Alan Jacobs


Reading

: Over at my Buy Me a Coffee page, I wrote about what I’ll be up to for the next few years.

: Last post before returning to Lenten silence: I’m really honored to have a place in the new …

: I have learned so, SO much about movies from David Bordwell, and am genuinely grieved to learn of …

:

:

:

: A brief hello before resuming my Lenten silence.

: Gonna be largely offline for the rest of February — see y’all in March!

: Lawrence Keaty, from Taipei (2020)

: When Brad East asks his students what, when they visit a church, they expect to see, one of them …

: Kinda thinking that this wireless diagnostics report that’s been running on my Mac for 10 …

: Arthur Aghajanian: “The statues of Armenia’s cultural giants embody a distinctive form of …

: Lindsay Zoladz in the NYT: They traded a few lines and harmonized beautifully on the chorus — her …

: I dunno, maybe I’m an aging sentimentalist, but … the Tracy Chapman / Luke Combs duet …

: It’s been more than a decade since I’ve visited The Cloisters — that’s gotta …

: Ben Werdmuller on Arc Search: “A world where everyone uses an app like this is a death spiral …

: Church fusion.

: The Queen and the Duke ♫

:

: Miles and Pops ♫

: Fascinating from Ethan Iverson on the Duke: “Who even knows the right changes to Ellington …

: I’m on a Duke Ellington kick at the moment — there may be posts and links forthcoming — but …

: When Wes Anderson designs a bar

: I don’t feel the need to repost everything on my Big Blog here, but I’m thinking that it …

: Two fantastic essays on the history of multi-channel audio by J. B. Crawford: one and two.

: Wendish Easter eggs – from Texas!

: I rarely say that everyone should read something, but I’ll say that about this post by Mandy …

:

: Here’s a short post about one of the best Nichols & May comedy routines, which means, …

: Just sent a drizzly-February-morning missive to my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

: I wrote about teaching Augustine’s Enchiridion.

: Walter Crane, Flora’s Train, tile panel, 1900-1901.

: These are wonderful.

: I wrote about anarchy in The Man Who Was Thursday.

: We’re dealing with endless displays of Potemkin AI. As Molly White says, we “need to …

: Ted Gioia’s “Nine Ugly Truths about Copywright” is brilliant.

: Cory Doctorow: “AI companies are implicitly betting that their customers will buy AI for …

: Adi Robertson: “As I’ve watched the Vision Pro go from announcement to release, it’s also …

: I’m going in.

: On reading Horace: “In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce talks of the “human …

: Damon Krukowski: “If not Pitchfork, with more daily visitors than Vogue or Vanity Fair or the …

: I deleted my micro.blog post on whether art makes us better people and replaced it with a somewhat …

: Maggie Tulliver and her books.

: A scholar named Isaac Waisberg has put together a vast collection of translations of Horace into …

:

: I’m really pleased that the new AppleTV series Masters of the Air features a portrayal of …

: I wrote a parable about academics and practical men.

:

: Tyler Austin Harper: “The first step is refusing to indulge in certainty, the fiction that the …

:

:

: With the Mac turning 40, a question going around is: What was your first Mac? Mine was … the …

: Spatial knowledge impairment after GPS guided navigation.

: In which I endorse Ted Gioia’s theses on progress.

: Why don’t Arsenal win every game 5-0? It seems such an obvious solution to their problems. ⚽️

: Noteworthy, I think, that neither this Becca Rothfield review of The Geography of the Imagination …

: In which I explain what I did on the first day of a new class – and then go on a wild-eyed …

: Systematic theology? I don’t need no stinkin' systematic theology – I have Joe …

: This $100 million gift to Spelman College ought to be praised to the skies. The megarich need to …

: John Gruber – aka @gruber – on a theme I discussed yesterday, the difference between …

: Robin Sloan says of me, “Alan can make anything sound terrific, when he loves it,” which …

: What Dracula is

: If, as some think, deepfakes will become undetectable, that just might force a long-overdue …

: Howard Phipps

: I added some links, fixed some bad links, and generally updated things at my home page.

: I think DHH is right about Apple.

: Lazy day.

: Just discovered that Terrence Malick, Marilynne Robinson, and Joni Mitchell were all born in …

: Something I often think, prompted tonight by seeing Jamal Murray (6'4") standing next to Nikola …

: Damon K: “A positive, progressive change to this system benefiting more people is not going to …

: The mysterious Roman dodecahedra.

: A wonderful collection of Milton Glaser book covers.

: Listening to the legendary Bill Evans Trio Village Vanguard sessions. Forty-five years later, I got …

: Blizzard conditions in Waco

: I wrote a bit about what I’m teaching this term and how it will affect my blogging.

: Augustus John, “A Glass of Wine” (1902)

: Mary Harrington: “A culture that valorises ‘cool’ sets us up to fail as social …

: “The Arrival,” photograph by Carol Munder.

: BBEdit 15, in addition to getting several interesting new features, has undergone some slight but …

: Currently reading: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken. This will be my …

: The Mouth of Orcus, in the Gardens of Bomarzo.

: Yet another really nice one from Adrian Vila.

: Mark Hurst: Marc Andreessen is right – love doesn’t scale.

: Nineteenth-century plans for a chunnel.

: I wrote a mid-season report on Arsenal. ⚽️

: The bacchanal is coming.

: From an edition of Kipling’s The Day’s Work

: On going beyond the SCT — the Standard Critique of Technology.

: Kashmir Hill: “My black clamshell of a phone had the effect of a clerical collar, inducing people to …

: Making an Iron Age-style shield out of willow bark.

: A superb essay by Witold Rybczynski on ornament in architecture.

: Strange sights in the pre-dawn fog.

: John DePol

: Model box for ‘Endgame’ by Samuel Beckett, designed by Tallulah Caskey, for the National Theatre, …

: Mark Helprin: “Tending a fire enforces a sense of patience and tranquility. In that way it is …

: How a Catholic modernity killed Dracula.

: And here is a Tiffany window from a Philadephia church. It and its companion piece were saved from …

: Here’s an Agnes Northrop window, this one at the Art Institute of Chicago.

: The Met has acquired “Garden Landscape,” a window made by Agnes Northrop in Lewis …

: On the last day of the year, I wrote a post on why I don’t do end-of-year posts.

: Finished reading: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn. A lovely novel, at once melancholy and …

:

: I wrote a post for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

: I wrote about listening to Wagner.

: I wrote about a Christmas present I received.

: More landscape photographs by Charlotte Ladefoged

: Stefan Collini: “Carlyle’s forte as a social critic was not likely to lie in making practical …

: NYT: ”Despite these difficulties, there can be a reluctance among the clergy to talk about their own …

: The good Earth.

: Christmas coma setting in.

:

: Lo how a rose

: Merry Christmas!

: More here

: A post on George MacDonald and Christmas — though be warned, this one’s a bit of a tearjerker.

: The game Monopoly basically copied an anti-capitalist game created by one Lizzie Magie: The …

: Finished reading: The Corner that Held Them by Sylvia Townsend Warner. A strangely riveting book, …

: The notebook of Anni Albers.

: My first thought when I read the-fediverse-is-the-future pieces is: Great, now whenever anyone …

: The Feast of the Annunciation is on March 25, but the lectionary gives us the story also on the …

: Old wine-and-spirit trademarks

: Last night at St. Alban’s, we had an utterly wonderful service of Nine Lessons and Carols. The …

: Charlie Warzel: “A shift away from a knowable internet might feel like a return to something …

: I wrote about library catalogs, analog and digital.

: Expectation.

: Twenty minutes early for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols and the house is already mostly …

:

:

: A battle between Sean Dyche’s current and former clubs should be called the Diet of Worms. (Niche, I …

: James Bennet: “My fellow editorial and commercial leaders were well aware of how the culture of the …

: Brewster Kahle: “Why should everyone care about this lawsuit? Because it is about preserving the …

: Over at the Hog Blog, I write about why I don’t think there’s any such thing as …

: To the young blonde FexEx driver blasting D’Angelo’s Black Messiah from her truck: …

:

: Bill Bryson: Imagine a form of baseball in which the pitcher, after each delivery, collects the …

: An amazing new newsletter issue by @ablerism (Sara Hendren) – y’all need to get on this …

: Kevin Williamson, typically trenchant: “CLEAR has some fancy high-tech hoo-haw on the front …

: David Byrne: “I think the phrase that was used with My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was ‘cultural …

: Finished reading: The World of Odysseus by M. I. Finley. what an extraordinary book. I am filled …

: Nap time.

: Simple snapshot of a totally ordinary sight.

: Chris Beha: “I sometimes think that the modern world’s true cultural divide is not between believers …

:

: The Reason for the Season.

: Just learned from my buddy Austin Kleon about Mishka Westell’s art.

: An extraordinary story on how redwoods survive fire.

: Annie Soudain, Winter Glow, reduction lino print, 2017, appearing with this wonderful essay by Adam …

:

: My problem with “brokenism."

: I’ve decided that the social media landscape is irredeemable, but this new project by my old …

: Campus lookin’ real purty today.

: Austin Kleon’s new post on reading is fantastic. I will have things to say about it when I can clear …

: As some of my readers know, the theme of the new issue of Plough — repair — is right down my alley.

: This collection of links by Michael Tsai raises the question: Do I actually own anything I have …

: My case for bringing back the blog — though not the “blogosphere.”

: Advent is the perfect season to begin Auden’s For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio. Just …

: My friend Jessica Martin is a priest at Ely Cathedral, and lately they’ve been having freezing …

: I just posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: A worry about the future of blogging.

: David French: “I’d argue that the more politically engaged you are, the harder it is to avoid …

: I wrote about what strikes me as a very odd comment by Scott Alexander.

: I wrote about what, until I can find a better term, I’m calling conceptual Marxism.

: A lovely collection of Christmas writings, edited by my colleague-of-many-years Lee Ryken.

: Bob Dylan is playing geographically appropriate covers.

: As a counterpart to my post this morning about musical demos, see Richard Gibson’s brief essay …

: I wrote about why musical demos are so often better than the finished product. One of the most …

: Nick Heer: “None of this made the web better for people. This formula of insubstantial content …

: Wikipedia: “The tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922 by …

: Neil Gaiman, as quoted by Cal Newport: “people are leaving [social media]. You know, Twitter is …

: If you don’t shut up I’m gonna give you such a

:

: The blur

: Why I’m inclined to think that the chance of achieving any restraint on AGI development is nil.

: A brief explanation of how, when I teach a class, I try to have a structure and a story.

: Matthew Butterick: “If AI compa­nies are allowed to market AI systems that are essen­tially black …

: Post-feast mood

: The one constant for us at Thanksgiving: butternut squash and leek soup. Anything else I can skip, …

: UW-M Special Collections

: WSJ: “So it turns out that of the two largest crypto exchanges, one was a fraud and the other …

: mood

: source

: “You have to brace yourself for the bozos.” — Werner Herzog

: Doctor Who crossstitched

: Now this is what I call a magazine cover.

: Kinda weird to hear Julian Lage strumming, but this is a sweet tune.

: West Texas haboob.

: Good times and bad times for the humanities.

: An update on motives.

: Paul Kingsnorth: “So: out with St George, I say, and in with one of the nation’s original …

: Great to see this tribute to Philip Johnson’s Chapel of St. Basil, a wonderful building. Note …

: In which I respond to Freddie about what religion does.

: I’ve almost completely given up on podcasts, but have become a heavy user of the BBC Sounds app. The …

: Starting the day listening to my friend Sara Hendren (@ablerism) interviewed by Krista Tippett. So …

: I’m rarely envious, but okay, I’m envious.

: David Stoll: “The call to decolonize anthropology sounds as distinctively American as the …

: A significant change in Siri dictation over the past few months: commas. Commas that I don’t ask …

: I wrote about Adam Roberts’s excellent new novel.

: I wrote about the importance, when thinking about politics, policy, and war, of learning what …

: Many years ago, when I was teaching at Wheaton College, someone put me on the mailing list for the …

: Oh great: “A new study suggests that explosive events in space have the potential to temporarily …

: Jon D. Schaff: “Perhaps the great neglected work of our time is Alan Jacobs’s The Year of Our Lord …

: Everybody needs an inspirational quotation over their desk, and this is mine

: Kevin Williamson comes to Waco to cover the Texas Nationalist Movement convention. “The Texas …

: My final post – for now anyway – on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers. …

: NYT: What’s an example of when a publisher or someone else in the [publishing] business disagreed …

: Premier League players are acclimating themselves to the tyrannous reign of VAR: It’s become …

:

: Ian Frazier: “According to the best scientific data currently available, both the average and the …

: I wrote a post but didn’t publish it.

: Charlie Stross: “I’d like to talk about something that I personally find much more worrying: a …

: My sixth post on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers is about triangulation.

: AI is a Terrifying Purveyor of Bullshit. Next Up: Fake Science

: Dostoevsky’s Demons was being serialized in Russia at precisely the same time (1971-72) that George …

: A new and accurate map of the World (1641)

: “Tommy, you’re cheapening the value of your signature!"

: Chipi-chipi this morning. (My wife learned that word many years ago when visiting the Guatemalan …

: A book on a barn. No, I don’t mean a book about a barn, I mean a book literally on a barn.

: The last official lighthouse keeper in the United States is named Sally Snowman.

: So far I have five posts on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers: On Joseph and his …

:

:

: St. Pancras Station has the best Christmas tree evar

: A fantastic post by my buddy Austin Kleon on the artists Robert Irwin and David Hockney and the …

: Edited: 66 minutes in, and I really don’t think Chelsea will score against 9 men. ⚽️

: Cabel Sasser on the DAK catalog

: On Joseph and Akhenaten.

: As a long-time Arsenal supporter, I am not happy with the club leadership’s behavior. ⚽️

: NYT: “The possibility of collision isn’t the only problem with cramming low Earth orbit past …

:

:

: sigh

: Paul Davids is a guitarist who, a while back, did a neat YouTube tutorial on Paul Simon’s …

: A very large 1867 Map of the Country Twelve Miles Round London.

: How Jeff Tweedy had his “come to Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid” moment. I don’t think …

: A Generall Historie of Plantes should probably be a large book.

: The “rewiring of childhood” and the parents who are enabling it — even when they know …

: Gypsy Rose, an iconic lowrider.

: Malcolm Gladwell thinks the disposable diaper is a “perfect innovation.” Maybe he should …

: Second post on Joseph and His Brothers.

:

: Robin Sloan pitches his forthcoming novel: “The year is 13777. There are dragons on the …

: My first substantive post about Thomas Mann’s great Joseph and His Brothers.

: RSS access is the only thing that makes reading Substack newsletters tolerable for me. If I had to …

: I wrote a new post for my supporters at Buy Me a Coffee.

: I wrote about Francis Spufford’s utterly wonderful new novel Cahokia Jazz.

: I’m a big fan of the rooftop lounge at the Austin Central Library.

:

: My lens was fogging up when I took this one, but I sort of like the effect.

: The smoker.

: Why they don’t accept this word I can’t even imagine!

: I’m beginning a series on Thomas Mann’s Joseph and His Brothers.

: A remarkable visual reconstruction of Tenochtitlan.

: Was Gollum a philologist?

: This person with so many open browser tabs – how monstrous! Here’s what I do: See …

: Ezra Klein: “One reason I left Twitter long ago is that I noticed that it was a kind of …

: Tove Jansson

:

: Damon Krukowski: “Bandcamp may be a small fraction of the music industry as a whole – digital …

: I wrote (several years ago, but just now posted) about the wayfaring mind.

: Rita Blanca National Grasslands in the Texas panhandle; photo by Sean Fitzgerald. Larger photo here.

: George Saunders, Texan

: Mithraeum of Santa Maria Capua Vetere in Caserta

: BRB, I gotta take all these unused minutes to the

: My old friend Noah Millman with a moving meditation on his own first name – and on “the …

: In which I am ambivalent about Nicola Griffith’s warning to writers.

: FWIW, one of my favorite things I’ve published in recent years is this reflection on the big …

: The pumpkin artist

: would it kill you to allow the occasional German word

: I’ve made a case for reading the news less often.

: I’m really worried about Bandcamp, which is a unique and probably irreplaceable service. At …

: A fascinating account of the endlessly variable and thus confusing history of the word …

: Anthony Lane on the science of happiness: Whether there is still a place for the steady …

: Clocks, cathedrals, and one of my favorite poems.

: Chantal Montellier

: Ib Antoni Jensen

: Available in May 2024.

: I wrong a longish and complicatedish post on conceptual screens and diseases of the intellect.

:

: Hi, we’d like to join your LinkedIn network

: My old internet friend Erin Kissane on Meta in Myanmar: “My aim with this series is to give …

:

: My friend Tim Larsen: “Yes, I’m one of those people who had a Netflix DVD subscription right …

: I wrote about the imperative to repair things that are only mostly dead.

: Paul Johnson, Dies Natalis

:

: V&A

: Shadows on the driveway

:

: This eclipse is pretty weird.

:

: Just texted a friend: “So much of my life with technology revolves around (a) realizing that what I …

: I wrote a kind of follow-up to my “Resistance in the Arts” essay, focusing mainly on the Beatles.

: A newly discovered, and shockingly pristine, Tomb of Cerberus.

:

: Charlie Warzel: “Musk has turned X into a deepfake version of Twitter—a facsimile of the …

: Good to see Brad East’s review of Andrew Wilson’s excellent book on the making of the …

: Abraham Joshua Heschel: “Prayer is not thinking. To the thinker, God is an object; to the man who …

: This is a fascinating story, with a nice bonus element: the phrase “interpretive mowing.”

: I commend to you all the wisdom of Sturgeon.

: Alexander Chee: “No one is likely to shame you for not having read Dracula, the way they do The Mill …

: I wrote about being a senior citizen who’s ready to own his introversion.

: Taking the curve at high speed

: First chiminea fire of the season!

: My old friend Noah Millman has written a very interesting piece on Asteroid City – quite …

:

: This is what Angus looked like the day we brought him home. Today he’s one year old!

:

: The goddess and the Madonna — a remarkable essay by Matt Milliner.

: When I’m adding items to our shared Reminders lists, I try to be as informative as possible.

: Great to see Jack Fisk getting some attention he has long deserved. “Genius” is not by …

: I wrote about biblical illiteracy among scholars, and why I think the role model for such scholars …

: I wrote about the murder of Seamus Heaney’s cousin and the two poems he wrote about it.

: As I keep saying: Arteta and Southgate between them are trying ensure that Saka’s career will …

: Max Rushden: “Do VARs have to be referees? They are different skills. How much would those in …

: Who is more at fault, the person who always chooses Reply All or the person who, by CCing rather …

: From a 1962 Limited Editions Club printing of Around the World in Eighty Days.

: NYT: “Most major U.S. cities now have at least three times as many security guards on the street as …

: Richard Gibson: “‘Why I Write’ is often handed to students as an encouragement to …

: The problem with this meme is its assumption that, for the people in question, there’s …

: Addressing a letter in the days before standardized addresses could be difficult.

: A complex book needs a complex annotation method: multiple highlighting colors, underlining, …

: Damon Krukowski: “Independent musicians can’t even talk about coordinated collective action …

: I wrote about Jane Austen and parents.

: Many pages read, many notes made, and … a thousand pages still to go. 😵‍💫

: “There is a militant type of mind to which the hostilities involved in any human situation …

: I’m thinking about anarchism again.

: I just came across a writer who says his role is to be a truth-teller. I’d feel better about …

: Printers kinda suck, but printing is great.

: Just a tiny little reminder, should you need one, that Prince Rogers Nelson was a One of One. “You …

: PGMOL: “The goal by Luiz Diaz was disallowed for offside by the on-field team of match …

: I wrote about an extremely poor NYT piece on the Data Colada / Francesca Gino kerfuffle.

: W. H. Auden died fifty years ago today, and I’ve written a brief reflection, with many links.

: It took me a long time to find a WordPress theme that (with a few minor tweaks) made my big blog …

:

: Had I known about this passage from Dorothy Day’s diary, it would have been really useful to me for …

: Looks like there’s a gator on the Brazos, Ma.

: This is magnificent: The Kelmscott Chaucer online.

: Jason Bailey: A phrase like “streaming movie” or “theatrical release” or “documentary podcast” …

: We got new windows in our house today, modern double-glazed windows to relace the single-pane ones …

: Brad East on AI sermons is just outstanding: “Study and writing aren’t a mere means to an …

: Wes Anderson: “If you work with people at different ages and you’re giving them a lot to do, …

: Today Angus took his first selfie (with my son). We’re all so proud.

: If you’re a Chicagoan, and probably only if you’re a Chicagoan, you’ll appreciate Anders Erickson’s …

: A little slice of the typographical history of New York City

:

: SO GLAD to see that Francis Spufford’s Cahokia Jazz is out in the UK. I had the privilege of reading …

: I posted a small piece of autobiography from a book I wrote 15 years ago.

: What happens when you shoot a 50-year-old roll of film.

:

:

: If I could make one rule change to American football, it would be: eliminate kicking (punts & …

: This is gonna take a while. Currently reading: Joseph and His Brothers by Thomas Mann 📚

: Good to see this warning from Barney Ronay. A prediction: If Arteta doesn’t significantly reduce …

: A report from Swedish schools: “As young children went back to school across Sweden last month, many …

:

: Jesus is “the lens in the dark box.”

: Charlie Warzel: “Using Google once felt like magic, and now it’s more like rifling through junk …

: My iPhone: updated, but the new StandBy feature doesn’t work. My Apple Watch: won’t update, which is …

: Legitimate WHOA: Archeologists discover a wooden structure that’s half a million years old.

: Note to makers of Spelling Bee: INANITION, MONITION, and TITIVATION are all English words and ought …

: I don’t understand how Eric Hoel can say that Substack isn’t a walled garden when large chunks of it …

: Freddie deBoer: “Sometimes I think the great American rite of passage is when you go from a youth …

: I wrote about Truffaut’s The Wild Child.

: Angus does love cleaning the faces of his family. Also any other faces.

: Terry Halliday: “In 2008 or 2009, at an early stage of an extensive research program on criminal …

: The Urban Sketchers website is really cool. This drawing is by Ilaria Petrussa.

: Here’s another one.

: Eleanor Doughty’s urban plein air sketches are wonderful.

: I had never heard of takkyu-bin but it sounds great. At least in Japan. Can’t imagine it …

: I wrote 5600 words today so I decided to reward myself with the Queen of Cocktails.

:

:

: A small post on François Truffaut’s handwriting.

:

:

: I wrote a post on being the best (kind of) teacher I can be.

:

: Mandy Brown: “Are you a writer or a talker? That is, when you need to think about something, …

: Brunch!

: Here’s a September update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

: My career as a fabulist.

: Thirty years ago, one of the great achievements of Western culture appeared. And we have documentary …

: Ted Gioia: “Taylor Swift, you are the one person who can make this happen. I believe this is …

: This week I’m teaching Austen’s Mansfield Park and, honestly, I don’t know of any other novel I’d …

: This seems miraculous: I actually need to wear waterproof shoes today.

: Here’s a shortish essay from me on the literature classroom as a place for “the …

: A brief post about Auden and Ischia.

: A fascinating little fact in this article on declining interest in studying Mandarin: On Duolingo, …

: I often think about this Brent Simmons post on “Mac-assed Mac apps” — especially when …

: Sometimes I actually have to do scholarship.

:

: The palatial Granada Theatre in Chicago, from a book about America’s lost architectural …

: I wrote up a kind of summation of my posts on the desperate-times-require-desperate-measures …

: It’s a great blessing to me that my parish church does Choral Evensong on Sunday evenings, and …

: Bertrand Russell, in his Autobiography: “As an undergraduate I was persuaded that the dons …

: Not everyone is interested in the Oxyrhynchus papyri — IYKYK — but for those who are, this article …

:

: When Paul Schrader was asked to do a Criterion Collection Top 10, he gave a great response: …

: I haven’t really used Twitter for several years, but now I’m deleting my account.

: Joseph Horowitz: “So unnoticed are the American arts that a major American historian, Jill Lepore, …

: Here I wonder: When do competent writers turn to AI for help in writing?

: We see so many tributes when great artists die, but we should do a better job of praising them while …

: Ronald W. Dworkin: “AI without the ballast of intuition represents the tyranny of pure …

: Oh boy am I excited about what Robin Sloan is up to.

:

:

: Mary Harrington on Burning Man is, well, 🔥: “All this gift-economy joy is enabled by …

: Dr. Drang: “[Judge Scott] McAfee is asking [DA Fani] Willis to make these estimates for a …

: A lovely song and a beautiful video of the live performance: Peter Broderick & Ensemble 0 - Give …

: Victor Mair: “As the creatively piquant online nicknames [for Xi Jinping] of …

: Heads up: I don’t believe my micro.blog weekly digest is working, and I don’t know …

: I love seeing this tribute to the translator Edith Grossman, whose version of Don Quixote is by …

: The decline of fireflies is to me one of the most depressing events of our time. When I was a child …

: I wrote a post about how much Max Ophuls loved dancing. (Also, as a side note, in The Earrings of …

: Viva Italia!

:

: Tag of the Week on my big blog: Tolkien.

: J R R Tolkien died fifty years ago today. A while back I wrote an imaginary conversation between him …

:

: Ted Gioia: It’s true, we are living in the 21st century — at least according to the calendar. But …

: Joseph Epstein: “With Meatless Tuesday in mind, I wonder if the country wouldn’t do well to …

: Some of you may think I post too many photos of Angus, but believe me, if I go a couple of days …

: An old man’s simple prayer, from Bruce Cockburn.

: This piece on blurbs reminds me of the greatest blurb ever written – almost surely the …

: Movies as old books, by Matt Stevens.

: Kieran McCarthy: “Some of the biggest companies on earth — including Meta and Microsoft — take …

: The Economist’s interactive page on the effects of the London Blitz is a fabulous piece of …

: Cameras are cool, and make better photos than phones, but Om Malik is right: their software is …

: This morning I read yet another denunciation of today’s college students, complete with …

: A word to the wise from Matt Birchler: “Things on the internet can be forever, but you …

: Berenice Abbott, New York City, 1935

:

: I wrote about the sad story of The Band.

: Cal Newport: “The Internet has become the ultimate narrowcasting vehicle: everyone from UFO buffs …

: Adolphe Appian, from a wonderful exhibition of drawings at the Met.

: One paragraph from me, at the Hog Blog: This is the way your mind ends.

: I love this: Fred Sanders finds an often-cited obviously-bogus quotation by St. Augustine and shows …

: I had been drafting a piece on the old prison work song “Ain’t No More Cane on the …

: Fleet Street, December 2019

: I love the genre of “alternative movie posters,” and Michael Krasnopolski’s are …

: Ted Gioia: “The only areas where AI is flourishing are shamming, spamming & scamming.”

: I wrote a denunciation of apps.

: The Cat Concerto (1947). David Thomson: “The great American film about the highest artistic …

: I wrote an essay (now unpaywalled!) on the kinds of resistance that create the possibility of great …

: Finally got Angus to sit (for an instant) for his portrait.

: Tom Eastman: “I’m old enough to remember when the Internet wasn’t a group of five …

: Robert McCabe’s photographs of Greece

: This case for sabbaticals is quite good – and also a reminder to me that, while I’ve had …

: Well, I’m back.

: St. John Chrysostom: “Has [Eutropius] inflicted great wrongs and insults on you? I will not …

: Re: my Asteroid City post: I’m gonna write a long essay one day about how Terrence Malick and …

: Abandoned reading: Bob Dylan: The Essential Interviews by Jonathan Cott. Dylan, the greatest …

: A Visit to Balzac’s House: “In addition to its garden, the Maison de Balzac boasts a large …

: I wrote a pretty long post about Asteroid City — but it has so many spoilers that you probably …

: Oh, is that what he embodies?

: Cory Doctorow: “ In the Big Tech internet, it’s freedom for them, openness for us. ‘Openness’ …

: Last night I dreamed that Leo Messi lived near me and out of neighborliness did some work in my …

: Chris Arnade: “I’ve also become more convinced that while all suburban bleh might look the same, …

:

: I wrote a post about the wonderful artist Tirzah Garwood.

: In my early years I was utterly devoted to Ace Doubles, which bound two short novels back-to-back — …

: I have an essay, “Looking Westward,” in the new issue of Raritan. (Paywalled; sorry …

: Love the style of this sign-maker, but I’m not quite sure how Teri would take it if I posted …

: I’m going to be reserving my Old Big Blog for longer essays and things that relate to some of …

: A Very Happy Dog.

: Finished reading: Small Town Talk by Barney Hoskyns. Reading about the music of the Sixties can be …

: James Hill: “Eve Arnold, the wonderful Magnum photographer, used to recount a story about walking …

: I’m having fun listening to The Science of Sound, from 1958. The liner notes are fun also.

: I’m hitting the pause button on my weekly newsletter, but that just means that I’ll be using …

: From a fascinating interview about Georgia O’Keefe’s choice of materials, especially …

: Hilary Hahn plays the Sibelius Violin Concerto — an astonishing performance 🎵

: Cabel Sasser: “Some designers are amazing at imagining things, but not as amazing at imagining them …

: More posters here.

: Justine Bateman: “Don’t forget, AI isn’t doing this to us. People using AI to eliminate jobs, …

: I have a page for my students explaining why I won’t use ed-tech software like Canvas and …

: “It’s very tiring having other people tell you how much they dig you, if you yourself don’t dig …

: Here’s an essay (PDF) about my adolescent years that I published 25 years ago. Not how I would …

:

: We got Angus a new e-collar and he finds it much more comfortable, though he sort of looks like he’s …

: Oughta count.

:

: Every morning I wake up with a song in my head — a different song each day, and it could be anything …

: For those who are concerned — and I thank you! — Angus has undergone an adjustment of his …

: “Just a couple of days ago I was so happy!”

: Worst day EVAR

: Thanks to kind assistance, I now have a books read page. “Currently reading” is featured …

: Not a feature request, just a wish: I’d love to be able to show my reading lists (Currently …

: We have a new Spanish place here in town — Segovia Wine Bar — and it’s really good. This is the …

:

: And just as I’m posting these I see this from Craig Mod — serendipity!

: One more.

: And as I look through those photos, I find myself thinking: the Lake District — not unattractive!

: My beloved! Taken on a trail overlooking Grasmere, 2011. Today we celebrate our 43rd wedding …

:

:

:

: Here at Laity, I’m staying in a place called Lanier Apartment, which features interesting art …

:

:

: I wrote to my BMAC supporters explaining (a) why I’m writing about Babylon and (b) why …

:

:

:

: There’s the Streisand Effect and now, I say, there’s the Elon Effect.

:

:

: Back in my happy place. (Unfiltered, unadjusted image — the sky really does look like a painted …

: I have only listened to two or three audiobooks in my life, but some recent struggles with eyestrain …

:

: I saw Oppenheimer. It was okay. The Close Encounters installation in the hallway of the Alamo …

: Mateus Asato plays “Blessed Assurance.”

: New issue of the newsletter out today. I do enjoy making my newsletter.

: Taken a few days ago, when we still had clouds

: same

: Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em

:

: Chisos Mountains, Big Bend National Park. I’ve been longing to get back there but right now …

: Megan McArdle, with a thought-provoking argument: “Once Musk readmitted the views and people …

: This interview with A. G. Sulzberger on the Dispatch Podcast is fascinating. So informative about …

: Forthcoming in Comment

: I tried AudioPen today. If you want to have your own words converted into the bland, characterless, …

: “Now Angus, be still, your breeder wants a nice portrait of you.”

: What I want: a universal de-notification button. “Click here if you do not wish to receive any …

: How to read weather forecasts in central Texas: If the chance of precipitation is 100% — …

:

: Oh, also here’s my handy guide for people who think they might want to read Pynchon but find the …

: My ginormous essay on Thomas Pynchon, theologian has escaped its paywall and is available for all to …

: Me: (excitedly explains something I read about Churchill and FDR) My son: You know, Dad, I think …

: If she would only look at me the way she looks at Angus….

: Baldur Bjarnason: The LLMentalist Effect: how chat-based Large Language Models replicate the …

: This is the second time recently that I’ve found an old lo-res photo on my Mac that caught my …

: The degenerate monarchists at The Rest Is History podcast have done something extraordinary: …

: The actress Theodosia Goodman became a silent-movie femme fatale after she adopted the name Theda …

: My beloved reporting from her family’s place in Alabama.

:

:

: Still Life with Sheltie

: Currently reading: Essays by George Orwell 📚

: Finished reading: Bleak House by Charles Dickens 📚

: Anne Snyder, the editor of Comment, is doing some really important things: she’s not just publishing …

: Last year I explained why I think Jacques Ellul’s book on Christian anarchism is really bad; …

: In which I defend Esther Summerson, the much-maligned protagonist of Dickens’s Bleak House.

: Newsletter!

: Every winter I think this oleander is dead and every summer it comes back.

:

: Jessica Winter: In retrospect, it seems clear that “Inside Out” was when Pixar’s Silicon Valley …

: A new report for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters – in which I ask for suggestions of books to …

: Currently reading: Bleak House by Charles Dickens 📚

: Finished reading: Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin 📚

:

: Currently reading: Thomas Hardy by Claire Tomalin 📚

:

: Finished reading: Farewell the Trumpets by James/Jan Morris. An extraordinary narrative history — I …

: Augustinian blogging: Cities 9: ends and means

: Currently reading: Farewell the Trumpets by James Morris 📚

: Finished reading: Pax Britannica:The Climax of an Empire by James Morris 📚

: Angus was timid and quiet when we brought him home six months ago; now he owns the place.

: In many minds Juneteenth is associated with the great Ralph Ellison, which means that this is a good …

: Augustinian blogging has resumed with Cities 8: parallels.

: New issue of the newsletter featuring Mozart, Lucie Rie, and catfish & spaghetti.

:

: Mo' myrtles

: Currently reading: Pax Britannica:The Climax of an Empire by James/Jan Morris 📚

: Well, where I come from it’s definitely a word.

: Finished reading: Heaven’s Command by James/Jan Morris 📚

: Canna lilies grow like crazy in our garden, but I never quite get used to them.

: TIL that John Le Carré said that he would refuse the Nobel Prize if it were offered to him, which …

: Mark Helprin, many years ago: Tending a fire enforces a sense of patience and tranquility. In that …

: A memory out of nowhere: In Rome for the first time, riding the Metro and seeing across from me a …

: The crêpe/crepe/crape myrtles around here are at their peak.

:

: Robert Caro on working with Robert Gottlieb: In all the hours of working on The Power Broker, Bob …

: As a person who spends a lot of time in Austin, loves Austin, hates Austin traffic, and can’t afford …

: “From tragedy it is seldom but a step to memorabilia.” — Larry McMurtry in Waco, 1993

: I’m not a collector of anything, but this auction of Larry McMurtry memorabilia had some pretty …

: Currently reading: Pax Britannica by James (Jan) Morris. This Folio Society edition is one of my …

: David Brooks: “If autonomy-based liberals believe that society works best when it opens up …

: I have mixed feelings about the bokeh of iPhone “Portrait” shots. It’s often …

:

: Douthat bringing some essential Dark Energy to the question of what matters most about Orange Man as …

: I will begin to consider the possibilities of the iPad as a work device when I can set a default app …

: Making Asteroid City

: “Not in word list.” Grrrrr.

: Marc Andreessen wrote a terrible essay and I annotated it.

: Finished reading: Mozart by Jan Swafford. An extraordinary life, an extraordinary book. 📚

: The second Goat Rodeo record is fine, but the first one is absolutely sublime, and I’m re-listening. …

: Charlie Warzel: “I reminded myself to chill out, stop being such a doomer, and move on. But about 18 …

: I wrote about people who make apocalyptic or absolutist claims that … I just don’t understand.

: Leah Libresco Sargeant: At Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College, administrators were even …

: Charlie Stross on A.I. hype: “The real promise here is that corporations will be able to replace …

: Currently reading: Mozart by Jan Swafford 📚

: He’s become a big boy.

: Pro tip: If anyone is more concerned about something than you are, just say that they’re …

: ESPN is now a gambling-promotion network that finds sports useful.

: Watching Reddit imitate Elon’s Twitter reinforces an important point: People who want a …

: Angus was waiting for me to get home from my journey, and don’t tell me or my family that he …

: Iowa

: I like Nick Carr’s description of the Vision Pro as a “face tiara for elite beings of a hypothetical …

: Very excited about this forthcoming book from Deb Chachra. All the hidden places in the built …

:

:

: This photo of Mykha (from the Chicago Sun-Times) really captures her spirit.

: I’m back in my old stomping grounds of Wheaton, Illinois today, and I just learned that one of most …

: To me, the Vision Pro doesn’t look like something to use, it looks like something to be sentenced to …

: Kansas. I was listening to the Eno/Eno/Lanois Apollo music as I drove through this landscape and it …

: Sunrise over Waco this morning

: Ken Myers on music and silence.

: Eric Adler: “It seems a stereotypically American, and perhaps more broadly imperialist, conceit to …

: The poet Tennyson had many siblings. Once a visitor to the family home found a boy lying on a rug in …

: Let me tell you something, friends: This is something special. You’ll have to wait a while to read …

: The American National Biography is not as consistently good, but there are some fine entries there …

: Currently reading: Lots of biographies from the Dictionary of National Biography. I love these: …

: In an interview Andy Summers once said “If you’re using alternate tunings, you just don’t know …

: My friend Rick Gibson found this in an old issue of the Bell System Technical Journal.

:

:

: Ezra Klein: “Jonathan Frankle, the chief scientist at MosaicML and a computer scientist at Harvard, …

: Bought this copy in the summer of 1980, for my first semester of grad school. I think it’s …

: A terrific first-hand report/memoir by James Conaway on the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. …

: Annotating Augustine’s City of God 📚 and listening to Dilla’s Donuts 🎵. As one does.

: Brian Phillips: “Talking about ‘prestige TV’ rather than good TV became a way to …

: Currently reading: City of God by Augustine of Hippo. Should’ve added this a week ago. 📚

: Finished reading: Ursula K. Le Guin: The Complete Orsinia by Ursula K. Le Guin. Not Le Guin at her …

: Crime scene snapshot

: There’s a general sense among athletes that, as Sloane Stephens says here, racial abuse is …

: It’s newsletter day, and I’ve posted my second entry on the City of God.

: This is good from Matt Yglesias: All political sides are vulnerable to misinformation.

: Emily Wilson: “In Epictetus’ version of Stoicism, the self is always the focus, even for the most …

: Caught in mid-zoom.

: That first half from Dortmund was shocking, not because they were bad but because they didn’t …

: Ross Douthat: “But for all its influence, social media is still downstream of other institutions — …

: Currently reading: The Complete Orsinia by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚

:

: I’m starting to write about Augustine’s City of God, with help from (of all people) China Miéville.

: Finished reading: The City & the City by China Miéville 📚

: Of all the tributes to Tim Keller I’ve seen, the one that resonates most strongly for me is …

: Currently reading: The City & the City by China Miéville 📚

: Finished reading: Mao II by Don DeLillo. Conceptually fascinating but not wholly successful as a …

: Currently reading: Mao II by Don DeLillo 📚

:

: Phil Christman: “A certain man went down from Athens to Atlanta, and fell among thieves, which …

: Clive Thompson: “The problem is that while we moderns desperately need exposure to nature, it sure …

: Oh cool: Journals having to suspend accepting submissions because they’re being overwhelmed by …

:

: Abraham M. Nussbaum: “We have all become accustomed to the gun violence plaguing our congregate …

: Taken in 2004 with what was even then a cheap digital camera on a trail on Mount Seymour, above …

:

: “Robot roll call!”

: Finished reading: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken. I should probably …

: Rory Smith: “Manchester City has the air of a machine, both in the way the project has been …

: Here I creep a little closer to what a genuine theology of culture might look like.

: Matteo Wong: But language-only models such as the original ChatGPT are now giving way to machines …

: Very pleased that my buddy Sara Hendren ( @ablerism ) has joined us here on micro.blog. Check out …

: I managed to write a few halting words about Tim Keller.

: Charlie Warzel: “When I look at a future dominated by generative-AI tools that are embedded in …

: Glad to see that my buddy Austin Kleon enjoyed my recitation!

: Finished reading: The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand. A brilliant book — I should have read it …

: Hit up some used-record stores in Austin today – all these from the 3-dollar bins!

: Gary Saul Morson: “The Gulag Archipelago: An Experiment in Literary Investigation, published 50 …

:

: I read and annotated that new Tara Isabella Burton essay on postrationalism in Silicon Valley.

: From William James’s speech at the dedication of a memorial in Boston to a soldier named Robert …

: Currently reading: The Metaphysical Club by Louis Menand 📚

: Finished reading: Richard Hofstadter: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, The Paranoid Style in …

: Tara Isabella Burton’s essay about post-rationalism in Silicon Valley is a vital read.

: Elon Musk, self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutist,” is happily cooperating with the …

: I wrote about the Three Paths of micro.blog.

: Currently listening: Ry Cooder - Jazz. One of my all-time favorites. ♫

:

: Jenny Odell: “I felt like I needed to protect my time more so that I could do things that I …

: Augustine, De Trinitate I.iii.5: “Dear reader, whenever you are certain about something as I …

: People say Arsenal couldn’t handle the intensity of a title challenge, and while there’s …

: A Walk in the Rain A special lo-fi casual episode, never to be repeated. Transcript

:

: From the remarkable collection of photographs at the Courtauld Institute.

: Currently reading: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, The Paranoid Style in American Politics, …

: Finished reading: Libra by Don DeLillo. A truly brilliant, and disturbing, novel. 📚

: Finished reading: Heidegger in Ruins by Richard Wolin. A devastating indictment. I wrote a review …

: My working environment

: Currently reading: Heidegger in Ruins by Richard Wolin 📚

:

: Currently reading: Libra by Don DeLillo 📚

: Some guy wrote a whole Substack post about why books aren’t worth reading. TL;DR, dude. Why do …

: Brian Eno: “This is why the idea of surrender is so interesting to me, because surrendering is what …

: Albert Borgmann – perhaps the most important philosopher of technology in our time – has …

: Erik Hoel: “So if someone regularly talks about IQs significantly above 140 like these were …

:

: Spending some time with Ol’ Blue Eyes 🎵

: WSJ: “In one study, Dr. Strayer and colleagues compared two groups of people strolling an …

:

: Currently reading: Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures by Ralph Waldo Emerson 📚

: Irony The day I discovered an important concept. Transcript

:

: same

: The list of musical cues in Malick’s Song to Song is hilarious and wonderful.

: Matt Crawford: We do a lot of clerical labor to register ourselves with entities that have figured …

: Why millennial men are turning to the Book of Common Prayer. Very cool! And if they’d like to …

: Tim Keller: “If the Church aims at loving service to one’s neighbor while clearly speaking the …

:

:

: Re: those two recent links: TV and movie writers fear that their employers want to outsource writing …

: I eagerly co-sign this from Freddie: “So why write if you hate writing? … But you could …

: Tim Carmody: “A writer in 2023 is disproportionately likely to be working on a script for a …

: Emerging

: Baldur Bjarnason: “Believing the myth of Artificial General Intelligence makes you incapable …

: Currently listening 🎵

: Richard Gibson: “Current debates about writing machines are not as fresh as they seem. As the …

: Currently reading: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken. Another re-read. …

: I want to move to the desert just to escape the leaf blowers.

: Finished reading: Clockwork, Or, All Wound Up by Philip Pullman. A perfect little fable, ideal for …

:

: Mary Harrington: “We need to re-imagine marriage as the enabling condition for radical …

:

: I (a) announced that I was shutting down my Buy Me A Coffee page, (b) heard from some readers …

: Klopp pulling a hammy while (a) celebrating the winning goal and (b) shouting at the fourth official …

: Finished reading: Raymond Chandler: the Library of America Edition by Raymond Chandler. Most of …

:

: I did not write about Tolkien, but I wrote about the return of the King.

:

: I wrote a while back about the ways that Silicon Valley is structurally sociopathic, but there’s …

:

: My family tell me they love my veggie soup, but what they really get excited about? The accompanying …

: Freddie deBoer: “We have a prevalent concept of the ‘practical college major’ in …

: Elle Griffin: In 2020, “only 11 books sold more than 500,000 copies — which is paltry when you …

: “There are days like that. Everybody you meet is a dope. You begin to look at yourself in the glass …

: Currently listening: Oren Ambarchi, Shebang ♫

: I’m rewatching and re-evaluating Kurosawa.

: Really excited for this work-in-progress by Samuel Arbesman called The Magic of Code.

: Currently reading: Raymond Chandler: the Library of America Edition by Raymond Chandler 📚

: Finished reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. A masterpiece. 📚

: New evidence of Rosalind Franklin’s role: “as an equal member of a quartet who solved …

:

: Last night when proofreading my newsletter, I saw that I had misnamed the founder of the Paragon …

: Is our society’s Overton window unresizeable?

: This week I did a one-topic newsletter, on Scott Joplin. I rarely do these – they don’t …

: Finished reading: Looking for the Good War by Elizabeth D. Samet. This one was disappointing: too …

: Currently reading/listening: Glenn Gould - The Goldberg Variations - The Complete Unreleased …

: Currently reading: Looking for the Good War by Elizabeth D. Samet 📚

: Another Sherman Alexie comment: “Self-censorship among writers is a real and serious problem in this …

: Sherman Alexie’s comment that “the right wing are censorship vikings and the left wing …

: Finished reading: Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie. What an extraordinary book — so glad I decided to …

: I get why you need to chew it, but why do I have to hold it?

: Getting closer….

: Ezra Klein: “Do we want a world filled with A. I. systems that are designed to seem human in their …

: Dr. Bill Gardner: “MAID (Medical Assistance In Dying) is inexpensive, completely effective, …

: “The internet does not recognize the state of Montana, Wheeler explained."

:

: Spotify Gives 49 Different Names to the Same Song: “The biggest problem on the web today is …

: Here I argue that our Christianity-and-culture conversations are often fruitless because we don’t …

: Rory Smith is correct: many of soccer’s problems have easy fixes. Limit the use of VAR, quit …

: Angus likes to show me his kills.

: Didn’t really need another reason to avoid flying, but, sure, let’s have one more.

: “Mr Bergman, I’m ready for my close-up!”

: Apple weather: 100% chance of rain tonight. Carrot (using Accuweather): 0% chance of rain tonight.

: Currently reading: Reinventing Bach by Paul Elie. Read it and loved it when it came out a decade …

: Finished reading: Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard. It seems wrong somehow to say that this was merely …

: I rarely offer advice, but once I gave two items of writing advice, and another time I gave two …

: Currently reading: Leopoldstadt by Tom Stoppard 📚

: Irina Dumitrescu on the body’s memories, and the comparative ghostliness of digital …

: Something about to happen here.

: What @dave says about Mastodon has been my experience also. I look through Mastodon posts and think …

: Finished reading: Reporting World War II: The 75th Anniversary Edition: A Library of America Boxed …

: Ross Douthat: “Can a movement for social justice be credible and capable if it’s intertwined …

: Currently listening: Clouds, by Adam Baldych, Vincent Courtois, & Rogier Telderman ♫

: Just a reminder: if a site has an RSS feed and you have an RSS reader, then nobody’s …

:

: How to read weather forecasts (data from any source) in central Texas: If your app says 100% chance …

: “I see you’re trying to read!”

: Re: this essay on scholars writing papers meant only to game the academic-metrics system: Sounds …

: Ted Gioia: “There’s an ominous recurring theme here: The very technologies we use to determine …

: By Jon Haidt et al., a fascinating overview of studies indicating what young people think about the …

:

:

: I wrote this morning about Tertullian, the early church, and the “spoils of victory”; I …

: Via my friend Sara Hendren, further evidence that while the big American universities despise the …

: Giving your money to Harvard is like giving your money to Warren Buffett.

: Currently reading: Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Revisiting in preparation for …

:

: Listening to Gustavo Dudamel, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra - Brahms: Symphony No. 4 ♫

:

: Finished reading: Charles Ives by Jan Swafford. A superb biography of one of the most peculiar …

: Currently watching/listening: Netherlands Bach Society, Easter Oratorio ♫

: Our little boy is growing up.

:

: Currently listening: Arvo Pärt, Passio. A worthy companion and counterpart to Bach. ♫

: I follow several Twitter accounts via Feedbin, & often click through to twitter.com. Twitter …

: Currently listening: Bach, St. Matthew Passion ♫

:

: I wrote about Le Guin and Tolkien in what is also a Good Friday meditation.

: Took me about two days of using a Mac with a Touch Bar to realize that I would go insane if I …

: Tim Larsen on Philip Jenkins’s new book on Psalm 91: “Sometimes called ‘the …

: Robin Sloan: “I have wanted to greeble something for a very, very long time. Maybe for my …

: Anne Trubek: “I no longer feel a need to prove anything through my choice of book to read. I …

: Listening to All Melody - Nils Frahm 🎵

: One common problem with the computational photography of smartphones: it gets overwhelmed by bright …

: Heterodox Academy: “If scientific institutions continue to openly and preferentially support …

: My essay on Oliver Sacks and a “humanism of the abyss” is unpaywalled. I don’t …

: Me: the Oppenheimer Principle revisited.

: Molly White: “I … don’t think that a company that creates harmful technology should be …

: Damon Krukowski: “Two years ago this month, I disconnected my recording studio from the …

: As my son says, Angus is like Michael Jordan: he never takes a play off. Relax for a moment and he …

: Currently reading: Charles Ives: A Life with Music by Jan Swafford 📚

: Finished reading: Murray Talks Music: Albert Murray on Jazz and Blues by Albert Murray. I read this …

: Listening to Thelonious Monk - Genius of Modern Music, Vol. 1 ♫

:

: Listening to Complete Mozart Piano Trios 🎵

: Bernard of Clairvaux: “It is not necessary for you to cross the seas, nor to pierce the clouds, nor …

: Finished reading: The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin. What a joy to revisit these glorious …

: Our new baby dogwood is looking good.

:

: Finished reading: Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin. Rivkin is very clear up …

:

: Daring Fireball: “When you sign up, Wavelength asks for your phone number. That’s just your …

: Currently reading: Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin 📚

:

:

:

: First light in the canyon

:

:

:

: Miniature Morning Soundscape From Laity Lodge Transcript

:

:

:

:

: I get the security concerns that have prompted the move to passkeys, but the new strategy forces us …

: I’m still reading Reporting World War II: The 75th Anniversary Edition: A Library of America …

:

: Currently reading: The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula K. Le Guin 📚

: Treat time!

: It would be very difficult to determine the Platonic ideal of a Steven Wright joke, but I think it …

: Heads up: the Bono & Edge Tiny Desk concert is just fantastic.

: Finished reading: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition by David Thomson. This too …

: Finished reading: Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright. Didn’t read it all, but …

: Angus has figured out how to get up onto our bed. Returning from the toilet this morning this is …

:

: Oh, and you can’t trust Amazon with your newspapers and magazines either. If you want to own …

: The new issue of The Hedgehog Review is just extraordinary. I am especially taken by Malloy …

:

: Lionel Shriver: “I don’t always want my novels to be focused on the culture wars, but I have used …

: One of these things is not like the others

: James Bridle: “The lesson of the current wave of ‘artificial’ ‘intelligence’, I feel, is that …

: “A group of property developers have been ordered to rebuild a Grade II-listed pub that they …

: Mark Zuckerberg famously said that the Twitter founders drove a clown car into a gold mine. Now it …

:

: David Stromberg on Israel: “It is really an age-old question: When things turn dark in your country, …

: Here I am on David Hume’s Guide to Social Media.

: Here’s another one of my little experiments in sharing ideas: Paul Kingsworth recently …

: Best photo yet of Flaco.

:

: I think if I could use only one recording to demonstrate how good vinyl can be, it would be this …

: Currently reading: Reporting World War II: Library of America 📚

: “A Humanism of the Abyss” — my essay on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Oliver Sacks’ …

: Robin Sloan wants me to ask “What do I want from the internet, anyway?” I’ve been …

: Garden Path by Eric Ravilious (1934)

: Finished reading: The Lord of the Rings: 50th Anniversary, One Vol. Edition by J.R.R. Tolkien. …

: That ridiculous black tail

: The Guardians A vision on the high plains.

: Our friend David Hooker is an amazing artist, and we’re so excited about this fabulous new pot we …

: Huge if true

: Over at my Buy Me a Coffee page, I explain the new ways I’ll be using micro.blog.

: David Thomson on Ingmar Bergman

: Currently reading: The New Biographical Dictionary of Film: Sixth Edition by David Thomson. This is …

: Cal Newport: “The open office boom is right up there with the spread of Slack as representing the …

:

: Finished reading: Analogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control by George Dyson. …

:

: I keep taking pictures of live oaks because they have such distinctive interior architectures …

: Every morning when I’m putting my shoes on. Every. Morning.

: I wrote for Echoes, the H.E. Butt Foundation’s magazine, about repairing to the canyon to be …

: Currently reading: Analogia: The Emergence of Technology Beyond Programmable Control by George Dyson …

: Finished reading: Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary by David Hume. The moral and literary …

: Dan Wang’s annual letter is always excellent, but this year’s edition may be the most fascinating …

: “Better to talk to people than communicate via tweet.” — Deep thoughts from Elon Musk

: Currently listening: Van Morrison, Veedon Fleece. What a masterpiece. 🎵

: Currently reading: Essays: Moral, Political, and Literary by David Hume 📚

: Finished reading: The Virginian by Owen Wister. Not a good book, but a fascinating one – and …

:

: Currently reading: The Virginian by Owen Wister 📚

: Finished reading: Resisting the Bonhoeffer Brand by Charles Marsh. A fascinating brief book (really …

: Angus is a “sable” Sheltie, which is to say he’s tan with white trim – but …

: Currently reading: Resisting the Bonhoeffer Brand by Charles Marsh 📚

: Pile of straw! Best toy EVAR!

: Finished reading: Wild Thought: A New Translation of “La Pensée sauvage” by Claude Lévi-Strauss. …

: Currently listening: Julian Lage, View with a Room ♫

: One last photo from that foggy morning in northern New Mexico, chiefly because it has a bit of that …

: Currently reading: Wild Thought by Claude Lévi-Strauss 📚

: Finished reading: Wildwood by Roger Deakin 📚

:

:

: Be ye not puckfoisted!

: Above Taos.

: North Lake, in the Sangre de Cristo mountains.

: The four pictures I posted today were all taken this morning in a bizarrely thick fog in …

:

:

:

:

: Trying another photo just as a test.

: Another fun fact: Dalhart is closer to Cheyenne, Wyoming (and five other state capitals) than it is …

: If you did what I did today, drive from Waco to Dalhart, you would swear that the whole drive was …

: Afternoon sky over a gas station in Dalhart, Texas. Couldn’t do anything except grab a quick shot …

:

:

:

:

: Lunch!

:

: This Arsenal side is playing some absolutely gorgeous football. What a delight to watch. ⚽️

:

: Currently reading: Wildwood by Roger Deakin 📚

: Finished reading: The Age of Eisenhower by William I Hitchcock 📚

: Currently reading: The Age of Eisenhower by William I Hitchcock 📚

:

: Finished reading: Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban. What a superb book – and …

:

:

: Currently reading: Bad Land: An American Romance by Jonathan Raban 📚

: Finished reading: Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West by H. W. Brands. A brilliant …

:

: Currently reading: Dreams of El Dorado by H. W. Brands 📚

: Great, now I’m singing “If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal” to the tune of “If I …

: Was getting some work done when Angus discovered that he could climb up into my chair. This could …

: Finished reading: The Earliest English Poems by Michael J. Alexander 📚

:

: Currently reading: The Earliest English Poems edited by Michael J. Alexander 📚

: Currently reading: The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚 (I’ve heard good things, but …

:

: Finished reading: The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin. Back to it for the first time in …

: Currently reading: The Seven Lamps of Architecture by John Ruskin 📚

: I want this (forthcoming) book just for its cover. Or the cover as a poster.

: Finished reading: The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis. Delightful to come back to this and read it …

:

:

: Currently reading: The Weight of Glory by C. S. Lewis 📚

: When it gets something wrong, Bing Chat begins by getting touchily defensive and then escalates to …

: Finished reading: Once and Forever by Kenji Miyazawa — a marvelous book of marvelous tales. 📚

: In which the fell beast contemplates the sunrise.

: Finished reading: The Annotated Hobbit by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 📚

: Currently reading: The Annotated Hobbit by John Ronald Reuel Tolkien 📚

:

: Finished reading: William Blake vs the World by John Higgs 📚

: Who among us hasn’t met ChadGPT?

: Culling my RSS feeds this afternoon, I was both saddened and annoyed to see how many museums that …

: Currently reading: William Blake vs the World by John Higgs 📚

:

: Finished reading: Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker. What an absolutely marvelous, wondrous …

:

: Finished reading: Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon 📚

: Currently reading: Winters in the World by Eleanor Parker 📚

: Finished reading: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe – for the first time in forty …

: Finished reading: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees 📚

: Finished reading: The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany 📚

: Finished reading: Phantastes by George MacDonald 📚

: Finished reading: The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode (good to return to this masterpiece of …

: Finished reading: For Keeps by Pauline Kael 📚

: To date I have been recording what I’m reading but not when I finish a book. But doing the …

: Just posted a State of My Mind Address to my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

: Ted Gioia’s State of the Culture 2023 “speech” is a feast of provocations.

: the verdict is in

: Currently reading: Paul and the Faithfulness of God by N.T. Wright 📚

: My friends Jeremy Botts and Richard Gibson teach a course called Technotexts, and have an exhibition …

:

: Currently reading: The Fifth Head of Cerberus by Gene Wolfe 📚

: New edition of the newletter, with a movie title sequence, Italian advertising, and Bob Dylan, among …

: “I’ve had Holy Communion and four doughnuts, so this has been a great day” – …

: When I’m nervous and stressed, few things are as calming to me as fiddling around with the …

:

:

: Currently reading: Square Haunting: Five Writers in London Between the Wars by Francesca Wade 📚

: Currently reading: Once and Forever by Kenji Miyazawa 📚

:

:

: I mean, it’s what happened to Eustace Scrubb, so it ought to be a word.

: He’s been like this for 30 minutes. I don’t think I’ve ever been that comfortable.

: Currently reading: Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees 📚

: Hooded intruder thwarted by fierce household defender.

: Another pro tip: While you’re waiting a week for the limoncello to brew, add the juice from …

: Pro tip: when life hands you Meyer lemons, make limoncello.

: Fun and games.

: Currently reading: Standing by Words by Wendell Berry 📚

: My buddy Rob Miner bought this for me in Amsterdam – and it sounds great. But I’m …

: Re: yesterday’s cover art, How to Think has now been translated into: Arabic Chinese (PRC) Chinese …

: There’s a lot of this. Also, Angus is committed to (a) peeing outside and (b) pooping inside.

: Cover for the forthcoming Arabic translation of How to Think.

: Currently reading: The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany 📚

:

: Currently reading: Essayism: On Form, Feeling, and Nonfiction by Brian Dillon 📚

:

: A proper Texas breakfast.

: Drives me slightly nuts when I am one letter away from an enormous word.

: I said to Angus this morning, “Certain elements of your behavior are irreconcilable with …

: Currently reading (in one of my most treasured volumes): Mont Saint Michel and Chartres by Henry …

: Glamour shot.

:

: It’s good to be back on campus.

: Currently reading: Phantastes by George MacDonald 📚

: Pro tip: When you’re trying to get a portrait shot, it’s important that the subject …

: … but he’s getting quite comfortable already.

: Angus was a little nervous for the first few minutes here…

: Currently reading 📚

: SO cool to see this from my friend (and former colleague) Shawn Okpebholo!

: Just posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

: Jesus 5: Parabolic On insiders and outsiders.

: Currently reading: The Secret Gospel of Mark by Geoffrey S. Smith and Brent C. Landau 📚

: Currently listening: Emerson Quartet, Bach: The Art of Fugue ♫

:

: I’m 100% with MKBHD on this – or rather, even more critical than he is. I’m taking …

: For years I’ve been determined to decline invitations in this way, but I always chicken out.

:

: Currently reading: The Sense of an Ending by Frank Kermode 📚

: Maybe one day I’ll get tired of taking pictures of trees, but not this day.

: Forthcoming in Comment.

:

: Finished reading: Why We Drive by Matthew B. Crawford. Fascinating book — I’ll probably blog about …

:

:

:

:

:

: Currently reading: Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life by Albert Borgmann 📚

: Currently reading: For Keeps by Pauline Kael 📚

: Some of the trees around here started turning in November, others in December, and a few are turning …

: Jesus 4: Eyewitnesses Stepping back for a bit of semi-scholarly context. It won’t happen again, I promise.

: Interesting crop of works and makers entering the public domain this year.

:

: Currently reading: Why We Drive by Matthew Crawford 📚

: My kind of year-end list: the 10 best films of … 1932.

: Just give me one import from Latin

:

: Nearly eight hundred people attended the Christmas Eve services at my church, St. Alban’s Waco …

: There’s no current soccer player I dislike as much as Cristiano Ronaldo, but if he had gone to …

: Ted Gioia: “This is James Daunt’s super power: He loves books.”

: Currently reading: A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books by Charles Dickens [specifically The …

:

:

: Long coveted on vinyl!

: Context

:

: Where loues are Christmast, with all pleasures sorts

: Christmas Eve lunch with my dear ones. ❤️

: Jesus 3: A Poem For Christmas Eve “A Christmas Hymn,” by Richard Wilbur

: Ross Douthat’s Advent-themed newsletter quotes Auden and, um, me – so you know …

: I’d like a version of Spelling Bee in which the only acceptable words are proper names from …

: Currently reading 📚

: Angus and his mama, Gypsy.

: Currently reading: Selected Stories of Anton Chekhov 📚

: Jesus 2: An Advent Poem “The Coming,” by R. S. Thomas

: I’ve got some advice for people who might consider moving from Twitter to micro.blog — with links to …

: Currently reading: Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne by Katherine Rundell 📚

: It’s a good time to remember Hilaire Belloc’s Christmas card.

: This is Angus. He’ll be joining our family in a couple of weeks. We’re chuffed.

: I think the puzzlemakers exclude some words simply because they’re too big.

: I just posted an update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

: I’m a little nervous about starting this microcast series on Jesus, because I’m not good …

: Jesus 1: I Think I’m a Principal The first in a series of brief audio meditations on Jesus.

: Current listening: Yo La Tengo, Fakebook ♫ (a grossly underrated record) 

: If your Christmas season doesn’t include a viewing of The Shop Around the Corner, it really …

: Currently reading: The Moviegoer by Walker Percy 📚

: Currently reading: Death Be Not Proud by David Marno 📚

:

: Currently reading: Henry James: Collected Stories Volume 2 (Everyman’s Library) by Henry James …

: Lovely choral Evensong this evening at St. Alban’s. “Lighten our darkness, we beseech …

: May I never be called a rantipole.

: Catastrophic tactical error by Southgate: After an Arsenal legend scored for France, he brought off …

:

: Can’t stop singing this.

: The link in the previous post goes to a current Penguin edition, but I’m reading the copy I bought …

: Currently reading: In Patagonia by Bruce Chatwin 📚

: Whaddya mean that’s not a word? It’s my gamer handle!

: I like having a corkboard.

: Currently listening ♫

:

:

:

: An appropriate day to remember one of Waco’s greatest heroes.

: Trying out the new global shortcut for microposting in MarsEdit 5 – looks like it works …

: Currently listening: Van Morrison, Veedon Fleece (one of my favorite records for more than forty …

: Currently listening: Charles Mingus, Blues and Roots ♫

: Currently listening: Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book ♫

: Currently reading: Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde 📚

:

: A game of unforced and amateurish errors by 🇺🇸 ⚽️ — oh well.

: Where’s Brian McBride when you need him? 🇺🇸 ⚽️

: A wonderful idea from Zeynep Tufekci: donate to Partners In Health in memory of the great Paul …

:

: Much talk in the past 24 hours about Luis Suarez’s deliberate handball against Ghana in the 2010 …

: Foggy morning in the canyon.

: A wonderful list of books for Christmas presents by my friend John Wilson, the most imaginatively …

: Laity looking especially lovely on this cloudy autumnal day.

: Gruber: “Mastodon is — deservedly! — getting a lot of attention as people re-evaluate their use of …

:

: Finished reading: Stealing for the Sky, by Adam Roberts. A terrific brief SF thriller — fast-paced, …

:

:

: Tyler Adams’s response yesterday to a confrontational Iranian journalist was remarkably impressive. …

: I am thrilled to have been so wrong about this USMNT side. What I didn’t expect: their defensive …

: Currently reading: Murray Talks Music: Albert Murray on Jazz and Blues by Albert Murray 📚

: Same

: Currently reading: Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie as told to Albert Murray 📚

:

: I fervently hope that when I’m gone people will say “He was a right rumptydooler, he was.”

:

: Sun’s out after a few days of (very welcome) rain.

: Listening to: Bill Frisell, Four ♫

: Final analysis: same as halftime. A solid performance by the USMNT: they were composed and competent …

: Halftime analysis: USMNT dominating in midfield, but has no finishing. ⚽️

: I’m sticking with my prediction, but it would be the most USMNT thing ever to beat England and …

: Even if you hate soccer, listen to the first few minutes of this podcast to discover how my friend …

: My prediction for USA-Wales was 0-0; it finished 1-1. My prediction for today’s match: England 3-1 …

: I hand-write a lot, but I don’t boost it much these days because I’ve come to realize …

: Finished reading: Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray: What a …

: Ready to go.

:

: I have several pairs of headphones, of varying quality, but FWIW, these are the ones I always reach …

: Currently listening: Music for Saxofone & Bass Guitar: More Songs by Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes …

: I just love this post by Imani Perry about how excited her sons were when she won the National Book …

: A good overview of the value of deep reading.

: Currently reading: Albert Murray: Collected Essays & Memoirs by Albert Murray 📚

: Nothing like listening to the Welsh sing their anthem. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

:

: I’ve been predicting U.S. 0-0 Wales, but the power of Weston McKennie’s hair is (against …

: After seeing that shambolic defending by Iran, I might have to reconsider my prediction that the …

: Currently reading: Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray 📚

: Charles Spurgeon: “I do not know that the prodigal saw his father, but his father saw him. The …

: As an endlessly corrupt World Cup begins, the American college-sports-industrial complex says, “Hold …

: “Not in word list.” Sigh. It’s not that esoteric a word!

: Twitter right now is mainly about Twitter but also a little about Mastodon. And Mastodon is mainly …

: Currently reading: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison 📚 (Decided to save Solzhenitsyn for later)

: My prediction for Group B in the World Cup ⚽️: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇮🇷 🇺🇸 I mean this. I think the …

: I would watch any NBA game called by Doris Burke (play-by play) and 89-year-old Hubie Brown …

: A student just wrote to ask me about an independent study, and my reply to him called it an …

: Just had the loudest, longest episode of SpaceX thunder ever. Every window in the house rattling for …

: Welp, I’m going in. If you don’t hear from me in a month, call the FBI, or a priest. 📚

: Wendell Berry: There are no unsacred places; there are only sacred places and desecrated places.

: Finished reading: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne. Somewhat disappointing; …

: Currently reading: The Dead Are Arising: The Life of Malcolm X by Les Payne 📚

: Newsletter!

: Currently reading: Trading Twelves: The Selected Letters of Ralph Ellison and Albert Murray by Ralph …

: Don’t know why that book info has the author’s name in Russian, but it looks cool so I decided to …

: Currently reading: The Complete Short Novels by Антон Павлович Чехов 📚

: You Can Forget About Crypto Now: “Imagine your debit card suddenly stopped working because the …

: This Adam Neely video on the ways that intellectual property law is simply unsuited to music is just …

: Currently reading: The Quest for Corvo: An Experiment in Biography by A.J.A. Symons 📚

: Prediction: By this time in 2024, Elon will have sold Twitter to people who will pledge to return it …

: The most amazing part of this story is the teacher who says that he used to keep his smartphone on …

: On ne peut jamais quitter les Romains.

: And now, perhaps, time to reward myself with a little light reading?

: Just sent off my critical edition of Auden’s The Shield of Achilles to my editors at Princeton …

: It’s what nihilists do.

: Finished reading: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. Just as I had remembered it: brilliant and …

: Currently reading: War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy 📚

:

:

: Very alien-invasion vibe to the pre-dawn walk in the fog.

: Currently reading: Tolstoy: A Russian Life by Rosamund Bartlett 📚

: Glenn Gould’s 1955 recording of the Goldberg Variatoons was so popular that he took the Goldbergs on …

: Yet another reason to love Texas.

:

: I keep trying to do the Todd Hido thing but it’s a lot harder than it looks.

: Struggles to deal with being in the shadow of his more famous brother Bub.

: So our magnificent local Balcones Distillery has been purchased by a behemoth corporation. When a …

: Lev Tolstoy, born in 1828, had a daughter who lived until 1979.

: Currently reading: Interaction of Color: 50th Anniversary Edition by Josef Albers 📚

: So much fantastic stuff in Sara Hendren’s new newsletter!

: It’s morning in America!

: Current comparative listening: Pet Sounds and Revolver. I’m surprised at how strongly I feel …

: Hey folks: I want to auto-link my WordPress posts to micro.blog – not cross-post, but just …

:

: Last night at our local pizzeria, Moroso. So, so delicious.

:

: Why Ted Gioia thinks that victory, for artists, is assured.

: Currently reading 📚

: I’m doing a bit of blogging again, and about weird scholarly stuff – perhaps a sign that …

:

: Re: my recent post on antisemitism, this from @lmullen and crew is exciting.

: Currently listening: The Campfire Headphase - Boards of Canada 🎵

: Re: Kyrie Irving, Ye, and others, this remains permanently relevant. Antisemitism is a pathological …

: If I were at the Emirates I’d teach people a song for Tomiyasu: It would be “Tomi Gunner,” to the …

: Derek Thompson’s take on baseball is similar to mine from a few years back, but he adds a …

: OH COME ON

: Dave Winer: “Why would I leave Twitter? It’s like living in NY and not taking the …

:

: Trying a little experiment here, which I will explain in a future audio post. Source.

: Currently reading: The History of the Computer: People, Inventions, and Technology that Changed Our …

: Currently listening: Tinariwen, Aman Iman ♫

: Trying to do my part to show people A Better Way.

: Cognitive errors and moral failings A first experiment in microcasting.

:

: I’m feeling thoroughly moskered.

: So close to greatness.

: Looking forward to this new podcast from my friends at Comment Magazine, featuring Shadi Hamid and …

: SO hard to decide whether to denounce the people who deserve denouncing or denounce the people who …

: I posted an update on my Buy Me a Coffee page.

: My friend and colleague Philip Jenkins on The Great Vampire War of the Enlightenment.

:

: Currently listening: ¡Ay! by Lucrecia Dalt ♫

: Richard D. Kahlenberg: “Harvard picks classes that look like today’s racially diverse America; …

: Ross Douthat putting the necessary question: As I argued in my inaugural newsletter last week, in …

: Every time Matt Yglesias bangs the one billion Americans drum, I have the same question: Where will …

: I am neither Greek nor Chinese nor a philosopher, but I do often try to go back to the beginning.

:

: My buddy Austin Kleon tried to ask a question about “merch” but for once autocorrect …

: Finished reading: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt. Impressive in many ways and often delightful, …

: Riccardo Mori: “I actually quite like most of what Apple is doing with the Mac, hardware-wise. …

: Re: this essay on accelerated and decelerated landscapes, I wonder if we can think similarly about …

: Brad East’s rules for reviewing and being reviewed, are excellent, but the very first rule for …

: Currently reading: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 📚

: Maybe this is just an oddity of my brain, but I find the Systems Settings app in Ventura …

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: On my first morning at Laity, I always walk to Blue Hole. But it’s 39° this morning so I don’t think …

: In these circumstances, a reminder: You don’t have to go there. You don’t have to do any of that …

: IMO, what this story points to is the difference between people who want to listen to sound systems …

: “Well, we’re the Satanic Temple, not the Church of Satan, because they’re awful.” From a terrific …

: Les Murray: Nothing a mob does is clean, not at first, not when slowed to a media, not when police. …

: WSJ on the Metaverse: “Among the persistent complaints from early adopters and testers, …

: ♫ Currently listening: Hermanos Gutiérrez, El Bueno Y El Malo

: ♫ Waxahatchee’s Saint Cloud was my faithful companion on my recent road trip. What an …

: Darwin Nuñez on for Liverpool. Bringing Darwin on is a … natural selection. #thankyouvurrymuch

:

:

:

: Did I write this solely in order to use that title? You may well think so, but I couldn’t possibly …

: Me to myself: Do not enter. DO. NOT. ENTER.

: Finished reading: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 📚. I wanted to love this book but I didn’t. …

: Popular term for a beheaded person — disparaging, though, which I guess is why they won’t let me use …

:

: Currently reading: The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler 📚

: I wrote about Jean-Luc Godard, whose ideas I think simplistic and silly but whose boldness I admire, …

:

:

: C. S. Lewis, from “Lilies that Fester” (1955): The [student] will not get good marks …

: I know from long experience that it’s the hope that kills you, but I’m gonna go way out on a limb …

:

:

: It’s Sunday morning in northeastern Alabama and there sure are a lot of guys around here wearing …

:

: Sara Hendren: “But in rejecting the distorted and gendered version of small-s sacrifice, I …

: Will be doing my thought-experimental Reading the New Testament class again next term.

:

: Now that I’m taking a break from my big blog and posting many small things here at micro.blog, …

: An extremely raucous murder of crows in the neighborhood this morning is reminding me of lines from …

: What an image. Among the silent trees a Russian rocket finds its resting place. (Taken near a …

: Currently reading: Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson 📚

:

: Temple Grandin: “Some visual thinkers, like me, are ‘object visualizers’—we see the world in …

: Currently reading: Reading Lucretius in the Renaissance by Ada Palmer 📚

: Noah Smith: “The authoritarians of the world are already making a pretty good case for liberal …

: The Cineaste’s Guide to Watching Movies While Stoned. This was basically my life back in the day. …

: Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt: “One day, a government source informed the synagogue that we would …

: Alternate spelling. Pangram!

: “If these problems are intrinsically linked to consolidated tech giants like Meta, Google, and …

: Announcing a blogging hiatus – though I’ll probably be here at micro.blog more than in …

: It me.

: ♫ Currently listening: Time Waits: The Amazing Bud Powell

:

: ♫ Currently listening: Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk. Fabulous record; the …

: Collections on micro.blog On the most recent episode of Core Intuition, @manton and @danielpunkass discuss whether micro.blog …

: ♫ Sweet haul from Waterloo Records today. Grooving to Delvon Lamarr right now.

:

:

: As Qatar 2022 looms the US look like who they are: Concacaf’s third best team. Too true to be good.

: The workshop.

:

: “The Godfather is shit. But there is a part of me that loves shit.” — Jean-Luc Godard

: Made pesto today in this food processor, which is forty years old. I know old people like to say …

: “There are no dull subjects, only dull minds.” — Raymond Chandler, “The Simple Art …

: Any word in The Lord of the Rings is a word as far as I’m concerned.

: Hmm, a couple of Premier League games at 2 — I wonder how VAR will ruin them?

: Currently lstening to: Gershwin, Rhapsody in Blue ♫ (It’s good to be reminded what an …

: Currently reading: Their Finest Hour (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill 📚

: I continue to be interested in how the iPhone software handles low light, especially when using the …

:

: Currently reading: The Gathering Storm (The Second World War) by Winston S. Churchill 📚

: The rain did a lot for this fella.

: What the iPhone software does with very low light (don’t be deceived by the sky in the …

: I told them a while back that this is a word, but they obviously didn’t listen. …

: Currently reading: The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn 📚

: September update for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters.

: Currently reading: Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War by Mark Harris 📚

:

: Currently reading: Awakenings by Oliver Sacks 📚

: Listening to: Mingus Ah Um by Charles Mingus ♫

: There’ll always be an …

: Watching Eurobasket this morning (which is awesome) and I just saw a European sports website …

: Currently reading: Mike Nichols: A Life by Mark Harris 📚

: Currently listening: summerteeth by Wilco 🎵

:

: I have always loved rain, but not until I moved to Texas did I really LOVE rain.

: Currently reading: Pictures at a Revolution: Five Movies and the Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark …

:

: Currently reading: A Light in the Dark: A History of Movie Directors by David Thomson 📚

: Currently reading: Making Movies by Sidney Lumet 📚

: Currently reading: And How Are You, Dr. Sacks?: A Biographical Memoir of Oliver Sacks by Lawrence …

: An annoyance: Online security systems these days assume that everyone is surgically attached to …

: “Repeated, long-term exposure to standing also has been implicated in the development of serious …

:

: National Parks Lifetime Pass? ✔️

:

: I’m borderline-obsessed with these differently-angled straight lines.

:

: Incoming.

:

: “Not in word list.” These people are barbarians.

: Bit of a scramble to get down to this part of the river, but it was worth it.

:

: Evening coming on in the canyon

:

:

: Glad to see this thread – the badness of what is now called “System Settings” in …

: Masa tres leches cake, from Barley Swine last night. Would like to have more for breakfast.

: Currently reading: Some Versions of Pastoral by William Empson 📚

:

: Big the-Virgin-and-the-Dynamo vibe going on at the local Methodist church. From this angle anyway.

: Rain everywhere … except in the little circle where I live. It’s like we have a force …

: I always quit Spelling Bee when I get to “Amazing,” because I think it would go to my …

: Currently reading: Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo” by Zora Neale Hurston …

: This is extremely uncomfortable for me, but over at my Buy Me a Coffee page I decided to ask people …

: Well, I’ve had more than enough of the heat, but this guy seems to like it.

:

: Currently reading: Science and Government by C. P. Snow 📚

:

: Currently reading: Albert Murray: Collected Essays & Memoirs by Albert Murray – Murray was …

: Currently reading: Collected Essays by James Baldwin 📚

: Some lovely photos of the recent Laity Lodge retreat with Sara Hendren and Claire Holley.

: Continuing a theme….

: I love how my buddy Austin Kleon uses his newsletter to riff on and extend some stuff I wrote.

: That really was a wonderful meal at Milo last night. Corey’s cooking gets more and more …

: workspace

: A woman loving her dessert. A lovely woman who has been married for forty-two years – to me!

: feeling kinda like

: Currently reading: Israel and the Dead Sea Scrolls by Edmund Wilson 📚

: In those first three tries, I guessed one letter correctly and twelve incorrectly. ⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜ 🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜ ⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜ …

:

:

: Currently listening: Bach: The Cello Suites — Recomposed by Peter Gregson ♫

: Finished reading: Space Odyssey by Michael Benson – one of the best books of its kind …

: Finished reading: The Railway Children by E Nesbit 📚 (first time in many years!)

: What does my home town sound like? It sounds like Waxahatchee’s “Arkadelphia”. It sounds exactly …

: We only have one weather now.

:

: Currently reading: The Common Expositor: An Account of the Commentaries on Genesis, 1527-1633 by …

:

:

:

: Just playing around here … embedding a video in a post didn’t seem to work on all …

:

: Currently reading: Space Odyssey: Stanley Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke, and the Making of a Masterpiece …

: One thing about this wild wild country It takes a strong strong It breaks a strong strong mind ♫

: I’m so happy about last weekend at Laity Lodge that I’m posting about it on both my …

:

: Currently reading: Collected Poems by C. P. Cavafy 📚

: Posted an update to my Buy Me a Dragon page.

: Sympathy for my northern European friends. (I could say “At least it won’t last …

: Didn’t think this guy was going to bloom this summer, but we returned from a few days away to …

: Well hello

:

:

: Small detail from Wildflowers (2017) by María Berrío

: At The Modern in Forth Worth today, I was totally captivated by the mixed-media paintings of María …

:

:

: Currently reading: Beyond Nature and Culture by Philippe Descola 📚

:

: Jemez River, New Mexico

: Currently reading: You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup by Peter Doggett 📚

: Currently listening: Fleet Foxes, A Very Lonely Solstice ♫

:

:

: 📚 Currently reading, in a copy I acquired in (I think) 1972:

:

: Currently reading: The High Sierra: A Love Story by Kim Stanley Robinson 📚

: Currently reading: The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Vol. 4) by Robert A. Caro 📚

:

:

: Today’s harvest

: My iCloud issue: files I create on my iPhone take roughly 36 hours to show up on my Mac. This has …

: it’s the friends you make along the way

:

:

:

: Currently reading: Master Of The Senate (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 3) by Robert A. Caro 📚

: Finished reading: Means of Ascent (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 2) by Robert A. Caro 📚

: Finished reading: The Path to Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, Volume 1) by Robert A. Caro 📚

: Currently reading: The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam 📚

:

:

:

: Don’t know why this guy stands more than a foot higher than his friends, but he’s …

: Currently reading: Lucky Per by Henrik Pontoppidan 📚

:

: Currently listening: Danish String Quartet, Last Leaf ♫

:

: Currently reading: Milton and the English Revolution by Christopher Hill 📚

: Currently listening: Willie Nelson, Spirit ♫

:

: It’s a newslettery morning

:

: Currently listening: Aaron Copland, Appalachian Spring ♫

: I’ve just revised and edited the page where I list the major themes of my big blog and link to …

: Remembering a visit to Sanibel with dear friends….

:

: Currently listening: Wood Works by Danish String Quartet ♫

: I wrote about mechanization, illiberalism, and the attempt to create a monoculture. Part of my …

: And this Yaupon tea pannacotta with fresh peaches and granola … I don’t even have …

: Odd Duck Austin is one of my favorite eating/drinking places.

: Currently reading: What They Heard by Luke Meddings 📚

: Currently reading: Tono-Bungay by H. G. Wells 📚

:

:

: Squirrel wars escalating. I am injured but I persist.

: My “productivity system” is … a calendar. That’s it, that’s all I …

: Currently reading: The Women Who Saved the English Countryside by Matthew Kelly 📚

: Currently reading: Poet of Revolution: The Making of John Milton by Nicholas McDowell 📚

: Just ordinary morning light, that’s all. But I like it a lot.

: Pretty typical message to my wife, who’s in Alabama with family

: Currently reading: London: A Social History by Roy Porter 📚

: Newsletter time!

:

: Currently reading: John Milton: Life, Work, and Thought by Gordon Campbell 📚

:

:

: Seriously, these guys are just exploding. They’ve all been in this one patch, but now …

: Currently reading: Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World by Leo Damrosch 📚

: “No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.” — Samuel Johnson

: Currently reading: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins 📚

:

:

: Currently reading: Thomas Jefferson: A Biography of Spirit and Flesh by Thomas S. Kidd 📚

: Good to see these guys back.

: I spend a lot of time just watching these guys come and go.

: When I grow up, I wanna be like Pop. And you should too.

:

: A festive harvest in the mail today. Listening to Wood Works right now and it’s utterly enchanting.

: Currently reading: The Code of The Woosters by P G Wodehouse 📚 – I almost know this one by …

: Another dashed-off newsletter, though with some prime Wodehouse content.

:

: Going around saying hello to the plants I wasn’t sure had made it through our cold snaps in …

: Currently reading: David Copperfield by Charles Dickens 📚 – taking my own advice.

:

: Finished reading: The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers 📚 Lovely to renew an old friendship.

: Finished reading: Anarchy and Christianity by Jacques Ellul 📚

:

: Currently reading: The Moving Finger by Agatha Christie 📚

:

: Currently reading: The Recognitions by William Gaddis 📚

:

:

: Currently reading: The Recognitions by William Gaddis 📚

:

: Just posted an update to my Buy Me a Coffee page.

:

:

:

:

: Re: those eggs, once I tried Alton Brown’s way of boiling eggs – which is not to boil …

: Jacques Pépin calls this dish Eggs Jeannette, after his mother, because she would always make them …

:

:

:

:

: “The problem with my life is that I’ve said too much shit in the past and no one forgets it.” — …

: Last day in my Reading the New Testament class – a semester-long thought experiment in trying …

: Currently reading: The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies by David Thomson 📚

:

: Currently reading: Death and the King’s Horseman: A Play by Wole Soyinka 📚 (I’ve been …

: My newsletter is intermittent these days, but here’s a new issue.

:

: Currently reading: The Gulag Archipelago 1918-1956: An Experiment in Literary Investigation by …

:

: This is gonna be fun

: I estimate that 73% of my RSS feed is stories about Twitter. Enough is enough, folks!

: Currently reading: A History of Christian Missions by Stephen Neill 📚

: Thanks for the kind words on my post, folks!

: I generally dislike unsolicited advice, but over at my macro blog I wrote a post offering some …

: Currently reading: Picture by Lillian Ross 📚

: I was so annoyed by the size and heft of my iPhone 13 Pro that I traded it to my son for an SE …

:

: Hummingbird clearwing moth visiting my patio – couldn’t get a sharp photo though.

: The Lindheimer’s beeblossom is back! – which means that soon the bees will be too. (I …

: Maybe my favorite thing about our house: It sits on a slight elevation, so when we look across our …

: Currently reading: Bing Crosby: Swinging on a Star: The War Years, 1940-1946 by Gary Giddins 📚

: I had to suspend my regular newsletter – interrupted by Life – but I’m still …

:

: Currently reading: Bing Crosby: A Pocketful of Dreams — the Early Years, 1903-1940 by Gary Giddins 📚

:

: Currently reading: The Whole Equation: A History of Hollywood by David Thomson 📚

:

:

: Currently reading: Tristes Tropiques by Claude Levi-Strauss 📚

: We have four mature live oaks on our property, but this is the one I look at the most often. It has …

: I do like a frittata.

:

:

: Currently reading: The Pat Hobby Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald 📚

:

: At the request of … several, I have enabled a subscription plan for my blog. Please spread …

: This is my link to my post about my essay on piety.

: Currently reading: Orson Welles, Volume 2: Hello Americans by Simon Callow 📚

: I almost always post my photos in square format, but not because of Instagram. This was my first …

:

:

: Diners.

:

: Currently reading: Orson Welles, Volume 1: The Road to Xanadu by Simon Callow 📚

:

: Watching the UNMNT and on this Sunday the goals (so far) have been scored by Jesus, Paul, and …

:

:

:

: Andrew Hudgins, “The Cestello Annunciation”

:

:

: Currently reading: Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 📚

: This smoked-pastrami reuben at Milo – amazing.

: Taken as the tornado sirens sang.

: Currently reading: The Kindness of Strangers by Salka Viertel 📚

: Currently reading: Always Crashing in the Same Car: On Art, Crisis, and Los Angeles, California by …

: Finished reading: Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks 📚

:

: Those trees Texans call “mountain cedars”? They’re junipers. See?

:

: Professional musical instrument storage and display

: Pommes de Terre Persillade. IMO, the best way to eat potatoes.

: Persillade in process.

: Currently reading: An Essay on Man: An Introduction to a Philosophy of Human Culture by Ernst …

: Currently reading: The Wood that Built London by C. J. Schüler 📚

: Currently reading: Letters and Papers from Prison by Dietrich Bonhoeffer 📚

: Currently reading: Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot 📚

: Currently reading: Tom Stoppard: A Life by Hermione Lee 📚

: Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚

: I keep vacillating about whether or not to record the books I read here; it’s interesting in a …

:

: We have newsletter!

: Big Bend National Park, taken a while back.

: The mothership … um, I mean the newsletter has landed.

:

:

:

:

: When the skylight in your bathroom enables photo-as-abstract-art …

:

: Behold the newsletter!

:

: Currently reading: Constellations by Govert Schilling 📚

: Currently reading: Unattainable Earth by Czeslaw Milosz 📚

:

: Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚

:

: Behold the newsletter!

: Old loyalties.

: Currently reading: The Gnostic Religion by Hans Jonas 📚

:

: Gorgeous day on campus today.

: Currently reading: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 📚

: It’s clobberin’… um, I mean, newsletter time!

: Monday morning, at the desk, preparing to clear my head.

: Currently reading: The Metamorphosis: And Other Stories by Franz Kafka 📚

: I like this photo of the renovations being done at my church because it reminds me how the nave of a …

: Currently reading: Index, A History of the: A Bookish Adventure from Medieval Manuscripts to the …

: Newsletter: Harmonies and Dissonances.

: Currently reading: The Time Machine by H. G. Wells 📚

:

: Well, this was different. ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜ 🟩🟨🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

: Currently reading: The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells 📚

: I sort of hate my office, but I just yesterday (after eight years!) realized that the windowsill …

: Currently reading: The Road to Middle-Earth: How J.R.R. Tolkien Created a New Mythology by Tom …

: Currently reading: Early Christianity and Greek Paideia by Werner Jaeger 📚

: Currently reading: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚

: Newsletter: Sir Shi and the Wanderer

: Can’t stop, won’t stop.

: Currently reading: Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud 📚 (trying to remember to put …

:

: Currently reading: Vermeer: The Complete Works by Karl Schütz 📚

: Guess I won’t be visiting the McDonald Observatory – one of my favorite places – …

: Prep

: Remember how I said that there are some trees around here that think it’s still autumn? (Photo taken …

: Newsletter: on fakery and Hittites.

: Currently reading: Andrey Tarkovsky: Life and Work: Film by Film, Stills, Polaroids & Writings 📚

: Okay, time to get this second career started.

: Currently reading: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems, Volume II: 1940–1973 by W. H. Auden 📚

: Currently reading: The Complete Works of W. H. Auden: Poems, Volume I: 1927–1939 by W. H. Auden 📚

: A number of trees here are convinced that it’s still autumn.

: Currently reading: Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens 📚

: Newsletter!

: Currently reading: History of England (Volume I) by David Hume 📚

: We found our old friend Nelson! – missing for many years. (Long ago a friend from South Africa …

: Currently reading: The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins 📚

: Chilly and lovely morning in the neighborhood today.

: I don’t often read the New York Times, but when I do, I prefer to use lynx.

: Currently reading: The First Kingdom: Britain in the Age of Arthur by Max Adams 📚

:

: Currently reading: The Selected Letters of Wallace Stegner by Wallace Stegner 📚

: First newsletter of the new year!

: First 🔥 in many months

: FYI: I am doing Big Blogging again, and if you want to support that you can buy me a dragon.

: It was 80º here an hour ago – tomorrow morning it’ll be 22º.

: Cheers, London. Wish I were visiting you right about now.

: Currently reading: Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens 📚

: The Jesuit church, Mount Street Gardens, London (a few years ago). Looking through some of my London …

: Currently reading: Freud: The Making of an Illusion by Frederick Crews 📚

: Currently reading: The Control of Nature by John McPhee 📚

: Here’s a terrific conversation at The New Atlantis about whether it’s possible to write …

: Currently reading: The Sound of Mountain Water: The Changing American West by Wallace Stegner 📚

: A Christmas edition of the newsletter.

: Renovations to our parish church continue apace, including a lovely new rose window.

: Joan Didion, “Holy Water” (1977): Some of us who live in arid parts of the world think about water …

: Matt Mullenweg: “As more and more of our lives start to be run and dictated by the technology we …

: Currently reading: Beyond the Hundredth Meridian: John Wesley Powell and the Second Opening of the …

: Scott Alexander: Science communicators are using the same term — “no evidence” — to mean: This …

:

: I got an email from the University of Austin saying: “Since we launched last month, our promise to …

: Matt Stoller: “The amount of utopian bullshit and fake promises on a technology that doesn’t really …

:

: James Rebanks, English Pastoral: One morning as I was waiting by the church with the other boys and …

: Currently reading: English Pastoral: An Inheritance by James Rebanks 📚

: Cecilia D’Anastasio: “The idea of the metaverse has reemerged under a new sky. The current …

: From Alex Ross’s terrific interview with Jonny Greenwood: There are scenes in “Spencer” that …

: “In God We Trust” should be retired as our national motto and replaced with Homer Simpson’s line: …

: Maybe it’s just because I live in Texas, but when I read techno-optimistic pieces like this one I …

: This essay in the Economist gives a pretty good idea of what level of social control would be …

: N. S. Lyons: At this point, you might be wondering why Communist Party media apparatchiks now sound …

: Newsletter!

:

:

:

:

:

: Katharine Park: “Every time I read something in The New York Times that Leonardo da Vinci had to …

: New issue of my newsletter – featuring fakery, a cathedral builder, and an Advent poem – …

: Friedrich Kittler (1992): “I am adamantly in favor of the clean separation of the inorganic from the …

: Treat ev’ry man according to his deserts, and who should ‘scape a scathing takedown?

: My local coffee shop (Dichotomy) takes Christmas very seriously.

: Brilliant essay by Mark Lilla on Julien Benda: “Our century will properly be called the century of …

: Kevin Kelly: “Security on a network is equivalent to pollution coming from a small source. If …

: Samuel Johnson, from his “Life of Milton”: It is told that in the art of education …

:

: Finished reading: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David …

: Currently reading: Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins 📚

:

: 12 Get Back Moments You Need to Know to Act Like You Watched the Whole Thing — I mean, yeah, if …

: My colleague Perry Glanzer is 100% correct: The reality is, when it comes to faculty formation, the …

: David Brooks with a shrewd inquiry: Donald Trump is the near-opposite of the Burkean conservatism …

: James Hankins: “One clear change [in historical scholarship] was the coverage of what my …

: Here in Waco we get “SpaceX thunder”: reverberations from the rocket testing site …

: Lovely New Yorker -ish image on the cover of the LRB.

: Adam Roberts again: I argue that how we configure the birth of the genre [of science fiction] has …

: New issue of my newsletter today – and as always, the version on the Comment website looks …

:

:

: Adam Roberts: Let’s say Hogarth sees religion less in terms of mystic or transcendent aesthetic …

: The Tufte theme by @pimoore is just amazing. With its shortcodes you could use micro.blog as a …

: As someone whose guitar playing is severely compromised by damage to my fingers – thanks to …

:

:

:

:

:

: Almost-November rose.

:

:

:

: Hello old friend

:

:

:

:

: Trying and failing to capture a beautiful crescent moon this pre-dawn I accidentally made an …

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: Mid-century modern lives on.

:

:

:

:

:

:

: We thought the nightmarish winter storm we had in February had killed our oleander, but we cut it …

: Maybe it’s time to bring these out of mothballs?

: Wes at his first Cubs game, 30 June 1999. He’s singing “Take Me Out to the Ball …

: When it gets hot and dry the Lindheimer’s beeblossom seems to become very happy.

: Millennium Park, Chicago

: Forty-one years ago today this wonderful woman married me. I still can’t believe it.

:

: So grateful for the time at Laity Lodge with these dear people.

: Every time I’m at Laity Lodge I take pictures of this Japanese maple, because the light is …

:

: He likes parsley, I have too much parsley. So we’re cool.

: Earlier this year we planted this burgundy-leaved crepe (or crape) myrtle and (a) it’s …

:

:

:

: This was quite the find at the used book store. Wild Flowers of the United States was a 15-book …

:

: Texas FM 187 (one of the prettiest drives in the Hill Country) above Vanderpool

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: It has rained so much in the past month that our live oaks are getting moss on them as though we …

: Summer companions.

:

: My sister lives out in the country, in the ridge-and-valley terrain of northeastern Alabama, so this …

: This is my sister’s dog Bella. Bella is a rescue and a very good girl.

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: Welcome back, friend.

:

: We planted this Lindheimer’s beeblossom last year, and we’re delighted that it survived …

: Don’t give me any ideas.

:

: The Rock Church, Cranfills Gap, Texas

: Can’t tell y’all how excited I am about this.

: Used books.

: Dessert first, please

: Welcome, small stranger. Live long and prosper.

: A four-magazine mail day is my equivalent of finding a four-leaf clover.

:

: One down, one to go.

: So excited about the arrival of this one.

:

: I was 100% sure that this little tree had died in the recent big freeze, but here we are!

:

:

:

: Not everything was killed in our Big Freeze (but I fear a lot was).

: We said goodbye to our best friend this morning after fourteen years of endlessly delightful …

: Malcolm has become increasingly contemplative in his old age.

: My newsletter seems not to have gone out this morning, so while I’m trying to find out what …

: Currently reading: At Home by Bill Bryson 📚

: Currently reading: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life by Soren Kierkegaard 📚

: Currently reading: A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf 📚

: Currently reading: The Epistle to the Romans by Karl Barth 📚

: Much-used books are beautiful books.

:

: For Malcolm, affection is like being groomed: something to tolerate if there’s a biscuit at the end …

: Well, it’s nice to see how much more peaceful and orderly things are now that we’ve …

: I wrote about a new kind of school: The School for Scale.

:

: My newsletter features Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.

:

: Malcolm wishes you a Happy New Year.

:

:

: My local coffee shop/cocktail bar, Dichotomy, does Christmas better than anybody. Even an Advent …

: Two years ago, autumn in central Texas was spectacular; last year, wan; this year, pretty darn nice!

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: It begins.

: Coming attractions.

: In which I announce Gospel of the Trees 2.0.

: I was, am, and will be here for Richard Polt’s Analog College.

: Yeah, I’ve been doing this a while. What I like about this is that it shows that I’ve …

:

:

: Theo Epstein: Baseball “is the greatest game in the world, … but there are some threats to it …

: Things many people who haven’t published don’t understand: We writers rarely have any …

: Just discovered that a fairly generous except of my biography of C. S. Lewis is available online — …

: I think this post by Ilya Somin, especially if you follow up its many useful links, raises the …

: Santa Subito!!

: It’s just wonderful to me that friends of mine (Erin, Amanda, Alexis, Rob), have been doing this …

: In recent weeks I’ve expressed my gratitude to my students, who have been so faithfully disciplined …

: Currently reading: A Promised Land by Barack Obama 📚

: Currently reading: The Children of Men by P. D. James 📚

: Well, I knew this was coming. And let’s be clear: Krebs was fired for telling the truth. (The …

: That’s right, I’m playing Monument Valley 2 on my Mac.

:

: 48º, AKA perfect napping weather for a Sheltie.

: And speaking of newsletters not on Substack, I have posted an issue this morning.

: Overall, I think the move by some of our most provocatively interesting journalists to newsletters …

: Barack Obama: “ If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by …

: Cheating-detection companies made millions during the pandemic. Now students are fighting back: …

: Cheakamus Lake, Garibaldi Provincial Park, British Columbia, 2006

:

: Someone’s not ready for autumn.

: New Mexico, June 2017

: The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has an excellent page debunking rumors of …

: I just gave our student assistant Ifeoma a boring sorting-and-filing job to do, and said, …

: All my photographs are of trees and my dog, but, you know, I yam what I yam.

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: Leaves just beginning to turn, but the autumn light angles are here.

:

:

:

: From Baylor’s covid tracking page. My students have been amazing: their consistency in doing the …

:

:

:

:

: Very excited to get this little treasure from my dear friend Tim Larsen!

:

:

: Currently reading: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky 📚

: Making lunch, gazing out back, thankful for these gifts but waiting and hoping for better days for …

: When I’m on on campus I always like to spend some time chilling under the live oaks.

: I wrote a post on some features of micro.blog that more people should know about. (Maybe many of you …

: Cool enough for a hoodie on the morning walk 😯

: Currently reading: The Elementary Forms of Religious Life by Emile Durkheim 📚

: Currently reading: If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future by Jill Lepore 📚

:

: Let’s never see this sight again. Let’s win them all for the big green guy. ⚽️ …

: Mesut Özil, Arsenal legend and hero of humanity. ⚽️ Also, #JusticeForGunnersaurus is the single …

: That’s it, Arsenal. If you don’t want Gunnersaurus you don’t want me as a supporter.

:

: Currently reading: Murray Bookchin Reader 📚

: Currently reading: Fear And Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard 📚

: Currently reading: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 📚

:

:

:

:

: Not sure why, but our September roses are blooming with much more vivid colors than they had earlier …

:

: Well of course it’s expensive, it’s a 350-year-old book.

:

: My son and I are sorting through the Big Issues

:

: I’m a huge fan of Leuchtturm notebooks, but I’m a little concerned about their pricing.

: This is so cool from my buddy Austin Kleon.

: Tomorrow!

: Coming Tuesday!

: My beloved on the Rhine last fall (photo by her friend Fran).

: Now I can intimidate my students by looking like Immortan Joe

: Had to give myself a reward after my first class.

: This morning’s newsletter is about silence, and a legendary young woman of the Lakota Sioux.

: Looked all over the place for my beloved this morning. Finally found her in a tree.

:

: This spindly rose bloomed a bit in the spring, after which it offered no blooms at all for three …

:

:

: Campus was looking lovely this morning except for the ongoing construction of tent cities.

:

:

:

:

: current status

: Taken on the plane back to Alabama. She was with me then, and with me through the difficult years to …

: Honeymoon over; in the airport and about to return to Alabama. If I look a little worried, I …

:

:

:

: Reader, she married me. Forty years ago today. I still can’t quite believe it. (Photo taken …

: I’m happy for all Gunners today, but happiest for this guy. What a class act and first-rate keeper. …

: South Fork, Guadalupe River (2017)

: This monstrous thing is ten feet tall now.

: I wrote about sharing a typewriter (model) with Carl Reiner.

:

: Went down to the river today to make sure it’s still there. ✔️

:

: “Slowly”?

: Couldn’t possibly be more delighted with the blurbs for my forthcoming book.

:

: Jacob Epstein’s great sculpture of St. Michael’s victory over Satan at Coventry Cathedral — a …

:

: A more peaceful image from the same room

: Victoria and Albert Museum, London (2016)

: Hard to imagine a more damning chart. But what we will never be able to decide is who, primarily, …

: First tomatoes from the garden, full-size + cherry.

: Not just reading David French’s newsletter, I’m annotating it.

:

: Vieux Carré

: Ascending Wansfell Pike, 2011

: Malcolm wishes to register his approval of Dr. Kelly and her place.

: Took Malcolm to his vet, Dr. Kelly, today. She works mainly on horses and so her place is out in the …

: Jemez River, New Mexico, 2017

:

:

:

:

: Malcolm has just had an exciting game of garden hose to celebrate his birthday. He’s 13 today! …

:

:

: a green thought in a green shade

:

: I’m just taking picture after picture of my garden because (a) I like growing flowers and (b) …

:

:

:

: It begins.

: The chief texts for this semester — good companions for the journey.

:

: trigger warning

:

:

:

: … is the name of my new band

:

:

:

: Putting my toe back in the water here … it’s the best imaginable version of social media, but …

:

:

:

: Slightly worried as I ask myself just how much bigger this thing can get….

:

:

:

:

: Our dear boy Malcolm has always had trouble with stairs and steps, but it’s gotten worse …

:

:

:

:

: ?????

:

:

:

:

:

:

: Well, my fancy(ish) integrated amplifier died today — but never fear! I have a backup. This tiny …

:

: And one of the desserts: corn mochi with blackberry sorbet and various delicious accessories.

: A highlight from last night’s anniversary dinner at Barley Swine: fried buns (like a steamed bun …

: 39th anniversary dinner at the amazing Barley Swine in Austin. So, so grateful for my beloved.

:

: Hose time

: First the Eucharistic Feast, then the Breakfast Pizza at Moroso Feast.

: I’ve probably taken too many pictures of our huge oleander, but I think its combination of …

: Some of our container plants have been struggling a bit in the heat, but this little pairing has …

: Malcolm is relaxed but hopeful that there might be more play.

: Biscuit.

: LOVE it when my local (Pinewood) has a new beer on tap and it’s one of my very favorites (in …

:

: I dub thee SQUIRRELBANE 🗡 🐿 😵

: This is a little on-the-nose, don’t you think?

: current status

:

: Cliff swallows going to and from their nests.

: And the flowers strewn across my path.

: It was all worth it for the views.

: And of course I did it, I’m a manly man

: They said the trail is “a little technical in places,” but I didn’t know that meant I’d have to use …

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

:

: I really can’t get over this oleander. It’s 10 feet tall now and may soon eat my neighbor’s house.

:

: Morning in the back yard

: Welp. It’s time for some Serious Editing.

: So, Wired, it has come to this.

: Malcolm ten years ago today.

: ♫ I got friends in low places ♫

: Malcolm is very happy after he has played in the garden hose.

:

: These pictures are from the eastern side of the Skyline Drive this morning. The air was clear …

:

:

:

: Back to my old stomping grounds. Those Grounds haven’t become less beautiful.

:

:

:

:

:

:

: Malcolm is a very good boy. As you can see.

:

: Huge if true

: The third thing I do when I get a new computer.

: The second thing I do when I get a new computer.

: The first thing I do when I get a new computer.

:

:

: Lovely morning at Lake Waco Wetlands — though the wetlands are still waking up to springtime.

:

:

: I look like I’m singing “Old Man River.”

: still true

: It’s time.

: I think of this as two imperative sentences.

:

:

: A really special night last night at Milo. (That’s duck fat salted caramel popcorn, which you …

: Fabulous new issue of The Point.

: Been around the block with this one a few times.

: My son and I doing a postmortem.

: I’m needing to get back to Rufi’s Cocina for the incredible tacos (especially al pastor …

: I love these old editions. I don’t really use them any more, but I like to take them out and …

: Update: PDFpen is just as good as ScannerPro at OCRing my handwriting.

: Scanner Pro does an amazing job of recognizing my handwriting.

: Working on Lucretius, Plutarch, Charles Taylor — and being reminded of how blessed I am to read and …

: Count Malcolm as: intrigued but uncertain

: SRO for Jemar Tisby at Baylor

: It’s fun, but it’s also work.

: Sure, go ahead and reject the only person who can fix this mess. (Via Nina Massey)

: Tsundoku. Always tsundoku.

: Not that guy, presumably, but rather this guy.

: I think I’ve figured out how to deal with my overflowing inbox.

: Nobody yawns the way Malcolm yawns.

: This is my heart, right here.

: Didn’t really expect this editorial shift, but okay.

:

: same

: Festive post-church brunch at Milo

: Of course you did

: Represent

:

: Visitors

: before coffee

: Current status

: Milo is just KILLING it.

: A December volunteer

: Mail!

: Hey L.A. area friends:

: I’m thinking that from here on out I’m gonna imitate Steve Reich’s commitment to the baseball cap.

: My son helping me get perspective

: Goodness

:

: This is my sixth Texas autumn, and by far the most colorful. I suspect the key is that we’ve had a …

:

:

:

: And again.

: I seem to have accidentally taken a photograph of a masterpiece of abstract art.

:

: We’re not completely without autumn color here in central Texas. (No filters.)

: This is going to be hard to believe, but these pastries from @milowaco taste just as good as they …

: I love pretty much everything about Anglican worship, but I have a special fondness for the …

:

: Not really what I expected when searching for “Christian calendar” …

: Interesting data from Kieran Healy.

: And here’s something else new I want to try either tomorrow or Friday….

: The food-truck scene in Waco is getting better and better. Today I had a fabulous huarache al pastor …

: This is not a good book, this is a truly great book. I hope to find time soon to say why I think so, …