Things I Learned Week

Sun Dogs, Maggie Rogers, Hamlet, Chilaquiles and more

I slept the sleep of death last night. It started on the couch by 7 pm; at some point, I transferred almost uninterrupted into the bed, and it didn’t end even for a pee break until 5:30 am this morning. Man, oh man, did I need that. Election day is a little over a week away, Thanksgiving is a month, and before you know it, Winter is coming. Here’s some stuff I learned and coveted this week:

• Have you voted yet? While I was stressing about my totally-over-it-now C, 32,678,726 Americans (and counting) were voting. You have a week to vote early. Get it out of the way and start worrying about more important things. Like November 6.  

• Ishiguro, you bastard! On novel six and he’s mixing it up again with Never Let Me Go. You never know what to expect with this guy. I’ve decided this is my new favorite way to read a single author. Just binge all their books. Send me some recs for the holidays when I will be able to read for fun a bit. Who is someone I should read everything by? Taking recs.

• This drawing class is the first time I’ve ever really drawn in charcoal and graphite. I’m way out of my comfort zone and loving it. My professor mentioned William Kentridge this week, and now I’m obsessed. He has a unique process of repeatedly erasing and reworking charcoal drawings to create stop-motion animated films. It is fascinating to imagine making a ten-minute movie just by changing an individual image over and over again.

• A number of years ago, a video went viral of then NYU Clive Davis School of Music student Maggie Rogers doing a masterclass with Pharrell Williams, who was given feedback on her thesis song Alaska. I remember being impressed with the young woman’s talent then, as was everyone else on the internet, and within a year of graduation, she was a recording star. I recently heard her on Song Explorer talking about how that song came together, and I might be a fan now. The show talks to a lot of mainstream radio artists but occasionally goes slightly underground, like one of my son’s favorites, Danny Brown. Listen to Maggie talking and listen to the song if you haven’t heard it recently.

• Getting psyched to get back into advanced photography next semester, I’ve been reading up on photographers I’m not yet familiar with, including Gordon Parks. Though most have seen some of his work before, what I didn’t know was that he was a lifelong humanitarian with a deep commitment to social justice. Powerful stuff. His work documents race relations, poverty, civil rights, and urban life in America between the 1940s and the 2000s. You can view his archives here.

• Saw a sun dog at sunrise on the way to Port Aransas for my Oceanography field trip, then saw one on the way home at sunset. I’ve never noticed one before, but spiritually seeing one is a symbol of hope and a sign from the universe that you’re on the right path. Two must have double rainbow mojo. I’ll take it.

• Starting Hamlet next week. Haven’t read it since high school. Haven’t seen it since I saw Ralph Fiennes play the lead role in London in 1995. Also in that production was Nicholas Rowe, who started in the movie Young Sherlock Holmes when I was little. I was obsessed with it. So much so that I kinda stalked him when they took the show to Broadway a year later. I followed him to the theater one night, telling him I had seen the movie in the theater three times (oh, you Americans and your movies). Then, I wrote him a letter and left it at the stage door. Don’t judge me.

• The Alison Roman Shortcut Chilaquiles recipe is one of my all-time favorite breakfast recipes on the Times, but did you also know you can make them for dinner? We did this week and it was excellent. Try it.

• Seriously. Have you voted yet? Get up and do it right now!

Quote of the week?

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.” — Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five

‘Til Tuesday kids.

Burgin

(I’m finishing college at 50+, follow along and read my story here.)