Hey y’all,

I know I keep saying it, but I’m blown away by how many of you have become paid subscribers. Thank you, thank you. (If the comments on Tuesday’s letter are any indication, we are going to have an absolute ball together.)

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

1. How do you know when to exploit what you know and explore what you don’t?
   
   

2. Heraclitus on the harmony of tensions.
   
   

3. So many of you responded to my love letter to date stamps, I had to collect some of your responses on the blog. (BTW, I treated myself to the Trodat Professional and I love it.)
   
   

4. Artist Craig Damrauer shared a little book of advice he wrote for his 18-year-old daughter. It contains wisdom for all ages: part one, part two, part three.
   
   

5. An interview with composer JJJJJerome Ellis. (Ellis inspired me to re-think my son’s stutter as “our stutter.” I just ordered the deluxe book and 2XLP of his latest, about stuttering, blackness, and time: The Clearing.)
   
   

6. “Seasons change in the mind and the body before they change in the world.... The Japanese word ‘fuubutsushi’ refers to this gap, capturing the feeling of longing for a new season at the first signs of its emergence.”
   
   

7. A bonkers documentary about filmmaking: Jodorowsky’s Dune. (An ultra rare copy of the Dune book Jodorowsky made with Jean Giraud is up for auction and Taika Waititi is making a movie based on The Incal comics.)
   
   

8. Ear candy: I love old Philly Soul, so I’m a bit obsessed with Silk Sonic’s “Smokin Out The Window.” (Their album drops today.) Something completely different: the saxophone blasts of Hidemi by Patrick Shiroishi.
   
   

9. RIP actor Dean Stockwell. (Terrific appreciation thread.) RIP designer Bob Gill. (I think often of what he wrote about “inevitability” or “I could’ve done that!”)
   
   

10. Your assignment this weekend: “Declare it art.”
    
    

Thanks for reading! If you’d like to get an extra email on Tuesdays and support my work, become a paid subscriber:

xoxo,

Austin

PS. Now is the time to order if you want signed books for the holidays!