notebook / @tww

Weather report, 21apr2021.

NEW: Elizabeth Joan Kelly joins me on Ep0003 of THE SOCIALIZED RECLUSE to discuss band name punctuation, the existential dread that Philip Glass’s music inspires, and doing the work. She also shares a track from her latest release, C.M.S.O., from Orca, Attack!

Fantastic to chat with Wallace Stroby this evening about his work and his latest, the must-read HEAVEN’S A LIE. Interview will go live next Weds, 28 April.

Accountability is a beautiful thing.

We learned how to go down the stairs today. Up, not so much. But down? We’ve got that covered.

Reading:

The peacetime of reading time.

Up to four inches of snow forecast for tonight. Springtime in Ohio has sprung.

Kirby has outgrown his first collar; tried Marley’s (RIP, buddy) collar, but it was too large, yet. Into land of medium we go.

Worked not on Book work but on prep for tonight’s TSR interview this morning and it bothers me, somewhat, that I’m able to deeply focus on the prep work but not on the novella. Think it’s because non-fic, or at least deadline-based non-fiction, is much easier for me than fiction and the mind, it likes the easy stuff in automatic mode. I prefer deliberate - where fiction and longer form writing resides - but the occasional break to automatic is nice. Should probably try to incorporate this balance a bit more. Rest days v. active days in a yoga practice, only applied to The Work.

April’s newsletter mostly drafted. Releasing Sunday.

Had to update TSR page link because I wrote the slug wrong and then recorded the wrong slug in Ep0003’s intro and outro. Re-recording this afternoon; good soundcheck for 0004’s interview tonight.

Feelings of being behind the times of the times but whatever; time’s always moving so to hell with it.

The next episode of my interview pod, The Socialized Recluse, featuring a conversation with friend, collaborator, and composer Elizabeth Joan Kelly, arrives on Wednesday, 21 April. You can find earlier episodes at the link above.

Fortunately, both Kirby and I are worn out so when I sit down to record the podcast intro and outro this afternoon, the somnambulant timbre of my voice will remain consistent from start to finish.

Very well, insanely busy week: let us begin.

Though the balance ball is in the midst of deflation, having been felled by puppy teeth, efforts to learn “leave it” continue; we have entered the realm of click-training / beware wayward clicks, left-handed v right: don’t quite have the click to-treat coordination down yet but I will, oh, I will.

The trick, as I understand it - both from long-ago experience and current re-learning - is to give the dog-child something more interesting than the current focus of their ire / attention / boredom. Must adjust my perspective accordingly: I don’t quite see the appeal of a plastic bone from a level one intellectual puppy puzzle but I’ll roll with it. Anticipate the puppy, anticipate.

Click.

(Trying out a middle ground: abandon SitRep titling, give a title, but keep with the Sit/Rep form, mostly. Basically taking the title from a word or combo or something. Experiments will continue; this is, after all my thoughtspace. The daily Informalities, they return.)

Sunday.

A puppy-tantrum last night; we are at that stage, it would seem. Responding well, though, to being ignored - as with cats, as with ideas (if Bradbury is to be believed which, I think, he is), so too, it would seem with German Shepherds.

Had considered reverting back to titled MicroInformalties, give myself a bit more focus time or something. Was starting to find this format limiting - but decided that I prefer the no-pressure way, design, of these. And, truthfully, I would rather use my more pressurized time to work less on the ephemeral and more on the lasting.

Eventually, though, these will become my primary status channel into the world, the time for a 280-break coming quickly.

Mower spark plugs and Sunday visits await. I’m more excited about the spark plugs.

The “I will make it through all of these before taking my last breath” stack.

New puzzle toy for Kirby just arrived and he’s already figured it out. The race to stay ahead of his intelligence continues…

First full night of sleep in 10 days. Not a peep from Kirby, the baby bear dog-child. Yay. More coffee.

Also: considering wisdom of using my dynamic mic or condenser for Tuesday’s interview. Have to see how the sound sounds in the final mix of last Monday’s interview to determine the sounding of the sound.

Jorkie and Baby Bear chase scene underway. Tails wagging, leaps and bounds etc etc. The day awaits.

What happened to the Salvator Mundi?, via The Economist.

How Some COVID-19 Vaccines Could Cause Rare Blood Clots, via Medscape.

The Prisoner Is Finally Getting A Toy Line, Kickstarter Launching Soon, via Bleeding Cool.

Experience Footage of Roaring 1920s Berlin, Restored & Colorized with Artificial Intelligence, via Open Culture.

The Future Imagined in Albert Robida’s La vie électrique (1890), via The Public Domain Review.

‘Castlevania’ To End With Season 4 As Netflix Eyes New Series In Same Universe, via Deadline.

Emptied my pockets of the forbidden treasures rescued from Kirby’s mouth: the quantity and variety are remarkable.

EarbBliss, 16apr2021: FIGURES IN OPEN AIR, by Sarah Davachi.

Reading: