, red-throated divers, parrot...
Passing Current 33: Mushroom dogsup
(Hello again, just before midsummer. This is the 33rd of these letters, and will be the last until fall. Parts of these letters so far have been notes and...
Passing Current 32: The oblique function
(My friend Amy – one of the smartest, most creative people I’ve ever met – has started a newsletter! Already it’s amazing: Ridiculous Ideas to Stave Off...
Passing Current 31: L'Insaisissable
(Ponderosas, lodgepole pines, sugar pines, incense cedars, manzanita and bitter cherry and rabbitbush. Steller’s jays and dark-eyed juncos and mountain...
Passing Current 30: Hearsay of the sun
(Been on the road, working. Missed you! Recent offices: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.) hearsay of the sun “Such evanescent shadows of probability,” said Benjamin Peirce,...
Passing Current 29: The overload
(Hello my darlings. It’s hard to write about anything else, isn’t it? There are almost-finished drafts for you about a constructed language for naming stars,...
Passing Current 28: Surface tension
(Happy new year, my dears.) surface tension Let’s start in London in 1968, with a kidnapping, and end in the high desert outside Twentynine Palms. Two...
Passing Current 27: The Torch
(»Mir fällt zu Trump nichts ein.«) the torch Every night, Karl Kraus sat down at his desk to face “the wall of fire”: burning cities, burning books, the...
Passing Current 26: Ghost story
(In the spirit of the season.) ghost story Robert Aickman wrote some of my favorite … what to call them? They’re not ghost stories, necessarily. He called...