Private Audience
This story from Olivia Nuzzi about her experience in the Oval Office is the very definition of cray-cray.
I just don’t know what to think.
A Hidden Source of Power
Leo Babauta, at his Zen Habits blog, writes about one’s state of mind and how controlling it is a hidden source of power.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you’re pining over a lover who has rejected you, and wishing you had those incredible moments back, where they made you feel happy, loved. But actually, the source of that love was inside of you, not outside of you. When you were with your ex-lover, they were there in the room with you, but the source of feeling loved was in your own mind, in your own heart. You made yourself feel that way, by how you perceived the situation.It reads like common sense, but the application of it is so difficult.That means that you have the power to make yourself feel loved. At any time. It’s always available to you. It depends on no one else.
You have the power to make yourself feel angry, or at peace. To feel hurt, or joyful. To feel connected, or disconnected. To feel accepted, or rejected.
That’s not to say that other people don’t do crappy things. But those crappy things don’t have to make us feel horrible — we can let them slide off of us, and decide how we want to feel. Sure, that’s easier said than done, but it’s still a power that resides within us.
Randy Rainbow
Dana Kennedy, writing for The Daily Beast, has a great story on internet sensation, Randy Rainbow. If you haven’t found his videos yet, please take some time and watch a couple. I like A Very Stable Genius and If You Ever Got Impeached.
The Value of Minimalism
Dan Pederson on Minimalism -
The less you own, the less you have to take care of.I get what he’s saying here which is basically be content with what you have because wanting less is a mental increase. He goes on to say the value of minimalism is removing the distractions from your life.The less you own, the less you have to replace.
The less you own, the less money you need to earn.
The less you own, the more time you have for other things (and people).
The less you own, the less things you need to protect.
Minimalism can simplify your life. There’s value in that.
The Very Definition of Overwhelm
Shawn Blanc writes about feeling overwhelmed.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, then perhaps you feel as though you have been given too much. In fact, you’ve been given so much that you’re to the point of feeling buried and drown beneath a huge mass of stuff — from urgent issues, undone tasks, incoming requests of your time and energy, and more. And as a result you feel overpowered and defeated.His idea to combat this feeling is to create a to-do matrix.
I’m not a fan of this, but I get it. He says it allows you to know exactly what you’re in charge of and so you can then prioritize accordingly. In my experience, even if you aren’t in charge of something or the “owner” you still have to do it. You still have to get it all done.
It doesn’t make the overwhelmed feeling disappear. It only organizes it into a game of responsibility four square. I don’t find this concept liberating at all.
A Life Less Ordinary
Cian Traynor in Huck Magazine has a fantastic profile on Chilly Gonzales. He’s a musician I found only a year or so ago and have been fascinated by ever since. For instance, I had no idea his real name was Jason Beck.
I really love his piano instrumentals. They make great background music when I want to write.
Cary Fukunaga to Direct Bond 25
Alex Ritman, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, on the future of James Bond.
Cary Fukunaga has been named director for the 25th installment of the 007 franchise, with Daniel Craig reprising his role — reportedly for the last time — as the iconic spy with the license to kill.
This works.
Loved his earlier stuff like True Detective.
Why Being an Asshole Can Be a Valuable Life Skill
Mark Manson is back with more insight into human behavior. He equates being an asshole to totally committing to being disliked.
Of course, his caveat is being an ethical asshole. I’m not sure that unicorn exists, but Manson makes an argument.
The Only Good Online Fandom Left is Dune
Sean T. Collins at The Outline explains the difference between Dune and the Extended Cinematic Universes of both television and film. There are no warring camps or whiney man babies upset that there’s a girl and a person of color leading many of these franchises. With Dune you just have nods and winks to lines and characters.
Dune references signal shared knowledge to those in the know, and that’s about it. Dune fandom is an un-fandom.
As soon as it becomes some sort of cash cow I think all bets are off.
All 131 Van Halen Songs Ranked
Chuck Klosterman is a writer I admire. I think his books are fantastic. Here he is doing a massive list post for Vulture and really knocking it out of the park. You may disagree with the ranking, but sometimes that’s the fun and the point of the whole thing.
The Echo Chamber
Isaac Butler at Slate has a decent examination of Crooked Media. Since the 2016 election, the media company, formed by the podcast hosts of Pod Save America, has become a progressive beacon.
Butler states that the actual news and political analysis is low. I agree, but it’s more a reflection of the time we are living in versus an actual point of view. His biggest insight is one sentence –
Pod Save America exists to do three things: confirm to the audience that they are not crazy and This Is Not Normal, rile the audience up with humor and outrage, and direct that energy toward concrete action items that will help elect Democrats and push back against the GOP’s agenda.
I hope it succeeds.
Apple and Foundation
Benjamin Frisch in Slate has one of the best opening paragraphs I’ve read in a long time.
Apple, a secretive organization staffed by technological visionaries able to predict the future of technology, has ordered a television series based on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation novels, an epic saga about … a secretive organization staffed by technological visionaries able to predict the future of technology. There is one major difference between the two: Apple is located on the edge of the continent, while Asimov’s tale takes place on the edge of the galaxy.
Since the Foundation series is one of my all-time favorites, I’m looking for to this.
The Glenn Brummer Story
Rick Hummel in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch relives the story of third-string catcher Glenn Brummer stealing home to pull off one of the most memorable plays in St. Louis Cardinals history.
It’s a hell of a read and it does make me smile when I remember it.
Is it Time to Kill James Bond?
Joshua Rivera writing for GQ makes an interesting argument.
Kill Bond. It’s never been done before, and it would be the perfect way to end the Craig era, which also bears the unique distinction of being a stretch of Bond films with actual continuity. Cross the line the Craig films have flirted with, the one that suggests Bond is an archaic destabilizing force that needs to be put down. It’s remarkable, the clarity that Casino Royale had on this from the very start of Craig’s tenure. It’s a story where Bond’s superior, M, regards him with utter disdain, and makes it plain that he’s an archaic brute she’d rather do without—the implication being that the two are forever intertwined, and that if Bond becomes inessential, so does the respectable facade she represents.
This… works. What comes after is wide open and could seriously move the franchise into the 21st century.
Some Regrets
Katrina Brooker of Vanity Fair profiled Tim-Berners Lee, the father of the internet. He’s been having some Oppenheimer-esque feelings about his creation, as summed up by Brooker herself:
The power of the Web wasn’t taken or stolen. We, collectively, by the billions, gave it away with every signed user agreement and intimate moment shared with technology. Facebook, Google, and Amazon now monopolize almost everything that happens online, from what we buy to the news we read to who we like. Along with a handful of powerful government agencies, they are able to monitor, manipulate, and spy in once unimaginable ways.
Sounds like he has a plan to fix all that.
The Art of Writing Short Emails
Frankie Rain on Medium lists a bunch of techniques to write shorter emails.
In short, writing short emails is a win-win. Now that you know how to do it, you can potentially save up to an hour a day dealing with your email inbox, while come out looking like a thought leader in the process.Everyone should read this and apply his ideas.
What Seven Dave Grohls Have to Say
Spencer Kornhaber in The Atlantic has a story about Dave Grohl’s new project―Play.
Dave Grohl walks into the studio. Dave Grohl walks in behind him. Then another Dave Grohl, and another. Seven dudes of identical stringy hair and varying tees: This is the committee to evangelize rock and roll, or so goes one implication of Dave Grohl’s mildly baffling new project “Play.”
I don’t quite understand the baffling part. He’s playing all the parts. He’s a one-man studio. That’s the bit with the multiple Grohls. It’s not a stunt. It’s “ah, I get that” funny and nothing else. Kornhaber tacks on more meaning than it’s worth and makes the whole piece read weird.
The Play project is set up to inspire the next generation of musicians. You have to applaud that bit of romanticism.