Austin Kleon - The good, the bad, and the ugly

Hey y’all,

It’s Friday the 13th in the year 2020. (What could go wrong?!?) 

Here are 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week: 

1. There’s the good, the bad, and the ugly.
    
2. I’m reading an essay collection about stuttering called Stammering Pride and Prejudice: Difference Not Defect. (Here’s my connection to stuttering.) Reading about the social model of disability has cracked some good things open for me. (Another book I read related to the subject this year is Sara Hendren’s What Can A Body Do?)
    
3. I’m also reading bell hooks’ All About Love, which contains this lovely sentence: “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet all the more astute theorists of love acknowledge that we would all love better if we used it as a verb.”
    
4. Ed Ruscha’s street view.
    
5. John Waters has bequeathed his art collection to the Baltimore Museum of Art. I love the way Waters talks about art and saw the great “Absentee Landlord” show he curated at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis in 2012. (More Waters wisdom: on being a curious elder and the meaning of real wealth.)
    
6. Ear candy: this excellent Spotify playlist saved by @boogah. (Sometimes the algorithm works!)
    
7. Years ago, I talked to Rob Walker about my habit of looking up amazing 70s music shows on YouTube. I have two new YouTube obsessions, both from @BBCArchive: old episodes of Tomorrow’s World and Rockschool. (Check out this wonderful BBC archive of electronic music.) 
    
8. Netflix: Even though “How ‘The Karate Kid’ Ruined The Modern World” is one of my favorite essays, I’m still binge-watching Cobra Kai. (I don’t believe in guilty pleasures.)
    
9. RIP Alex Trebek. Here’s a nice profile from earlier this year, Sam Anderson’s beautiful piece about watching Jeopardy! with his dad, a funny montage of Trebek’s bloopers, and my favorite Jeopardy! moment.
    
10. Happy 50th anniversary to my friends at Bookpeople! Get a jump on your holiday shopping and support a great indie bookstore by ordering a bunch of signed and personalized copies of my books! (I’ll sign and draw in as many as you can order. Deadline for holiday orders is Nov. 22. They ship everywhere!)