5 things worth sharing this weekend
artbutmakeitsports olympics, onion, not a good financial decision + what i've been reading
A little late, because I’m writing from the beach and well, you know time seems to disappear when you don’t have anything specific to do…
1. Olympics Wrap by Artbutmakeitsports
Who knew the Artbutmakeitsports person was a TV producer? And worked the Olympics and worked them in London and has done all types of things like that?
They have a really good one of LeBron in there, but I’ll make you click through for that…
I read once that the person behind the account doesn’t use AI or anything to source the images, they just know art that well
Great account to subscribe to if you like art and uh, sports
2. What working at restaurants can teach writers at Literary Hub
Honestly, this is just an essay about empathy. Love your neighbor as yourself.
Pairs well with the “Help Wanted” book by Adelle Waldman, which I finished this week
“When I write about characters who are doing their best, I often think of my coworkers, the ones who weren’t just doing this for extra money like I was. The ones who had kids and car payments and rents or mortgages. To this day I have never gone into a fast food restaurant where I am not extra nice to the employees because I know how hard that job is.”
3. The Onion is back in print
4. How to embrace mistakes w/o romanticizing failure at The Creative Independent
this is more of a shout for the creative independent, who talks to real working writers and musicians about their processes and is kinda self-help but from legit artists.
I glanced through their archives recently and enjoyed this one
5. ICYMI: Writing a novel was not a good financial decision (by me)
I’m ready to be accused of massive hyperbole, because none of them sent me spiraling into debt, none of them ruined my marriage, even though 2 ended up being self-published, and I spent money on them (ironically, the novella was not self-published)….so why was it a bad decision?
Notes on reading/watching/listening
Lots of books this week
Reading:
Finished “Help Wanted” by Adele Waldman
Stakes are generally low, which is a nice change of pace
But you still care about the characters, just a nice touch of backstory to let us know the job at a Target-esque store is important, but that they live outside of that
Finished “10:04” by Ben Lerner
One of my favorite books, but I haven’t re-read it since moving to NYC
Nice to read this by the pool, I think I read his newer novel “Topeka School” at this exact same condo complex
This is one of my favorite novels of the 2010s, hands-down
Autofiction gets a bad wrap sometimes, but part of the fun is not knowing what is real and what isn’t real, it’s a game I like
He’s able to weave some very interesting parallels (ex: diagnosis of Marfan syndrome, residency in Marfa, TX) in unexpected ways.
My first time re-reading this in a few years and so that’s always fun to kinda know what’s coming but then to forget everything that’s coming
In the middle of: “No Judgment” by Lauren Oyler
She has a really long essay on autofiction, and the merits of it, and specifically mentions the Ben Lerner book, and I listened to the audiobook version of this while walking on the beach while picking up the physical copy of the Ben Lerner book at the pool, being meta is the only place I feel comfortable
Started: “On The Edge” by Nate Silver (also audiobook)
This is the politics forecaster, but it’s not that much about politics
But he also used to be a professional gambler
And a lot of this is about risk taking and people designed for risk
Unexpectedly he has a huge amount of info on Sam Bankman-Fried, the failed and convicted crypto founder of FTX, but I haven’t gotten to that section yet
I don’t know a lot about gambling and so his breakdown of game theory and probabilities and rational thinking is very interesting so far
Started: “Wellness” by Nathan Hill
His previous book “The Nix” was thrown in my face at every moment and it was a historical novel and I just didn’t seem to care
I took my kids to the library at the beach (that’s what we do on vacation, lol) and this seemed like a pretty good cover, so I read the jacket and it was about artists in Chicago who are now middle aged and make like “life decisions” and okay, that’s me
So I started it in the library and the setup was quite great—the 2 protagonists see each other through their windows in different apartment buildings but don’t have the nerve to talk to each other, until reader you know what happens…
But that could be the book on its own, like a romantic comedy but that’s only like the first 25 pages into we fast-forward into real life
Only about 20% in, good so far
Watching:
“Stranger Things 4” on Netflix
I have one episode to go
Until next week…
Keep going-
Josh Spilker