This Week
It’s been a relatively busy week for me, so nothing exceptional to share today. Let’s get to the stuff.
Links
“There’s precious little land in the United States that hasn’t been contested, one way or another, through the years. Americans live on haunted land because we have no other choice.” The suburban horror of the “Indian burial ground.”
“Ellis wrote a book about his pain and how it could only be assuaged by punishing women for being dumb bitches, and Harron, the director assigned to do this little manifesto justice, essentially rolled her eyes and made jerk-off motions at it for two hours.” Sady Doyle on how Mary Harron made American Psycho transcend its source material.
“It’s a reminder of a time when we weren’t surrounded by the internet, and instead had to invite it in—and that rush of anticipation when you could hear it coming.” All about the sound of a dial-up modem.
From the VHS nostalgia files: the most valuable VHS tapes on eBay.
The Roman Empire’s roads in transit map form.
Why cemeteries are a surprising source of life.
Artist Felice House’s paintings of women as Western film icons.
A heartfelt farewell to actor Robert Forster. Like many others, I watched his (great) performance in El Camino the same day that he died. He will be missed.
The Chicago Transit Authority released 4k videos of all their train routes, which I, as a transit nerd, am into. Here’s the full journey south to north of my home line.
Reading/Watching/Listening
I watched El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (Netflix). Here’s a bit about my feelings about the Breaking Bad series: I always disliked Walter White. This didn’t impact my enjoyment of the show much (you can like shows without liking characters just fine), but it did mean that the whole of my empathy went to Jesse. So I liked having a Jesse-centric coda that ends on a less ambiguously positive note.
I’m also watching a steady stream of old, weird horror movies on Amazon Prime. Quality varies, but sometimes you get a gem and even when you don’t it’s mostly a good time. I’ll probably list out some of my favorites in the near future, but if you want to play along at home, my Letterboxd is up-to-date.
I’m reading Patti Smith’s Year of the Monkey. It’s, predictably, exquisite.
Around
Hey, I found a stash of tech-related stickers that I used to sell: HTML “strong” tag stickers and stickers from my Code and Cupcakes workshop. If you’d like to grab one or more, I cleaned up my online store and put those stickers back on sale: jenmyers.bigcartel.com
Next week I’ll be publishing the monthly essay for paid subscribers. This one is about my ongoing journey discovering my love for horror movies. You can sign up to get it with this nifty little button here.
Have some extra Patti.
Rock on.
Love,
Jen
Connections
Substack archive: https://jenmyers.substack.com/archive
TinyLetter archive: http://tinyletter.com/jenmyers/archive
Essay archive: http://modernadventuress.com/
Website: http://jenmyers.net
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jenmyers
Email: hello@jenmyers.net
Post: P.O. Box 13114 Chicago, IL 60613
This week’s quote is from Orson Welles.