Explore all emails from Austin Kleon

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/free-posters-zines-and-a-mixtape Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-238219617 ], Let’s get right to it: I had a ton of fun over the past couple of weeks making a big batch of bonus goodies for folks who pre-order my next book, Don’t Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again [ https://substack.com/redirect/d1da9201-a286-41b6-afb1-c4bbbdfa21c1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. All you have to do to get them is pre-order the book wherever you like to buy books… …then take a photo or screenshot of your receipt and fill out the form on this page [ https://substack.com/redirect/4ea4cae2-5ace-41e8-8581-2dd422b32ad7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. You will immediately be able to download a printable PDF that includes: - A personal note from me - 5 mini posters - 5 zines with bonus material - 1 playlist of all the musicians mentioned in the book, plus a J-card if you’re feeling inspired to make your own mix on cassette! Pre-ordering the book not only gets you these exclusive goodies, it’s the best way to support my work right now. Pre-ordering lets bookstores and retailers know they should be stocking the book and helps boost the numbers in the first week of sales to increase the chances of it hitting the bestseller lists. Publishers Weekly published our first review this week and said the book’s “cheery, upbeat lessons” are “full of fun, wryly witty wisdom.” If you like my other books [ https://substack.com/redirect/962201a4-1ca9-4228-a8db-736aaf231a76?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], you will love this one! I spent all Wednesday in a studio in Austin, Texas recording the audiobook: Quite the step up from recording The Steal Like An Artist Audio Trilogy [ https://substack.com/redirect/1b363d23-a80a-4ddb-a573-818c4bce2997?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in my closet [ https://substack.com/redirect/717b1786-7f38-4cce-b1bf-b08ec9d79075?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] during the pandemic, but man, I forgot how physically and mentally demanding it is! During our lunch break, I played the engineer clips of Winnebago Man [ https://substack.com/redirect/2f04bb93-0638-4e96-8998-15a7a68f8417?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] to re-enact what was going on in my head all day. (PS. You can buy Don’t Call It Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/d1da9201-a286-41b6-afb1-c4bbbdfa21c1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in any format — hardcover, ebook, or audiobook — and still be eligible for the pre-order goodies!) I’m in that weird place called “the gulp [ https://substack.com/redirect/aa9c3ab2-4d32-4883-a2fa-7838a31ea4c2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” —  the thing is finished and it’s no longer in your hands, but it’s not in anybody else’s hands yet, either. This can be a dangerous time for the psyche of a creative person. My favorite example is Paul McCartney, who thought that [ https://substack.com/redirect/05f06c24-837a-4baa-8ef4-8673ba602006?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Revolver [ https://substack.com/redirect/05f06c24-837a-4baa-8ef4-8673ba602006?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] was out of tune [ https://substack.com/redirect/05f06c24-837a-4baa-8ef4-8673ba602006?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and the other Beatles had to assure him that it was just fine. (The Walter Martin Show [ https://substack.com/redirect/76afa0a1-5c7d-48bc-9845-8d16c743841a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] has infected me [ https://substack.com/redirect/54cdc7ee-c10d-47d1-9c53-d419a9d06aa9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] with Beatlemania.) “Never look at the audience. Look over their heads, look somewhere else, look into the darkness…” Advice from Steve Martin [ https://substack.com/redirect/9c669569-706c-472b-80f9-231d3ac1c7c0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I enjoyed this story [ https://substack.com/redirect/6694260f-3bce-4ce2-8707-012f6d6ad639?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] of Bob Dylan, one of the greatest thieves [ https://substack.com/redirect/892cbc04-2517-4321-b365-cdbb98b1eab5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in musical history, being sore at John Lennon, another brilliant thief, for stealing from him. I chased it with Anthony Lane’s “How Bad is Plagiarism, Really? [ https://substack.com/redirect/c58bf8aa-84b9-4d75-871d-78f4346631c1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” “We have a word, in English, for self-plagiarizing so habitual, and so fruitfully evergreen, that it becomes the mark—the smack, if you will—by which an artist is recognized and loved. We call it style.” Lane’s ending made me chuckle, because, intentionally or not, he’s lifting from Alfred Hitchcock, who said, “Self-plagiarism is style.” (Steal like an artist [ https://substack.com/redirect/57c99fbd-2a68-4a5b-adef-123ceae1623c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) “An idea arises spontaneously, just like any other thought… a concept is built deliberately through a series of choices and constraints.” Penny Lane on ideas vs. concepts [ https://substack.com/redirect/8baf3fda-58e4-4471-9089-931d221899f2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. VHS/90s nostalgia: When I got chicken pox in the fourth grade, I spent a week on the couch watching a VHS tape dubbed with a double feature of Wayne’s World [ https://substack.com/redirect/3f1661c9-ff6b-4892-bad3-cabb438da0d2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Edward Scissorhands [ https://substack.com/redirect/92f1e12c-3d8f-4e56-a3e4-58d3fe41aa5b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (The former was a pizza night [ https://substack.com/redirect/bdaa6886-946e-421d-b906-449512b4833d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] hit — it really holds up.) My gaming fifth grader is really into VHS — my mom actually mailed him her VCR — so I’m curious whether he would like Retro Rewind [ https://substack.com/redirect/09f4c92b-5e6a-4ad8-81d5-d91104ec9fb9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a game where you work in a video store [ https://substack.com/redirect/ecac8ba5-6925-43be-9e07-212db18a1641?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Criterion just ran an interview with Alex Ross Perry [ https://substack.com/redirect/19517108-4ccd-4f80-864d-82d8231ee7b3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who directed an essay film about the rise of VHS, Videoheaven [ https://substack.com/redirect/3744feb3-a7fa-4da5-81db-076559c3c410?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Map reading: the cartography of literature [ https://substack.com/redirect/1411d147-d0f6-4198-821f-6cde6ffcbf6b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Saul Steinberg [ https://substack.com/redirect/ee85a5f1-cb6b-408f-ba23-1a071b3cb002?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (This photo of Steinberg with his six-year-old self [ https://substack.com/redirect/1606dabf-296b-40bb-903d-2514fb098fda?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] is mentioned in the back of Don’t Call It Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/d1da9201-a286-41b6-afb1-c4bbbdfa21c1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I thought of it when I saw this gallery of fathers and sons holding hands [ https://substack.com/redirect/feee1c06-d2fa-428f-9e48-ce56d18f7323?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) RIP drummer James Gadson. [ https://substack.com/redirect/fea69146-cd7a-4a88-960a-0ca2bbfc9326?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] One of my favorite things is him grooving behind Bill Withers singing “Use Me” [ https://substack.com/redirect/a5ee5223-49bf-4830-a0e0-7f130b78a469?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1972. Lifting my spirits: pictures of Earth from Artemis’s moon flyby [ https://substack.com/redirect/45b14674-5297-40ca-9456-9820ac7de407?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], this baby beaver [ https://substack.com/redirect/5b8bbbb1-6f1b-4708-9ffe-29568e89e80d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] rescued in Austin, and Athena’s new owlet [ https://substack.com/redirect/83a777f2-3d7c-4df7-aecb-e3125bd1df54?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading! This hand-rolled, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. xoxo [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-239387047 ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTVNemN3TnpjNE9Dd2lhV0YwSWpveE56YzFPREl6TWpJd0xDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EY3pOVGt5TWpBc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuMi1uVHNfVk95MlQ1TnRYQUVKRXd2T2k0cHVHZFdYVVlPRWI0dWR3MUt1OCIsInAiOjE5MzcwNzc4OCwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3NTgyMzIyMCwiZXhwIjoyMDkxMzk5MjIwLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.GWSKbdThL0ipFYRfSe0iUG4IZIf4X-SbhDNEshcE3WY?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/do-something-that-wont-compute Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/bf1d649d-7d24-4861-8eac-0b014ea78289?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Putting down my Rubik’s Cube [ https://substack.com/redirect/0908a41c-4477-455e-9b70-744e57b6a03b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] to type. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: “Thoreau was saying: if you’re beginning to die within, take measures right now. There must be some cabin in the woods within you. There must be some space where you can regenerate yourself and remember what is most essential to you.” That’s writer Pico Iyer [ https://substack.com/redirect/1ec978dd-64f8-42b2-a162-d226a6df6878?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a talking head in the Ken Burns-produced PBS documentary Henry David Thoreau [ https://substack.com/redirect/4ff3ec51-952a-48bc-876f-c1df77934ada?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Other talking heads include Michael Pollan [ https://substack.com/redirect/e4e54315-c693-46a8-b528-8ca6a63c51db?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (“[Thoreau’s] big project as a writer is to wake us up”), Rebecca Solnit [ https://substack.com/redirect/b713e35d-0d0d-42fc-95ef-f54d6d5ff23a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (she has the best response to the “But his mom did his laundry! [ https://substack.com/redirect/404dc075-94ae-4c20-813a-14414a09644f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” fun bunch choir), and Laura Walls [ https://substack.com/redirect/337b5619-1cfb-4e06-bbb9-bc77bd6e6277?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who wrote the wonderful biography, Henry David Thoreau: A Life [ https://substack.com/redirect/862ba77c-f3fe-431d-9125-6d2b08fddc6d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I fell asleep several times, but my kids made it through all 3 nights of one-hour episodes! Our only trouble was that the ending was so heavy-handed [ https://substack.com/redirect/849c33a9-709a-4f84-9181-c9b008dddadb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] we all went to bed depressed. (I’m going to get through Walden some day, but what I really love are his journals [ https://substack.com/redirect/88bee5d7-ce7b-48ea-94c4-51abcd389ac3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Lighter fare: the teenager and I went to see Project Hail Mary [ https://substack.com/redirect/c13b7910-b4f6-4c66-a8f8-9bc84ea4a0f5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a good ol’ popcorn movie. Ryan Gosling says his performance was inspired by Chaplin in Modern Times [ https://substack.com/redirect/44ee15b1-4137-49a8-bd3c-1e8b5496ddc0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Val Kilmer and his t-shirt [ https://substack.com/redirect/7f9bec85-61dc-44a3-9ab4-891d1f777a71?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] game in Real Genius [ https://substack.com/redirect/b93de332-2dfc-4676-80af-4ceac95653c1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], so I added both of them to our pizza night [ https://substack.com/redirect/1fbcaadf-f91b-44b4-bbc1-a831fdb1ceeb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] queue. (We liked The Martian [ https://substack.com/redirect/aaa85fa0-afaf-4d21-bda3-e9b5e5552631?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] a while back, another adaptation of a novel by Andy Weir [ https://substack.com/redirect/bebea05a-cf1d-4765-ac23-6eb8bba389fb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. The teenager read both.) Funny thing: when I was signing at BookPeople [ https://substack.com/redirect/c4726422-c142-4a6e-a9cd-df928e54195b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] the other day, Isabel told me that nobody wants to buy books with movie tie-in covers — they want to be seen reading the original! Ryan Holiday’s 5 years of lessons from running a bookstore [ https://substack.com/redirect/6cb09319-bfa4-4b61-b161-a76860ab130b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I know a bunch of people with new books out: My blurbs are on the back of Mason Currey’s Making Art and Making a Living: Adventures in Funding a Creative Life [ https://substack.com/redirect/39959330-e6fb-4dac-9a2c-5520ee31b98f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Grace Farris’s See One, Do One, Teach One: The Art of Becoming a Doctor [ https://substack.com/redirect/cac6559b-2c23-41bf-ab01-60d513a08e1a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (she’s at BookPeople [ https://substack.com/redirect/5aec6d7d-6136-455a-a617-db29dfb5688a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] next week), and I was in the first draft of Jenny Lawson’s How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay [ https://substack.com/redirect/cc991680-9444-4b91-ad1a-bfb158242d1b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], but I think I got cut, LOL. (She’s at BookPeople [ https://substack.com/redirect/b35ad60f-a67c-42bb-bda1-d18ee0036bd5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] later this month). Zine-lovers of Austin, TX: This weekend is Staple! The Independent Media Expo [ https://substack.com/redirect/428244bb-5100-4ce4-ac68-a26ee7405bdd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. The special guest is Tara Booth [ https://substack.com/redirect/70d7dbbd-97b2-4151-a53d-086e7f24c3d7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], whose book Processing: 100 Comics That Got Me Through It [ https://substack.com/redirect/ba32570a-d0dc-4fa0-a828-40ef6807745d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] was one of my favorite things I read last year. Music-lovers of Austin, TX: On April 22, I’m interviewing Hrishikesh Hirway [ https://substack.com/redirect/e719f2c6-5191-4882-bd89-c2382c0f7935?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (host of my favorite podcast Song Exploder [ https://substack.com/redirect/60e973a0-e716-43a9-84c5-9277493391d7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]) onstage as part of the release show for his new album. You can get tickets here [ https://substack.com/redirect/a062ab04-eae9-4c9e-a681-09b92dc025ac?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A message I co-sign: “Start a band, even if you’re terrible [ https://substack.com/redirect/981b77c8-8f51-4aa6-bde3-b78623b412ce?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” At the beginning of the year, I started playing bass in a 90s rock cover band [ https://substack.com/redirect/17ddf585-6819-464c-989d-650f3953d193?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] with a couple of other dad friends. We played our first show in our local park last Sunday, and somehow, we weren’t terrible! It was fun. I always played guitar in bands when I was a teenager, but I love playing bass in a trio: you’re in this great spot between rhythm and melody. Speaking of bass players: Dusty Henry’s thoughts about Flea [ https://substack.com/redirect/9d522688-0119-448b-a689-b8535c11457c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] made me think of the recent NYTimes profile [ https://substack.com/redirect/d0b79fa7-42bd-4f5d-b2e5-7b8c2581d516?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] of Minutemen bassist Mike Watt. Both bassists are haunted (and animated) by the death of a friend and bandmate who brought them to their music: Red Hot Chili Peppers’ founding guitarist Hillel Slovak [ https://substack.com/redirect/f8c88263-340a-4d66-b38e-22ade5cfb977?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Minutemen leader D. Boon [ https://substack.com/redirect/faa8287a-ee2e-40a7-9a65-a8b60d500116?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], respectively. (Flea’s monologue in The Other F Word [ https://substack.com/redirect/3599ade0-e5ef-49c7-a66a-5da27ed0c358?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] is cited in the back of my next book, Don’t Call It Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/e58700cd-08fe-49bc-8662-5f82011271b7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Incredible deal: you can get PDFs of [ https://substack.com/redirect/99a49898-e9e5-4116-9f70-480085024511?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]The Collected Peanuts [ https://substack.com/redirect/99a49898-e9e5-4116-9f70-480085024511?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for $25 [ https://substack.com/redirect/99a49898-e9e5-4116-9f70-480085024511?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “One principle of collage, for me, is you have to kill one thing to make another. It’s a small-scale model of revolutionary behavior.” Lucy Sante on collage [ https://substack.com/redirect/5f3f5cf1-d937-4f70-8bde-29d1e9715a38?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. RIP cartoonist Glen Baxter [ https://substack.com/redirect/4e80879f-2200-4d6c-bc81-6f3707cc4b87?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who I will add to my list of creative people who stutter [ https://substack.com/redirect/c8426f27-bbc7-4f11-982c-836b1d367b1f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “An autodidactic spirit was fostered by his stammer. It made him dwell upon words, and their substitutes, and this would inform his captions’ idiosyncratic vocabulary. As he recalled, ’you can’t ask the grocer “Can I have some oranges?“ because you’re going to immediately hit the word c-c-can, so you say, “Good morning, have you any oranges?” Of course the shop’s full of oranges — who is this idiot? — so you’re in the position of being slightly mad and also there’s this fear involved. This childhood fear means I tinker with sentences until I’ve got them just about right.” (You can see more of Baxter’s work on Instagram [ https://substack.com/redirect/0cce8ca3-c775-4ee7-8a7c-afa731cc04d4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) I will give the last word to Wendell Berry [ https://substack.com/redirect/faf86bca-21cc-463c-9d00-486707d2ff5b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “Every day do something that won’t compute.” And Elmore Leonard: “Really all you have to do is be yourself. Be cool.” Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/73fef35f-a229-42c9-b2c1-61c3e571458d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/266c6119-1fac-4287-a48f-674cc291f37c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin PS. Next week I record my second audiobook [ https://substack.com/redirect/a44779ef-f5d8-448f-9cd6-cab97bd16281?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]! This one is for Don’t Call It Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/d73e414e-3b33-43f1-aeb9-5b39b8a59b4f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Also, next Friday I’ll have some fun goodies for people who’ve pre-ordered [ https://substack.com/redirect/e58700cd-08fe-49bc-8662-5f82011271b7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] the book, so save your receipts!!! Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTVNamsyTURBM05pd2lhV0YwSWpveE56YzFNakU0TWpZNUxDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EWTNOVFF5Tmprc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAub2VFYmx5aFhTdEk4ODVkWHltRUp2c3BfWEhEQzBubl9wSGVPMXo4cVVFWSIsInAiOjE5Mjk2MDA3NiwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3NTIxODI2OSwiZXhwIjoyMDkwNzk0MjY5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.5ItxMcMTXBTbjR4-7XnqzJi4p_fGLO2zRcVmyh5sJw8?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/desert-not-so-solitaire Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/99312fb4-6cfe-4dbb-9f11-e13bf7196221?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: I don’t know how or when it happened, but I’ve somehow become a person who likes being in the desert? It started a few years ago driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, then developed on trips to Joshua Tree [ https://substack.com/redirect/ad364cc7-c923-482c-b14b-799b163f0d9a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and New Mexico [ https://substack.com/redirect/12d1df4d-1112-423a-9bd7-fa960c1c362f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Last week for spring break we took a little 3-night trip to Arizoña (I pronounce it like Matt Berry [ https://substack.com/redirect/2857424f-5f32-4bf6-a273-6c9879881f10?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]), hiked in a canyon outside of Sedona, stargazed under dark skies, looked at the sun through a solar telescope at the Lowell Observatory [ https://substack.com/redirect/645a9863-ade0-45dd-b020-6578ffcd0ae3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in Flagstaff, and caught a Cleveland Guardians [ https://substack.com/redirect/3515fcc8-2319-4a6f-ac30-d3c022675959?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] spring training game at Goodyear Ballpark [ https://substack.com/redirect/f175fc64-8619-4938-aec9-f3ad06683c66?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in Phoenix. (The most fun I’ve ever had at a baseball game. Highly recommended.) Upon our return, we all watched the original Bad News Bears [ https://substack.com/redirect/042417cb-09fb-4192-a947-e93586b83b1b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for the first time. A pizza night [ https://substack.com/redirect/2fb98a48-c502-4557-866a-b6b91385cef4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] hit. (Baseball! “It is designed to break your heart [ https://substack.com/redirect/d5f05e0a-2fdb-4730-bc25-bab5754b3f81?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. It begins in the spring, when everything else begins again…”) A friend found out I was reading Edward Abbey’s classic Desert Solitaire [ https://substack.com/redirect/5bd5ace6-6c10-40fa-9593-a5eb6cdd46f8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on the trip and asked me what I thought. I texted back, “If it weren’t for Abbey’s sense of humor, it would be intolerable. With it, it’s just right.” Then I remembered I actually quote from the book in Don’t Call It Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/fc748fb8-64ae-413a-8648-b85c49afdc4a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], using Abbey’s words to describe my days with the kids when they were little: “Time passed extremely slowly, as time should pass, with the days lingering and long, spacious and free as the summers of childhood. There was time enough for once to do nothing, or next to nothing…” Meg and I had planned to listen to Marty Robbins’ Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs [ https://substack.com/redirect/24ba6755-5a5f-4025-92f1-883366a76067?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] as our road trip soundtrack, but then our oldest suggested the Stardew Valley [ https://substack.com/redirect/8eba475a-a79e-422c-b454-02b1efee0ab2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] score, and it was… kind of perfect? (I am very tempted to get it on vinyl [ https://substack.com/redirect/94d5ecc2-24bc-4e4d-b155-6f27332a671d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]!) Maybe it was the time out in the desert, but I felt compelled on Tuesday to write about introspection [ https://substack.com/redirect/10fce36c-dced-4d31-967e-3a826c340f40?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Fun With Your Typewriter [ https://substack.com/redirect/e4ab46d0-5b22-4d5c-bea7-5fba1509a739?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a 1956 book I found via an Instagram post [ https://substack.com/redirect/60ccf100-aec3-47c2-a9a5-8e21cb91e237?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] that friend of the newsletter Kelli Anderson [ https://substack.com/redirect/6a7e2838-84f7-4ec5-91ae-c3435cd9feaf?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] sent me. (Speaking of: two years ago, I inadvertently started my typewriter interview [ https://substack.com/redirect/d00b8422-6587-4999-9c3a-6cc751014aa5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] series with the legendary poet Mary Ruefle [ https://substack.com/redirect/27867030-fb14-4c9a-8382-ea8bfb279d9e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Random thing in our house that gives me joy: this bug catcher [ https://substack.com/redirect/096d4297-de65-4057-aa11-502adcd6976a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] we bought to catch, inspect, and release bugs. “My first job downstairs is to open the back door and get a big breath of fresh air – rain or shine, winter or summer – I just copy the cats and dog, that’s what they do – that’s how the ‘read’ the day, nose up, what’s in the air? What smells different? Clear out the night-lungs. Start again.” Jeanette Winterson [ https://substack.com/redirect/1c075cef-436c-42fa-96f2-cd0fdea40bc8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on the spring equinox [ https://substack.com/redirect/13d0a47b-83fa-49c2-bbed-1f5b5e54ea6a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], the real start of the year. RIP writer Tracy Kidder [ https://substack.com/redirect/3058cf93-bdd9-456c-b6b6-07520dc1835d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I bought The Soul of a New Machine [ https://substack.com/redirect/4c398161-a2be-4f3f-bc32-9ccab0d10e1e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for my teenage coder, but I think I’ll steal it back and give it a read myself. (A quote from that book about engineers makes me think of artists, too: “Part of the fascination… is just little boys who never grew up, playing with Erector sets. Engineers just don’t lose that, and if you do lose it, you just can’t be an engineer anymore.” So many creative people are just kids who didn’t stop [ https://substack.com/redirect/fc748fb8-64ae-413a-8648-b85c49afdc4a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) This is the last weekend to take advantage of my spring 20% off sale on paid subscriptions [ https://substack.com/redirect/b211d4c5-5de2-4eaf-9ebe-f30dc1cebe6f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]! A paid subscription supports my work, keeps Friday free for everybody, and gets you access to a special letter every Tuesday, the nicest comment section on the internet, and the full newsletter archives [ https://substack.com/redirect/af59abe6-b055-4488-8a08-99cff1ab8d93?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A sampling of the kind of letters you’ll unlock with a paid subscription: looks inside my notebooks [ https://substack.com/redirect/f7c2ae3e-c090-4efe-9e7a-4391b1586fcf?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]; printable zines [ https://substack.com/redirect/f8915050-2529-412d-a494-1bc47ce95893?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]; tutorials on block printing [ https://substack.com/redirect/9b205e93-045e-48c3-bac9-51a5f8926ec2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], making collages [ https://substack.com/redirect/f196d051-8e3d-48ba-a80b-5f035e755710?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], playing exquisite corpse [ https://substack.com/redirect/5f22d0f0-10f0-4819-b6d3-1ab168f944fb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], how I dive deep [ https://substack.com/redirect/43ed72ce-605a-463f-80c7-e04ec869d833?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] into a new subject, how I read the internet [ https://substack.com/redirect/4df04b77-adf5-4444-9748-1eb7e9e33406?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and much, much more… Thanks for reading! xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/8aea9d24-fa15-47bc-acd4-c1f51f908738?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTVNakl4TkRRME15d2lhV0YwSWpveE56YzBOakV6TXpRMExDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EWXhORGt6TkRRc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuaGpjc19nb0pQbUxYZjhmRnBndmxFZnVEQ3dtZDctRnA4RXE5ejRPQ1E3dyIsInAiOjE5MjIxNDQ0MywicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3NDYxMzM0NCwiZXhwIjoyMDkwMTg5MzQ0LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.jvbMNOMpjGCNYq2x8P0gXVrY4tkVd7Kqx4cXYQwWgU8?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/the-return-of-spring Hey y’all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: Today is the first day of spring [ https://substack.com/redirect/8649091d-5379-47e9-ab19-9f7b34e520fd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in the Northern hemisphere! To celebrate, I’m throwing a 20% off sale on paid subscriptions [ https://substack.com/redirect/07af66bc-90d6-45c3-8580-6777818aff63?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A paid subscription supports my work, keeps Friday free for everybody, and gets you access to a special letter every Tuesday, the nicest comment section on the internet, and the full newsletter archives [ https://substack.com/redirect/84115cee-658e-4779-90d2-9fd31fb482a9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Art in Austin, TX: This is the last weekend for a very fun show at Northern-Southern [ https://substack.com/redirect/8498c87a-aa47-4808-901e-e2f08c77e5e2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: Brian Dulaney’s Deck of Many Things [ https://substack.com/redirect/04f76248-bc0f-4c0e-b9a0-80619fc39fd1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] is made of 120 baseball card-sized mini-prints. There’s an artist talk and closing reception this Sunday, March 22 at 4PM. (You can see more of his work on Instagram [ https://substack.com/redirect/23627ac3-0a83-42d0-bfa9-dacf4ba501c0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) I had a nice chat with gallery owner Phillip Niemeyer [ https://substack.com/redirect/b05b879d-395f-46e6-9e42-f7d68513df9a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who thinks the art scene in the city right now is as good as it's ever been. He tipped me off to the Friends Fair [ https://substack.com/redirect/29060383-cdad-40da-a40e-a517495279ed?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] happening May 7-9, which will take over the second floor of the Loren hotel. Documentaries: Our houseguests who went to SXSW Film told me to keep my eye out for Cookie Queens [ https://substack.com/redirect/0c939e21-3103-484f-b568-88cde2a3458d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a documentary about Girl Scout Cookie season, and #Skyking [ https://substack.com/redirect/07f03be4-db57-4a10-aed2-89d79c248585?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], about an airline worker who stole a plane. I also want to see Beyond The Duplex Planet [ https://substack.com/redirect/9c0b12f4-5952-41c3-bc23-6e44d978cae5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a film about artist David Greenberger, who in 1979 started publishing interviews with senior citizens in his zine, Duplex Planet [ https://substack.com/redirect/74fbe998-b650-47c5-9c02-78606802f8a1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (He’s now a senior himself!) Oscars [ https://substack.com/redirect/7302687e-8167-4522-92f7-6edc3ef946c6?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: I think I only saw two of the winners this year: One Battle After Another [ https://substack.com/redirect/172fff73-6faf-4b17-9cb6-91312a3a7ebb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and KPop Demon Hunters [ https://substack.com/redirect/bbb5adb6-d45d-45f8-953d-866d0631af5b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Both were great!) It’s weird how I watch a movie every Friday night with the kids [ https://substack.com/redirect/7c6ab155-ea7b-47a0-bb47-73fc77b31757?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] — at least 52 movies a year! — but how out of it I can be when it comes to new releases. (I really want to see EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert [ https://substack.com/redirect/8d850035-1e6e-4aaa-9bf0-5470c4e88862?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] while it’s still in theaters.) Spring mixtape: I got one side of a cassette perfectly filled with no gaps… and the tape broke. So I had to pivot to a blank C90 cassette. Then I (re)discovered that many 90-minute cassettes are actually more like 95-minute cassettes, because the manufacturers added a few extra minutes to each side. So this half-finished mixtape — one side of the cassette — is 47 minutes and 17 seconds long. You can listen on Spotify [ https://substack.com/redirect/e4b882af-e7bb-4418-8f8f-1fb4e3804629?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Apple Music [ https://substack.com/redirect/58d0689f-53bb-4a33-be68-3d2351d2350b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], or YouTube [ https://substack.com/redirect/58ee1183-b8db-4aaf-a7a6-26df73e57f81?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: ”[The song] is like a magic box. Take the lid off and inside you can glimpse the whole history of twentieth century music.” Ian Leslie on The Beatles’ “I Feel Fine.” [ https://substack.com/redirect/dc300cfe-9e07-4e0d-8809-da17e30ec86d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (For more Beatlemania: McCartney’s creativity in 3 photographs [ https://substack.com/redirect/34d44b2e-7d7c-41de-a80a-8c797328db11?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) The folks at Standard Ebooks [ https://substack.com/redirect/8e57ae1e-411d-48f7-a9db-9c8163e31004?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] just dropped a free version of one of my all-time favorite books, William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience [ https://substack.com/redirect/2f20e17b-136b-48f7-a949-7ad70df564f1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “When a book designer writes a book, who designs the cover? [ https://substack.com/redirect/e6d925c4-4ff1-4b07-a114-3cceeeb53eab?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” Designer Oliver Munday [ https://substack.com/redirect/8791717f-ffab-4b93-abb7-38b91e9a3d2d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on his first work of fiction, Head of Household [ https://substack.com/redirect/c10b0406-9891-440e-b646-7c6d4914a457?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. From the BBC Archives [ https://substack.com/redirect/01d2b45f-e56d-43ce-be95-441ff8b52df8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: artist Tony Hart draws Stonehenge using chalk pastels and a marker [ https://substack.com/redirect/589a2715-7154-4f20-af10-489f65491e79?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (If you like that, here’s another [ https://substack.com/redirect/5e3bb127-314f-4caa-8804-21d8457510a2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Maybe the wildest entry in the typewriter interview [ https://substack.com/redirect/a3c82135-9cc4-474c-84ae-e4229cb21bcb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] series so far: 10 questions for cartoonist Marc Bell [ https://substack.com/redirect/60d86d2d-207b-485b-b99d-a548ef074182?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading! This hand-rolled publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/07af66bc-90d6-45c3-8580-6777818aff63?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo, Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTVNVEUxTmpBNU9Td2lhV0YwSWpveE56YzBNREE0TmpBMExDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EVTFORFEyTURRc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuRjNmNWJEYmttRDZRRU41NllHR012dkxxWS1faWRYYUJfLVA3ekhNUmVoOCIsInAiOjE5MTE1NjA5OSwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3NDAwODYwNCwiZXhwIjoyMDg5NTg0NjA0LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.9wXNPH6uJdJZiutkiLfgZXmhPjOUlLfs2TwOjC2eWYg?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/flowers-from-texas Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-225057402 ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: As I mentioned last week, spring has sprung in Austin, Texas [ https://substack.com/redirect/96dcd900-2fd7-4d57-acb7-297dd3b26740?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. The bluebonnets are starting to pop! Maybe it’s not superbloom in Death Valley [ https://substack.com/redirect/83bd44ff-61a9-4849-9d53-6a9e3bab93d8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] levels of excitement, but it’s my favorite time of year, and I try to savor it all I can. Central Texas is not “ [ https://substack.com/redirect/a7ef8dbf-d483-4003-84e0-2058f418f3fe?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]grand” [ https://substack.com/redirect/a7ef8dbf-d483-4003-84e0-2058f418f3fe?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] — a place like this teaches you to really pay attention, track the subtle changes around you, and fire up your eyebeams to search for beauty. Austin writer Christopher Brown published a spring dispatch [ https://substack.com/redirect/77b9bdd1-3e49-4865-9c2f-e29ad2ec575f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]that I think conveys some of the cognitive/spiritual dissonance you experience when you’re trying to process so much beauty and tragedy at the same time. (See item #4 in my letter “Leaving a paper trail [ https://substack.com/redirect/cc24a757-ee6c-4d41-a7c4-5586cd30e077?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” for an interesting encounter I had with Brown’s book A Natural History of Empty Lots [ https://substack.com/redirect/58f23c46-21eb-4e62-bb2e-6edf3355e76c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) “I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, ’The Beatles did.’” — Kurt Vonnegut, Timequake [ https://substack.com/redirect/9cae29b7-6d74-4b30-bbe6-11c1b29142cc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] Listen: I had an absolute blast on Walter Martin Radio Hour [ https://substack.com/redirect/828aa590-892a-4d13-b58e-959a21df2288?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] talking about Paul McCartney. So much so that I followed it up with 2,000 words about McCartney’s creativity in 3 photographs [ https://substack.com/redirect/0638894a-a31b-4107-87a0-8f524e9f530f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Speaking of musicians with podcasts I love: On April 22, in Austin, Texas, I’m interviewing Hrishikesh Hirway [ https://substack.com/redirect/5939c08a-702f-4a90-91e0-c78920afd481?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] onstage as part of the release show for his new album. You can get tickets here [ https://substack.com/redirect/601ebcd4-e9c2-4eab-be02-c034d2a02a31?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Hrishi is also playing several SXSW shows [ https://substack.com/redirect/0c9b89e1-99ea-453a-ba94-b72c9b585434?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and dates in other cities. (Interviewing such a good interviewer [ https://substack.com/redirect/f6fa13eb-5fff-4d57-a5ac-e73f3bde5ea9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] is going to require no small amount preparation on my part! [ https://substack.com/redirect/e677b023-a26f-464a-a51a-c7c7d4720455?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]) I’m not doing anything official at SXSW [ https://substack.com/redirect/a6bb2d08-99b3-43ad-94c2-f5b86d6b0102?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], but I will be riding my bike around quite a bit. I have a few pieces of advice for visitors: - Check out individual book stores [ https://substack.com/redirect/aff2abd1-30b7-477b-920c-8402a3a7a0f1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and record stores [ https://substack.com/redirect/083c4d58-9471-40ee-9291-6203980a39b8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for free events. First Light Books [ https://substack.com/redirect/8b087bb4-af08-40ea-80a4-0904835e22dc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], for example, is hosting keynote speaker Tom Sachs [ https://substack.com/redirect/096d547f-7aa5-4b16-b072-7f58af79bc9f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] tonight. End of an Ear [ https://substack.com/redirect/1d0704b2-de89-457e-a486-08b9ca400dd1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] — my favorite record store in town — is hosting a short reading and signing [ https://substack.com/redirect/cce45add-2c90-44ac-ae5b-e36b21fa0f74?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] by Damon Krukowski [ https://substack.com/redirect/f75c2daa-a2c8-4e64-b389-d8f526179b2d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] next week. A new little shop downtown is TOMO mags [ https://substack.com/redirect/5cc9c61d-d96d-4942-8cd7-4c712fab5edb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] — they’re hosting an [ https://substack.com/redirect/06794670-0900-42f7-95cd-b76ae05e7822?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Attensity! [ https://substack.com/redirect/06794670-0900-42f7-95cd-b76ae05e7822?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] event [ https://substack.com/redirect/06794670-0900-42f7-95cd-b76ae05e7822?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and a full day event called Analog: Future Front [ https://substack.com/redirect/cc7d9ff8-d8b0-41bc-bc92-8665e83fadee?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. - Old reliables: KUTX [ https://substack.com/redirect/e8fdf027-8c1d-45de-a5ea-b5ba49c996a3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and the Flatstock poster show [ https://substack.com/redirect/04b58a25-9710-4a15-b58f-6fa85def7812?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. - Our local chains are good, actually. If you don’t want to wait in line, just get a taco from TacoDeli, a burger from P. Terry’s, or a juice from Juiceland. (Great record shopping at all Juicelands, actually, courtesy @explodedrecords [ https://substack.com/redirect/e0f9bb64-d5e9-4f5e-a6b4-88d8ba50347e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] aka Soundfounder [ https://substack.com/redirect/0d335094-b97b-43cc-9d4d-02c40a446ccd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) - Go see Thor Harris! [ https://substack.com/redirect/dfef7303-c414-4349-af16-9a552c8ffdb9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] He plays all over the place and is probably the most interesting/sweetest human who hasn’t left Austin. I put some other Austin/SXSW tips at the end of my previous letter, “South by Southwest [ https://substack.com/redirect/2ecac217-c7af-42d3-ba52-a841346ccaac?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” The Benton Museum of Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/f709c448-36e5-4518-84d0-96100bad8580?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] at Pomona College received 76 works of art [ https://substack.com/redirect/3373aa9b-2015-41cb-8f11-1b4281b888cc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] from The Saul Steinberg Foundation [ https://substack.com/redirect/44c56e67-dfb5-4b1d-9e7d-0186c82181e6?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Meg and I got food poisoning last weekend, so I recreated a moment from my youth when I got chicken pox in the fourth grade and watched Wayne’s World [ https://substack.com/redirect/2afd0bfe-e3df-481c-a603-d57376c5b4b5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on VHS over and over again. It holds up [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-224974477 ], big time. I love at least two of director Penelope Spheeris [ https://substack.com/redirect/435fecfe-0016-497c-8e76-41d3d268e405?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]’s other movies: The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years [ https://substack.com/redirect/ea688a45-49b9-4eeb-8f37-f08710b6bb78?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (which you can think of as a prequel to Wayne’s World) and The Little Rascals [ https://substack.com/redirect/53940fff-d5ef-48de-bff4-8169b8af62b8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (big pizza night [ https://substack.com/redirect/b8aa4ceb-30d5-4f6e-ac24-d2ac75342201?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] hit). I really didn’t have becoming a huge Sherlock Holmes nerd [ https://substack.com/redirect/a40dab9b-665e-489d-b9db-3302269b3d40?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in my mid-life plans, but here we are. I’m reading the ninth and final book, The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes [ https://substack.com/redirect/6e1b27f4-dbc5-4469-b04c-05a19469b299?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and also dipping into The Daily Sherlock Holmes [ https://substack.com/redirect/8285dbe9-9728-45fd-a367-420aa226d79b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], which was co-edited by my friend Levi Stahl [ https://substack.com/redirect/687936d4-0a08-4cdd-81fb-271e980930d9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and has a really lovely foreword by Michael Sims [ https://substack.com/redirect/fd09f701-4880-43c4-bccb-b148a8681126?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who wrote a book about Conan Doyle and the creation of Holmes, Arthur and Sherlock [ https://substack.com/redirect/3b10d62e-6024-4083-9229-3d9ff758d495?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Perhaps it was the state of my brain-gut connection, but the funniest thing I saw all week was Redman’s 2001 appearance on [ https://substack.com/redirect/0e6d3bbe-5821-46c8-8957-ff71338185ff?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]MTV Cribs [ https://substack.com/redirect/0e6d3bbe-5821-46c8-8957-ff71338185ff?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (I also found myself watching [ https://substack.com/redirect/1e155b2c-0406-4da5-9317-525090bbb725?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Jackass [ https://substack.com/redirect/1e155b2c-0406-4da5-9317-525090bbb725?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] clips [ https://substack.com/redirect/1e155b2c-0406-4da5-9317-525090bbb725?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and laughing like Beavis and Butt-Head. Nostalgia is a helluva drug! [ https://substack.com/redirect/31522dde-71e0-46e0-b4ed-7cb451db93d4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]) I just approved the final pass of Don’t Call It Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/2342caba-929f-45f3-b807-3e3d0aa9ba38?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], which means it’s ready to go to the printer. Now I attempt something I’ve never done before: re-formatting the illustrations in a square book so they look bigger and better on a rectangular, portrait mode e-reader screen. (My books [ https://substack.com/redirect/db0f7f50-0e50-4566-bbf6-5e3162dc4814?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] are [painstakingly] designed to be read in print, but I know people have their reasons for ebooks!) Wish me luck… Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/7ab7bb16-edcc-4b40-8ed9-86e3645c95e8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/3b5b5683-2900-40fb-b7a8-b597b9ea5935?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTVNRGMwTVRnMk1Dd2lhV0YwSWpveE56Y3pOREF6TmpnekxDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EUTVNemsyT0RNc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuV0Z3Ui1UVE9xWU5VcjduWk53VldjWjlHbTF0dGVRQlM4c1d4bS1ZWDJPRSIsInAiOjE5MDc0MTg2MCwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3MzQwMzY4MywiZXhwIjoyMDg4OTc5NjgzLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.JI0DBUT5rNKndd75h1KIH3k21zfafOZvlN6MwmWNYBU?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/spring-reverb Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/2cd8c1f4-ca77-4c05-8171-dd4246667f77?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: Spring has sprung in Austin, Texas. “The trees are coming into leaf / like something almost being said [ https://substack.com/redirect/579e8cb7-eb7e-46fb-a705-6e0e68e995b2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]…” The mountain laurel are flowering and filling the air with grape soda perfume. Athena the Great Horned Owl [ https://substack.com/redirect/acbd4b2b-aa8b-44ea-9ab6-a089140abca7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] has laid her first egg [ https://substack.com/redirect/a61555da-cea0-4647-a968-a1950494242e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Our Pisces baby is about to turn eleven. “Tender age in bloom [ https://substack.com/redirect/091a17b7-87db-4301-bd15-c6e7a648d02e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” While evil men do everything they can to destroy this planet, I’m thinking of David Hockney: “Spring cannot be canceled. [ https://substack.com/redirect/7c7a0f43-4d8c-4145-9754-ca801335a375?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]”  Galileo’s handwritten notes discovered in an ancient astronomy text [ https://substack.com/redirect/fb0b9aa3-04c7-4d20-8fed-3d7ac32f42a1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A lost 19th century film by French filmmaker George Méliès discovered in The Library of Congress [ https://substack.com/redirect/5cf6b2b7-acf8-4e8a-bc4c-01d09b4a9778?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Have you checked out their National Screen Room [ https://substack.com/redirect/1d40d0cc-2e5a-4720-a4fe-7303fdb2bd0a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] of free motion pictures? it’s incredible. Watch, for example, this 1894 film of Japanese dancers [ https://substack.com/redirect/6e1f7968-bc91-49e4-a5e6-c5dc8129923e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. For fun, put it on a loop and play different bits of music over it.) Levi Stahl on “Rainbow Connection,” film noir, and [ https://substack.com/redirect/7cae4cc1-1339-4d40-8c9b-e69d03e07779?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Four Quartets [ https://substack.com/redirect/7cae4cc1-1339-4d40-8c9b-e69d03e07779?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. How yellow became Van Gogh’s most powerful color [ https://substack.com/redirect/1bafd6b4-15af-468a-94e7-d2338b460096?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “She stuffed nearly all her notebooks with newspaper cuttings, scraps of notes, telegrams, letters, sometimes even a bird’s feather or a leaf.” Susan Sontag’s playground of ideas [ https://substack.com/redirect/d9eecf4f-a983-454e-acaa-c4bd6be643b5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. The two funniest things I watched this week: the first half of “Covercraft [ https://substack.com/redirect/61db253a-5ff3-438f-a4c7-ae8453048fb1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” an episode of The Simpsons in which “Homer has a mid-life crisis, takes up bass guitar and forms a cover band with some of the other dads in town” (to quote my children: “Papa, they made a Simpsons about you!”) and this 12-second Arrested Development clip of David Cross as Mrs. Featherbottom [ https://substack.com/redirect/8c57e9c4-fa0d-484b-bca5-f8d4551d373e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] which we all agreed is worth more laughs than the entire 2 hours and 4 minutes of Mrs. Doubtfire. “The best things in life are free [ https://substack.com/redirect/e963fb9e-81ce-41e2-ad75-bf633fa4a179?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] / but you can give them to the birds and bees…” Mason Currey writes about how to be a writer with a day job [ https://substack.com/redirect/ccdbb52b-bab3-4af3-ace3-3e96fcbe69cc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Manjula Martin and friends bring back [ https://substack.com/redirect/b4c6ec24-871c-4a6e-9872-36d368d68768?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Scratch [ https://substack.com/redirect/b4c6ec24-871c-4a6e-9872-36d368d68768?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] as “a weekly newsletter about how your favorite writers are surviving. (Or not.)” “‘There’s life, death, and bad writing [ https://substack.com/redirect/98d7f40a-6070-4a14-b7de-3d25f71b6a25?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],’ he told his students. ‘Only one is avoidable.’” RIP engineer and producer Bob Power [ https://substack.com/redirect/562c075b-b042-4326-8549-19bac5f3488c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who worked with artists like D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, and A Tribe Called Quest. (Here’s a list of 10 songs he engineered [ https://substack.com/redirect/c7b04260-542f-430f-9822-48216a2bd070?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Power said: “Great music is made by people who either don’t care or don’t understand what is ‘normal,’ so they do something extraordinary.” An assignment for next week: Send somebody something in the mail [ https://substack.com/redirect/e73ba9fe-9cbd-4c94-9961-d7977e243711?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/f92ed363-5b3b-41f6-aa72-98d60162c7cb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/f08537cd-9409-4f81-8f2d-bdcb63c5b6a6?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTVNREF4TnpFeE5pd2lhV0YwSWpveE56Y3lPREF5TmpRNExDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EUXpNemcyTkRnc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuMWI5NnpPUXRTLWdBUXVLdEpzbVpjYk1wMTFJaDlMLTRhSWQ4MzJJUTBLQSIsInAiOjE5MDAxNzExNiwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3MjgwMjY0OCwiZXhwIjoyMDg4Mzc4NjQ4LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.rlDCUulvDziz9STsC7_rlfc2IuAbHM40jr8HWsejpdY?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/unnecessary-obstacles Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/0ec58eb1-b54a-44b8-9c38-85f9ee8ed1c3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: I was delighted (and a little overwhelmed, honestly!) by the response to last Friday’s announcement [ https://substack.com/redirect/904d6206-8ba6-42b8-bc84-c082df6651e6?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] of my next book, Don’t Call It Art [ https://substack.com/redirect/f0e8daed-24f5-4dfd-a410-7bf5f4e828ee?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Many people asked if they could order signed and personalized copies — the answer is yes! You can pre-order from Book People [ https://substack.com/redirect/4552b52e-0b11-414b-91d7-b9d83dca184a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] here in Austin, Texas and I’ll not only sign and personalize as many as you want, I’ll draw in them, too [ https://substack.com/redirect/5db95099-9d52-4d2d-a77a-1692492932c6?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], like I do in all my other books [ https://substack.com/redirect/ba72f420-30e9-4d28-8df5-eda5ccf46f3d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “Playing a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles.” That’s Bernard Suits in The Grasshopper: Games, Life and Utopia [ https://substack.com/redirect/d0fab2a0-07f6-4f11-a48b-d19a69cf3a14?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a favorite of philosopher C. Thi Nguyen, whose new book The Score: How To Stop Playing Somebody Else’s Game [ https://substack.com/redirect/0cc21783-67f8-4e87-8bfb-68616d87619a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] both thrilled and exasperated me. I’m still processing it, and I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it later, but for now I’ll just say: I think it’s such a pleasure to see an academic write in a conversational voice and swing for the fences with a book that appeals to a general audience. “All of my hobbies involve basically micro-dosing epiphanies [ https://substack.com/redirect/ccc6195c-7966-47a5-b581-704855f0f423?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” he says, and it’s hard not to love a writer who’s so passionate and articulate about his pasttimes. (See: my letter, “Your hobby looks exhausting! [ https://substack.com/redirect/ab0c1990-4e9b-4bba-b297-fc17bea222f0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]”) The funniest thing I watched all week was Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching [ https://substack.com/redirect/2db9c2b9-8c87-491c-9846-d91cd76460f9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a full-length documentary streaming for free on YouTube [ https://substack.com/redirect/5dfdf5ac-1d8c-4b57-834e-c6194f5fe356?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (I think Nguyen would love it — it’s about what happens when a scoring system takes over a pleasurable hobby!) “I love struggling, actually. It makes me feel alive.” Like everybody else, I was thrilled by Alysa Liu’s gold medal-winning free skate [ https://substack.com/redirect/9ec27c57-fe70-4c76-ab25-58162d855063?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] at the Olympics and the story about how she went away so she could come back [ https://substack.com/redirect/0c2db692-8e13-44be-8887-bfde46e6fe06?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I was reminded of the words of philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah: “In life, the challenge is not so much to figure out how best to play the game; the challenge is to figure out what game you’re playing.” If you’re playing the game you want to play the way you want to play it, you’ve already won. Oliver Burkeman [ https://substack.com/redirect/810a197d-1c72-4ea8-9867-7cbcd4729a28?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] has a helpful term he calls “unclenching [ https://substack.com/@oliverburkeman/note/c-193987523? ],” which he describes as “a psychological ’move’ that involves relaxing in the midst of anxiety and uncertainty.” He’s been writing really great newsletters on the theme, such as “The freewriting way of life [ https://substack.com/redirect/d18d6d7d-de76-40aa-a7b7-2768f58215b1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” and “Nobody’s ever ready [ https://substack.com/redirect/9a759cb3-afc9-4fe9-abc9-ac57bd5211e4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” which was about avoiding the anxiety around whether you’ll get “left behind” if you’re not into A.I. Great mantra: “Unclench!” Pizza night [ https://substack.com/redirect/87a65d58-43bd-49bb-9fb8-592fba0a7227?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: Watching Monty Python and the Holy Grail [ https://substack.com/redirect/de431866-e348-40a1-a8d9-a44c760583b3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] was a good excuse to show the boys this 1974 BBC clip of Terry Gilliam [ https://substack.com/redirect/9c683210-7096-4565-99d8-d6b7a41ed0cb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on his cutout animation technique. “There is always, in every piece I do, something wrong.” RIP French composer and musique concrète legend Éliane Radigue [ https://substack.com/redirect/6cb1b01c-7ef2-4790-b9ac-f93251f0403a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Here are essays on her life and work by Louise Gray [ https://substack.com/redirect/a03479d0-797f-42c8-b4bb-c6bca8e3cb01?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Geeta Dayal [ https://substack.com/redirect/d7da2c33-cc58-4f3b-b446-9ca77655c38a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) “[She] described the book she’d like to see written, the book she said she’d want to read. She went into what I could only describe as a literary jazz riff for about 20 minutes. Her tempo increased as she spoke. She concluded by saying, ‘So, if that’s what you want to write, if you want to write a book about the cathedral within, then that’s a book I want to buy.’” RIP editor and publisher Ann Godoff [ https://substack.com/redirect/c63bebb9-a2a4-458a-8e26-5356cb8a4ddd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “I want things to be intentional and slow. I don’t need them to be optimized.” I spent part of the weekend painting a cassette rack Meghan bought me to hold my mixtapes [ https://substack.com/redirect/b2dad166-c8d6-4584-a387-2f6d00537499?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], so yeah, I enjoyed this story [ https://substack.com/redirect/c968a1e1-79d3-46a2-ada0-b9e3a7ae498a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] about a man in Los Angeles [ https://substack.com/redirect/a313fdca-abd2-461c-8134-aa6f17e6bd65?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] repairing old tape decks. If you’d like a weird peek inside my brain (and how this newsletter often comes together) I wrote about how I get into something new [ https://substack.com/redirect/6dffee5b-cb39-43a6-a122-21544aef2958?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/cde34364-622a-4d2d-9e29-43e992d7a89a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/38846f6e-b598-48e9-9925-02f00c25d7bb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTRPVEkyTnpreU5Dd2lhV0YwSWpveE56Y3lNVGs0TURZNUxDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1ETTNNelF3Tmprc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuX2VWVkNqUm91STUydFhCOFVSWVJ0MzlHMkRMd20yN1pwbkxtblpONXBIdyIsInAiOjE4OTI2NzkyNCwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3MjE5ODA2OSwiZXhwIjoyMDg3Nzc0MDY5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ._qSU9UDrafCxJ9_NOqoUoihbos9N-BKxnS3hKQ8ls2I?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/my-next-book-dont-call-it-art Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/44a568f9-24b5-4b02-a5a6-b55896ed6c7c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: My next book is Don’t Call It Art: 10 Ways to Create Like a Kid Again [ https://substack.com/redirect/7984d57f-08ae-4290-a6a1-515f4c641586?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. It was inspired by my time spent as a studio assistant to my two sons when they were really little and the lessons I learned from them about loving and caring for yourself as a creative person. The book is designed to put you back in touch with that wild and fearless 4-year-old kid that still lives inside you and wants to come out and play. The release date is June 2, but you can pre-order it now [ https://substack.com/redirect/7984d57f-08ae-4290-a6a1-515f4c641586?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] wherever you love to buy books: It’s a weird time, to say the very least, to be putting out a book about curiosity and wonder and freedom and fun and humor and imperfection and magic. But it’s also a time when, I think, we could desperately use those things in our lives. Watching my kids draw and make music and come alive to the world unlocked something in me that I’ve been trying to get into book form for over 10 years. I really can’t wait to share it with y’all. If you liked any of my other books [ https://substack.com/redirect/720e58bb-3c13-4a53-ab8f-e7e15457366f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], you will love this one [ https://substack.com/redirect/743337f3-e2cf-4881-b116-b2178baba8b7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I borrowed the title from John Baldessari [ https://substack.com/redirect/5ef7eab2-7b5e-467e-b74e-18ce72ae49f8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: ”I learned so much about art from watching a kid draw. I taught at the grade-school level. Kids don’t call it art when they’re throwing things around, drawing—they’re just doing stuff.” (And Brian Eno’s diary [ https://substack.com/redirect/1a7c433f-3b80-44d9-a89c-29a46020bf5b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “People do much better when they don’t think they’re being artists… if you don’t call it art, you’re likely to get a better result.”) “There is a hugely underestimated intelligence attached to manual labor…. When you use your own energy, your own body, you have to be economical about how you do it. If you’re picking potatoes all day, or picking stones, you are working repetitively. You have to work with a rhythm and a fluidity, and you can’t be fighting it or forcing it. That’s really important for what I do as an artist—if you work with the right flow and rhythm, you give the work that rhythm.” A profile of Andy Goldsworthy [ https://substack.com/redirect/5503debb-baa0-4c56-b910-df3f95a6aefd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “It felt like the opposite of the machine. No one could mistake my drawings for an actual statement; they were wobbly and imperfect, obviously made by my hand.” Kate Bingaman-Burt on 20 years of her daily purchase drawings [ https://substack.com/redirect/b35df0b0-23f2-4a77-8ec2-cbf2616ec439?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Do not miss her typewriter interview! [ https://substack.com/redirect/45aef4d0-55fb-4c17-9790-f14d6a4bee5b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]) RIP civil rights leader Jesse Jackson [ https://substack.com/redirect/ee428036-ccfa-44ba-b724-2952d7871844?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Take some time today to watch him reciting “I am somebody” with kids [ https://substack.com/redirect/0963b415-fdcb-495f-bdac-5d2046fdbe7b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]on Sesame Street and reading from [ https://substack.com/redirect/f088ebfe-d63b-4890-b928-298773e6cd5d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Green Eggs and Ham [ https://substack.com/redirect/f088ebfe-d63b-4890-b928-298773e6cd5d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on Saturday Night Live. (To quote bell hooks [ https://substack.com/redirect/7643f057-eda2-4f6f-9900-ded1249acd11?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], “We cannot have a meaningful revolution without humor.”) RIP filmmaker Frederick Wiseman [ https://substack.com/redirect/1f14982e-785b-4640-96cc-2c843eb23e1f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who didn’t make his first feature until he was thirty-six, and went on to make forty-seven of them! I had a quote from Wiseman in the first draft of Keep Going [ https://substack.com/redirect/b41e7255-f9f2-4898-bb9e-16c1a5a5eebd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] — his work embodied the message of the book! — but it felt too jarring in the context of the page, so we cut it. Here it is: RIP actor Robert Duvall [ https://substack.com/redirect/c6503382-6ca7-463d-a3e3-1cc4c40b090f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who said of his favorite role, “When I finished Lonesome Dove [ https://substack.com/redirect/1f84257b-124d-4057-97ad-56dce5a7dc62?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] I said to myself, ‘Now I can retire. I’ve done something. Let the English play Hamlet. I’ll play Augustus McCrae.’” (Gus is one of my favorite characters in literature and Larry McMurtry’s novel [ https://substack.com/redirect/75449ccb-39a9-4fed-90f3-6025260ab19d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] is one of my favorite books. It’s the perfect big book for summer [ https://substack.com/redirect/fd3b7eff-5da9-4369-95ac-948c460fce40?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Or any other season, for that matter.) RIP actor Tom Noonan [ https://substack.com/redirect/ba218e09-88db-4b0f-bf5a-73e025650f53?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], whose passing gives me an excuse to watch Michael Mann’s Heat [ https://substack.com/redirect/795b60f3-3e1e-42ef-8f3c-c1779b7c181c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for the 100th time. “You are a human animal… [ https://substack.com/redirect/039478e5-1a29-4717-914a-b24e2abaaf9d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” RIP Michael Silverblatt [ https://substack.com/redirect/957b4796-e841-49fc-8473-d7fb3ab48e80?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], host of KCRW’s [ https://substack.com/redirect/d3fe69c7-9910-47b4-b4ed-4922754d7c70?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Bookworm [ https://substack.com/redirect/d3fe69c7-9910-47b4-b4ed-4922754d7c70?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. The Bookworm archive is really incredible — just earlier this year I found four episodes with writer Robert Stone [ https://substack.com/redirect/1285f0fe-8ad0-4d51-81d8-78cf12d8bbf7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], spanning the years 1992-2007. Try typing “Bookworm” and your favorite author’s name into your podcast app and see what comes up. (Here are Silverblatt’s 10 “rules” for reading [ https://substack.com/redirect/57221861-b6ae-4069-8a68-0cba42c8aabd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) A delightful typewriter interview with cartoonist Tom Hart [ https://substack.com/redirect/77ce2260-1eae-451a-b395-7c429206385c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/03a947a3-e78a-4520-9099-038e58444357?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/ce625c0a-2180-4d6c-be65-d92766b19875?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin PS. I did remember to mention there’s a new book [ https://substack.com/redirect/7984d57f-08ae-4290-a6a1-515f4c641586?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] coming, right? Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTRPRFV3TURnNU1Td2lhV0YwSWpveE56Y3hOVGt5T0RnM0xDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1ETXhNamc0T0Rjc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuT1lkVTNUazBsWXR3QU9TcVhqOGpZcjVoQ2ZSdjV1Sjhyc1VpNUg0NmFFSSIsInAiOjE4ODUwMDg5MSwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3MTU5Mjg4NywiZXhwIjoyMDg3MTY4ODg3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.v7r_v3fAXIPS_9H57HA2M3pFmT4Y70g3ydBlS5Gv41s?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/love-tko Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/4a253086-7c15-41f7-95f1-eb1cbe82db81?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Today is Friday the 13th. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day [ https://substack.com/redirect/5cb990e9-d894-43ac-8ad1-974022e2b8a3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing: My favorite thing I wrote this week was a Tuesday Trio [ https://substack.com/redirect/c3f88778-af42-4a4b-8c99-308d18550f2d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] based on the 2001 short documentary and cult classic, The PriceMaster [ https://substack.com/redirect/da1bcb11-aab6-47da-ba4e-2198e937e862?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “Nelly, I am Heathcliff!” I got about halfway through Wuthering Heights [ https://substack.com/redirect/995f5048-53c8-49cd-b126-f94f1e4b813c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and gave up, so I laughed quite a bit while reading this review [ https://substack.com/redirect/f583fbc5-564f-42a4-ba3c-dcbf8fa34d64?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (I remember enjoying the artsy/trashy mix of Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn [ https://substack.com/redirect/70891864-d431-4cca-91ab-b4afffc20d4e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], so a “smooth-brained [ https://substack.com/redirect/a411167a-9b91-4036-a530-4a91deb71fd7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” adaptation might be up my alley, honestly!) But I know many people who love the novel, so let’s take a poll: You might be tired of me talking about the band Geese [ https://substack.com/redirect/79642e1f-e1bd-4be0-b1b7-c8bd137f1e01?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], but too bad because they recorded an NPR [ https://substack.com/redirect/038aefc2-978b-4dae-b359-079cdab66950?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Tiny Desk [ https://substack.com/redirect/038aefc2-978b-4dae-b359-079cdab66950?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] concert [ https://substack.com/redirect/038aefc2-978b-4dae-b359-079cdab66950?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and it was great. (Also, if you’re new to Bad Bunny via his Super Bowl performance [ https://substack.com/redirect/5125a52b-41fd-46b1-a57b-5133ed8be774?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], check out his Tiny Desk concert! [ https://substack.com/redirect/82d6a3fa-be39-4a0c-9039-adc98b212033?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]) Love is not a gadget [ https://substack.com/redirect/fba9ca8e-43e8-4fdf-8876-ba4094524af7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Love is not mind-reading [ https://substack.com/redirect/1209d0d0-a8bd-419c-bed3-60169278b909?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “Love don’t make things nice [ https://substack.com/redirect/13f5d342-69f7-4a75-875b-ae7076878141?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” “Love is a mixtape. [ https://substack.com/redirect/831c41b8-a629-4013-8e8a-c829ece68743?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” Here’s my latest Valentine’s Day mixtape, called “Love TKO [ https://substack.com/redirect/dba3bc12-3c7c-4227-8b39-107b0e627e38?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” Teddy Pendergrass, Barry White, Bill Withers, and more. You can listen to the mix on Spotify [ https://substack.com/redirect/144b6382-3705-4887-9077-692fd45c9435?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Apple Music [ https://substack.com/redirect/6d688f95-2e41-4d1b-8bbb-2505ac942a25?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], or YouTube [ https://substack.com/redirect/ab86bdc0-2acf-4c2e-8459-7c9e6a76a151?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Comics: I got a copy of Facing Feelings: The Art of Raina Telgemeier [ https://substack.com/redirect/bb98a47f-26eb-44d3-969b-c6708a25cadc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for my 10-year-old cartoonist. (He’s read all her books, including her latest with Scott McCloud, The Cartoonists Club [ https://substack.com/redirect/d0ca4157-d82e-4809-8594-3d4e008719f7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Facing Feelings was originally a career retrospective at The Ohio State University’s Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum [ https://substack.com/redirect/cd7bbdfe-cf6c-4eef-8c6c-6511372d8541?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in Columbus, Ohio. They just announced that their next show is dedicated to the work of Chris Ware [ https://substack.com/redirect/bf3c2562-46ef-483b-a701-d707b174a537?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. App: I’m always maxing out my iPhone storage from taking too many photos, so I am in love with the “Swipe Mode” function of Clever Cleaner [ https://substack.com/redirect/7013e9b4-e909-4906-b7dd-106a3131732f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. It pulls up your photo library month by month and lets you delete or keep photos by swiping left or right. Extremely handy, and it doubles as a great way to revisit old photos and memories [ https://substack.com/redirect/083e3a1b-6a41-4891-a5dc-ca66308c3061?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Thanks, Recomendo [ https://substack.com/redirect/a2540615-7a69-4252-b63f-50895e35d3ad?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]!) Decaf: I’ve been drinking lots of barley tea [ https://substack.com/redirect/f0fe377a-88d1-4517-a561-1ab79625cca3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (I get mine from Asahi Imports [ https://substack.com/redirect/1ab2737f-f069-4a8b-84b5-cf40b7186526?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] here in Austin, TX.) RIP Fred Smith [ https://substack.com/redirect/10fecc81-ad65-43a0-921a-687673001073?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who left Blondie to play bass in Television. (Debbie Harry is quoted in the great book Please Kill Me [ https://substack.com/redirect/be12ffd3-3328-4f32-bf18-b2208ef011b9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] as saying, “Boy, did he make a mistake.” But… he played on “Marquee Moon [ https://substack.com/redirect/f7cfdf71-260d-47cb-b9be-52249a58220e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]!”) Burp your studio! [ https://substack.com/redirect/4584a652-d4e6-413e-adba-c86a08671fc5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/a853f5b8-7935-483c-88c3-21899d272859?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/7dbc8edb-319a-4bfe-981b-6e3eb774a8b1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTROemMzTlRFeU5Td2lhV0YwSWpveE56Y3dPVGc0TXpnMkxDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1ESTFNalF6T0RZc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAubHJCZGZ5MGo2Qk5jVG9wUlZMSEN0YkZlaUJfNExHVVJXY3hNT3FQMDVEZyIsInAiOjE4Nzc3NTEyNSwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3MDk4ODM4NiwiZXhwIjoyMDg2NTY0Mzg2LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.l5yuFKDZklQSF86Oh8wGLvJDyORbd4KFJKhfm57QTuQ?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/everything-has-been-saved-from-a Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/03bcccb5-d1f0-4ebf-84c1-0988b1c998bf?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], This letter is brought to you by 120g of pseudoephedrine. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: “When I play with my cat, how do I know that she is not passing time with me rather than I with her?” I finally finished book two of Michel de Montaigne’s The Complete Essays [ https://substack.com/redirect/acd27325-3e46-49b9-aded-61c1b766321c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I’ve been reading 5-10 pages every morning of 2026, and every morning Montaigne tells me something about his life in the 16th century that speaks directly to mine in the 21st. (Pro-tip: Break bread with the dead [ https://substack.com/redirect/6e79025f-e560-43c8-b5dc-65c264c82952?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]!) Here’s what my chonky Penguin Classics paperback looks like: That stuff I’ve penciled on the pages is called an edge index [ https://substack.com/redirect/72fb4df5-e777-4631-a4e0-6f66f6917b60?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. It’s a great way to make a book your own and better understand its structure. Here’s a video [ https://substack.com/redirect/69562d38-6512-4224-b281-a4c4f960949b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] of how I make one in my logbook [ https://substack.com/redirect/7c680dc5-c28a-461d-b91e-3157c11c9ae9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: How to play my favorite drawing game: Exquisite corpse! [ https://substack.com/redirect/7190d717-cac2-4a18-b706-71eeb0970ce9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] I subscribed to [ https://substack.com/redirect/d015a26a-d580-4ba0-ac44-e076afa6a458?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]The Onion [ https://substack.com/redirect/d015a26a-d580-4ba0-ac44-e076afa6a458?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in print [ https://substack.com/redirect/d015a26a-d580-4ba0-ac44-e076afa6a458?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and the first issue we got in the mail was a gigantic hit with my teen and tween. They spent all of dinner reading the headlines out loud to each other and laughing. My favorite sound in the world. Filmmaker Penny Lane [ https://open.substack.com/pub/austinkleon/p/penny-lane-on-the-art-of-filmmaking?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web ] shares 5 funny documentaries for dark times [ https://substack.com/redirect/1d2a1382-4f9c-4fbb-9539-d9ccf6bbcb06?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Film critic Stephanie Zacharek [ https://substack.com/redirect/89a21a32-2dc3-4bfc-8690-02e552797d80?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] lists the 50 most underappreciated movies of the 21st century [ https://substack.com/redirect/8f700d07-dd3d-42dd-8ba6-225042078dc4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (A few of my favorites: American Splendor [ https://substack.com/redirect/633bf31a-df16-436e-9e4f-90b1588db772?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Only Lovers Left Alive [ https://substack.com/redirect/e37c5c17-8608-4b9f-9fbf-73669aeaecc4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World [ https://substack.com/redirect/76be720f-4416-41b6-988f-b3eba588753f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Tobias Wolff reading his short story “Bullet in the Brain [ https://substack.com/redirect/cc915d4d-30c1-4459-895b-1fa9673482c9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” (From his marvelous collection, The Night in Question [ https://substack.com/redirect/5ca900c8-adcf-48b2-9e63-7ea97497e673?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) “When in doubt, play insane [ https://substack.com/redirect/e28533a0-1c33-4542-8346-8ba8504ea987?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” RIP actress Catherine O’Hara [ https://substack.com/redirect/09892569-b022-42ff-9149-b0a73b2e2b52?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. She was great in everything I’ve seen, but the stuff that jumps to my mind: Home Alone [ https://substack.com/redirect/27ba2bc3-0e8e-4bef-bf06-45251a424478?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Beetlejuice [ https://substack.com/redirect/72249cc3-7c59-4b5c-914f-8e62ee56462f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Schitt’s Creek [ https://substack.com/redirect/368ea53d-b949-404b-917f-3e34addca384?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], The Studio [ https://substack.com/redirect/b93dc48d-528a-425f-839a-6a7782708fc7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and, of course, Best in Show [ https://substack.com/redirect/bc6211e8-d67f-4ed6-970a-59a4871e2af9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. On the importance of having a sense of humor, she said [ https://substack.com/redirect/2c92f723-0eb4-45df-ad55-b0329b47c743?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “My husband and I laugh about everything all day long… My parents were blessed – they laughed until the end. That’s the best way to live, because there’s so much sadness. You’re really lucky if your sense of humor is encouraged, because I think we’re all born with it, and if it’s encouraged in your life, that’s a gift.” Novelist Edan Lepucki’s 45 notes to self on life, parenting, and writing [ https://substack.com/redirect/a6e3d632-f7bf-4e06-aa91-3527339f6ee9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. G.K. Chesterton [ https://substack.com/redirect/b05484c4-0e55-49f1-adc6-96005fa4d533?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “It is a good exercise, in empty or ugly hours of the day, to look at anything, the coal-scuttle or the book-case, and think how happy one could be to have brought it out of the sinking ship on to the solitary island. But it is a better exercise still to remember how all things have had this hair-breadth escape: everything has been saved from a wreck.” Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/afdd9a46-5abe-44cc-88a4-37bab66a525a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/b735efed-ea56-42a1-8ee1-44981518b6f2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin PS. I had a ball with the teachers attending @theartofed [ https://substack.com/redirect/0d0ef926-dc8c-465f-bb75-4531bc4adcc9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] conference. (Hit me up if you’re looking for a speaker [ https://substack.com/redirect/cf1b35e8-c7e3-4db2-8e85-ecd07bff6543?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]for your event!) Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTROams1TXpVeU5Td2lhV0YwSWpveE56Y3dNemd6TXpFeUxDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1ERTVNVGt6TVRJc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuT0RSdlJYVWVrVkF4Tk8xMGExOVM3bmVuM3gtWHNKenpEVmx1YXhOTldfbyIsInAiOjE4Njk5MzUyNSwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc3MDM4MzMxMiwiZXhwIjoyMDg1OTU5MzEyLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.rp7dy9iYSXIltAVnY4-eO7Rb-AzaCCu-ciVx2xmKpkk?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/the-year-is-too-young-to-be-this Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-205958135? ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: In desperate need of distraction and something to look forward to [ https://substack.com/redirect/7bc8532f-eccf-417f-aa5e-920a1365ee73?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], I’ve been having a blast writing my new “Tuesday Trio” series [ https://substack.com/redirect/9fd0f9e5-4aa0-4ee1-a0c2-d13b9c6076b0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. In each letter, I recommend one book, one record, and one movie around a theme. The first three: “Radioactivity [ https://substack.com/redirect/2bff600b-a55c-44dc-b235-7cefb26f6ccc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” “Problematic Gifts [ https://substack.com/redirect/a892acd6-a700-46a9-a9c8-e4dd162f36fb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” and “Sherlock Holmes [ https://substack.com/redirect/af9fdc61-a94c-4820-9f99-e3047dc8682d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” (As always, I get a ton from our excellent comment section: based on your recommendations, I’ve downloaded the complete Sherlock Holmes audiobook [ https://substack.com/redirect/4010ffb8-0e14-4aaf-a22e-292cdd2308c4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] read by Stephen Fry [ https://substack.com/redirect/74dcfc23-1d05-4c51-9845-ddf636aea170?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and queued up The Great Mouse Detective [ https://substack.com/redirect/e4d1b12f-c29a-4ec6-b1d5-7a7c362184a0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for pizza night [ https://substack.com/redirect/9edad4be-3ec0-4f66-9475-899982afa374?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) “That tension—between everything mattering so much and nothing mattering at all—is probably the through line of the collection…. The speed with which I can move from obsessing over ass-puckering, invisible minutiae (removing italic formatting from spaces in a Word document, for instance) and wanting to chuck the whole enterprise of civilization into a bonfire (see “Original Syntax”) is remarkable.” I read an advanced copy of Elizabeth Zaleski’s The Trouble With Loving Poets and Other Essays on Failure [ https://substack.com/redirect/19c7e065-fadb-43d9-b347-f9e63eda9b82?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] based on a single newsletter sent out from her publisher at Belt, Anne Trubek [ https://substack.com/redirect/232a93a0-0445-4624-91cf-8a3bae0b4221?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. It’s a delight to pick up a book by a writer totally unknown to you and finish it in a single day. (And hey, we both hail from rural Ohio and love Tim Kreider [ https://substack.com/redirect/4e5dc4d4-32f5-4bcd-8d0c-5dfb8fb37173?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], so I was primed to like her!) Lesser known books new to the public domain [ https://substack.com/redirect/eb9f655b-9688-48a3-85d3-31c2fa6e04a1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. On director Rian Johnson’s website, he’s posted many of the scripts for his movies [ https://substack.com/redirect/f4aef088-1588-462a-89c9-9887fa5fdca0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. This seems like it would be a treasure trove to an aspiring filmmaker — the script for Wake Up Dead Man [ https://substack.com/redirect/50608fd6-b5b3-49d7-9f32-81d0d4f89d73?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] is “the final shooting script, so it has stuff that was cut and moved around.” (And speaking of directors with websites: I missed that Steven Soderbergh posted his [ https://substack.com/redirect/2be348b2-a61a-4d95-9de4-bb259a97655f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Seen, Read [ https://substack.com/redirect/2be348b2-a61a-4d95-9de4-bb259a97655f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] list for 2025 [ https://substack.com/redirect/2be348b2-a61a-4d95-9de4-bb259a97655f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Radiohead shared their “walking in” pre-show mix [ https://substack.com/redirect/54add2c0-0aad-4c9a-bbf1-ddd7775c2382?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “Freewriting does involve relaxation, but it’s not the relaxation of lassitude or passivity. It’s more a matter of getting out of action’s way, so that your whole self, no longer so constrained by your controlling ego, can bring forth the most of which it’s capable.” Oliver Burkeman [ https://substack.com/redirect/1278a0bf-8e2b-4220-bb0e-be9eaa7f2b93?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on the freewriting way of life [ https://substack.com/redirect/cbe1cf6d-10d4-4a99-b3a3-b42b35dbceed?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Questions I ask myself when I don’t know what to do next [ https://substack.com/redirect/da5ce296-2fc8-4d8e-91c8-4dc3250c5b5f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “There is something destabilizing about having known someone only as a child and then hearing they were gunned down in the street.” Kristen Radtke, author of the wonderful graphic novels, Imagine Wanting Only This [ https://substack.com/redirect/ea65628c-908c-4159-ae12-57b464fc60af?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness [ https://substack.com/redirect/3dd396c9-52f3-4706-bce1-a2ebf86d5e9b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], on losing her best friend from childhood [ https://substack.com/redirect/598cb813-af84-4388-ae2d-b79eceb7e0bc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. RIP legendary reggae drummer Sly Dunbar [ https://substack.com/redirect/ab9148ca-1341-4cae-88fe-4469d10eb597?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who along with his bass-playing partner, Robbie Shakespeare [ https://substack.com/redirect/a5d7ed57-723e-4e31-ae59-73a4bc0095e8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], “backed nearly every reggae artist of note and collaborated with an array of admirers.” They played on so many great tracks! And tons of stuff I didn’t know about — I had no idea they played on Bob Dylan’s “Jokerman [ https://substack.com/redirect/f48c98d8-f98a-4912-ba17-bfd88b0278f0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” for example. (Grace Jones’ “Private Life [ https://substack.com/redirect/910702c2-b80b-438d-9ffa-70e5ef9f6986?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” would’ve been great on my [ https://substack.com/redirect/121279a4-fd49-4d8c-a7b9-46bd4e12348c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]About Time [ https://substack.com/redirect/121279a4-fd49-4d8c-a7b9-46bd4e12348c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] mixtape [ https://substack.com/redirect/121279a4-fd49-4d8c-a7b9-46bd4e12348c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) February is just a few days away. It’s the shortest month [ https://substack.com/redirect/8607258f-45dd-4985-be1d-4b5e6726ccc7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a clean four weeks, so if you’re feeling strong enough, it might be a great time for a 28-day challenge. Here’s a poster you can download and print out to help you along: And remember: for artists, every day is Groundhog Day [ https://substack.com/redirect/84452abd-9652-4125-88ff-390f74f8be9d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone and get an exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/0fd0708d-6e54-4edc-87dc-01076b45d7b7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-205046187? ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTROakl4TmpBM01Dd2lhV0YwSWpveE56WTVOemM0TnpreUxDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1ERXpNVFEzT1RJc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuRzZvWGlLcGF4MnVNeXZWR3hreEcwYzlRa0dROXRxMlBjbGtkb09HTGllRSIsInAiOjE4NjIxNjA3MCwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc2OTc3ODc5MiwiZXhwIjoyMDg1MzU0NzkyLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.epKS0d_wWATu01NBgc9X3IimmglDw8nelmxgWMBIVl0?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/about-time Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/e11edfae-b709-418d-9764-476b5baf307d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: “There’s only one season lately. There used to be an agreement between the seasons, that they would all stay for three months, and then go wherever seasons go when they’re not where we are. Lately there has been no spring, no summer, and no fall. Politically, and philosophically, and psychologically. There has only been the season of ice. It is the season of frozen dreams and frozen nightmares. A scene of frozen progress and frozen ideas. Frozen aspirations and inspirations. They call the season ‘winter.’ We call the song ‘Winter in America [ https://substack.com/redirect/654742c3-b636-445b-b2c8-9a9cb60aca41?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].’” “So far, it’s been a bleak streak over here in America! You know what? It’s a famine of beauty. It’s a famine of beauty, honey! My eyes are starving for beauty.” —André Leon Talley, The September Issue [ https://substack.com/redirect/5dc58585-05f7-4f42-bd2d-09b1909de0c8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] “The old is dead, and I don’t know what the new is. The only way to find the new is to start different things and see if there’s something that can come out of experimentation.” That was the filmmaker David Lynch, who we lost one year ago [ https://substack.com/redirect/d6fd9285-9911-412a-aafa-c6c505657305?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (You can look out the window and tell what season it is outside, but it can be hard, sometimes, to look inside and tell what creative season [ https://substack.com/redirect/e1139591-5911-4084-8c47-1a89e3292ad2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] you’re in.) “So much that is best in America is a state of mind that you can’t export.” I spent a lot of time with the novelist Robert Stone [ https://substack.com/redirect/cfdd7b7a-de8e-4fe3-bc83-068a3791dd69?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] this week, reading his Vietnam-era novel Dog Soldiers [ https://substack.com/redirect/ad4494c0-5724-40b3-a4ba-1d9a23578966?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], his excellent Paris Review [ https://substack.com/redirect/162047a6-a4d1-4292-91dd-0900f80c8539?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] interview, and some of his nonfiction [ https://substack.com/redirect/d7054206-4db4-44ba-8310-8df8988614eb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Stone tried to tell stories of who Americans are. Our prophet, he said, was not Orwell, but Herman Melville: “Moby-Dick is the most uncanny act of incantatory prophecy known to fiction. Unlike Nineteen Eighty-Four, it’s nearly unreadable, talking in tongues and uttering visions.”) Stone began his literary career as “The Least Merry Prankster [ https://substack.com/redirect/400e0496-b64e-487a-a128-970818f1b7f5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” so I’ve decided it’s time to read Tom Wolfe’s book about them, The Electric Kool [ https://substack.com/redirect/098d9ae6-f32f-48f5-8388-07a74cdef678?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]- [ https://substack.com/redirect/098d9ae6-f32f-48f5-8388-07a74cdef678?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Aid Acid Test [ https://substack.com/redirect/098d9ae6-f32f-48f5-8388-07a74cdef678?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “I had a girlfriend, and she was from Washington, and her father worked in the government, and she shocked me by saying — I must have been 19, 20 — she said, ‘Oh my god, my father thinks that Eisenhower is such an asshole.’ [Gasp!] ‘Somebody talked about a president that way? Your father said that to you and he’s working in the government?’ She said, ‘Yeah, he’s really a a dumb asshole.’ I said, ‘Presidents can be dumb assholes?’ I didn’t understand the world.” That’s journalist Seymour Hersch in the Netflix documentary [ https://substack.com/redirect/455c97a1-c1b1-41ee-b222-3d13ecc3301a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] about his life and work, Cover-Up [ https://substack.com/redirect/455c97a1-c1b1-41ee-b222-3d13ecc3301a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (A little uneven, but I was really taken by the first half, about how he broke the Mai Lai story, Vietnam, Nixon, etc.) I had a little bit of trouble figuring out the right vibe for my January mixtape, About Time. I went with: “the sound of having a smoke on the front porch in the dead of winter.” You can listen to it on Spotify [ https://substack.com/redirect/3c266333-609a-4502-9a36-c127350ea19d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Apple Music [ https://substack.com/redirect/61654d7f-63bd-466a-be8e-3c36622b1b98?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], or YouTube [ https://substack.com/redirect/954ffa94-440c-42a3-b9f1-31be033d5c96?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Every time I try to make these mixes more conceptual or abstract, I freeze up. But if I just start with a good leadoff track and ask myself, What do I want to hear after this? the mix just sort of makes itself. I think this is also true of writing and drawing, too: if you start with big, conceptual, abstract ideas about what you want the thing to be, it’s easy to freeze. But if you just start with one good line and ask yourself, What comes next? the thing builds itself. “It’s amazing what cutting a bad sentence will do. Or taking out a bad paragraph. Cutting is essentially a kind of sculpture. It reveals the face inside the piece of rock.” RIP Austin novelist James Magnuson [ https://substack.com/redirect/f8273d2c-f1d0-4d4b-a77a-aa9356f2e70f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who directed the Michener Center for Writers [ https://substack.com/redirect/84061b86-0924-49bf-a639-cfc2c3d87df9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] at the University of Texas for more than 20 years. JetPens picks the 47 best pens for 2026 [ https://substack.com/redirect/f8523629-cf8f-490f-ba84-5c867e0025f8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (My personal favorites: Pentel Portable Pocket Brush pens [ https://substack.com/redirect/26abc76b-4e6a-49ca-b903-5c3af7c99dc2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Lamy Safari fountain pens [ https://substack.com/redirect/c2cbcc36-bb7e-468e-b8b7-28fa013561be?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Pilot G-2 Bolds [ https://substack.com/redirect/fb56a51e-7b93-4413-9ebd-5f71657976d5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and Pentel Sign Pens [ https://substack.com/redirect/6b9868cb-9623-44d0-ba9c-ad10e1a7ca3f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Yahoo! adapted a bit from the “Demons Hate Fresh Air” chapter of my book Keep Going [ https://substack.com/redirect/46c04787-550d-4188-9115-e0ba54c0b80a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for their piece, “52 fascinating people reveal the tiny habits that changed their lives [ https://substack.com/redirect/8f9051f7-12f3-4f9d-94e1-7f77ef759a5f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]”: Years ago, we adopted the unofficial United States Postal Service motto [ https://substack.com/redirect/21dbd242-995c-44c1-aba3-d1c1ef2e9cf2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] as our own: “Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom … stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The best way to read the internet [ https://substack.com/redirect/e507a016-d456-47eb-9103-a348b257812b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone, buy me time to make you fun stuff like mixtapes [ https://substack.com/redirect/40a496be-c66c-48c9-ad1f-30bfe43394c7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and typewriter interviews [ https://substack.com/redirect/32a42e63-c867-48ee-b15f-41b1358f51a2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and get an extra exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/cd89a9e0-b35a-40e4-890f-e74eb4c55bf2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/8c65b922-abf8-40b7-8192-17cb976c8acb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTROVFF5TlRFd055d2lhV0YwSWpveE56WTVNVGN6T0RZNUxDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EQTNNRGs0Tmprc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuaDNyWEVBSzZfLUMyMkYxZk56Wm5ITWNDYmNKRGI4VGJwV0JoLWdtZDNWayIsInAiOjE4NTQyNTEwNywicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc2OTE3Mzg2OSwiZXhwIjoyMDg0NzQ5ODY5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.YeZFhPlxqjpwb-vmlR6h3MpZggHtUIzsrvibT3FoNAM?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/virtuous-by-comparison Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/c2e83511-5e2c-425c-923b-175c37296874?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: “Evil fortune does have some use: it is a good thing to be born in a century which is deeply depraved, for by comparison with others you are reckoned virtuous on the cheap.” That’s our old friend Michel de Montaigne [ https://substack.com/redirect/1fe92165-ab29-49ce-ac8a-0b3c02eb4d04?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I’ve read a few pages of his Essays [ https://substack.com/redirect/47745128-a6f3-45be-b9ce-4cf89a46cb2f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] every morning of 2026, and every morning I find some wonderful 400-year-old line that speaks directly to my present moment. (Old books are time machines [ https://substack.com/redirect/41c9c29e-21c0-453f-8e18-d598d4326c94?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) If you don’t know Montaigne’s work, check out Stefan Zweig’s short biography [ https://substack.com/redirect/3c121dec-04e1-4cf0-91d1-9519e3084fbd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], written in exile during World War II. My friend Ryan Holiday loves the book so much he bought a thousand copies [ https://substack.com/redirect/f3fda776-4953-47ea-97c4-2bb03e46ea86?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] to stock at The Painted Porch [ https://substack.com/redirect/24553518-9f09-47b0-ac2d-29a371d70013?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] before it went out of print. (Montaigne was an influence on my book Keep Going [ https://substack.com/redirect/656ea5dc-cca6-4d71-a55a-3c2fe2d2bc23?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and I wrote more about his famous tower [ https://substack.com/redirect/27639dd2-5d37-4212-9e4e-be7989a2107b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in my letter, “Room To Think [ https://substack.com/redirect/b2931c62-9a4c-4335-ac86-7f2a6e3b3cdf?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].”) “Writers, we’re magpies, you know? We steal all the bits and pieces that everybody says as best we can.” Director Paul Thomas Anderson [ https://substack.com/redirect/12ddb53d-6485-4eb5-956f-b76eab28164f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on stealing like an artist [ https://substack.com/redirect/0e55c1c1-5de6-45ee-872b-e3a0fd17fec1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “Please put me in the company of first-class artists with good hearts and good minds doing meaningful work.” This profile of Noah Wyle [ https://substack.com/redirect/3d831975-fbc1-46f9-8b89-6bd76dfe637c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and season two of The Pitt [ https://substack.com/redirect/c3d6d62b-fdc3-481f-9401-b9cbe8d04806?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] is excellent, even by Sam Anderson [ https://substack.com/redirect/06d333dc-abfd-4dac-ad2c-afdbe976bff6?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] standards. (I was not expecting the appearance of Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes [ https://substack.com/redirect/a4146e9e-8ba8-4b22-95b5-66af8dc87ff4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], which has been in our home library [ https://substack.com/redirect/6c0486d7-2454-49fc-91f6-1ad232057d4c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for years, but I still haven’t read.) The show is so intense I hadn’t really thought of it as comfort viewing! (As “competency p*rn [ https://substack.com/redirect/f395b616-a1c5-4cf1-8730-b09c4fe6db34?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” sure.) “The real world is, yes, broken and foaming at the mouth and desperately in need of healing. But, at least while we’re watching ‘The Pitt,’ we begin to believe that there might be someone out there who can fix it.” “Humor is… reasonableness. Reasonableness in the face of the ghastly serious people who have dominated the twentieth century.” The humor in writer Robert Stone’s work [ https://substack.com/redirect/82bbabca-dcc5-4071-b807-85477b33bcd5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (I just started his novel Dog Soldiers [ https://substack.com/redirect/777055f9-ccda-4b2e-950c-d28161d3805c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and it’s great so far.) “If they passed a law saying I needed to draw with Procreate, I would quit art, convinced I could not draw.” Cartoonist Vanessa Davis on why pencils are everything [ https://substack.com/redirect/c71632ff-9439-4100-b335-3c6acf2eb318?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Our tools matter! I switched from my Lamy Safari fountain pen [ https://substack.com/redirect/223128e6-dfc6-4e68-abcd-c77c0b0e731a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] back to my beloved Pilot Brush Pen [ https://substack.com/redirect/ce3fa832-e8e2-4869-a480-c02eed7e2487?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] earlier this week, and I immediately started drawing more in my diary.) If you’d like to be drawing more, too, there’s still time to be part of my friend Wendy MacNaughton’s 30 Days of Drawing [ https://substack.com/redirect/735bef23-221c-49c5-8423-a28fd4e759e2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Check out her Saul Steinberg-inspired exercise [ https://substack.com/redirect/96a5b731-a773-4d43-a7b4-1b4ef9118cc0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for a taste. (Steinberg is who I stole my “writer who draws” tagline from — see my letter, “Steinberg at play [ https://substack.com/redirect/7c11a9e8-928a-4856-b71d-e6cee553cbd3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].”) Miyazaki’s Sherlock [ https://substack.com/redirect/e6d2818e-1953-4cef-9bc1-ca3d5a04faa2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Pizza night [ https://substack.com/redirect/8cc7db0d-dadd-4b01-b2e4-225dc500fe74?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: Meg and I re-watched Billy Wilder’s The Apartment [ https://substack.com/redirect/1f5b0849-de0e-41a8-a861-419298057483?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] a few weeks ago, and we loved it so much we decided to give Some Like It Hot [ https://substack.com/redirect/75f2f3fa-7abb-4f76-a257-9c72be9bd471?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] a go with the boys. It was delightful. I need more Jack Lemmon on my TV. And more Billy Wilder. And maybe more Marilyn! (“Where’s the bourbon? [ https://substack.com/redirect/ee7f34a8-076e-4b2d-9e8d-7e9043a2ae50?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]”) “The chances are I spent more time standing onstage playing guitar and singing than any human who ever lived.” RIP Grateful Dead co-founder Bob Weir [ https://substack.com/redirect/c46a9284-9569-4711-b6fb-bdc1d06c6a92?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], who also loved to ride a bike [ https://substack.com/redirect/168387c4-8b49-4f2f-853b-e5ffa7ce751d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (I enjoyed Walter Martin’s tribute show [ https://substack.com/redirect/0e0013e8-c838-412a-98da-47b7e7da4945?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) A typewriter interview with artist Tucker Nichols [ https://substack.com/redirect/87c53e94-1931-4c2a-a4da-a1cd8422c0ba?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone, buy me time to make you fun stuff like mixtapes [ https://substack.com/redirect/ab63e04a-0f83-4e7f-bfc9-5996beecdeef?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and typewriter interviews [ https://substack.com/redirect/bff30cd7-7a53-484c-98bd-d51cbbf4b592?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and get an extra exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/f8989c2e-8a72-4968-b766-1fbde1104089?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/abb8bc47-9f43-49e4-bffe-a5a451b67324?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin PS. I was stoked to see this whole rack of my books [ https://substack.com/redirect/4e35e63f-698e-477f-a26a-00670bae32e4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] at the World Book Fair [ https://substack.com/redirect/ea90ba8a-41a3-4f41-8f5d-d2fce81f8089?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in New Delhi. (My books are always hanging out in cooler places than I am!) Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTRORFk0T1RBeE9Td2lhV0YwSWpveE56WTROVFk0T1RjM0xDSmxlSEFpT2pFNE1EQXhNRFE1Tnpjc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAueWFiNkVJb0hiLXZJLUV5a0JDckJWMUZobjZXVThsQkdSRW1ILTFURGNHayIsInAiOjE4NDY4OTAxOSwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc2ODU2ODk3NywiZXhwIjoyMDg0MTQ0OTc3LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.gmc6yHgkPyU1JdyUOssVLf5DCiyknBYwWi3DitbzVPI?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/dubious-practices Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-196213321 ], On Tuesday night I joked, grimly, “Well, that was a long week!” It’s finally Friday. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing: If you’d like to start a family movie night, I wrote about a dozen lessons we’ve learned from our favorite ritual [ https://substack.com/redirect/2bc82e33-51c6-4327-81b8-4c40ddad1228?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (A tip from the comments, that I co-sign: some kids will watch almost anything if you let them stay up late!) The Slits’ Cut [ https://substack.com/redirect/736a1342-6ef9-45ee-98f3-8c4ab19cbd6a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] was one of my favorite new-to-me discoveries of 2025, so I began the year by reading guitarist Viv Albertine’s memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys [ https://substack.com/redirect/1438883b-55bc-4476-93ea-a9f062483875?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I enjoyed the urgency of the present tense and learning about the band’s early days. (Their cover of “I Heard It Through The Grapevine [ https://substack.com/redirect/0daf609e-0e77-4825-9740-c718449953a9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” was the first song they ever recorded in a studio?!?) But what really hit me is the second half of the book when Albertine comes back to music after being a mother and a housewife. In some ways, it’s the most “Punk” part of the book. She has to re-learn how to play the guitar and starts writing songs about her life and driving 3 hours so she can sing two of them at an open mic night in a dinky little pub. There’s no triumphant ending, just a woman doing what she feels like she was born to do, at no small cost. “The perilous time for the most highly gifted is not youth. The holy sensibilities of genius — for all the sensibilities of genius are holy — keep their possessor essentially unhurt as long as animal spirits and the idea of being young last; but the perilous season is middle age, when a false wisdom tempts them to doubt the divine origin of the dreams of their youth; when the world comes to them, not with the song of the siren, against which all books warn us, but as a wise old man counselling acquiescence in what is below them.” So wrote Elizabeth Peabody [ https://substack.com/redirect/15f97a47-7fd5-426b-a651-a66a7baa5f9d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. “My true nature–which I suppressed in order to function and succeed as an adult–is surfacing again.” Reading Albertine’s memoir reminded me of re-watching the 2003 documentary about Metallica, Some Kind of Monster [ https://substack.com/redirect/327a671f-8fc9-475a-9705-36e6357d0d4a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], where they’re middle-aged (they were all younger than I am now, actually) and going to therapy and scheduling band practices around their kids’ school drop-offs and pick-ups. I remember watching it in my 20s and thinking it was pathetically not Metal, and now I think it’s one of the most Metal things they ever did. Six music documentaries filmmaker Penny Lane loves [ https://substack.com/redirect/52c85f18-70cf-4843-9915-8235d80614a8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Come to think of it, 2021 was a particularly good year for watching music movies! [ https://substack.com/redirect/9790165a-10f0-44a0-befd-3d09fef10330?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]) Penny and I talked more about music and movies in a delightful live chat that you should watch if you haven’t. [ https://substack.com/redirect/299a88f5-1fca-409a-82f2-d768b94cdfa2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] A list of books, movies, art, and music that enter the public domain in 2026 [ https://substack.com/redirect/e591e526-11e0-4b9c-8ae3-5d34e1b83669?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. One of them is Willa Cather’s Death Comes to the Archbishop [ https://substack.com/redirect/fe05a99b-4dce-4380-9aa1-64fc40de319c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], which I meant to read a few years ago when I was in New Mexico [ https://substack.com/redirect/f9f305e2-b5ba-4bec-82d2-d1f6bfa46409?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. I polled y’all about your favorite reads of 2025 [ https://substack.com/redirect/9bfa9b6e-bb49-4a00-8eed-87e6d9b96708?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and I was delighted by how many folks enjoyed Roland Allen’s The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper [ https://substack.com/redirect/d2f2d9cd-c775-49f6-ad1a-1dae58f71684?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], which was one of my favorite reads of 2024 [ https://substack.com/redirect/e5bba72e-704f-4a8a-95e0-d7bb370287d2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A book I’ve put in my queue thanks to your recommendations: Fredrik Backman’s My Friends [ https://substack.com/redirect/2c8c2d77-7c56-42c4-805c-1cbf59a479fb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. If it’s half as good as this speech [ https://substack.com/redirect/f45253d5-5880-411c-9d82-39dcaa1b760d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], it will be very good. (I need to stop reading Sherlock Holmes stories and Montaigne essays first. Might be a while.) “Rip it up and start again [ https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=30594&post_id=183705633&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=h5dw&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo4MDAxMzIsInBvc3RfaWQiOjE4MzcwNTYzMywiaWF0IjoxNzY3NzMzNjY5LCJleHAiOjE3NzAzMjU2NjksImlzcyI6InB1Yi0zMDU5NCIsInN1YiI6InBvc3QtcmVhY3Rpb24ifQ.1IOlZjoGp1BIkvLBb8lbonbh4GkCQHIAOB-YTExyh-w ].” (The only one of these writing practices I endorse is re-typing your drafts.) “They haven’t got me yet, baby.” We re-watched Billy Wilder’s The Apartment [ https://substack.com/redirect/83a7c3f1-08f6-42f2-bf82-9e6fa50ddce7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] last week, and it was even better than I remembered. Could it be the ultimate dead week movie? The only competition, in my opinion, is The Thin Man [ https://substack.com/redirect/88f311cf-3777-4eae-869e-86ceacd0c5a2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], but Paul Thomas Anderson’s marathon lineup [ https://substack.com/redirect/62775475-ee12-47ea-90e8-b7ae20719d10?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] would make a solid week of viewing, too: (One time someone asked PTA in a Q&A to name a great movie he loves that nobody’s seen and he replied, “I like watching movies that lots of people have seen.” I love that.) In case you missed it last week, here’s my big list of 100 things that made my 2025 [ https://substack.com/redirect/2272e225-5261-4922-bf3b-b30df3844649?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thanks for reading. This hand-rolled, ad-free, AI-free, anti-algorithm publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To keep Friday free for everyone, buy me time to make you fun stuff like mixtapes [ https://substack.com/redirect/5ee6b4e8-254a-4784-aff7-f23709ab991a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and typewriter interviews [ https://substack.com/redirect/948fe0d7-08ef-46e0-96bd-7957cfdf47f3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (new one coming soon!), and get an extra exclusive email from me every Tuesday, become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/854528c0-8185-4aca-99ad-415f10646254?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/52afb024-1567-4cd1-ba3e-da568d549083?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTRNemt5TmpRME1pd2lhV0YwSWpveE56WTNPVFkwTWprMUxDSmxlSEFpT2pFM09UazFNREF5T1RVc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuM1QtWEpjdk9HdHAyYkZKRVFmMXVBRW5TNmt3ZThyaXh3eUQtRnhsTU10cyIsInAiOjE4MzkyNjQ0MiwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc2Nzk2NDI5NSwiZXhwIjoyMDgzNTQwMjk1LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.73mB95MGoWaq6wGcbR6sKrnYHOiFGZ3wNIM-93_zIPo?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/100-things-that-made-my-year-2025 Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/redirect/ef455e3c-27b1-43db-897d-a099711bc84f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Here’s my annual list of 100 things that made my year: Walking cookies to friends on New Year’s Day. Accepting the sad fact that my nervous system can only handle one cup of coffee a day. Drinking lots of herbal tea instead. Peppermint. Trader Joe’s Harvest Blend. A cup cap accessory [ https://substack.com/redirect/78b792a2-29b0-4484-9148-8c2dc70f9110?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for my Yeti Rambler [ https://substack.com/redirect/d9a351ac-1935-418c-a7d6-4da0622562e2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] that turns it into a thermos like workers take to construction sites. Having tweens! One of them now a teen! 6-7 [ https://substack.com/redirect/bf0c34be-b618-4715-9bfc-a1b508c87483?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]! Taking the boys to see the movies they love at the Village Alamo Drafthouse. Sonic The Hedgehog 3. A Minecraft Movie. FNAF 2. Pizza and a movie every Friday night [ https://substack.com/redirect/e7388a51-3e09-499f-820c-9387eda0e4af?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. Mousehunt. Freaky Friday. The Adventures of Tintin. The Wild Robot. Flow. Harry and The Hendersons. KPop Demon Hunters. Napoleon Dynamite. (The kids still shout, “Make yourself a danged quesadilla!”) Rango. The Gold Rush. Good Burger. Young Frankenstein. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Addams Family Values. Galaxy Quest. Building fires in our fireplace. Chopping kindling. Dipping into The Book of Building Fires [ https://substack.com/redirect/d2253e75-78e0-43f9-834b-aadf8b048cce?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and experimenting with the top-down method [ https://substack.com/redirect/789c971b-5552-4d63-ab3c-0c899725ae17?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Riding bikes with Marty. Making mixtapes [ https://substack.com/redirect/fa4d8691-1d12-416a-9360-11252a021f98?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] to listen to in the studio. Sharing a mixtape, then getting a comment from a young man who said he didn’t understand what a mixtape was or how you make one [ https://substack.com/redirect/bee1d245-9b76-4648-bd4b-3ce1f5c26de5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Recording an explanatory video [ https://substack.com/redirect/5a0156fd-9de1-41f8-8632-d4f4d4249682?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for him that made me feel a million years old. Splurging on a brand-new Tascam cassette deck [ https://substack.com/redirect/8d09f41f-e7d3-4b88-81c2-287e2e0029e0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Rob Sheffield’s memoir Love is a Mix Tape [ https://substack.com/redirect/245e92ae-5fcb-4a41-843d-400adfa1b7c5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (“There are all kinds of mix tapes. There is always a reason to make one.”) Texting old photos to college pals on a Friday night. Spaghetti every Monday night. Making a “Red Sauce [ https://substack.com/redirect/dda81b56-34d5-4b4f-b09d-5fd93723a403?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” mix for Meghan to play while she’s making the meatballs. Discovering the Ultra-Lounge [ https://substack.com/redirect/dd52272f-471d-4c5f-80a3-09e2c2e92a91?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] series of compilation CDs. Mixing gin martinis with three olives. Getting through winter with soup and heat. Soup lessons. [ https://substack.com/redirect/6cd6295a-d412-49d2-be73-882c6a87dfa8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] Seeing The Soup Peddler sign with an elegant edit of something I wrote: “Soup teaches us some things get better tomorrow [ https://substack.com/redirect/687598e4-32ae-4dff-9bba-d1944e14739d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” Flowers on the kitchen table. The way Meg buys bouquets and deconstructs them into mini-bouquets. Keeping the calendar clear to write. (“Open the document, stay in the document [ https://substack.com/redirect/92c33e87-4148-4554-b9b8-af8bcc6d2943?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].”) How often the spiritual problems of a piece of writing are connected to its technical problems, and how often a fix to a technical problem also solves a spiritual problem. All the great typewriter interviews [ https://substack.com/redirect/ed7accf0-1101-4e54-920b-84aa5843366d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] I published. How many neighbors we meet, how many adventures we have, and how many treasures we find just by taking a 3-mile walk every day. Our family being so clueless about football that we bought our junky Super Bowl food a week too early. (We ate it while watching Groundhog Day.) Sick days with my teenager and watching violent movies his younger brother can’t handle. Hunger Games. Temple of Doom. Commando. The Terminator. Terminator 2. The Matrix. New glasses! Buying a 50-watt Orange Crush [ https://substack.com/redirect/4f386f0f-c831-49ce-8749-08975cbfe811?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] bass amp. Learning Paul McCartney and James Jamerson lines on my little short scale Squier Jaguar Bass. Talking to Matt T. and Jamie on the phone. How good the newsletter gets when I’m using it as a way to procrastinate on writing a book. A Laity Lodge [ https://substack.com/redirect/fca5e6f9-f7ff-49e3-9f31-d5cc1dbb54d4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] retreat. Checking my phone one last time before I drove into the canyon and lost cell signal and finding an email from my editor that she loved my book [ https://substack.com/redirect/a9d3d104-4019-4b01-b8e6-ba6c78c00b27?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A block printing workshop with Dana Tanamachi [ https://substack.com/redirect/2eaee121-cc0b-4149-9e4a-ff24d1a05ee1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A long hike by myself up to the bluff. Drinking bourbon with Alan and Steven. How when I arrived on Friday it was still winter, but by the time I left on Sunday, it felt like spring had sprung. Driving south to get a haircut at Avenue Barbershop and record shopping at End of an Ear afterwards. Buying used CDs and 99 cent cassettes to tape over for mixtapes. Throwing a crawfish party! Making a mix with a bunch of New Orleans funk and soul [ https://substack.com/redirect/c2505256-2268-4e1f-8cf6-c95726a91c4a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], most of it built around some wonderful Soul Jazz [ https://substack.com/redirect/e68af39d-ad7c-4dee-9211-591f1b64968b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] compilations like Saturday Night Fish Fry [ https://substack.com/redirect/600e42c3-dd43-4fd9-8927-84170489c73c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Living somewhere that people visit. Hanging out with Drew and Detria during SXSW. Burgers and beer with Craig at Billy’s. Beers with Oliver in Hyde Park before his gig at the Commodore Perry. A beer with Kelli before her event at First Light Books. A gig in New Orleans. How I always assumed I was too uptight for the city, and how I wound up really loving it [ https://substack.com/redirect/27bfea6b-571c-46fa-ba6b-f117ad09684c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Walking from the French Quarter to Bacchanal and having dinner [ https://substack.com/redirect/4da63d48-6c9c-4dba-9738-c7a77308405a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] at the bar with Rob, Clayton, and Katie. (Thinking of Dave Hickey in The Perfect Wave [ https://substack.com/redirect/1ef195e6-3a92-4b45-a3f0-40f371713e9f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “When something that is not your thing blows you away, that’s one of the best things that can happen. It means you are something other than you thought you were.”) Stepping into cathedrals when traveling and saying a little prayer. Coming home from the trip and Owen had taught Meghan the piano chords to Destroyer’s “Looter’s Follies [ https://substack.com/redirect/58e01a05-10dc-4172-acd0-22d66cdf85d4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” How Owen can just learn any melody by ear on his keyboard while watching TV. How you’ll be watching a ball game and he’ll start playing the organ music. Trying to replace my dread with curiosity. Being a long-term pessimist, short-term optimist. Believing in the wild possibilities of a single day. (C.S. Lewis: “It is only our daily bread that we are encouraged to ask for.”) Keeping my expectations low. (“Are the lights on? Is the water running? Is there food in the fridge?”) The title of the movie Do Not Expect Too Much from The End of the World. The Zen Master’s refrain: “We’ll see [ https://substack.com/redirect/00134f00-15e9-48dc-8bda-d199db3afb14?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” Feasting on corned beef, soda bread, and extra stout Guinness on St. Patrick’s Day. T-Loc’s fish tacos during Lent. BBQ for Easter. The new apron [ https://substack.com/redirect/fbc5a46d-b9b1-4426-bc91-aecc1f514312?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] Meg bought me for the studio. Listening to dub reggae [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-101843885 ] and making block prints [ https://substack.com/redirect/509e71a5-e08f-4b72-bf00-502745c8cf6a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Stringing twine and clothespins across the studio so I can hang prints to dry. Scrabble. Uno. Checkers. Plant sales and art supply shopping. Judging a book just by its epigraphs [ https://substack.com/redirect/ae0293da-6589-4786-b1a5-47ff90ba0cc4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Staple-gunning hand-printed flyers to telephone polls all over our neighborhood to try to save our son’s middle school. Finding out six months later they got to at least one of the people they were supposed to get to. Thinking I should write a book about something and then just making a zine instead [ https://substack.com/redirect/bbcf93bc-8e44-43d4-ae9b-b767a5147ca0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Burgers at Crown and Anchor with the boys before seeing Kraftwerk at Bass Concert Hall. Eno [ https://substack.com/redirect/4ce9ef7c-a721-46af-849f-25532f265d1f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] at Austin Film Society with Owen. Turning old oversized shirts into sleep shirts for the 10-year-old. Giving the kids sticky notes and then collecting all the funny ones they leave for us and themselves around the house. Having a word for “Maycember [ https://substack.com/redirect/729b7dcb-e584-4e2a-b026-711170179cce?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” Getting inspired by Erik Winkowski’s “Zinemail No. 1 [ https://substack.com/redirect/5dab2ab5-eb96-484c-a8bf-319107a6eb16?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” dispatch — probably the most interesting use of Substack I’ve ever seen — and immediately trying to steal from him by making a moving block print [ https://substack.com/redirect/71b4d120-645a-4478-b3f2-79e41e6054c1?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and one of my collages with an animated frame [ https://substack.com/redirect/25d98eb9-55e5-466b-b97f-f23d5156670b?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Impromptu retail dates. The magic of rearranging the furniture in a small house. June in Austin, Texas. School is finally over, so it’s quiet and empty. Warm enough to swim, but not too hot yet. Tolstoy summer! Reading War and Peace on a raft in the pool. Going ahead and reading Anna Karenina, too. How weird “the classics” are [ https://substack.com/redirect/6ac12c56-dc16-4538-9cbd-00265def39d8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] when you actually bother to sit down and read them. (For example, within 50 pages of War and Peace, a bunch of drunks have tied a policeman to a bear and thrown them in a river.) A Wimberley day trip with my mom to the Leaning Pear, the Devil’s Backbone, and the Arnosky flower farm. Watching The Simpsons and Seinfeld and X-Files and 90s movies with the boys. Saving funny Instagram reels to bribe the boys with so they’ll get into bed. Surviving a surf lesson on Oahu. Standing on a cliff in Kaua’i 200 feet above sea level with hundreds of strangers, admiring a rainbow over the Pacific, and waiting for the tsunami to roll in. (It never did.) How our short California layovers were more fun than our long Hawaiian vacation [ https://substack.com/redirect/a4d0f1cd-370e-4356-b244-7c822d6010d9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. The zoo and room service cheeseburgers in San Diego. The Presidio and art museums with Ted in San Francisco. The Akai MPK Mini Play MK3 [ https://substack.com/redirect/421d2e27-16a4-4d7e-8633-3b2eaf7586ed?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] I bought so we would have a portable keyboard and MIDI controller we could use for making music while we were away from home. Not worrying about what’s streaming and just paying for a damned movie when you really want to watch it. Leaving books lying around like traps for the tweens. My 10-year-old cartoonist ensnared by Tom Gauld’s Physics for Cats [ https://substack.com/redirect/b97ed7ca-1b65-4686-b994-c278f59b3b79?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Raina Telgemeier and Scott McCloud’s The Cartoonist’s Club [ https://substack.com/redirect/fe136e6f-7f06-49e3-b58c-e603333f8132?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. A new development: the boys picking up books I didn’t set out for them! The 10-year-old being into Guy Deslile’s Muybridge [ https://substack.com/redirect/35be78bd-53c2-4eaa-bbd5-c22947a84212?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Allie Brosh’s Hyperbole and a Half [ https://substack.com/redirect/01c0eb7d-8ae4-4e7a-9f35-c23aa2bdf2fa?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. My 13-year-old coder spotting Cory Doctorow’s Enshittification [ https://substack.com/redirect/3c905be5-f49a-4a24-b5e9-c3b6b0fc2cdc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on our coffee table and getting a big grin on his face. Me saying, “You can read it if you want!” and him proceeding to do so. (Cory sending him a nice card thanking him for his review in the newsletter [ https://substack.com/redirect/7e447dab-7767-47f4-8a3a-695e31914c62?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) Drawing succulents [ https://substack.com/redirect/be8fcd07-2266-4e07-8a58-b1e51f788fc4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on old sheet music with Caran d’Ache Classic Neocolor II Water-Soluble Pastels [ https://substack.com/redirect/cc1eaabd-20c5-47f4-a813-d7b38c9a99ce?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. How drawing them got me thinking a lot about light — how often in Texas you can’t feel the seasons coming, but you can see them. Exploring color. Getting inspired by Tara Booth’s Processing: 100 Comics That Got Me Through It [ https://substack.com/redirect/ebdec662-a527-4d11-968a-9eb88a5f2795?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thinking I understood color theory, but learning from Betty Edwards’ Color [ https://substack.com/redirect/7f669930-b844-4d0a-8db4-e0997b855dfe?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] that it’s “complementary [ https://substack.com/redirect/685d9c5c-d639-441d-aab4-a5b358966b07?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” colors not “complimentary” colors. (I obviously didn’t go to art school.) Hiring Dean to make me the “Walk-ins Welcome” sign [ https://substack.com/redirect/856702ab-415c-483b-9248-2254cb75029f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] I’ve always wanted. Finally tracking down a good place online to buy the cigarette pencils I like to “smoke” in the studio, and buying a couple canisters of them [ https://substack.com/redirect/7cb3773f-7751-4ed4-9cbe-da61d373458a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] so I can give them to people who visit the studio. A gig in Baltimore. Walking to the top of Federal Hill. Finding the one outdoor balcony at the Austin airport. (Hint: it’s upstairs at the end of the Delta terminal.) Finding myself on an airplane in a window seat, Hiroshi Yoshimura’s “Green Shower [ https://substack.com/redirect/ebf7d8be-e0a5-4872-9b23-a1b811ac88bf?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” playing on a loop in my headphones, the clouds flying past my window while I read Tolstoy. Bliss. Kate Bingaman-Burt’s story about texting and befriending a roof cleaner and sign painter [ https://substack.com/redirect/fbff45c8-5471-4dfe-88f6-7415ec686797?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Practicing being a disappointment [ https://substack.com/redirect/b063ac42-f0ba-488b-b669-bc3dd3041ab9?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Calling my parents on Saturday instead of Sunday. Being bowled over when my dad told me he was enjoying sitting around and reading a novel [ https://substack.com/redirect/330208d2-12e2-4812-9d43-3c10a98dc27e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Listening to Walter Martin Radio Hour [ https://substack.com/redirect/47cb933a-2d7b-45a3-8b27-a1cb836e9a8e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] while cleaning the pool and doing the dishes. Thinking about how stoked my 19-year-old self would be to learn I was doing a live chat with a member of The Walkmen. [ https://substack.com/redirect/2e6d6d41-0e6c-4dd2-b381-a6e3ba770be0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] Figuring out the ending of my book while listening to his song “The Soldier [ https://substack.com/redirect/660795ea-700e-4714-a9d1-fde45e9eeb30?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” Getting the top score on the quiz at the end of the organ episode [ https://substack.com/redirect/b9d2429b-ba6a-45d7-afd5-c7e6c8322263?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Keeping up with bird cams [ https://substack.com/redirect/77911e1c-956f-4b83-910c-6f423f1b3b4c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] instead of the news [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-91288491 ]. Selling over 2 million books [ https://substack.com/redirect/d3498d89-0ad3-4ef4-968e-9937f1a38c42?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. The 20th anniversary of my blog [ https://substack.com/redirect/73b3eb3e-6b4f-4912-b78f-4755ca5c63f3?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. My newsletter having over 300,000 readers. (!!!) How the one-hour studio [ https://substack.com/redirect/ace81410-64ad-49bc-9d7c-0f8aa38de288?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] always works. Teachers emailing me for “clean” versions of posters [ https://substack.com/redirect/92c33e87-4148-4554-b9b8-af8bcc6d2943?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and zines [ https://substack.com/redirect/1bd28b9c-6696-4cb3-8089-b4a42e5da6a7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. When my son’s fifth grade teacher emails me his weekly segment on the school’s morning news, Chillin’ With Jules. Worrying less about making new friends, and worrying about keeping the friends I have [ https://substack.com/redirect/6e3f4aff-218a-4e2a-8ec9-1cb343236d08?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Texting Matt B. to ask if he was going to see One Battle After Another [ https://substack.com/redirect/b4aecaff-63f3-4fb5-a9ae-a213fac2ae55?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and him texting back that he had an extra ticket to see it in IMAX. So much fun. Embracing my love of boomer music [ https://substack.com/redirect/8cb67e21-4db0-4ca6-9112-5931bee27ffd?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Inflatable hot tub! Watching a ton of baseball in October. A. Bartlett Giamatti’s baseball writings, A Great and Glorious Game [ https://substack.com/redirect/5ca4db84-3594-4835-a7c9-7c0f56e18edc?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Especially “The Green Fields of the Mind [ https://substack.com/redirect/247127dc-d796-4564-8449-52dbe12b877c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].”) Carving pumpkins. Sending the 13-year-old off into the Halloween night to trick or treat with his friends from school. Drinking cognac at Hank’s. Discovering a screech owl in the box [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-189566811 ] I gave him for his birthday last year. Taking the boys to see cartoonist Nathan Hale’s [ https://substack.com/redirect/0e9f17d1-0a05-43ca-8f44-4bdcf462285e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] well-honed draw-and-talk about Lewis and Clark [ https://substack.com/redirect/464a595d-766b-4ef5-ad4a-9891bd1bc7d5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] at the Texas Book Festival. Homemade crunchwraps! The three Thanksgiving pies Meghan made, but especially her apple galette. Geese at Stubb’s. Getting Killed [ https://substack.com/redirect/5579db84-2ef4-4639-81c5-e2a9b750d47d?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Cameron Winter’s Heavy Metal [ https://substack.com/redirect/0487ddfa-5149-4452-9e76-0561f714a919?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. How I said to Meg, “They should cover the New Radicals!” and then they did [ https://substack.com/redirect/5227157a-a5f7-4062-9ca4-04a29a518dba?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Trying to get “waymo” to take off as an insult for when you meet someone and nobody appears to be behind the wheel, so to speak. (As in, “Look at this waymo over here.”) But also: really wanting to hate Waymos and then riding in one and reluctantly admitting it was pretty cool. How AI slop is making us really think about what it means to be human [ https://substack.com/redirect/dfdc3c3c-f601-45d2-9c7f-ee8f3d853f16?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and make art. Dates at the Paramount! Hrishikesh Hirway [ https://substack.com/@hrishikesh ] interviewing Samin Nosrat [ https://substack.com/redirect/8a7429f4-665d-44c0-8bb5-2413b1d2e07c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Running into Thor and having drinks at the Driskill before the Jeff Tweedy [ https://substack.com/redirect/f4eb0bf9-0c7d-412f-af7c-d6bcb6991abf?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] show. Reading five books worth of Sherlock Holmes [ https://substack.com/redirect/8ea253a4-2b71-4925-927b-e32974d62019?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] stories. Michael Dirda’s On Conan Doyle [ https://substack.com/redirect/4e6acbe7-27f4-42e0-80bc-7b6e720366de?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Thinking about how Holmes and Watson are related to Quixote and Panza [ https://substack.com/redirect/b1b9b379-785a-48cf-b721-39b3523464d8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Introducing the kids to Bob Ross [ https://substack.com/redirect/0aaef3ee-7937-4987-b783-97678bfa11d8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and them being totally incensed when I started goofing on him. The youngest shouting, “Let the man work!” The oldest shouting, “I’d like to see you do better!” How my oldest laughed at me when he discovered I use Google Docs to draft my books. “I thought you, like, used something professional.” My oldest asking my youngest, “Do you have any feedback for my novel?” My youngest replying, “Make more things happen [ https://substack.com/redirect/35a21255-0300-44bc-909c-76126c75f288?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” Napping with noise-canceling headphones on. The British term “lie in [ https://substack.com/redirect/7dd0a845-2927-4530-95ab-0b381a0b4aa7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].”  The moments of synchronicity that I live for, like the one afternoon, after reacquainting myself with the rapper Juvenile’s performance of “Back That Azz Up” [ https://substack.com/redirect/bd84c662-984e-42e6-900d-20115975cb81?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]on NPR’s Tiny Desk, I came across an unexpected footnote in the book Space Odyssey [ https://substack.com/redirect/45cc415b-181f-4b3d-9715-7881e16738e2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] that included the definition of the word “callipygian [ https://substack.com/redirect/c6003aeb-315d-460e-9484-60a50da06d97?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].” Feeling absolutely miserable, and then going for a bike ride with Marty and stopping at Top Notch for a cheeseburger and strawberry milkshake. Suddenly, life was perfect. Playing until the ninth inning. Having a great live chat with filmmaker Penny Lane [ https://substack.com/redirect/3e1d617a-1390-4304-ad23-0e97162c004f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on Christmas week. Stardew Valley [ https://substack.com/redirect/92717c78-1ef7-42cb-9cea-0cc2f6fd86c5?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] on the Switch. (I’m obsessed.) Looking up the answer to the question, “How did this even get made?” (Usually, the answer is: “Well, it wasn’t made like anything else was made.”) Keeping old diaries and logbooks [ https://substack.com/redirect/fabb1071-8ff6-4386-a0f5-fd755694a581?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] in 5-year increments by my spot at the kitchen table, and if I have nothing to write about, dipping into them [ https://substack.com/redirect/e37e9a85-784f-4af9-bbd8-385581c9a55c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and doing a little time travel. Taking creative advice from the Bhagavad Gita [ https://substack.com/redirect/87b6595d-e5f5-4cd9-a45b-4cc97f3c2fcb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “It is better to do your own duty / badly than to perfectly do / another’s….” Just showing up [ https://substack.com/redirect/27d38e08-6a19-4999-9eda-147cb62f4b15?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] over and over again. Robert Fripp’s definition of discipline: “our capacity to make a commitment in time.” Finishing a book [ https://substack.com/redirect/a9d3d104-4019-4b01-b8e6-ba6c78c00b27?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]I’ve been trying to write for 10 years. Thanks for reading. This is the twelfth year in a row [ https://substack.com/redirect/5a46ddbf-ecd6-4caf-8f40-566cb06837f7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] I’ve made one of these lists. I’ve heard from many of you that you’ve started making your own, which makes me very happy. If you feel like it, tell me the best thing about your 2025 in the comments: Hope your 2026 is off to a good start. I’ll be back to the normal list of 10 next Friday. xoxo [ https://substack.com/redirect/3f2a3a5d-176a-4da1-a8d9-2e34ecf8d36e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTRNekUzTmpRMU5pd2lhV0YwSWpveE56WTNNelU1TlRRNUxDSmxlSEFpT2pFM09UZzRPVFUxTkRrc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAuMGFyYUFLVGJEX3VySjhFLW1PRUk2LUVzX2l3SV82aWlfTWFlTW1BWmVjQSIsInAiOjE4MzE3NjQ1NiwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc2NzM1OTU0OSwiZXhwIjoyMDgyOTM1NTQ5LCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ._Ff4s5_pFag6gmASdS5_Z2mMNIQ8W1pYX3oKqF_lat8?

View this post on the web at https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/holiday-whac-a-mole Hey y’all [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-188051151? ], First, a fun heads up: I’m having a live chat with filmmaker Penny Lane [ https://substack.com/redirect/b54c1d06-4a42-4656-b1c1-2bae069da1ba?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] this Monday, Dec. 22 at 1PM central. We’re going to talk about her movies and how she gets them made. Join us!! [ https://open.substack.com/live-stream/90451 ] Today is the penultimate Friday of 2025. Not sure if my gift guide [ https://substack.com/redirect/cb7200a0-72b9-4817-993d-09bd6bee9885?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] will be any help to you at this point, but it’s there if you need it. Paid subscriptions to this newsletter are still 20% off! Print off a zine [ https://substack.com/redirect/c7444e31-4aa8-4145-9fbf-8abd24a4bbc0?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], click the button below, and cross that last creative weirdo (it might be you!) off your list: Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: “If you’re reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I’d lost sight of what mattered most in life…real connections with other people and nature. So I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong…” That’s the beginning of Stardew Valley [ https://substack.com/redirect/c532dfa6-1b1a-4bda-b702-37aa709ad857?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], a cozy 2017 farming video game that I’ve become completely addicted to. It really feels like art to me — probably because it was, unbelievably, made by a single person [ https://substack.com/redirect/2c68b80b-5359-45a7-a387-c5ffa3ffca23?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (And played by over 41 million people! [ https://substack.com/redirect/805d21c0-b05c-461b-89d1-e35d563a902e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]) “One afternoon I called Parker over to show her how much you can make on a good haul of melons and corn. ‘See?’ I said. ‘Look at that. That’s one day’s work.’ And she scoffed. ‘Sure,’ she said, ‘but who loves you?’” I loved this essay by Jason Sheehan about playing [ https://substack.com/redirect/47531d5b-a898-4905-8aef-20fe69c35f32?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Stardew Valley [ https://substack.com/redirect/47531d5b-a898-4905-8aef-20fe69c35f32?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] with his daughter [ https://substack.com/redirect/47531d5b-a898-4905-8aef-20fe69c35f32?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (Sheehan wrote more essays on video games for NPR’s [ https://substack.com/redirect/84d58436-f576-4798-9541-f04d95bde932?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]Reading The Game [ https://substack.com/redirect/84d58436-f576-4798-9541-f04d95bde932?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] series [ https://substack.com/redirect/84d58436-f576-4798-9541-f04d95bde932?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].) In case you were wondering: Yes, I’m still reading Sherlock Holmes stories [ https://substack.com/redirect/171a8a45-b45c-4d02-9579-df15cc1622b7?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and I plan to keep going until I run out. (To quote the WRB [ https://substack.com/redirect/433e3f29-00f9-4331-ac21-ec39c4c447d2?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]: “If you’re happy, [sad Christmas music] brings out the cheer by comparison, and if you’re sad, it lets you embrace it. There’s a similar dynamic to the Christmas crime novel. If you’re enjoying your family and friends, it reinforces that; if you’re not, it allows you to share in murderous rage.”) “We talk about ’having’ an idea—but maybe what we really want is for the idea to have us?” Mason Currey on the usefulness of believing that ideas are “out there.” [ https://substack.com/redirect/265269fb-0345-4b84-a0be-1084fc834a25?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (See also: my post, “It’s not inside you trying to get out, it’s outside you trying to get in [ https://substack.com/redirect/e655ad0e-298c-41e2-a029-545d16c991fe?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ].”) “I always find out what I really wanted to say once the break starts as I learn what it feels like to be a thinker and not just a harried, hunted animal.” I double-checked with Alan to make sure he gave this student [ https://substack.com/redirect/c478ba0c-a242-4ba9-8c67-23b075970b38?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] an A. For a special kind of nerd: Meg and I enjoyed The New Yorker at 100 [ https://substack.com/redirect/25bf8bbd-2148-4165-8463-49402624cc04?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] documentary on Netflix [ https://substack.com/redirect/4be5dbf0-3492-4261-b2d1-2220133dc68a?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. My friend Brian Braiker just made his first appearance in the magazine’s “Shouts & Murmurs” section with “So You Want To Come To My New Vinyl-Listening Bar. [ https://substack.com/redirect/8e208afa-e2a0-4d3d-972b-4300b9cf66a8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]” I also liked the recent cartoons issue, especially the “Takes [ https://substack.com/redirect/f42b9ad0-9e04-4419-a047-c26efa7e7931?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ],” which featured Roz Chast on Gahan Wilson [ https://substack.com/redirect/cbe472c0-a06e-4935-8126-3d79669ae8eb?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], Emma Allen on Otto Soglow [ https://substack.com/redirect/2ad7323b-31f8-415e-bb36-2c512d72d8db?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and Liana Finck on William Steig [ https://substack.com/redirect/7efd8fe4-d239-497f-8f02-f39c70ae8372?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (You read Liana’s wonderful typewriter interview [ https://substack.com/redirect/953312d0-44a3-4544-8743-617f2c72a34f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], right?) If you need more good laughs — and who doesn’t? — I recommend The Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards [ https://substack.com/redirect/56ec74e7-7e1a-4c80-ac91-56ee3b462811?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] (especially this photo [ https://substack.com/redirect/5886f0fe-1e7c-4228-9303-114c861baeec?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]), a Little Free Library [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-188309448? ] I saw on my morning walk, and Tom Hardy and his dad, telling dad jokes [ https://substack.com/redirect/f4b859c7-681c-4214-9cc7-5c3d6a7478fe?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (I believe the proper Christmas vibe is the comedy of survival [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-188447463? ].) RIP Rob Reiner [ https://substack.com/redirect/d781d16c-78ba-40eb-8899-3e9b3a904020?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and Michele Singer Reiner [ https://substack.com/redirect/f9ba54a0-a4b2-4fb9-9778-26d7d552f8a8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. Rob Reiner made at least three of my favorite movies, and all of them would make for excellent holiday viewing: This Is Spinal Tap [ https://substack.com/redirect/740ec0f4-2e19-466a-a1c1-ed97dac6de58?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], The Princess Bride [ https://substack.com/redirect/0130dbeb-5bbf-44df-9cc6-0b986dcc680e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ], and When Harry Met Sally… [ https://substack.com/redirect/54916ffc-5089-4e2d-86db-7da3e788119f?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] Christmas Adventurers! My favorite movie of the year — Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another [ https://substack.com/redirect/0cbe5f33-fb13-4fe3-abf7-012514b12ee8?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] — starts streaming on HBO Max tonight [ https://substack.com/redirect/5631a1fc-f9e0-43d4-a853-643552c6bba4?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. (“Courage, Bob!”) I made a Christmas mixtape [ https://substack.com/redirect/9abfec93-8883-42ce-9d40-e38f0a6c336e?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] for you full of music, books, and movies I like. Thanks of reading. Have a safe and happy holiday. Remember our friend Beth Pickens’ advice [ https://substack.com/redirect/38a46bd8-1cd4-41a8-8489-35d57b5a3986?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] that artists are people who suffer when they don’t make art! If you fit that description, be sure to carve out some time and space for your holiday practice [ https://substack.com/redirect/7ac0d1c8-7c1b-4eac-b0f4-512b9c91be86?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. If you need something to stick around for, next Friday is my year-end wrap-up [ https://substack.com/redirect/03dc8521-a2cb-4dc9-81e3-dae869426c14?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] and the first Friday of 2026 will be my annual list of 100 things that made my year [ https://substack.com/redirect/ad2dcd7c-754a-42ba-a70e-697fcead6214?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ]. This hand-rolled publication is made possible thanks to the kind support of readers like you. To support my work and keep Friday free for everybody, take advantage of the 20% off sale and become a paid subscriber [ https://substack.com/redirect/77a154a6-dc69-47cb-9658-6050e109768c?j=eyJ1IjoiNzF4cDQwIn0.VLQsNiiAawz-DS2VtWTrcrG2IFeLIxnWNFcK9akSjpY ] today! xoxo [ https://substack.com/@austinkleon/note/c-189046246? ], Austin Unsubscribe https://substack.com/redirect/2/eyJlIjoiaHR0cHM6Ly9hdXN0aW5rbGVvbi5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20vYWN0aW9uL2Rpc2FibGVfZW1haWw_dG9rZW49ZXlKMWMyVnlYMmxrSWpvME1qWTFNVFV3TkRBc0luQnZjM1JmYVdRaU9qRTRNakF4TXpBek1Td2lhV0YwSWpveE56WTJNVFE1TnpjekxDSmxlSEFpT2pFM09UYzJPRFUzTnpNc0ltbHpjeUk2SW5CMVlpMHpNRFExTkRNaUxDSnpkV0lpT2lKa2FYTmhZbXhsWDJWdFlXbHNJbjAub0J5YTFxWkhVa1FUT1FxTDlRQ2pDNklJRjdnMGVCV2tCTkhIUlpQLXhHVSIsInAiOjE4MjAxMzAzMSwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJ1Ijo0MjY1MTUwNDAsImlhdCI6MTc2NjE0OTc3MywiZXhwIjoyMDgxNzI1NzczLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImxpbmstcmVkaXJlY3QifQ.lViXSO8Otmd2_tmk7DYaNa4guo5QKNhkCIe66ox1UgI?

[https://eotrx.substackcdn.com/open?token=eyJtIjoiPDIwMjUxMjE4MDM1OTExLjMuMjA0OTdhYTZhZWRiNmVjZC50M2NjZmVhZ0BtZy1kMC5zdWJzdGFjay5jb20-IiwidSI6NDI2NTE1MDQwLCJyIjoiYkBlbWFpbC5nb21vZHVsci5jb20iLCJkIjoibWctZDAuc3Vic3RhY2suY29tIiwicCI6bnVsbCwidCI6bnVsbCwiYSI6bnVsbCwicyI6MzA0NTQzLCJjIjoidW5maW5pc2hlZC1zdWJzY3JpcHRpb24iLCJmIjp0cnVlLCJwb3NpdGlvbiI6InRvcCIsImlhdCI6MTc2NjAzMDM1MSwiZXhwIjoxNzY4NjIyMzUxLCJpc3MiOiJwdWItMCIsInN1YiI6ImVvIn0.I6b72HgLIbS8wgGU5tS9b6YGlSFPfojQtxoC2UGKtf4] Thanks for signing up! ͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­͏     ­ Austin Kleon [https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!Qc3Z!,w_80,h_80,c_fill,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep,g_auto/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb017f5d-b405-48db-83f7-b8cced42d460_200x200.png] [https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!s-1P!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F8d8fd491-54ac-42b4-b899-467d6ed6f7fb_800x800.jpeg]https://email.mg-d0.substack.com/c/eJx0kk2unDAQhE9jdkb-xyxYjJ7EOjdAbbthnAFMsP2Sl9NHMIqUTXYldbvqU7k9FFzS-TXUfY57zE8MNFeX_RmPEtPehMFImHVocOCdMUwyqXmDG8R1WnDHEwqGCco_087o5jn0ynDNApfOCAsKe-yl6awFMyvTcdXEQTChueCWSd1z3spWMNV3AAYwOIM-tEV6PyMsRLFtoYG1F1sB_2p92pqYp_nEm2UoZ8VmHZ6lHJnIBxEjEePfbR_26wERY9xgQSLGGYt_3ksqT0TwTPk3IjgRH_MEtSQiPn68hXwsKYVrsE7HmZYTc46fSOQjF8SDiPGdKfSVqi9LLUZX_QsL4kmRaee8VdQBSKpkh7TX3FIITgqHXddb1WbZwga_0w4_85tUi_Gobo3-ljd2vqUNdg6q51Qr8FQJp6izfU-V6YLBYOZudpNl7JdlrP1-4NIc1U0-bVvdY_macAe3YngX9o6A66enGAbJlFayOQdHFLt7bZe0pVDX8y48VxfSBnEfoOYS99eKaW_Kf4-nZjwvXyWM5pop1nwO4k8AAAD__yr2yQQ Thanks for signing up! You will start receiving the free Friday email right here in your inbox. You can also read the archives [https://email.mg-d0.substack.com/c/eJx0kLuuqzAURL8Gd0HbT0Lh4jb5DeTHBqxgG_kRKX9_RU6TU5x6NDNLy5mGWy5v3dMaUqg7-lvttroSzhZyIl4rblbpCWo6KQUcuKQEownHsmHCYhr6xbSvdFKS7BokzszfJzVP3jKg67xOQCfhwPLZqZkEzYBJyugduJwpHfnIQMyTMcqgtwqdHxt3bkWzDQLidvMwXmzNuOfociShLmvBD4tupSM59N7aWQf-b2CPgT1Mry2k54E5_WpeUXF7eCE5u11cjrGn0N4LJmMP9D9rZ7dHcObSsASvOQgpOCnaDgI-p-OWY_b9KB-a2q3P0YSkv25J-9Nsr1iuXcGUpBIEkJdm_wMAAP__oieGEA]. If you’re new to my work, I encourage you to check out my blog [https://email.mg-d0.substack.com/c/eJx0kDuu4zAMAE9jdc-gvk4KFdvkGgYl0Y4QSzL0WSC3XzjbpHk1MZwhPXbaS33bkbeYY3tS-GnDNV_j2WPJLFgjcdOBkeWLMSBBas4oYTzWnTJV7BRW7F_TxWj2tD6AEYaW-w3IOOE9GlCcNs6JI5obi1aA0FzwG0h953yWswB1XxANUnCGfJi79H4j3CcFaf8JMF9tHf1r9iWx2Nat0qfF9jqIHfbZ-9km-WcSj0k8cLQe8-ugki9gEg92Drf6ktLIsb9XyugOCv_pc7gjerzOXmOwEpRWklXrJgUfybyXVMI46sfehgslYcz2S8P6r58cjeq1VwmjuQYF7K8V_wIAAP__w9iARA] and my books [https://email.mg-d0.substack.com/c/eJx0kLuupDAMQL-GdBflzVCk2IbfQE5smGggQXmsNH-_YraZ5taWzzl2gEZ7Lm_X0xZTrE_Cn9p9DSVeLebE0FkFm0FGTkzWcsWVEYxOiMe6U6ICjXCF9jWdrGFPJ4A0AN8CzlxKPfGHlXbbNKEPj1kii05yaYQUD67MLMSoRsn1PAFYIPSWAo5NhbAR7IPm5_6DfLzbGoTXGPLJYl23Qp8W10ondrhna1cd1J9BLoNcoNcW0-ugnO6FQS4-51cd5MKu7teQz7On2N4rJfAH4X_K1f0RA9znrxGd4tpoxYrzg-Yf2bjnM2M_yqeido_5hJjcl461Xz_aK5Wbq6U1wnDN2V8n_wUAAP__-L6DNg]. (I also spend too much time on Twitter [https://email.mg-d0.substack.com/c/eJx00D1uwzAMBeDTWFsM_SceNHTJNQxKoh0htmRIVIvcvnC6ZOlM4uPjC0C4lvpyPS8pp_bAeGndt1DTQalkFp1VsJjI0ImrtVxxZQTDHdI2r5ixAmGcgT6mV2vYw8UbD5OfvA6R3xaBKAWC9WiMV8EGZMlJLo2Q4saVmYQY1Si5nq4AFjB6iyGOpEJYENZB8329RD6e2QjCcwxlZ6nNS8V3Fke1I9vcg-hog_oa5H2Qd_pJRFjP5UHeoTdK-blhyezofg5l33tO9Joxg98w_iFH91sKcH4_p-gU10YrVp0fNH_fGteyl9i3t8ta97HskLL79OnfQnvDerpaWiMM15x9O_kbAAD__3uLhCA] and Instagram [https://email.mg-d0.substack.com/c/eJx0kLuuqzAQRb8Gd0HjJ6RwcZv8BhrsgVjBNvLjSvn7I3KaNKee0dprb4eN9lzetqctpFCf5G-1r9WVcLaQE_PWSNy0Z2T5ZAxIkJozihiOZadEBRv5BdvXdTKaPS1sRnIuZ6Vhno1x8x0mTk57pWeuZs6CFSA0F3wGqe-cj3IUoO4TokHyqyHnxyad2wj3QUHcbx7Gy62he40uRxbqshX6uNhWOrHDPls76yD_DeIxiEdIteFeMF7vg3hgry2k10E5sbOvi8sx9hTae6GE60H-F3P29QgOr_5L8FaC0kqyYtdBwSdt3HPMvh_lo1H76nPEkOw3v_05aa9ULq4SRnMNCth_K34CAAD__wlEgqE].) xoxo, Austin PS. 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