00016 · Degenerate Days
That day was one long monochrome moment. Sunrise to sunset: fire, ocean, sky, surf, sand. Coffee, beer, and chocolate covered peanuts were our monastic sustenance. I have never paid more attention to the nuances of one view in my life. That frame of view seared into deep memory: a visio divina.
00015 · Tokyo Ueno Station
There are two ways into the book, Tokyo Ueno Station. One way is to read it straight through from the beginning, as most books are intended, and get lost in the hallucinatory tale of Kazu, a homeless man in Ueno Park.
The second way is to start with the author’s afterword at the end of the book (as well as the translator’s note if you’re reading the English translation). For some grounding, I’d recommend the the afterword, as Japanese culture is disorienting enough.
00014 · The Knife of Allakariallak
“So as to cut more easily, Nanook licks his walrus ivory knife, which instantly is glazed with ice,” reads an intertitle in the 1922 silent film Nanook of the North. In an unforgettable scene, an Inuk man—actually named Allakariallak, but simplified to Nanook for the film —quickly builds an igloo using just his knife and generations of Inuk wisdom.
00013 · Extra Bold
Extra Bold lays it all out. Billing itself as “a feminist inclusive anti-racist nonbinary field guide for graphic designers,” it’s a mix of theory and practicality, of introductions and deep dives, of essays and graphics, of humor and seriousness, of industry norms and outsider thinking. It’s a diverse delight.
00012 · West Fork of the Upper Des Moines River
When my dad was around 19 years old, he wrote a story about the Des Moines River flowing through our hometown of Windom, Minnesota.
The story was from the point of view of the river, describing the land turn from wild to farm to city and back to wild again. The river shared its observations on the comings and goings of the people in the town and country, as the water and story progressed through their lives.
00011 · Car Thief
The Beastie Boys’ second album, Paul’s Boutique, was a fireworks revelation of hip-hop. For me, the album was a Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band experience, a new level of music production that threw out all the rules.
The song Car Thief holds a special place in my heart.
00010 · Lunar naming conventions
I’m in wonder about how the start and finish of our time cycles are blended into the same moment, and how our little human minds struggle to understand this.
00009 · Os Sertões
00008 · The Granny Shot
When Rick Barry retired in 1980, he was the best free throw shooter in the game. Since then, he’s slipped to the fourth greatest in NBA history. What was his secret weapon to make a remarkable 9 out of 10 free throws? The underhand free throw: the granny shot.
00007 · Adiaphora
There is an idea from Lutheran theology about the things that don’t matter— adiaphora—which is Greek for “indifferent things.” I think about this phrase a lot, and use it to filter whether I should give a damn or not about the things that everyone else is all frothed up over.
Technically, adiaphora are all the matters that aren’t essential to faith, and are therefore neither good nor bad. This opens up most beliefs and practices to the realm of adiaphora. Let folks do this or don’t do that, think about that idea or be ignorant, say their peace or be silent. It don’t matter.
00006 · Caslon
The Caslon typeface, which you’re reading right now, has been my favorite typeface for thirty years. It’s ride or die with me and Caslon.
00005 · My orange bmx dirtbike
That bike made the entire world my playground, safe enough to explore, and full of treasures in the most mundane of places. It gave me a set of exploration maxims I honor and refine to this day: the art of going incrementally further and more dangerous; that it’s better to get out the door than stay inside when life sucks; riding solo is just as fun as with the crew. That bike gave truth to the cliché that it’s all about the journey and not the destination.
00004 · Havasupai Falls Plunge Pool
A poem about a strange center.
00003 · Sasquatch Chronicles, Episode 761
I chose Sasquatch Chronicles episode 761 as a good introduction of what the podcast has to offer. Wes, the host, interviews a hunter from Mississippi who—while hunting deer from a tree-stand along the clear-cut of a power line—has a run-in with a creature he at first thinks is a bear, until he lifts his rifle scope and zooms in. Bigfoot!
00002 · The Great Commandment
The Bible is so fricking complicated and contradictory it drives me crazy. I am constantly aware of how I and others cherry-pick verses that suit their needs.
We lift up verses and themes that bolster our current personal and institutional survival situation. We ignore obvious calls to change. We weaponize spiritual writings as tools of shame and power.
So grant me a bit of hypocrisy as I cherry pick a Bible verse.
“He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” — Matthew 22:37-40 (NRSVUE)
00001 · Electrolytes
Our bodies are meant to contain the same saline and rich liquids as the seas from which we came. Our brains need salty synapses for maximum electric efficiency to fully comprehend this short life we get to live.
Why are they called electrolytes? Because they carry an electric charge! Without those minerals, you’re simply less sparky. Your muscles and brain are running cranky, like an engine low on oil.
00000 · Ten Thousand Things
And here we go! Today’s the longest day of the year in 2024, and tomorrow is the full moon. Seems like an auspicious time to launch a giant and crazy project that may or may not be completed, either because I get lazy or incapacitated or dead.
What is this project, this Ten Thousand Things? I’d like to write about or make content about one thing a day, until I have thought about ten thousand things. At the rate of one thing a day, I’ll finish this project on November 6, 2051. I’ll be 83 years, 4 months, and 6 days old. I can’t imagine that future, and that’s exciting.