A very simple rule

In this week's newsletter: avoiding despair, reading with a pencil, and more...

In this week's newsletter: a simple rule for avoiding despair, reading with a pencil, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  I have a very simple rule that serves me well: Don't think about your life after dinnertime.   I finished Harvey Pekar's Cleveland, now I'm reading Cynthia Carr's Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, which is pretty horrifying so far, as he had a terrible childhood. (I became interested in his work after reading about him in The Lonely City and recently saw his retrospective at the Whitney.) I'm also dipping in and out of Tamara Shopsin's Mumbai New York Scranton. (Arbitrary Stupid Goal was one of my very favorite books I read last year.)    The first step to becoming a writer is becoming a reader, and the next step is reading with a pencil.   Photographer Clayton Cubitt on what it was like to take photos 13 years ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. See more in his (nsfw) Instagram stories.   Travel as a political act.   Alexandra Lange, author of The Design of Childhood, on free range kids and how design has shaped kids and kids have shaped design.   The NYPL is posting classic stories on Instagram.   Eye candy: I'm catching up on season 3 of Better Call Saul and it's just great.   Ear candy: Did you know that composer Franz Liszt transcribed all nine of Beethoven's symphonies for solo piano? (Here's Glenn Gould's recording of the Pastoral.)   A dude online told me I was "unread" and a poet I like is "irrelevant" and I kind of wish I could give people like him a hug. Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend, tweet me some love, or best of all, buy a book! If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. It's still seven months from being in bookstores, but here's a first look at the new one: 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 You're getting this email because you signed up for it at austinkleon.com. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Amazon Affiliate links offset the cost of sending these missives. (And pay for diapers.)

Creative is not a noun

In this week's newsletter: a new talk, what I'm reading, going back to school, and more... 

In this week's newsletter: a new talk, what I'm reading, going back to school, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  I delivered a keynote called "Creative is not a Noun" during the Scratch Conference at the MIT Media Lab, and it was one of my favorite talks ever. Video here.   Last Friday I stayed up all night reading Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist. His novels are true page-turners for me — I like How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia best, followed by his latest, Exit West. (I haven't read Moth Smoke or his essay collection yet.)   I started Rachel Cusk's Outline, the first in her trilogy, and I'm not completely sure what the book is up to, but the sentences are really good, so I'm gonna stick with it. I'm also reading Harvey Pekar's Cleveland, which has excellent drawings by Joseph Remnant, and a new edition of a book which greatly influenced teenage me, Lies My Teacher Told Me.       Whether you're headed back to school or not, get yourself some school supplies and school yourself. (Yo-Yo Ma: "It's actually not painful to learn something, if you do it incrementally.")   Feeling a little depressed about the end of summer? So did Thoreau. (The bears are still fishing and stealing peaches.)   Last week I wrote down some thoughts about self-help, and this week I wrote about self-help as an oxymoron.   Eye candy for library lovers: a book of the world's most beautiful libraries and Time's World's Greatest Places list, which includes Austin's new central library. (Tip: check to see if your library card gets you access to the Kanopy video streaming service. We used it to watch Indiscreet this week and it worked without a hitch.)    Ear candy for punk rockers: Henry Rollins' all-punk edition of his radio show.    Listening for silence with the headphones off. (If you like that piece, check out Damon Krukowski's podcast, Ways of Hearing, and his book, The New Analog.) See also: Silence as a space for something new to happen.   "You will see this story over and over again. People love it and it is not copyrighted. The story is 'Man in Hole.'" Thanks for reading! If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend, tweet me some love, or best of all, buy a book! If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. If any of you live in Evanston or northern Chicago, my family's taking a trip there over Labor Day weekend — would love to hear your favorite spots!  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 You're getting this email because you signed up for it at austinkleon.com. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Amazon Affiliate links offset the cost of sending these missives. (And pay for diapers.)

The Summer Muse

In this week's newsletter: notes on self-help, a poetic memoir, the art of lying down, and more...

In this week's newsletter: notes on self-help, a poetic memoir, the art of lying down, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  I wrote down some thoughts about self-help.   I finished Patricia Lockwood's memoir, Priestdaddy. Just a tad too long for me, but very good. (I love reading memoirs by poets because the sentences sparkle. See, for example, Mary Karr's Lit.) Here's a good 2014 profile of Lockwood before Priestdaddy came out, and her interview on the Longform podcast has some nuggets about her process.   Reading Lockwood's profile led me to this piece on great literary husbands, including Leonard Woolf, who gets the last story in my new book.   Lockwood writes in bed, which got me thinking I need to read The Art of Lying Down. Here's an amazing video of Marvin Gaye rehearsing "I Want You" while lying down on a couch. (Soul great Leon Ware's recollection of recording the album is well worth a read.)   Back to school season is here, so I wrote a little something about school and the seasons. (Whether you're in school or not, you're never too old for some school supplies!)   As you probably know, I've written a lot about how and why I keep a diary — now my 5-year-old is keeping one!   Ear candy: Annoyed by restaurant playlists, a master musician made his own. (Listen on Spotify.)   If you're unfortunate enough to be an Austin resident in the sweltering undead armpit month of August: the Ed Ruscha exhibit at the Ransom Center is quite good, and cartoonist Lucy Bellwood will be at Bookpeople this coming Monday.   I got so hot and depressed last Monday, I knocked off to the Alamo Drafthouse to see the wild leftist comedy, Sorry To Bother You. Here's how director Boots Riley infiltrated Hollywood. (I was unaware that McSweeney's actually published the screenplay in 2014.) For a movie that's such a sendup of capitalism, check out this sweet merch shop!   RIP Aretha Franklin. Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to a friend, tweet me some love, or best of all, buy a book! If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. This week I got the first pass of Keep Going, and I dare say it's pretty danged good!  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 You're getting this email because you signed up for it at austinkleon.com. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. Amazon Affiliate links offset the cost of sending these missives. (And pay for diapers.)