Intro
What kind of week has this been? Hmmm, I’d have to say it’s a pretty good one. One of the bugaboos of my life is insomnia, but this has been a solid sleep week. It makes so much difference.
Oh! Wednesday was our 22nd wedding anniversary. I feel amazingly lucky to have found someone so extraordinary. I couldn’t love her more if this was the lovingest day of my life and I was hooked up to an electrified loving machine. After dinner we visited a monthly block party not far from where we live: Heighted Senses.
Okra started fruiting this week. Only 3 pods so far, but in about a week we’ll start our summer tradition of okra-all-the-fucking-time. Fortunately I love okra in every possible form. The rest of the plants aren’t doing so well, but the Florida sun can be brutal.
And that’s about it. Here are some links. Hope you find something fun among them.
Art & Illustration
- Phaidon has some beautiful books coming out, including this one about the ocean.
- Chuck Wendig generates some creepy images with new AI art program Midjourney
- Reading poetry to whales. (The whale shows up at about the 2:09 mark.)
“In February 2017, the Stultifera Navis Institutom made a first expedition to the center of the Baja California peninsula with a specific purpose: to read poetry to the whales. The site chosen was the one where the largest recorded slaughter of this creature ever took place.”
Books & Reading
- The Cozy Mystery List Blog cozy mystery list for July 18 to July 24, 2022 by Danna
- Largehearted Boy regularly posts (daily? 3 times a week?) a list of new interviews, new releases (music and books) and recent ebook sales – Shorties
- Speculative Fiction Showcase Speculative Fiction Links of the Week for July 29, 2022
- Speculative Fiction Showcase Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for July 2022 by Cora Buhlert
Cartoons & Comics
- Bizarro by Wayno (and sometimes Dan Piraro)
- Incidental Comics by Grant Snider
- The Nib by various
- Questionable Content by Jeph Jacques
- Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle
- This Modern World by Tom Tomorrow – Doomed to Repeat It
- You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack by Tom Gauld
Currently Reading
- Infomocracy: Book One of the Centenal Cycle by Malka Older. I am not digging it.
Gardening
Horoscope
- Free Will Astrology – Week of July 28th, 2022: Your soul’s code is your sacred calling…the blueprint of your destiny
Movies
- Have you ever wanted to watch all the DC Animated Universe movies in order? Rottentomatoes has you covered.
News
I assume you already have your preferred news source(s). Here are sites I use to supplement my news diet.
- Wonkette – I love the cursing and share their love of Molly Ivins.
- Popular Information – independent investigative journalism.
- WikiNews – Wikipedia has a news page. It can be kind of hit or miss, but I always use it when I’m following a breaking news story.
Obituary
- Bill Russell (1934-1922)
- Nichelle Nichols (1932-2022)
- James Lovelock (1919-2022)
Politics
- There’s long been an undercurrent of monarchism in conservative (political) thought. (See Florence King for example (and Sideshow Bob).) George Michael explains ‘neoreaction’ in current GOP talking points.
Spirituality/Self Improvement
- A substantial amount of my self-talk goes to justifying myself. I want to stop this! Why We Feel the Need to Explain Ourselves and Justify Our Choice
- Robert Moss writes of a Taoist sage who practiced conscious dreaming (and invented Kung Fu!)
“Chen Tuan presided over a revival of Taoism, and is especially famous for his dream practice. He spent his later years in a cave at the Jade Clear Spring Monastery. Today it is a shrine with a statue of him in a classic pose of the dream adept known as Sleeping Tiger. He lies on his right side, with his right hand cupping his ear. His followers claimed he would lie in this position for days or even months while he traveled beyond space and time in his subtle body.”
TV
- This week I watched Harley Quinn (animated series), Only Murders in the Building, and Frighteners (1996).
Writing & Creativity
- Writing advice from Chuck Tingle compiled by Leah Schnelbach. If you don’t know who Chuck Tingle is, check out this Vox article from 2016.
- This is the bane of my creative life. My happiest creative times are when I can spend 3-4 hours on a project uninterrupted. Those blocks of time are rare. Olive Burkeman writes about the creatives that need those chunks of time for their art. The three-or-four-hours rule for getting creative work done.
- So much writing advice! This Week’s Top Writing Advice From Around the Web for July 25
Coda
If I were in LA, I’d be visiting the Everything But the Kitchen Sink-Group Show Exhibition: July 16 – August 28, 2022 at La Luz de Jesus Gallery.
Happy Anniversary!