1 / Action & Inaction

Thank you for checking in! Thank you for being a Friend!

I looked out for any signs that told me to write for myself again. Sometimes you need a shift in fate, real or imagined, to give you permission to follow an idea, to tell you, "Yeah, man, go ahead. Do your thing." I'm just as insecure as the next person; I need reassurances and reminders that I'm still held in favor, even by unseen divinities. So I noticed when an autumn breeze arrived early to sweep through the Midwest and break a heavy summer fever. And when I rolled the windows down to feel that September wind in my Honda Fit, a forgotten but favorite song thumped out its modest speakers.

I received my signs. So imma do my thing.

The Alchemist (the allegorical novel loved by motivational speakers, not the rap producer who delivered this Jadakiss classic, though both compositions will get you through difficult seasons) tells us this: "When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it." I wanted to unstick myself from this mire where I don't write, don't create, and don't acknowledge the guilt over these unmet calls to put thoughts to page.

This straightforward newsletter setup feels part of that conspiracy and those signs to write. I miss blogging, having a space that's just you and me, not an infinite scroll of competing voices. Here's a space. For a few minutes, we can turn away from the tumult. We can forget that our timelines and inboxes are corrupted by emoji-laden AI copy, monetized curation, monocultural taste, streams of unchecked villainy, and other shit inconducive to a healthy mental state. There can be relief.

For even after culling the negative vibes from your feed, it's hard to escape what Jia Tolentino describes as "the breathless having-just-finally-realized tone that dizzying numbers of [people] who narrate their lives on the internet have adopted. On social media, many of the most chaotic and emotionally lawless people you’ve ever known are posting on a regular basis about having at long last achieved inner peace. Many among us, after observing this cringe-inducing side effect of regular self-narration at mass scale, have given up altogether on sincere ideas of personal epiphany." Bars.

I won't pass off epiphanies or claim inner peace, a bit much to ask for from overlabored emails. When I tell you that I want to write again or that I miss blogging, I imagine the clichéd pleasure of nouns and verbs tumbling in my head until the right combination clicks. The vision here is to commit words to uncertain ends, as if typed directly into the CMS, which is the case with these sentences.

By overcoming a years-long inertia with this first go, I know I can do it again and produce a less clumsy piece next time. Maybe this comes to you as a sign to work on something you've put off. Or its clumsiness could annoy you to create something better, like "What was bro talking about "monocultural taste"?? I don't know, y'all, I don't know. I'm just trying to find words that describe the vibe.

A few dope things that have been on my mind:

1. andafterthat's DJ Screw t-shirt - If I must wear graphic t-shirts, let them be Edgar Gonzalez's bootleg merch. Paying tribute to DJ Screw, this tee blooms phillips heads in place of flowers in E.J. Sullivan's remarkable "A Skeleton Amid Roses", then pours purple over the illustration (best known for Grateful Dead's "Skull & Roses" cover). I am obliged to share with you this DJ Screw chop of fellow Texas legend UGK and Ohio's own Bone Thugs-N-Harmony.

2. Old Love Connection episodes - Alexis and I often end our evenings with clips from the late millennium dating show. There are just so. many. characters. Take Herb from Love Connection's Episode 7, pictured above with his exaggerated mutton chops and potential dates. Generative AI, too new to have catalogued men of this ilk, could never render an approximation of this side-whiskered figure.

3. Andaleeb Cartonera's handcrafted books about Palestine - I came across this volunteer press while visiting Madison, WI's independent, feminist bookstore A Room of One's Own -- I implore you to make your own pilgrimage to the shop. These pieces, inspired by Latin-American cartoneras, reproduce works "about Palestine, written by Palestinians and by supporters of the Palestinian cause," as books with ornate, recycled cardboard covers.

4. "Vamos a Andar" by Silvio Rodríguez - Please bask in this perfect song from Cuban folk icon Silvio Rodríguez. This is the soundtrack I imagined for the animated image at the top of this email, a guitar strummed with a lighthearted voice at the start of an adventure.

I appreciate you reading through my first newsletter. These are the rough introductions few enjoy chewing through, like the dry heels from a loaf of bread. If I can produce one missive a month, I will consider these efforts a success and myself un-mired. Reply and let me know what you think about this newsletter, or write in a question that I can share with other Friends here.

1 / action & inaction

Credits: The opening GIF, from the Super Famicom version of Mystery Dungeon 2: Shiren the Wanderer, comes by way of defunct Tumblr blog Scandinavian Air. And the song that pushed my 2015 subcombact's speakers was T.I.'s "What You Know".

Shout-outs to Jack for recommending A Room of One's Own when I visited Madison last June, and to Kenny for sending Jia Tolentino's article on the new Elizabeth Gilbert memoir even though neither of us has a New Yorker subscription.

✌🏽&✌🏽