SCALES #82: crooked cane
gifts, guitars, scrobbles
SCALES #81: Paradox poetic
Data, biology, muppets
SCALES #80: Where the pot's not
Hello! ▢ ▢ ▢ PAINLESS, the new Nilüfer Yanya album, came out earlier this month. Digging in beyond the advance singles, I’ve been enjoying how “trouble”...
SCALES #79: results from the geophys
Hello! It’s 2022 and it is still a lot of things, least of which it is still [checks notes] Season 5 of SCALES. And that’s… okay! The publishing schedule,...
SCALES #78: Versailles as in quails
Hello! One all-too-endless rabbit hole is learning why places are named as they are. Did you know in Ketchikan, Alaska, there are adjoining streets named...
SCALES #77: helmet on tight
Hello! “You want drama? I’ll give you a reality show” kicks off a verse on “Drama”, the opening song on Erika de Casier’s Sensational, one album I’ve gotten...
SCALES #76: jump ahead
Hello! I’ve been doing some escapist sci-fi reading: Becky Chambers’s Wayfarers series and Martha Wells’s Murderbot Diaries. Both use the affordances of...
SCALES #75: planted by the water
Hello! It’s been a while, sorry I haven’t posted, &c., &c. ▢ ▢ ▢ In the spirit of the extended holiday weekend, some thoughtful reads about American history...
SCALES #74: scientific cryptogram
Hello! I read some recent local coverage of a self-published family history of the Prior family, who in 1802 were the first white settlers of an area north...
SCALES #73: orange magenta and blue
Hello! Just pulling together some threads, in three blocks: ▢ ▢ ▢ Views on animal migration A recent dispatch from Jer Thorp’s upstream//data on the Brooklyn...
SCALES #72: mail truck queue
Hello! One of the best, most soul-nourishing types of activities I’ve done over the past year? Watching different “live” musical performances over the...
SCALES #71: precise enmity
Hello! I hope you’ve been doing all right. This week has been a prime example of what I identified in those innocent days of… one week ago: “I feel neither...
SCALES #70: over & over
Hello! SCALES is back for a third fourth (*checks the archive, raises eyebrows*) fifth season. In the spirit of hyper-specific television Wikipedia pages, a...
SCALES #69
Hello all, In this tough time, one tiny thing I thought I could do with this newsletter is share some organizations in the Twin Cities that could use...
SCALES #68: IJsheiligen
Hello! I finished reading The Bone and Sinew of the Land by Anna-Lisa Cox. Subtitled “America’s Forgotten Black Pioneers and the Struggle for Equality”,...
SCALES #67: overtone green
Hello! I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy. This is a Very Special podcast-heavy edition of SCALES. So I was listening to a podcast… …though maybe not...
SCALES #66: porcelaneous
Hello! For me, wandering around an art museum is a great way to relax. In grad school moseying over to one museum or another over lunch was always a helpful...
SCALES #65: took me years
Hello! Before a self-indulgent science explainer I want to lead off with Lili Loofbourow rightfully focusing on the core moral issue in a blistering piece:...
SCALES #64: float-glass
Hello! I hope you’re all able to be looking out for your health and the health of those around you. For the past few nights, my mind in all its wisdom has...
SCALES #63: cue fake drums
Hello! Just a short check-in this time around. I hope you’re all staying healthy, looking out for those around you, and keeping cabin fever at bay. ▢ ▢ ▢...