Weekly newsletter: Knitting at the end of the world

This week: hobbies in times of crisis, libraries, telescopes, and more... 

This week: hobbies in times of crisis, libraries, telescopes, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  How hobbies can help in tough times.   My adventures in library tourism continue: here's a report from my visit to the Chattanooga Public Library. Sometimes I feel silly about how much I evangelize for public libraries, but yesterday I was talking to a woman who hadn't been to our brand-new library here in Austin, and she asked, "Is it free?" (We have work to do!)   Don't despair, watch the bears.   What I saw on my first night with my new telescope. (Did you know NASA withheld high-res photos of the moon during the Cold War?) Also: Tomorrow is International Asteroid Day!   When you draw things, you're in control. Want to see something with fresh eyes? Turn it upside down.   The connection between memorization and creativity, Trent Reznor on boredom, Paul Schrader on stealing, and Jim O'Rourke on re-reading books and having too much gear.   I am a huge fan of Laura Dassow Walls' biography of Thoreau. Here she recommends five books related to Thoreau.   Ear candy: John Coltrane's lost album.   Eye candy: my wife and I loved Sofia Coppola's The Beguiled. (Here she is profiled by one of my favorite film critics.)   Reminder: "You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead." Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend, buy a book, or tweet me some love. If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. Steal Like An Artist t-shirts are back on sale! Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2018 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 4301 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B 150 #241 Austin, TX 78749 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Weekly newsletter: Notebook vs. washing machine

This week: notebook inspiration, books, eye and ear candy, and more...

This week: notebook inspiration, books I'm reading, ear and eye candy, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  Accidental art: my pocket notebook went through the washing machine.   Notebook inspiration: An artist goes through his grandfather's memory books, photographer Bill Cunningham's unseen scrapbooks, and a disgruntled federal employee's 1980s desk calendar.   A reminder at the end of a gross week: Beautiful things grow out of shit.   After reading Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, I started one of its influences: George Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London.   I took four plane flights this week and forgot the Orwell, but luckily I took along John Berger's last published book, Confabulations. It's a lovely, slim volume. Some of the essays can be sampled online, like "Impertinence" and "History is a meeting place." (If you don't know Berger's work, check out his classic, Ways of Seeing.)   A warning to my readers.   Ear candy: harpist Mary Lattimore. (I love her new album, Hundreds of Days.)   Eye candy: New episodes of Grand Designs are up on Netflix. (For those of you in the UK, you have tons.) Two houses I loved that made me want to move back to Ohio and build in the country: this converted cowshed and this playful house.   A portrait of the artist as a young father.   RIP Koko the gorilla. (Here she is meeting Fred Rogers.) Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter and want to support it, buy one of my books, forward this email to a friend, or tweet me some love. If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2018 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 4301 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B 150 #241 Austin, TX 78749 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Weekly newsletter: There is art left to be made in this world

This week: remembering Anthony Bourdain, tons of book recommendations, and more...

This week: remembering Anthony Bourdain, books to read, and more.... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:    By the time I found out about Anthony Bourdain's death, last week's newsletter had already been sent. This one hit particularly hard (why are the good ones leaving and the terrible ones staying?) because I was just getting into his work: I'd read last year's profile in the New Yorker, and Parts Unknown became my go-to show on Netflix for when I was in-between things to watch. I spent a lot of time with him this week: I read the 1999 New Yorker piece that made him famous, started Kitchen Confidential, which is great, listened to him on Fresh Air and WTF, and read a bunch of his interviews like this one, where he makes fun of fancy beer drinkers. He had a whole worldview that I could get down with, and he will be missed.    Two books that helped me understand depression.   I'm reading Horace's Epistles, and like so much ancient writing, they feel like one gigantic subtweet of our current moment. ("People are punished for whatever maddens their kings.")   Eleanor Davis wrote and drew two of my favorite books I've read this year — You & a Bike & a Road and Why Art? — and for $5 you can read the first chapter of her new one and support her work.   I'm impressed by the quality of the children's books published by Enchanted Lion. For a sampling, check out Blexbolex's Ballad and Vacation, Ohara Hale's Be Still, Life, and Kirsten Hall and Matt Forsythe's The Gold Leaf.   Ear candy: Gladys Knight and the Pips' "On and On" and Schumann's "Traumerei."   "The magic of a cardboard box," an excerpt from Alexandra Lange's new book, The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids. (Can't wait to read this.)   18 new music books to read this summer. (I really want to read Questlove's Creative Quest, Ryan Walsh's Astral Weeks, and Joe Gross's 33 1/3 Fugazi book.)   Corita Kent, the pop art nun. She features heavily in the new book I'm working on — she begins chapter five and chapter ten. If you like my books, you might like her book, Learning By Heart.   Chattanooga! I am headed your way next week to chat with the mayor. Come on out! Details here. Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend, buy a book, or tweet me some love. If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. Summer is a great time to start a journaling habit. Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2018 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 4301 W. William Cannon Dr. Suite B 150 #241 Austin, TX 78749 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.