Grumpy on the moon

This week: book recommendations, eye and ear candy, and more...

In this week's newsletter: moon landing grumps, book recommendations, ear and eye candy, and more.. View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Ah, late July. I look forward to the avalanche of out-of-office replies! For those souls still at your desks, here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  As much as I enjoyed the 50th anniversary celebrations, I also enjoyed reading about people in 1969 who were less-than-enthusiastic about the moon landing.   Michael DeForge's bizarre comic book, Leaving Richard's Valley, is archived and available to read on Instagram. (Here's an NPR feature on his work.) I wish I had the pleasure of reading it as it was being posted daily — parts of it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite strips, Achewood.   I'm in the middle of Carlo Collodi's Pinocchio (here's an excerpt), recommended by Nick Cave in his wonderful newsletter, The Red Hand Files. (He wrote more about Pinocchio here.)   The L.A. punk history Under The Big Black Sun is one of the rare books I'm listening to on audiobook, because it's read by all the various contributors. (I'm not a huge fan of most of the bands, but I really love X and the Minutemen.) I'm also watching Penelope Spheeris's documentary about the scene, The Decline of Western Civilization. (Several of her movies are available on the Criterion Channel.) Fun fact: Spheeris was 45 when she got the gig to direct Wayne's World. (She has few good things to say about Hollywood.)   Colson Whitehead's advice to writers: "Stay at home and work. Don't go out. It's not very sexy advice." (Check out his new novel, The Nickel Boys.)   Cleveland! I'll be speaking at the Cleveland Inkubator event downtown on Saturday. Hanif Abdurraqib is the keynote. Should be good. (Want me to speak at your event? Get in touch.)   David Berman is alive and living in Chicago. I really like his new record, Purple Mountains. ("A setback can be a setup / for a comeback if you don't let up!")   Ear candy: I found out a bunch of old episodes of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour are archived online. (Dig episode #32, about the moon.)    Movies: We've been vegging out on the couch at night and watching old favorites, like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Fast & Furious series.   RIP actor Rutger Hauer. (Guess I'll watch Blade Runner for the hundredth time.) RIP Tuca & Bertie. (For now.) Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to someone who'd like it or, even better, buy them a book! If you're seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here. xoxo,  Austin PS. At the time of this writing, Steal Like An Artist is $5 on Amazon. And Keep Going is now available in Spanish! Austin Kleon is the author of Steal Like An Artist and other books. Subscribe to this newsletter   Copyright © 2019 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 19885 Detroit Road Box #222 Rocky River, OH 44116 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.

A negative approach

In this week's newsletter: doing the opposite of what you hate, reading recommendations, and more... 

In this week's newsletter: doing the opposite of what you hate, reading recommendations, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Hope you're staying cool. If things get too rough, just take a few minutes and watch the bears. Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:  Sometimes it's easiest to do the opposite of what you hate and sometimes it's easier to get started when you make a list of what you won't do.   When I get stuck in reading ruts, I read music books. This week I read Prince: The Last Interview and Bobby Womack's wild autobiography, Midnight Mover. (Here's a short Spotify playlist of some of my favorite Womack songs.)   I also read Mira Jacob's comic, Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations. The book was a great example of the cartoonist Seth's equation that comics = poetry + graphic design. (Here's a good interview about the making of the book.)    Where are all the Bob Ross paintings?   I'm a huge fan of Amanda Petrusich's writing for The New Yorker. Week after week she's been publishing wonderful pieces. This week it was an interview with Wendell Berry.   How Picasso's muse became a master. (I gotta get a copy of Life With Picasso.)   Printmaking with my six-year-old. (We've also been having fun with these scratchboard mini notes.)   Eye candy: I dig Gordon Matta-Clark's "anarchitecture" and the pixel art backgrounds of @waneella_.   Ear candy: I'm enjoying the Roy Orbison meets Michael Stipe vibes of Orville Peck's Pony. Also: I took my six-year-old to see Carly Rae Jepsen this week and I'm happy to report that I no longer have to dance to her music alone.   Travel tip: Go to the local grocery store. (Also: Go to the public library. And maybe a state park!) Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to someone who'd like it or, even better, buy them a book! 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 © 2019 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 19885 Detroit Road Box #222 Rocky River, OH 44116 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.

Know your exits

In this week's newsletter: collage, journals, typewriters, travel, and more... 

In this week's newsletter: collage, journals, typewriters, travel, and more... View this email in your browser Hey y'all, Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: This week I tore through Tara Westover's memoir, Educated. The book is about many things, but one of them is the power of journals and diaries to help you cope with trauma and keep the facts of your life straight. (Westover has kept a journal since she was 10. "My journals supplied me with a level of detail I could never have had if I relied on memory alone," she says. "I recorded meals I'd eaten, conversations I'd overheard, work I'd done for my father in the junkyard or my mother tincturing herbs.")   The women who invented collage, a writeup of the Cut and Paste show I saw when I was in Edinburgh. (I bought the catalog and another catalog of the wonderful work of Eduardo Paolozzi.)   I saw Bill Callahan in Detroit this week with maybe the best band I've seen him play with. I was particularly taken with the upright bass of producer Brian Beattie, who has some nice writings on his site about playing the bass and recording secrets from Steve Albini. (Beattie is married to Austin artist Valerie Fowler — if you flip to the back of Keep Going you'll see the cardboard sign on their studio door.)   We stopped in Ann Arbor on the way to Detroit and came across a motherlode of pansies, which yielded a dozen more Pansy Luchadores!   One morning in the hotel room I thought I was hallucinating a Clint Eastwood soap opera. Turns out it was just the awful motion smoothing setting on the TV.   How artists have depicted the moon over time. (If you dig that, you might want to flip through the prints in One Hundred Aspects of the Moon and these images from Bernd Brunner's Moon: A Brief History.) Man, I really like looking at the moon...   Now streaming: free, full episodes of the first season of Soul! Holy moly, the guests: James Baldwin, Bill Withers, Al Green, Gladys Knight... it's a treasure trove. (Here's a history of the show.)   I finally saw the documentary California Typewriter. Super charming. (Currently streaming on Kanopy.)   RIP musician João Gilberto. (Ted Gioia wrote about what it was like to see him in concert.)   RIP actor Rip Torn. (He knew his exits. Here's hoping he smelled the Glenlivet on God's breath...) Thanks for reading. If you like this newsletter and want to support it, forward it to someone who'd like it or, even better, buy them a book! 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 © 2019 Austin Kleon, All rights reserved. My mailing address is: Austin Kleon 19885 Detroit Road Box #222 Rocky River, OH 44116 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.