As a fan of How to With John Wilson (and a fan who was saddened there were only three seasons), I was excited to see this MOMA video about his creative process, and also about the paper mache E.T. he is building, for some reason (video)
Val Kilmer died this past week, and of course there were many obituaries and tribute articles written, but I think this was my favorite of all those things: Val Kilmer’s response to someone asking him (on a Reddit AMA, I think?) about his experience working on Heat.
I’m not sure what this says about the psychopaths* who run long distances alone without listening to music or podcasts, but this study suggests that when we exercise, we experience a kind of warping of our perception of time, and that distractions can help us feel like time is passing more quickly: “‘People perceive time as moving more slowly during exercise,’ said Andrew Edwards, a professor of psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University in Kent, and the first author on the study. ‘This distortion may affect pacing and the enjoyment of physical activity.’”
*such as myself
I swear I rarely ran out of water when I was running, until I moved to Missoula. And then I started running out of water quite regularly. I always chalked it up to user error—I mean, obviously I wasn’t planning properly—but had a tiny suspicion that it might have something to do with running in a much more humid environment. So of course an email from newsletter sponsor Precision Fuel & Hydration arrived yesterday, to demystify things for me, and short answer, yes, humidity has something to do with it, per this article: How humidity affects hydration, endurance and performance (<—clicking this link will also give you 15% off everything you purchase in your first order from the PFH website)
Yoshihiko Shimoda took a BUNCH of photos of construction signs around Japan, and then put them all together in this 30-second animation, which I believe is called “Bowing Man.”
I am a fan of pretty much anything Shea Serrano does (I own all of his books, and bought at least five copies of Basketball and Other Things for friends), so when I found out he was starting a new Substack about movies, I subscribed immediately. The first installment came out this week, about Seven, and it did not disappoint—however, I feel like I should put a warning here: If you saw Seven at some point in the past and have forgotten what it was like, let me remind you that it was a grisly, brutal movie about a bunch of murders, so if an in-depth essay about it is going to make you have a bad day, maybe skip this one and start with next week’s. But, here’s a sample from this week’s, which is time-stamped, so it kind of feels like you’re sitting on the couch next to Shea Serrano watching this movie, and whenever he thinks of something he wants to say, he pauses it: “3:40: Somerset sleeps upright. I wonder if Morgan Freeman sleeps like that in real life? How do you sleep in real life? I can only fall asleep if I’m (a) on my side; (b) with my head on a pillow that’s no more than three inches thick; (c) and the pillow can’t be a goose down pillow; and also (d) my face has to be on the palm of my hand so that it isn’t directly touching the pillow. That’s the recipe for me to get to sleep. (It’s also, I’ve been told, the recipe for me to sound like an asshole whenever I tell people about all the things I need in place for me to fall asleep.)”
I mentioned this in my last update to Patreon supporters last weekend, but it’s public now: As of this week, I am joining UltraSignup’s Trailhead podcast as co-host with Zoë Rom. We are hoping to talk to the interesting and fun characters of trail and ultra running, and we’d love to interview some folks who are more regionally or locally known (as opposed to famous on social media). So if you know anyone who would be a good guest, hit us up at trailhead@ultrasignup.com . For the first episode, we asked my mom, Kathy, to put together some questions about ultrarunning, and ask me. I think she nailed it (in her first podcast interview!)—you can listen on Apple Podcasts here or on Spotify here.
I follow the PhotoshopRequest subreddit, and usually it’s people offering $10 or $20 to have their ex-spouse removed from a family photo, or to have someone touch up a photo of someone before a funeral or memorial service. But every once in a while (OK, just this one time, to my knowledge), somebody is like “Can you remove Obama from this photo of my kids? He accidentally walked behind them just as I took the photo.”
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