I wrote a little bit about how fast people can actually walk in my book I Hate Running and You Can Too, and I love this video where athlete Mark Lewis gets schooled by Olympian racewalker and world record holder Tom Bosworth (video)
“And here too is the thing about any external markers of success or failure: I write for reasons that have nothing to do with them. That’s the beauty of it. But also, that’s what makes a review in the paper of record, a prize listing, a repost on Instagram so impossible to hold onto. The world has told us that they matter. They do matter! We have to live. I need enough “success” with each book to secure another book contract.”
—Lynn Steger Strong, “The Unbearable Envy Of The Published Author”
This is not new, but Hilary and I have lately been doing laps of this Kishi Bashi cover of the Talking Heads’ “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”
I try not to link to Mike Sowden’s Everything Is Amazing newsletter every time he posts a new one (which is hard), but this one really hit home with me last week when he posted it. At that point, it was behind the paywall for subscribers only, but he has now, as an All-Around Swell Guy, put it out for everyone to read. It’s called “Three Ways That Kindness Can Save Us All.”
I know Halloween is in the distant past at this point, but I love this Japanese tradition of creating costumes that are so mundane that they have to be explained
I wrote about my 2022 NYC Marathon run yesterday, and not to spoil it, but it is not really about running, and I hope it makes you feel something when you read it
My friend Mike gifted me Jeff Tweedy’s book about creativity, How to Write One Song, and I devoured it in a single airplane ride last Friday. I think it’s inspiring, empowering, and also an extremely interesting window into some of the techniques Jeff Tweedy uses to write songs.
Have I said before that you should follow the Washington State Department of Natural Resources on Twitter? If not, and you’re on Twitter, you should follow the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
—Brendan