Washington Post

Did you ever see a famous picture in a gallery and think,”I wish that were in my home?” This unassuming couple apparently went through with it and enjoyed their own private de Kooning for the rest of their lives.

Topic

A hellaciously toxic lake in Montana becomes an international tourist destination, while at the same time threatening to drown an entire town. Not gonna lie, I want to visit!

Inverse

Caught in the fire caused by a massive earthquake and then frighteningly close to the epicenter of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, the last survivors of the division Ginkgophyta are serious! I wonder if I could even keep one alive!

While we’re in Japan…

Afar

I find this concept of lining up fascinating. “Queuing is a big deal in Japan, a physical exercise of the principles of discipline and etiquette that are drilled into every schoolchild and reinforced for every adult.” she writes. Hard to think of that in our culture, and yet I look forward to the annual release of Russian River Brewing’s Pliny The Younger and the multi-hour wait in line. For that event, I wholly embrace the idea that the author is putting across which is “The wait isn’t part of the cost, as I’d always considered it; to a Japanese person, it’s part of the value.”

Spotify

I still intend to put together a podcast for the playlists I curate every month, I just haven’t gotten my time organized enough yet. In addition to those hour-long new music (mostly) playlists, I’ll ocasionally put together something a little different – a “Songs that Shaped Me” playlist, or a “Albums that turn 10 this year”. Or, like this, “A Brief History of Punk Rock.” My conceit was, if you wanted to put together about an hour of songs (mine ended up being an hour and a half), how would you introduce someone to punk rock. I chose 27 songs that run from Patti Smith to Minor Threat to Green Day and finish up with The Interrupters. Along the way I listened to some bands I eschewed growing up for no good reason, and I revisited some of my old favorites. Just writing about this makes me want to sit down and do a podcast explaining my choices. Maybe I’ll make time sooner than later. Until then, if you have Spotify, check the above link or let’s see if the below player works: