Some light content, some thoughtful content
Oh, Mid-March readers, hello.
On Leap Day, I attended a concert with my friend Rob. The concert was plainly advertised as a five-hour affair, the marathon work 'Music in 12 Parts' by the godfather of minimalism, Philip Glass. (You may have seen the 'Assfest' image that went viral.) The concert had four acts, including a dinner break between acts II and III, as well as two short intermissions. The Annenberg Center was packed with enthusiastic minimalism fans. Rob and I silenced our phones, switched our minds to “Relax” mode, and settled in for repetition and some truly virtuosic performance. Throughout the event, I saw multiple people pull out their phones. Some were taking photos, which the staff quashed, but others were just.. checking Instagram. I was shocked. A fellow audience member shamed a woman in front of me. An usher hustled to admonish someone in the fifth row. I have my own struggles with digital compulsions. This behavior felt bizarre to me, though. The music was in 50-minute sets! Didn't these people want to immerse themselves in this music? I was particularly startled because I was working over the winter with a digital health coach, a friend who's read up on these phenomena, and we discussed my habits, experiences, and feelings. Among other concerns, I had spent too many nights fighting sleepiness while also refreshing Instagram, which, like, I don't even like that much except for all the cheese accounts I follow? (Here comes the nostalgia I promised last time!) I don't think I have any wise words on the next part, but I do spend a lot of time thinking about what it was like to discover new music via the public library's cassettes throughout the 1990s. In a word: challenging and surprising, whether it was my first exposure to The Beatles or my first Laurie Anderson. My elementary school library had subscriptions to Popular Mechanics and Hot Rod, in addition to Cricket and Boys' Life. That was the extent of “fringe” literature I had access to for a long while. Everything now is incalculably overwhelming.
Reading
I made some progress on my article stack last month! Patricia Fancher wrote in Catapult about being raised as a Jehovah's Witness and subsequently excommunicated. I rediscovered Neda Toloui-Semnani's reflection on moving to Paris, visiting bistros, and writing there. Speaking of communicating across cultures, among some professional networks I'm in, an article got a lot of attention: has science communication failed? Kirby Conrod, a linguist I know through Twitter, studies how identity interacts with pronoun usage. They started a thread about cis folks trying out different pronouns and eventually put together this fascinating “declaration” as “president of pronouns” (they're KIDDING, but also, it seems, some folks do treat Kirby this way? And probably other linguists, regardless of their work and identity? I don't know.) Last, to my point in the intro, and for the sake of discussion with some friends, I started slowly, juicily reading the book How To Do Nothing which feels unbelievably timely. More on this in next month's newsletter which will come out.. you know, early-mid April?
Eating
At home we've been making roasted sweet potatoes with a miso-tahini sauce and the butternut squash & brussels sprouts from Salt Fat Acid Heat. I dumpled at Nan Zhou twice and Shanghai One once. For a mini bachelor party, friends and I drove into the odd bits of South Jersey to eat great wings at Pic-A-Lilli Inn (highly recommended!) and The Jug Handle (weird vibe!). No pictures this time because I am frustrated with technology today!
Beating
Our artist-a-week project continued with David Byrne, Carl Perkins, and probably two others. The Avalanches finally shared a new track! The Avalanches always remind me of July 2002 and eating Trader Joe's spanokopita with opera students as we all heard "Frontier Psychiatrist" for the first time. The same week the Avalanches dropped the new fun, the brilliant Eric Kleptone released the sublime 'ER' album
Meeting
Well, we'll see how all this plays out, huh? I'm due at a 3/13 Bad Kitten show, in an improv set 3/15 with AAPI improvisers at Good Good, and in the 3/27 N Crowd show.
Deleting
Oh hey I'm no longer an unmarried person! Kelsey & I got married mid-February! We planned the whole thing absurdly quickly and with some superb support from a number of lovely folks. We were thinking we'd get married in the next year or so, but then an amazing opportunity (for me to keep being covered on her employer's health insurance) arose and we jumped on it. We're still over the moon about it all and want to do a bigger thing later this year. What happened in February was gorgeous and thoughtful and way beyond what we had expected given the timing. Enjoy some photos from the talented Lindsay Docherty Photography.
Retreating
As alluded to in the last issue, Kelsey and I had our annual mid-winter trip at the turn-of-the-month. We went to Conestoga, which is near Lancaster, and the source of the “Conestoga wagon.” This vehicle was not used on cross-country trips, despite what you might think. Conestoga is nicely near one of our summer hiking spots, has a diner, and most importantly had a quaint AirBNB we could post up in to write, read, and do some general planning.
The next few weeks will be interesting and challenging. I do a lot of work from home as it is, and we've added a bit more to our pantry than we normally have on hand. Take care of yourself, friend.
Best,
Neil