18th book of the year: “SPQR”, by Mary Beard

Wanted to read some history after the last few things. Kept seeing Beard press over the years, saw she has a new book out and grabbed a used copy of her old stuff instead.

lotta “assassinated for tyranny after proposing social and/or land use reforms” Kermit-confused-face.bmp

lotta good stuff on how normal people lived

next up, the most recent Paul Auster, “4321”, cya in like a month or two probably

oh, one thing you’ve learned was against your will? must be nice!

asleep by 9:15, wake up at 4, mentally review damage taken (doh) and given (oops) yesterday, pad down to the kitchen at 5, turn the lights on as dim as they go, make coffee, start to read scrollback and accruing damage for the day

get annoyed by the ambient noise the fridge is making, use a smart-switch to power off the fridge, replace it with ambient noise somebody else made, cozy up by the speaker https://schwebung.bandcamp.com/album/radiance

kid up at 5:40, we’re watching spiderman and doing the moves :||

lol lmao that ‘judgement’ is correctly spelled ‘judgment’ in some uses and visa versa

c’mon

17th book of the year: “The Palm-Wine Drinkard” and “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” by Amos Tutuola ( https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/303496.The_Palm_Wine_Drinkard_My_Life_in_the_Bush_of_Ghosts)

The story I enjoyed in Black Water 2 was an excerpt from “The Palm-Wine Drinkard” (which is subtitled “and his dead Palm-Wine Tapster in the Deads’ Town)

I preferred the drinkard because more of the stories in it seem like little self-contained myths. And of course I’m glad to now have a connection back to the Byrne/Eno album that I love.

fake-warning “a man recommending a podcast"

I had intended to stop consuming “the left stays losing" stuff for a bit because it is so g d depressing but https://the-santiago-boys.com is really, really good

hashtags Allende EvgenyMorozov StaffordBeer ThePurposeOfASystemIsWhatItDoes Nixon CIA blah blah

very belatedly getting into Unknown Mortal Orchestra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-36lCKovBg

also, re-reading Bartleby (the original anti-makin’ copies guy) reminded me that 1) he has office mates named Turkey, Nippers, and Ginger Nut (tag yourself) and 2) “I would prefer not to” is only his first catch phrase, once he wore that out he pivoted to "I am not particular.” which is also delicious.

had mini-split air conditioning installed in our place last month, where i work from home, at great expense and wall-destruction, and now that it’s summer in the west bay I’m sitting in the cat bird seat

I think merchant associations should have a seat at the table sike!