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Journal
Journal

Journal

Pop (T)art(s)

From Wikipedia:

“Introduced in 1964 and initially called Fruit Scones, the name was soon changed to Pop-Tarts as a pun on the then popular Pop Art movement.”

(File under “things learned watching Jeopardy!)

The Sears Wishbook

I had a lot of these toys so this is not me complaining, but one of my funniest Christmas memories is my stepmom handing me one of these and telling me to circle everything I wanted for Christmas. I went to town, greedily circling every item imaginable. That holiday morning, I believe I received exactly zero of the things I had circled. In retrospect, she was getting me to settle down and be quiet for a bit, which, yah, totally understand.

Days Between

Since seeing Dead and Co. in Colorado last month, the Grateful Dead have been in heavy rotation since. Perfect summer music.

Since we are now in what Dead Head’s call “The Days Between” (the days between Garcia‘s birthday and the date of his passing), if you’ve never listened, I think their run from ’70 to ’72 is perfect from the initiated.

Starting with their first great record, Workingman’s Dead and the even better American Beauty, arguably their two best studio albums, they followed up with two classic live albums, Grateful Dead and Europe ’72.

Patio hall of famers and the perfect introduction to the band.

Roger Ebert Passed 10 Years Ago Today.

Before the Internet, or at least any Internet I knew of, Siskel & Ebert was my best resource for what was coming out. By the time I hit the age where I wasn’t supposed to be seeing certain things but wanted to, those two were a gateway drug. Very few things sounded more interesting to my just-under-teenage brain than Clerks and Pulp Fiction.

I treated their year end lists like gospel. By my freshmen year of high school I walked around with and read and re-read and basically treated Book of Film the same.

For years, when I watched something, I would end up looking up his reviews to see what he thought. While I often disagreed with him, I was always interested and loved discovering films via his writing. I wonder now what he would have thought about movies that have come out since he left us. I might wonder that forever.

As Steven Hyden wrote when he passed:

“If the sum total of all the people affected by the life and career of Roger Ebert could somehow be quantified– his fellow writers were just a tiny sliver of a large and loyal readership, mind you– we might begin the process of wrapping our arms around the legacy of perhaps the most celebrated film critic who ever lived. In lieu of that, let’s just say: It’s a whole hell of a lot of people.“

I recommend looking through his work, particularly his “Great Movies” archive. Love this quote of his: “”Every great film should seem new every time you see it.”

There is also his final “top ten” list and this list of underrated films he loved, including the Up documentary series, about which he wrote:

“No other art form can capture so well the look in an eye, the feeling in an expression, the thoughts that go unspoken between the words. To look at these films, as I have every seven years, is to meditate on the astonishing fact that man is the only animal that knows it lives in time.”

Walking, Productivity and Creativity

I have walked and jogged and ran quite a bit since the pandemic began some 87 years ago, but this summer I decided to step it up (unfortunate pun intended).

100,000 steps per week, every week, for twenty weeks. Two million steps. Sounded like a reasonable goal. I didn’t think about my Fitbit dying, being sick, being injured, plans, writing, just not wanting to fucking go outside. Making up for those days though, really pushing myself to get to 100,000k, those days truly made it worth it and the experience and the accomplishment all the more rewarding. I ended up taking 2,038,018 steps, which ended up a bit under 1,000 miles. Which in retrospect, that should have been the goal. (I dumped the data on Facebook if you really wanna see/really just wanna be my friend).

“Every walk is a sort of crusade,” so said Thoreau.

“I would walk for six or eight hours a day, composing thoughts that I would later jot down on paper,” wrote Nietzsche, who by his thirties would walk closer to ten hours a day and write much of which he is known for. “Sit as little as possible; do not believe any idea that was not born in the open air and of free movement — in which the muscles do not also revel… Sitting still… is the real sin against the Holy Ghost.”

This summer on my walks, I also listened to Atomic Habits, a book that is billed as “an easy and proven way to build good habits and break bad ones.” Lots of great stuff in there: we imitate the people we envy. Only turn the TV on if you know what you want to watch. Never make a single aspect of your identity an overwhelming portion of who you are. Until you work as hard as those you admire or envy, don’t explain away their success as luck. And so on.

A big one was making habits more attractive by rewarding oneself or combining habits. “Doing the thing you need to do means doing the thing(s) you get to.”

So usually if I want to read the news, check my personal Instagram, I do it while walking. If I want to listen to a particular podcast, I do so by walking. I make work calls in the middle of a two hour hike.

I walk more than I run, but by combining habits I feel like I am getting more done, even when large chunks of time are dedicated to clearing my head, or thinking about my writing, or brainstorming for the printing company I co-own. Not all of these tasks are rewarding, but it allows me to multitask and often breaks up my walks into nice chunks, which itself is rewarding.

I much prefer the outdoors to the gym. Now that it’s winter in Michigan I imagine running through snow and chopping wood and basically just living my best Rocky 4.

I would recommend doing the same. Maybe listen to Atomic Habits while you do. If you happen to live in Michigan, Joseph Beyer just wrote about some great places to have a winter walk. And regardless, good luck and happy trails. Keep on truckin’.

Attainable Aspirations Inspired by Great Humans of the Past

A friend has been going through what they are confident can be defined as a “midlife crisis.” I too have been thinking about a lot of the “big picture” stuff the last year or two, and have been trying to get better at living life. I do a lot of reading, offline and on, and a site always full of aspirational nuggets of wisdom at Maria Popova’s Marginalian. Took me over five months to get to this blog entry, but there is a lot worth taking in. She writes in her introduction:

“If we abide by the common definition of philosophy as the love of wisdom, and if Montaigne was right — he was — that philosophy is the art of learning to die, then living wisely is the art of learning how you will wish to have lived. A kind of resolution in reverse.”

I believe it’s all worth reading, but I really like the quote from philosopher, mathematician, historian, and Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell on broadening your life as it grows shorter:

“Make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal, until bit by bit the walls of the ego recede, and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life. An individual human existence should be like a river — small at first, narrowly contained within its banks, and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls. Gradually the river grows wider, the banks recede, the waters flow more quietly, and in the end, without any visible break, they become merged in the sea, and painlessly lose their individual being.”

Also really like this thought on kindness from Tolstoy:

“The kinder and the more thoughtful a person is, the more kindness he can find in other people. Kindness enriches our life; with kindness mysterious things become clear, difficult things become easy, and dull things become cheerful.”

Again, it’s all worth reading and pandering, but I will end with this quote from Roman Stoic Senaca before getting to my final point:

“There are more things … likely to frighten us than there are to crush us; we suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”

“Midlife Crisis” sounds terrifying, but I think it’s the word “crisis” that scares us. Two definitions of the word, however, can give one hope:

  1. The turning point for better or worse in an acute disease or fever.
  2. An emotionally significant event or radical change of status in a person’s life.

A crisis does not have to be bad.

The Dinner Parting

I haven’t spoken much about this the last two years, but I am pleased to announce that The Dinner Parting, a movie I produced and co-wrote with my longtime collaborator J.W. Andrew, will make its debut at the Cinequest Film Festival. It will start virtually April 1st, and there will be an event in-person this August. My production company, Arts & Cults, is now on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, if you would like to consider following.

“As the night wears on, stories turn ever more elaborate and the get-together goes way off its original three courses. The witty banter gets deliciously served up… in this black-and-white charmer of a throwback to films of yesteryear.” – Randy Myers, film critic for San Jose’s Mercury News.

The Bustle Booth

Since it’s my birthday and I haven’t really said hi in quite some time, I figured I would answer the same questions The Bustle plans to inflict on celebrities for eternity.

What’s your coffee order?
No.

What are the saved weather locations on your phone?
East Lansing, various other Michigan cities I frequent, the cities I have visited the most (New York, Chicago, San Francisco) and Austin, a city I wish I visited the most.

What’s your sign?
I know it’s Pisces, but I admittedly don’t really know what that is supposed to say about me.

Favorite overused movie quote?
“I once thought I had mono for an entire year, It turned out I was just really bored.”

What’s one movie or TV show you’re currently obsessed with?

A Brighter Summer Day. Saw it last July and still think about it often. A Taiwanese coming-of-age set in the late ‘50s that is as much a T.E. Hinton as the War and Peace one character compares their own life to. A slightly misinterpreted Elvis lyric gives this film its (American) title, a mistake by youngsters in the film attempting to translate and understand one of their many obsessions with U.S. culture. It’s such a beautiful, sad, claustrophobic movie.

I don’t watch too many shows, but my two favorites, which I believe are both ending soon, are back on. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is just as funny as always. Midge and Susie still kill and the B/C plots seem a lot better as of late (or I am less of a curmudgeon than I was during the lockdown when I watched the first three seasons. That’s very likely, too). And Better Things is still just the best.

Who is your celeb idol?
It was Anthony Bourdain, and probably still is.

If you had to be on a reality TV show, what would it be?
I have a secret desire to be a picker, so if it would catapult my career...

Go-to karaoke song?

I would love to belt out an old, melancholy classic, but as such I cannot and therefore do not belt anything. Do like karaoke, though.

What’s something that’s inspiring you lately?
I finally picked up Maus last summer, and I (finally) started reading after this bullshit. I love that said bullshit brought more attention to this book and finally pushed me into reading it. I love the telling of such an incredible story in a unique way. Makes me want to learn more about the Holocaust. I am not jewish but it makes me want to learn more about my grandparents, about my mother, my and my father. I want to read more books, read more comic books, write comic books, and just write in general.

Probably doesn’t get much more inspiring than that.

What is something you would want people to say about you?
That I always did my best.

Took a Statistical “Which Character” Personality Quiz

Apparently I am most like Lady Sybil Crawley from Downton Abby. I’ve never seen it, admittedly. Is this accurate? From a bio on a Wiki I found:

Sybil was described by Mrs. Hughes as “the sweetest spirit under this roof.” Sweet tempered, caring, and politically ambitious, Sybil was liked by everyone, despite her differences in beliefs and interests.

From shows I have seen, I am most similar to Tom Haverford, Stan Rizzo and Audrey Horne.

Also: Mercutio.

Status Update

Wrote this for Kottke.org, but thought I’d share here, too.

Jason,

It is Day 16 of Michigan’s “Stay Home, Stay Safe” initiative. As long as I am productive, I think I am fine. I take my temperature and vitamins every day. I mostly eat the same things: fruit and/or vegetable smoothies for lunch, chicken and vegetables for dinner. Thanks to something you mentioned long ago, I practice intermittent fasting. Low/no calorie powdered drink packets add variety to my water intake. I work on what I can from home, mostly early in the morning and in the evenings so I can take advantage of the sunlight.

Decided to no longer be a cis-white-American male with an unread copy of Infinite Jest on the shelf. To remain active during the day, I’ve also been listening to it via an Audible free trial. I go for a walk most days through a nature trail that (thankfully) starts on my block and bring the book with me. I listen to it on the way there and back, and when I am doing just about anything around the house. Now that the weather is nice that includes yard work.

I just finished a free trial of the Criterion Channel, which I signed up for mostly to watch out-of-print titles. Managed to squeeze in 21 films in 14 days.

I am worried about everything I should be, but for now I take it day to day and try and make the most of this time off. A part of me felt guilty for not deciding to master an instrument or conquer a new language, but I got over that pretty quickly.

Luke

Your Team

Cannot understate how proud I am of the cast and crew of The Dinner Parting. Like at work, like in life, I only want to surround myself with people better than myself. Always build the best team you can:

“One of the best pieces of advice I ever got, back when I was 23 and newly out of school, is this: look around and figure out who you want to be on your team. Figure out the people around you that you want to work with for the rest of your life. Figure out the people who are smart & awesome, who share your values, who get things done — and maybe most important, who you like to be with and who you want to help win. And treat them right, always. Look for ways to help, to work together, to learn. Because in 20 years you’ll all be in amazing places doing amazing things.”

Last Year…

…I made a consciousness decision not to post anything negative on social media. I understand the need to vent, but for me, it’s made a big difference on how I view things and how I feel in general. Would encourage you to consider it.

Life Update

Thank you to everybody that has reached out and asked how shooting has been going. If I’ve missed you, the answer is, hectic. Possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I sleep very little, and on the set’s couch because it forces me to get up and be ready bright and early every day. But also wonderful. I am so thankful and fortunate for everyone surrounding me. I’m convinced we are all making something we will be very proud of.

The Year in Review

2018 was one of the hardest, most challenging years of my life, and also one of the worst. 2019 might be one of hardest, most challenging years of my life, but also one of the best. East Lansing gave me an award for my contributions to the city. Someone deemed that newsworthy. Yesterday I was re-elected chair of the Local Development Finance Authority. And tomorrow I head to Detroit to film a movie with one of my oldest friends and a cast and crew I almost can’t believe we assembled. Life gets better. Or at least it can. Sometimes it gets worse. You have to accept what is out of your control, and work as hard as possible at what you can.

This is what a decade on Last.fm looks like.

Listened to 315,504 songs, spread over 10,147 artists, according to my (second) account.

The twenty I listened to the most: Belle & Sebastian, The Beatles, The Smiths, Pavement, Ramones, Why?, Broken Social Scene, Bob Dylan, The Microphones, Modest Mouse, Prince, The Blow, Radiohead, Devendra Banhart, Sonic Youth, Chet Baker, Talking Heads, The Kinks, Tom Waits and The Magnetic Fields.

If you were to ask if those were my favorite artists, I would say, “Close.”

The Last Time Tiger Won a Major

I had just returned from a long weekend in my hometown. My buddy Frush had picked me up on his way from Detroit. Our friend Annabelle came with.

We didn’t go for any other reason than to be young and dumb.

The trip was a success.

We crashed with our friend Rob. Annabelle was supposed to return home earlier than us but I convinced her to stay. I called and left a message with her boss. I lied and said her car and cellphone had been stolen in Grand Rapids and she would be back Monday.

That Sunday, Detroit seemed too far away so, when they dropped me off, they came inside and watched Tiger Woods play golf. He’d win the next day in a playoff round, but I didn’t watch.

That July, Frush and I returned to Holland. Our friend Sang and I really wanted Annabelle to be there. We called and called and called and left voicemails telling her we loved her and missed her and needed her to be there.

I don’t think she ever got those voicemails. She went to a pier with some friends and drowned that day. It was the 4th of July.

Yesterday, Tiger Woods won the Masters at Augusta, after what seemed to be a lifetime ago.

So I have been reading. A bit.

I was very slowly working my way through Jude the Obscure, but I put that down for the Beastie Boys Book. I am aware I am the only person in the history of civilization that will ever say that.

I’ve been missing Bob lately. I was hoping to see his name in the photo credits.

When I was maybe five or six, I inherited my stepbrother’s bedroom at my father’s. With it, a few things he left behind, including a Beastie Boys photo pulled from a magazine taped to the wall.

Years later, when Bob and Brian J. Bowe were working on the CREEM anthology for HarperCollins, they let me pick and transcribe a few pieces for the book. One was an interview with the Beasties by Chuck Eddy. Bob pulled the art for the article from photos he’d taken, including the one taped to my wall all those years before.