First: I’m hosting a digital mending circle tomorrow (Tuesday, December 17th, 2024) from 7:30–9:30pm Eastern.
What, you ask, is a digital mending circle? A virtual co-working session for the kinds of oft-neglected maintenance tasks that accrue around our digital lives. Instead of darning socks and patching jeans, we update personal websites, delete unused accounts, work on side projects, or even just catch up on email.
I try to host one a month for Dumpling Club members, and this month I’m opening it up more broadly. If you’re reading this, you’re invited. We’ll have a little bit of social time at the beginning and end, and I’ll play some chill jams in between while we work. I, personally, plan to spend the time moving some podcasts to a new host.
Just reply to this message (or email me) for the meeting link.
Back in my last apartment in New York, I had a hardcover copy of Robert Caro’s The Power Broker, which I meditated on daily. Meditated literally—I used it to give extra height to my floor cushion. I never actually read the thing.
A couple of weeks ago I finally started the book. One reason now was the time: 99% Invisible’s book club. But the real tipping point was the release, at long last, of the e-book. This Times headline is about as direct as it gets: ‘The Power Broker’ Is Finally Getting a Digital Edition. What Took So Long?. The answer? Caro’s personal attachment to paper, and the comparatively poor typography of early e-book readers:
Spacing between paragraphs or sections is very important to my rhythm, and the spaces were so insignificant in the old e-books that they didn’t stop you. I wanted the space to stop the reader, that’s why I put it there.
New York friends, I hope you go see the 50th anniversary installation at the New York Historical Society.
Here is the vision of a city that is, maybe, most diametrically opposed to Robert Moses. Christopher Alexander in A Vision of a Living World:
To get the individual adaptation which is essential for true belonging, we must have a process which allows the city to evolve so that it reflects each individual in his and her individuality. We must learn how to make a city where each one us feels at home, whether it is yours, mine, his, hers. And once again this must be based on individual true feeling, our true nature.
What this means is that we ask whether we experience it as ours, whether each bit of the city, of the neighborhood, each door, building, fence, garden, actually reflects human beings, reflects individuals, families, passion, reality.
Speaking of individually adapted doors: Javier Arce photographed these beauties all over Europe.
Add this to the bucket list: A sauna built on the deck of an old sailboat.
via Hots and Colds, a new account from the folks who brought you Cabin Porn.
Speaking of saunas: Mikkel Aaland’s travelogue series, Perfect Sweat, is on the to-watch list. It’s based on Aaland’s book, Sweat, which you can read in its entirety online.
Speaking of documentaries: I quite enjoyed this one about Werner Herzog. The following night, Julia and I rewatched (she for the first time) Encounters at the End of the World. What a singular dude, with a singular vision of the world.
Epically long books, saunas, Antarctica … looks like I’m fully embracing winter this year. See you in 2025 (and hopefully this Tuesday).
And remember: Bounty hunting is a complicated profession.