Senses working overtime #156

1 Happy anniversary baby

The Light Of My Life and I got ourselves hitched at 4pm 21st April 1984. You can join us in the celebrations by enjoying this snap from 34 years ago (with my dad - Graham Purdy).

2 The Rock

He's a great guy is Dwayne Johnson. Hey, he's the rock! He's now saving the day in a new flick - Rampage. It could be terrible (San Andreas anyone?) or it could be great. Actually LOML and I saw it last weekend and it's great dumb fun!  

3 How to find new music you'll actually like

Lifehacker published this article and it's very comprehensive - exactly the guide you need to find new music of quality and distinction that you didn't know existed.

4 Poetry corner

Afterlife

There is no life after death. Why
              should there be. What on

earth would have us believe this.
              Heaven is not the American

highway, blackened chicken alfredo
              from Applebee’s nor the

clown sundae from Friendly’s. Our
              life, this is the afterdeath,

when we blink open, peeled and
              ready to ache. Years ago

my aunt banged on the steering, she
              insisted there had to be a

God, a heaven. We were on our
              way to a wedding. I would

have to sit at the same table as the
              man who saw no heaven

in me. Today I am thinking about
              Mozart, of all people, who

died at 35 mysteriously, perhaps of
              strep. What a strange cloth

it is to live. But that we came from
              death and return to it, made

different by form, shaped again back
              into anti–, anti–. On my run,

I think of Jack Gilbert, who said we
              must insist while there is still

time, but insist toward what. Why we
              must fill the void with light—

isn’t that our human insistence? But
              we drift into a distance of

distance until proximity fails, our
              name lifts away with any

future concerns, the past a flattened
              coin that cannot spin. I am

matter spun from death’s wool—and
              I bewilder the itch, I who am

I am just so happy to go.

Natalie Eilbert (2017)


5 Forests and books

Continuing the literary connection - Austin Kleon's newsletter alerted me to this excellent essay by Rebecca Solnit considering a childhood of reading and wandering.

Overtime: Disneyflix

Like almost everyone on the planet where Disney had a presence, I grew up with the movies and TV show (Uncle Walt). Excellent overview of the media giant's current standing.