a stream

Link: My Grandma Is a Meme | Alise Anderson

Type: Web Page for an Art Exhibition / Video

Source: Utah Museum of Contemporary Art

I felt for some reason that if I went to this exhibit or looked at the book it would give me some idea or way forward for what to do (or not do) with this website, as the process of archiving ephemera (digitally in my case) and cataloging mundanities resonates with me. (If you are for some reason looking at this web site for even a few seconds you will likely have already discovered this about me.)

But I’m not sure if I’ll get myself to go to it before it closes.

I was thinking of going there on my lunch break today, but instead I watched the video in my car while I ate lunch, then tapped this note on my phone.

Standalone post link: Art Link - My Grandma Is a Meme

The truth is I’m not listening to music right now but to backyard morning sounds: birds, creek, calm Sunday morning traffic from 1300 East, my neighbors' baby fussing a bit, an AC unit kicking on, and a single dog bark. I also really didn’t listen to a lot of music last week, between spending time at the cabin (cabin/canyon sounds are prioritized, just like backyard sounds) and people being around in the office at work when I did go back into work. There are some interesting things here nonetheless, and I have a lot of promising stuff queued up to listen to soon.

Sat-Sun.2022.07.23-24 | [Playlist] New Music Friday | (2022) | NPR Music

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: whatever

Notes: I also queued up / incorporated a bunch of new tracks I read about in various newsletters and other sources, intermixed with this playlist.

Wed.2022.07.27 | Drifting Toward the Absolute | (2021) | Josh Medina

Format/Source: sound files from bandcamp - tape music but I don’t own the actual tape

Location/Context: earphones cabin cleanup chores

Notes: Wanted something kind of lowkey natural while I washed dishes, and this came up in the shuffle first thing and was perfect. Then I listened to…

Wed.2022.07.27 | Chihuahuan Desert / Birdscapes | (2021) | Rob Frye

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music - tape music but I don’t own the actual tape

Location/Context: earphones cabin cleanup chores

Thur.2022.07.28 | Causers of This | (2010) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Fri.2022.07.29 | Connection | (2022) | The Maghreban

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, reading, whatever

Notes: First listen

Fri.2022.07.29 | Ginkgo | (2022) | Field Guides

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading, whatever

Notes: First listen. Didn’t know anything about this and tried it based solely on the band name and the cover art. Not quite what I had hoped for, whatever that unfairly means, but I may have to give them another chance.

Fri.2022.07.29 | Where Have All the Flowers Gone? | (2021) | Deb Never

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: reading, whatever

Notes: First listen

Sat.2022.07.30 | God’s Country | (2021) | Chat Pile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: chores, driving errands

Notes: First listen. This is another great recommendation from that record store that I unfortunately never go visit. (This is also a record I would be unlikely to ever buy on vinyl because no one else in my house ever would want to listen to this.)

Sat.2022.07.30 | God’s Country | (2021) | Chat Pile

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving errands, chores, whatever

Notes: Immediate re-listen

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 31, 2022)

My knee has recovered enough that I went on somewhat of an actual hike!

(That Moffitish peak in the background here is the destination I was aiming for, but I only got half way up.)

I ended up bushwhacking a bunch and felt like I should turn around before actually getting to the peak I was hoping to reach, but I went almost 3 miles with an elevation gain of 1100+ feet, without a trail over half of the way.¹

Considering that two or three weeks ago I didn’t even want to go up a flight of stairs, this was pretty good. My knee has relapsed a little bit since, but I think it will still be fine.

Standalone post link: a hike!

Here’s a photo of a grasshopper on the door of the shed in my backyard.

I took so many shots of this guy but this is the only one I even remotely liked.¹ I kind of hate this camera on my phone that tries too much to fix my photos for me. I need to get out our old late-00s DSLR, or get a film camera again, or something. I don’t think my cousin ever gave my film camera back to me, and I didn’t think that was a problem but now I miss it…

Standalone post link: Grasshopper Shed Door

Link: Reality Is Just a Game Now | Jon Askonas

Type: Essay

Source: The New Atlantis

I don’t have a quote, but this essay makes the case that we have basically gamified reality now. It’s unfortunately pretty spot on.

But I feel like maybe “reality” has always been gamed? Religion, The American Dream, class systems and economic struggles, war…

People mowing their lawn every week and getting rid of the weeds has always felt like some weird sort of game to me, a competition between neighbors. “Keeping up with the Joneses”…

P.S. This link came from a newsletter that made me feel seriously grumpy and dejected at several points. Wondering if I should have taken the advice from yesterday and just skipped it…

Standalone post link: Link - Reality Is Just a Game Now

Do I really need to get credit for every random thing I read and find at all interesting by semi-publicly recording it here on this website?

Maybe, yeah.

Standalone post link: Reading Credit Questionmark

Link: Authors on Authors: Nevada | Dan Bouk

Type: Book Review / Marketing Blurb

Source: Electric Eel Newsletter

Halfway through Nevada, Binnie gives us this line: “It’s clear that being responsible has not been a positive force in her life.” It’s describing an idea the protagonist, Maria Griffiths, is just then working out, or maybe taking for a spin.

She’s thinking about all the responsibility she had borne up to that point: a responsibility to hide, to fit in, to cram herself into the identities or check-boxes or cheap clothes that had been assigned to her and declared acceptable. She bore that responsibility to protect herself, but more so to protect those around her, from discomfort, from standing out: “When she was little, she was responsible for protecting everybody else from her own shit about her gender—responsible for making sure her parents didn’t have to have a weird kid.” This is a burden children bear, and especially trans kids.

I know this is basically a marketing email but I enjoyed reading about this book Nevada by Imogen Binnie and I think I now want to read this book Nevada by Imogen Binnie.

Standalone post link: Link Nevada

Link: “A Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water” | sam sax

Type: Poem

Source: The Atlantic

. . .
[music | oil | trash] filled our rivers
stayed up for the after [party | life | math]
the forests were [protected | sold | ash]
wrote [letters | checks | ads] against corruption
blamed [science | systems | depression] for our cities
when the [oceans | fires | droughts] came
when the [rains | bomb | flu] came
when the [weather | weather | weather] came
we [weathered | welcomed | watered] it
we were [prepared | shocked | responsible]
. . .

• This is perfect. Poetry is/as code.

• I wish I was actively writing poetry and had thought to write a poem like this. I wished for this kind of a poem back in college. I now wish I had followed through with writing such things instead of wishing and being distracted.

• Planning to do NaNoWriMo this November but just write weird poem and essay drafts and whatever I want instead of a traditional fiction narrative. I think I can make that work.

• Each of these thoughts should probably be their own little post, but I think I’m burying them on purpose here. Everything on and about my site is already obscured and hidden. A secret garden?

Standalone post link: Poem Link - A Very Small Animal Entirely Surrounded by Water

Link: Everything Is Going Too Fast | Imani Perry

Type: Essay / Newsletter

Source: Unsettled Territory (Atlantic Subscriber Newsletter) ($)

“There are no easy ways to live now. But I do think we have to be deliberate about moments of quiet reflection in which we make decisions about what we will do, however modest, in response to so many social and political challenges. And by that I mean what we will do in a sustained fashion—both in terms of what we commit to knowing about by regularly reading and keeping abreast of those topics, and also in terms of what civic actions we will weave into our daily lives. I’m not one to rail against the internet or the television. But I am an advocate of regularly stepping away to concentrate one’s attention. It still feels inadequate, of course. But it is something.”

This fits into a a constellation of blog posts/articles/newsletters I’m seeing, calling for what I would describe as intentionality and deliberateness in response to the endless onslaught of “news” and marketing and distractions. I might pull together some more structured thoughts and links on this, but for now I’m just sharing the quote to remember, and then gathering a couple of the links that I just came across-

• I have a secret. I hid it for years. / What News Designed for 21st Century Humans Might Look Like by Amanda Ripley

• No News Is Good News by Thomas J. Bevan

• both of the above found via The News Is a Drag) by Tracy Durnell

Standalone post link: Link - Everything Is Going Too Fast

A log of my music listens in the past week, by albums and playlists, not including completely random shuffles.

Date | Album or Playlist | (Year of Release) | Artist or Curator

Sun.2022.07.17 | Beatopia | (2022) | beabadoobee

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: chores, puttering, whatever

Mon-Tue.2022.07.18-19 | The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers (Deluxe Edition) | (2022) | Valerie June

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Tue.2022.07.19 | Outer Peace | (2019) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Wed.2022.07.20 | Underneath the Pine | (2011) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, working

Wed.2022.07.20 | Causers of This | (2010) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.20 | The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers (Deluxe Edition) | (2022) | Valerie June

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.20 | Digital Meadow | (2021) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Wed.2022.07.20 | Comfortably In Pain | (2022) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: working

Fri.2022.07.22 | Causers of This | (2010) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Fri.2022.07.22 | Underneath the Pine | (2011) | Toro y Moi

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Fri.2022.07.22 | Comfortably In Pain | (2022) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: whatever

Fri.2022.07.22 | Digital Meadow | (2021) | Dora Jar

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: whatever

Sat.2022.07.23 | Hope For Sale | (2021) | Chiiild

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving

Sat.2022.07.23 | Fantasy Gateway | (2022) | Cuco

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Sat.2022.07.23 | [Playlist] July 22 New Releases | (2022) | Diabolical Records SLC

Format/Source: Streaming - Tidal

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Notes: Diabolical Records is a record store in downtown SLC that has influenced my musical listening. One of the only reasons I ever go on Instagram is to see their posts about new things in stock and get music recommendations…but I’m a little ashamed to confess that I’ve never actually set foot in their store. (I did order one of their quarantine grab bags for delivery once during the early months of the COVID.) At any rate, I owe them business and money, but going downtown feels particularly epic, and I would either find $100s in records to buy, or just as likely glance around weirdly for like 60 seconds and feel self-conscious and awkward, and then walk out.

Sat.2022.07.23 | Space Ghost | (2022) | Attia Taylor

Format/Source: Streaming - Apple Music

Location/Context: driving, whatever

Standalone post link: Listens Last Week (July 24, 2022)