Senses working overtime #290

 1 Barack's interview about his new book

The whole world loves Barack Obama (give or take 70 million Trump supporters). 

2 Questions to ask yourself (from James Clear)

Some questions to consider before you speak:

Does this need to be said?

Does this need to be said by me?

Does this need to be said by me right now?

3 Seventeen articles that (almost) redeemed 2020

4 Trains Planes and Automobiles

The John Hughes movie reappraised (it centres or centers around Thanksgiving - that uniquely American holiday celebration)

5 Resilience

Emine Saner (great name) investigates for The Guardian.

Overtime: Sugar is evil

I've cut out a lot of sugar from my diet (no between meal sugary snacks, no alcohol and so on) and this is the good stuff that is happening to my body.

Senses working overtime #289

 1 Truth and lies

2 Truth and lies (continued)

The best rundown of Donald and Rudy's bat shit crazy, bizarro, smoke and mirrors, snake oil, world I've read.

3 Guiliani and Trump, a.k.a. The Moon Men

4 Willie Nelson understands

5 Anne Tyler

Clock Dance is my latest Anne Tyler novel. It's hard to pinpoint why she's so brilliant. The writing appears to be effortless!

Overtime: Peter Gabriel

After reading a Mojo feature, I've rediscovered his 4th solo album this week (a.k.a. Security). It's even more brilliant than I remember it being.

Senses working overtime #288

1 Drive - James Sallis

I'm reading this novel this week. I love the way the cover changes as editions are released.

It turns out, the cover of the edition I'm reading (above) isn't the most interesting one.

2 Music shows of the seventies by Austin Kleon

3 What makes a life worth living by Walt Whitman

4 Faking optimism is hard. But Then. It works!

5 The Thing Is - Ellen Bass

 

to love life, to love it even

when you have no stomach for it

and everything you’ve held dear

crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,

your throat filled with the silt of it.

When grief sits with you, its tropical heat

thickening the air, heavy as water

more fit for gills than lungs;

when grief weights you down like your own flesh

only more of it, an obesity of grief,

you think, How can a body withstand this?

Then you hold life like a face

between your palms, a plain face,

no charming smile, no violet eyes,

and you say, yes, I will take you

I will love you, again.

Overtime: Rick Wakeman - The Red Planet

Enjoying this one - the instrumental latest from prog giant - Rick Wakeman.

Senses working overtime #287

1 Starship Troopers

Sci-Fi covers for this week - love that Yes song - inspired by this Heinlein novel!

2 Ursula

"Hard times are coming, when we'll be wanting the voices of writers who can see alternatives to how we live now, can see through our fear-stricken society and its obsessive technologies to other ways of being, and even imagine real grounds for hope. We'll need writers who can remember freedom—poets, visionaries—realists of a larger reality." —Ursula K. Le Guin

3.1 RIP Diane di Prima

3.2 RIP Sean Connery

4 Jane Fonda's blog (is cool)

5 What if Trump refuses to concede to Biden?

Overtime: Black - Wonderful World

Had this clip running all week.