16 August 2019
“August rain: the best of the summer gone, and the new fall not yet born. The odd uneven time.”
This Week
This past week marked five years since I sent out my first weekly newsletter. I’m not surprised I’ve been writing it for so long, since, as I pointed out in last week’s edition, it’s really just a continuation of the essays and weekly link roundup posts I used to compile for my website, which I did for many years. And before I had a website, before anyone read what I wrote at all, I was making my own magazines. I put them together digitally WordPerfect on my Windows 3.2 machine and, before that, I wrote the pieces out and arranged them with paper and glue. I’ve been writing and packaging what I wrote, collecting ideas and sharing thoughts, for about thirty years now. All that has changed is the format. And the fact that sometimes now people read it. At least, I think you do. It’s okay if you don’t. But it’s nice if you do.
At the heart of all this is a simple thing I’ve always believed in: articulating your perspective on the world and paying attention to the articulated perspectives of others is what lends meaning to moving through the world. All that holds us in place is a web of stories. We’re constantly making them and remaking them and editing them and expanding on them, and the larger and richer we can make them, the more people we can hold together.
So learn as much as you can and make small connections between yourself and the world. Even one sent and read email is a connecting thread, a straight line from where we were to where we might be going.
Thank you for coming along.
Links
The legacy of colonialism on public lands created the Mauna Kea conflict.
I’ve mentioned articles and films about the stray cats of Istanbul before, but it always deserves another mention. So here’s a bunch of photos of stray cats in Istanbul.
This oral history of 1999’s The Mummy is delightful.
Khan Academy partnered with Disney to release a free course in Imagineering.
A loving look back at the Baby-Sitters Club.
How Peanuts created a space for thinking.
Reading/Watching/Listening
I’ve pivoted to television lately. Top of the list is season three of GLOW, which hit Netflix last weekend. I’m a fan of this series and while this season isn’t as neatly contained as the last two, it’s entirely deliberate decision. Instead, this cycle focuses on the messy complexity of success and getting what you think you want, especially as a woman.
I’ve been wanting to check out the series Claws for a while now and I just found out the first two seasons are on Hulu. I’m not completely done with the first season, but I’m already a big fan. It’s a somewhat offbeat Floridian neo-noir-ish drama (comedy?) about a group of women who run/work at a nail salon, which is also a money laundering operation, which naturally involves them in dicey situations. Niecy Nash is straight fire and I love that the show’s indestructible core is the friendships between women. It’s also just kind of weird sometimes, something I always appreciate.
It’s, at long last, new Hold Steady album time. While they’re one of my favorite bands (I mean, I’m a writery person from the Midwest, of course I love the Hold Steady), the past couple of albums haven’t resonated strongly with me. This one, Thrashing Thru the Passion, is feeling better.
Around
Last week I published a rundown of the books I read over the past three months. If you’re into that sort of thing.
Also just a reminded that I regularly update my yearly media log if you’re interested in the full list of everything I’m reading, watching, listening to, attending, etc. I even put together a bit of guide on keeping a media log complete with my own HTML list template if you want to play along at home.
Hey, take a minute to celebrate what you’ve done and how far you’ve come. It’s not nothing. Do a dance, wear something fancy, have a treat. Whatever you want. You earned it.
Love,
Jen
Connections
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Email: hello@jenmyers.net
Post: P.O. Box 13114 Chicago, IL 60613
This week’s quote is from Sylvia Plath.