If you have read The Wind in the Willows -- and let me pause here to say that if you have not read the Wind in the Willows then what are you doing with your life? Stop reading this silly newsletter, call in sick to work, and start reading that wondrous book right now.
But if you have read The Wind in the Willows then I urge you to listen to this audio essay by A.L. Kennedy, in which she tells us something about her own lifelong love of the book, before then relating one more chapter in its story, a chapter Kenneth Grahame never wrote ... but might have; could have; maybe should have. It’s so beautiful.
It’s good to be back! Weekly service is hereby resumed!
While I was away from newslettering I blogged a good bit, mostly about movies:
- I wrote about why I don't think Hitchcock’s Vertigo is the best movie ever made -- it’s not even a top five Hitchcock movie.
- I offered my candidate for best movie ever -- if I’m allowed to cheat and name three movies as one movie.
- I explained why, even though The Green Knight is a kind of photographic negative of the poem on which it is based, I liked it a lot anyway.
- And I wrote about how Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times is really about surveillance capitalism.
I also published two essays:
- Over at The Hedgehog Review I wrote about the perils of productivity-talk and an alternative way to think about good work.
- In the October issue of Harper’s I wrote at considerable length about Jonathan Franzen’s new novel and its place in his career. (My apologies if that one is paywalled for you.)
But enough about me....
Joseph M. Keegin writes about seeking forgiveness and reconciliation and not finding them -- until...
“Welcome to the London Sound Survey, a web project which collected over 2,000 recordings of everyday life in London between 2008 and 2020. It also has a wide and unique range of historical resources on the theme of urban sound.”
A meditation, a mystery, a quest: Danielle Oteri on the Unicorn Tapestries.
Last and maybe best: Here’s some music by Big Red Machine and guests (Robin Pecknold and Anais Mitchell) to warm your heart and make you hopeful and grateful: “Phoenix” and “New Auburn”.