OMM (On My Mind) – October 2023 – #3
~ findings & research ~
::: The Open :::
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It’s been a rough week on both the personal, national, and international front.
On the plus side, I’ve had plenty of time to take deep dives into fascinating articles and conversations/interviews.
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::: Podcasts :::
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Recent episodes of The Poetry Space_ with Katie Dozier & Timothy Green
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There’s a bunch of episodes I am eager to catch up on… including from such podcasts as:
On Being with Krista Tippett, Hidden Brain, TED Radio Hour, Commonplace: Conversations with Poets (and other people), NPR’s 1A, Intelligence Squared, We Can Do Hard Things with Glennon Doyle, Work Appropriate, Baggage Check, Civics 101, Fresh Air, It’s Been a Minute,
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::: Music :::
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Music streaming, Bandcamp, Artists not getting properly compensated. Signs of the times.
Info about how music industry revenues have transformed by format over the last 50 years via Visual Capitalist and an article published in New York Magazine (behind a paywall) to learn more about the sad loss of Bandcamp.
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Been increasingly into Omar Apollo. Listed to the ‘Live For Me’ EP on repeat a fair amount.
Enjoying a good deal of Arlo Parks and Clairo.
Spent some time in the Americana/Country Roots world listening to the great Patty Griffin (check out ‘Mother of God’ and ‘Top of the World’ – heartbreakingly beautiful).
Squirrel Flower has a fun cover of Caroline Polachek’s ‘So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings’.
If you want an “experience”, check out blink-182’s ‘ONE MORE TIME’ in which the band reveals, yes, in fact, they did grow up…well, sorta…
There’s a killer remaster of R.E.M.’s ‘Strange Currencies’ (blue album cover) titled ‘Strange Currencies – Remix’. Don’t know how I’m only learning about this now. Listening to ‘Murmur’ last night (released in 1983) it felt staggering to think that this music was released 40 years ago (!!). This tracks well with Chuck Klosterman’s theories posited in his book ‘The Nineties’ about how our culture has stopped evolving in a linear fashion since the 90s. Music that came out decades ago sounds like it could have been released today. This was definitely not always the case. Same goes for artwork in other mediums.
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::: The Natural World :::
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‘Dogs Need Friends, Too: How Socializing Can Positively Affect Your Pup’s Health’
Dogs need friends. Dog friends. (Nice News)
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::: The Arts & The Literary World:::
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Erika Dreifus shares an important stance about Jewish writers being afraid to share their opinions as the crisis in Israel, Gaza, and the Middle East continues to unfold.
I think it’s important to say that this isn’t about “taking sides”—it’s about being able to speak from your personal position without fear of cancel culture, take downs, personal attacks, or hate speech. The scales of justice continue to be nebulous when it comes to who is allowed to have freedom of speech in this country.
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Seth Godin offers very good writing advice in a talk that is under 5-minutes. (Seth Godin’s blog)
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Some writing advice from the Zillennial perspective (ages between Gen Z and Millennials)
The importance of not only a good quality and beautiful book cover, but also a noteworthy and “findable” book spine. (Seth Godin’s blog)
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A worthwhile and thought-provoking essay by Gabriel Jandali Appel in The Drift on Bret Easton Ellis’ ‘The Shards’ (The Drift)
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::: Virtual Workshops :::
24 Pearl Street (all genres)
Lambda Literary: Learn with Lambda
Check: Heavy Father Review’s ‘Where to Sumit’ for regular updates
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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Democracy in jeopardy
“According to the Economist, the United States now ranks not among the world’s “full democracies” (such as Canada, Japan, and most of Western Europe) but among the “flawed democracies” (such as Greece, Israel, Poland, and Brazil).” (Brookings)
Source Note: The Brookings Institute think tank is generally considered fair-minded, unbiased, and level-headed. With that being said, a quick search will reveal that, in our modern world of misinformation (or simply conflicting information), some sources will suggest Brookings leans slightly in one direction (politically-speaking).
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Deeply troubling
‘Media Confidence in U.S. Matches 2016 Record Low’ (Gallup)
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‘Jerusalem Catholic Patriarch offers to be exchanged for Gaza hostages’ (Reuters)
This feels like an instance of bravery in a terrible situation. Even if there is some sort of agenda, the idea of interfaith coming together in this situation would be positive and good.
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‘New pill helps COVID smell and taste loss fade quickly’ (Nature)
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Pfizer’s life-saving Paxlovid medication priced at $1,390. (Reuters)
Will the new Martin Shkreli please stand up.
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Young people are struggling—around the globe. (Gallup)
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Too much free time or not enough? (APA)
Scott Melker breaks it down in his newsletter:
“Essentially, the study discovered that a healthy range of free time exists somewhere between 2 and 5 hours a day. Well-being tends to decrease with free time up to about 2 hours per day and also beyond 5 hours of free time a day. Is this an absolute truth for everyone? Certainly not. However, intuitively, these findings seem to make sense and appear to align with the experiences of the majority of people.”
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The French are up in arms.
“Late last month, under pressure from the health ministry, the salt content in the city’s baguettes was cut from 1.5g per 100g of bread to 1.4g. It seems that the morning baguette currently accounts for 18% of the average French adult’s salt intake of 7.7g a day, which is somewhat distant from the World Health Organization’s recommended 5g, and so – zut, alors! – things had to change. Needless to say, some people are unhappy about this. Bakers, who have already cut the salt content of their baguettes (by 20% since 2015), believe the taste of the bread may suffer, and so do some customers. The word “insipid” has been uttered.” (Guardian)
How is the French diet healthy again?
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People dedicate their time to creating “interesting” things…
‘New 'Pepper X' hotter than law enforcement-grade pepper spray hits the market’ (NBC News)
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‘The 40 coolest neighbourhoods in the world’ (TimeOut)
Perhaps one day I’ll get to check out one of these places and report back. In fairness, I have been to Coral Gables a number of times when I was a child/teenager visiting my grandmother in Florida… I don’t recall anything special. But what do kids know, right?
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The “misfired rocket” turned hospital bombing is now believed (according to some sources) to be have been by “a militant group in Gaza known as Palestinian Islamic Jihad”. I was unfamiliar with this particular group until now.
It’s amazing and horrible how a small group of people who band together can either achieve great things or commit horrible acts.
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‘The mother of tattoo artist Shani Louk who was paraded semi-naked on a Hamas truck makes a public plea for more information’ (Insider)
It can be useful to follow stories about individuals in a situation that otherwise feels nearly impossible to comprehend. One of the stories I’ve been following in the Gaza conflict is about tattoo artist Shani Louk. I can speak from personal experience, that tattoo artists are among the kindest people I’ve met. You have to have a great deal of compassion and exceptional beside manner to be good at the job.
I am purposefully linking to an article that does not contain the extremely disturbing short video that has widely circulated on a certain poorly mismanaged social media platform.
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‘Human Consciousness Could Be a Side Effect of Entropy, Study Suggests’ (Science Alert)
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‘Policies that reduce intergenerational poverty’ (Brookings)
“Children who grow up in low-income families are much more likely than other children to be poor when they become adults. This both violates the notion of equal opportunity and limits the future productivity of the U.S. economy.”
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In continued attempts at market domination, brazenly showing off that Amazon is a monopoly, and in spite of great investigative reporting (by Greg Campbell in 2013) from a number of years ago about how people feel about drones, ‘Amazon Pharmacy launches its first drone deliveries’ (Tech Crunch)
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A little fun.
‘42 really is the answer to these 5 fundamental questions’ (Big Think)
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Oh, the things we’ve done to wolves.
‘Meet the World’s Shortest Living Dog: Pearl, a Chihuahua Who’s “a Bit of a Diva”’ (Nice News)
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Bird are real. The middle class, I’m not so sure about.
This may be an accurate “fact”; however, it still feels wildly misleading and not representative of your average American household.
‘US household wealth up 37% from 2019 to 2022, the largest increase on record.’(USA Today)
There’s a lot of data out suggesting the middle class is growing and that Americans are, by and large, wealthier year over year (YOY) coming out of the pandemic. This isn’t the case, according to plenty of other info, suggesting that Americans are not in more debt after the having diminished the surge in funds from pandemic stimulus. Further, the Under 40 category continues struggle to find a foothold towards Gen X, let alone Baby Boomer/Silent Generation/Greatest Generation levels of wealth.
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Millennials have now apparently also killed “the guest room”…by not being able to afford one. (Pocket / Architectural Digest)
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Some young people are managing to feel “upbeat” about their future (I suppose they still believe in the so-called “American Dream”) (Yahoo Finance)
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‘What does "wealth" mean to you?’ (TED Talk)
This is most definitely worth 12-minutes of your time.
Learn more about The Magnolia Mother’s Trust here.
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Access to healthy, real food, and a diverse diet aid in overall well-being. Go figure. (Gallup)
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Apparently, you don’t necessarily have to go to the airport to sign up for TSA Pre-check. Rumor has it that Staples can get you enrolled. (USA Today)
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‘How to build a freelance career that works for you’ (TED Talk)
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‘Need a Screen Break? 8 Tips to Use Your Phone More Intentionally’ (Nice News)
Good advice.
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The article on dogs needing more socialization with other dogs is on point. I have six core walking/sitting dog clients, and none of them are completely without some kind of behavioral issue. They either have severe separation anxiety, or they are hostile to other dogs. I think part of it is that these are NYC dogs who experienced social isolation during the pandemic, but also a lot of the owners I encounter coddle their dogs(well-meaning, but still)to the point that they aren’t trained or forced to get comfortable around other dogs. It’s a bummer bc both the dogs and their owners are beyond lovely, and I’m not in a position where I can gently nudge them towards getting a trainer or taking their dog to the dog park. I can’t speak on what it’s like outside the city but at least around here I don’t see this trend changing anytime soon.