📖 What I’m Reading:

​Mike White’s 15-Year Journey For “The White Lotus” – Trung Phan​

• Mike White is Ed Schneebly from School of Rock. He wrote Season 1 of White Lotus in 14 days. And True Detective helped pave the way.

​The Grand Encyclopedia of Eponymous Laws – Roger’s Bacon​

• “Gibson’s Law: For every PhD there is an equal and opposite PhD.”
• “Hanlon’s Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.”
• “The Lindy Effect: The future life expectancy of a non-perishable thing is proportional to its current age.”
• “Littlewood’s Law: A person can expect to experience events with odds of one in a million (a ‘miracle’) at the rate of about one per month.”

Book finished: Among the Thugs by Bill Buford: 5/5

• Gonzo-style plunge into British soccer hooliganism and crowd violence. Quite a trip to read. These lads were wild. Totally agree with the author that the riots and violence sprang from some kind of counter-cultural, anti-social, male desperation. But I thought the role of alcohol was noticeably overlooked. Still thrilling and thought-provoking and masterfully written.

Book finished: Socialism … Seriously by Danny Katch: 4/5

• Very readable and legitimately humorous introduction to socialism. Learned a lot. Some ideas seem underdeveloped, neglecting the “how.” History lessons were the best part. Overall it demystified a lot of thorny concepts and popular criticisms.

☝️ Word of the Month:

hortatory (adj) HOR-tuh-tor-ee

Strongly urging.

From Latin hortari (to urge).

“There are hortatory slogans painted along the architrave.”

🎵 Jams of the Month:

The inevitability of Bon Iver​

• Bon Iver to me was always the perfect bleak sad boi music. Goes well with cold weather, sorrow, gray, etc. Iver even means “winter.” So when I saw his new album came out in spring, I raised an eyebrow. But it totally rocks. It’s warmer and happier but still true to form.
• ​Walk Home (Spotify) (Youtube). What a soulful song.
• ​There’s a Rhythmn (Spotify) (YouTube). Juicy snare throughout.

The snappy grooves of Hiss Golden Messenger​

• ​Sanctuary (Spotify) (YouTube (live version)). Incredible bassline.
• ​Biloxi (Spotify) (YouTube (live version))
• ​Heart Like a Levee (Spotify). That steppy diatonic little melody in the chorus (1:10) makes me happy.

The airy pop of Hazel English​

• ​Summer Nights (Spotify). Cool chords.
• ​Combat (Spotify).

💬 Quote of the Month:

“Since it is difficult, or rather impossible, to represent a man’s life as entirely spotless and free from blame, we should use the best chapters in it to build up the most complete picture and regard this as the true likeness. Any errors or crimes, on the other hand, which may tarnish a man’s career and may have been committed out of passion or political necessity, we should regard rather as a lapse from a particular virtue than as the products of some innate vice. We must not dwell on them too emphatically in our history, but should rather show indulgence to human nature for its inability to produce a character which is absolutely good and uncompromisingly dedicated to virtue.”

-Plutarch

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ps: never seen anything like it (X)