Hitting The Links: 8/18/24
This one's got me going semi-analog and finding new writing spaces, + a ton of great links, one of my fave movies, running progress, various compulsions & more
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This Must Be The Place
I bought a toy a couple of weeks ago: a reMarkable2 tablet. It’s an e-ink tablet that you can handwrite, note-take, and also draw on, and type into with the keyboard folio case. It’s got wifi so it can sync what I write/draw with other devices, and I can import PDFs to read/write on, but there’s no web-browser, email or other internettery. I bought it to give myself a different space.
The reMarkable2 is a very smart dumb device. Sitting here at the (otherwise) Analog Desk, typing away, I have no “I just need to look up XYZ” option. (Which is not to say I don’t have the impulse.) Writing on my laptop, that would invariably lead to “while the browser’s open I may as well just look at email, BlueSky, Instagram, etc.,” and on down the great chain of distraction that rules our time. Now it’s just me & the words. I’ll look up the links later.
I’ve infrequently resorted to the great OmmWriter app on my laptop over the years, with its full-screen stark landscape, ambient soundtrack, and no-access-to-anything-else environment, but it’s too easy to “just switch out for a second to look up XYZ” and break the spell.
And yes, obviously, I could just Go Analog and use a notebook and pen, but I do that with my journal and postcards every morning, and that rarely leads to any writing of significance. So I thought I’d engage in a variation of my old neurotic Acquisitive Alchemy neurosis, and see if the results are any different.
Acquisitive Alchemy, for those who aren’t steeped in Gil Canon, is my notion that “I’ll get started on [PROJECT] once I buy Just The Right Tools.” It’s what kept me from starting the podcast for almost 18 months: I had to have the RIGHT mics, the RIGHT recording setup, etc., before I could begin to make the show. But I got over it/myself, bought a mic, turned on Garage Band and Audacity, and started. I’ve upgraded my gear over the years, but that made me realize that it’s more important to take the plunge and get started; you can figure out what works and what needs improving as you progress.
Which is why, when I started drawing 3+ years ago, I just took a pencil and sketchpad and went out in my backyard to try and draw some trees, rather than think, “I need to find an art supply store, go get The Right Pad And Pencil, and THEN I can start.” I bought lots of art-stuff over time, but never with the thought that I couldn’t try X without tool Y. It was more, “hmm, this brush/pen/pigment/paper looks neat; I wonder what I could make with that.”
Which is why the reMarkable2 purchase is a variation rather than a straight case of Acquisitive Alchemy. It’s not like I was holding off on writing until I bought it. I do this compulsively, but now I can deny a bunch of other compulsions. I can sit with this device and find myself in a new conceptual space. I won’t say “distraction-free,” as my mind is a distraction, but this gives me less to do more.
I’ve been thinking about writing spaces lately, both physical and conceptual. In recent newsletters, I mentioned how I might try to rent an office space nearby to work on my GUEST/HOST Instax+writing book. In that case, I think I need to get out of my physical environment, too, and have a location where I can lay out all the photos, contemplate them, get to writing their accompanying texts.
It’s not just about room — I could clear out enough of my library/office to display all the pictures — but about not being in the same place where I work, read, exercise, etc. A nondescript space where I can “work on my book,” which puts me in mind of the movie ANOTHER WOMAN, which I write about below. (RIP Gena Rowlands)
I should look up a quote from that, but gosh knows where that would lead. . . .
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And now, let’s hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: Joe Coleman • Anita Kunz • Shalom Auslander • Maurice Vellekoop • Laura Beers • Robert Pranzatelli • Bob Fingerman • Swan Huntley
RIP Gena Rowlands . . . RIP Greg Kihn . . . RIP Famous Amos . . . RIP Peter Marshall . . . RIP Alain Delon . . .RIP Charlie Moss . . . RIP Charles R. Cross . . . RIP Mary Wings . . . RIP Betty A. Prashker . . .
My first Gena Rowlands movie was Woody Allen’s ANOTHER WOMAN, which is one of my all-time faves. Sure, it’s probably because I was born into a midlife crisis, but whatever. Rowlands plays a philosophy professor, recently turned 50, who takes a sabbatical to write a book and rents an apartment to write in. It’s the movie that introduced me to Rilke & Satie. It’s one of Allen’s Bergman-esque dramas, shot beautifully by Bergman’s cinematographer, Sven Nykvist. I rewatched it Friday night, for the first time since turning 50.
MARION: Fifty. I didn’t think anything turning thirty. Everybody said I would. Then they said I’d be crushed turning forty, but they were wrong. I didn’t give it a second’s thought. Then they said that I’d be traumatized when I hit fifty, and they were right. I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t think I’ve ever recovered my balance since turning fifty.
HOPE: Oh, gee, fifty’s not so old.
MARION: No, I know it isn’t, but . . . you just suddenly look up and see where you are.Besides Rowlands, The cast includes Ian Holm, Sandy Dennis, Martha Plimpton, Mia Farrow, Blythe Danner, Gene Hackman, John Houseman, David Ogden Stiers, and a past guest of the podcast: Bruce Jay Friedman! If you haven’t seen this one, GET ON IT.
“I wondered if a memory is something you have or something you’ve lost.” Go support the crowdfunder for the new (old) collection by Ho Che Anderson!
Following last Sunday’s newsletter, Scott Newstok sent me a piece from the Chronicle of Higher Ed regarding that essay by Pope Francis about the need for literary reading.
Ooh! Severance is back!
The NYT’s departing restaurant critic wrote about what’s changed in dining since he started that role in 2012.
Looks like Stan Lee was on to something with unstable molecules. Go figure.
Current/Recent Reading
Still Life at Eighty: A Memoir - Nicholas Delbanco
“Our myths see us in terms of time, the Enlightenment sees us in terms of space.”
—Karl Ove Knausgaard (tr. Don Bartlett, Martin Aitken), My Struggle: Book 6
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
I ran on Monday and Thursday and Saturday, going a little longer and faster each time. The first two were with some of The Guys, but I had to run Saturday solo, which is more challenging for me (it’s a mental thing). But I hit my 4-mi. goal as I try to get my legs, lungs & mind back to the shape when I used to run 10k 3x/week with The Guys. I’m also a day away from finishing another 5-day weights-yoga cycle. I cut back on my compulsive eating/snacking this week, and after Saturday’s run — along with a ~4-mi. walk with some of The Guys who are currently on the Injured List — I was weighed in 7 lbs. lighter from the previous Sunday, so that’s got me feeling better about myself. (After eating & rehydrating, I still weighed in this morning down 5+ lbs. from a week ago.) I was getting concerned about my weight creeping up in recent months and aforementioned compulsive noshing. Also, I took a semi-untasteful photo back at home after the run yesterday, and I sorta looked like a superhero, so that’s a nice trick of the light. (Maybe, if you ask nice.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new episode + art & Instax pix, and on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, & sure maybe a little analog profundity or something.
A vague sensation quickens / In his young and restless heart / And a bright and nameless vision / Has him longing to depart,