: Currently reading: Mozart by Jan Swafford 📚
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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
: 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 …
: Baldur Bjarnason: “Believing the myth of Artificial General Intelligence makes you incapable …
: 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?
: 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 📚
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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. …
: 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 …
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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.
: 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.
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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…
: 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.
: 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 …
: 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: 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 …
: 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!
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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!
: 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.
: 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 …
: 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.
: 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 …
: ♫ 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 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 ♫
: 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.
: “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.
: 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 …
: A woman loving her dessert. A lovely woman who has been married for forty-two years – to me!
: 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 …
: 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 📚
: 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 📚
: 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 ♫
: 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 📚
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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.
: 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 …
: 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 …
: Currently reading: Constellations by Govert Schilling 📚
: Currently reading: Unattainable Earth by Czeslaw Milosz 📚
: Currently reading: The This by Adam Roberts 📚
: 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
: 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 – …
: 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 📚
: 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!
: 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 …
: 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 …
: 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.
: 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 …
: 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.
: We planted this Lindheimer’s beeblossom last year, and we’re delighted that it survived …
: The Rock Church, Cranfills Gap, Texas
: Can’t tell y’all how excited I am about this.
: Welcome, small stranger. Live long and prosper.
: A four-magazine mail day is my equivalent of finding a four-leaf clover.
: 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!
: 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 …
: 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.
: 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.
: 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.
: 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. ✔️
: 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.
: 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) …
: The chief texts for this semester — good companions for the journey.
: … 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.
: 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.
: 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?
: 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.
: 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.
: 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.”
: 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)
: 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.
: Festive post-church brunch at Milo
: 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
: This is my sixth Texas autumn, and by far the most colorful. I suspect the key is that we’ve had a …
: 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, …