Ate lunch at a Japanese cafe, which has like Japanese versions of American foods, like spaghetti and hamburgers but it doesn’t necessarily look like the American versions, it’s a simulacrum, and then I sat down next to a semi-famous actor and we played it cool. I’ll try the pancakes next time.
Now for what I’m reading and writing…
Reading
Finished “The Bee Sting” by Paul Murray and it was a good read, it brought all the threads to a certain point but then kind of left it, because that’s “literary” where the author should have decided on how to end it
I found this David Foster Wallace novella at the McNally Jackson near Rockefeller Center, and it’s from his last writings around The Pale King. I’m not sure if this was part of it the novel (I read it shortly after it came out, but don’t remember much about it) but his style is more reserved than what’s in Infinite Jest and some of his earlier essays. I’m about 30 pages in, and definitely worth it so far
This Atlantic article called The Anti-Social Century is worth perusing, it’s quite long, but has a lot of great points about the increased of isolation, especially since the pandemic which accelerated a trend. Think I’m going to write more about this soon.
A few weeks ago, my wife and I were in this Italian deli and the cashier and a customer started talking about Donna Tartt, and then another customer chimed in about this Erik Larson book about the Civil War and my wife mentioned it was on her list, and then she picked it up from the library and I fell asleep the first time I tried to read it, but I’ll try again, it looks good
Recently bought Dominion by Tom Holland, but I haven’t started it yet
Watching
Started the second season of Severance and it picks up nicely where it left off with a few new characters, and that office building is a maze
It’s 50 years of Saturday Night Live and the movie made about the first episode hit Netflix and I heard a lot of criticism of it, but it’s a nice compelling movie, especially if you’re familiar with that era and it’s fun to see younger actors portray famous ones like Chevy Chase and Billy Crystal and John Belushi. Worth the watch if you like history of media or television or SNL
Keep going-
Josh