Welcome to the third issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here! New issues come out most Sundays. Unsubscribe at any time. If you’d rather subscribe via your feedreader, the rss feed is here.
WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS WEEK
Rent opens this week at Zeitgeist!
Get your tickets before they're gone!
The amazing cast for my next project,
The Shark is Broken, has been announced!
Tickets are on sale now!
SubSuperior 2025. The fourth-annual "spontaneous declaration of a Temporary Autonomous Zone from a future certain, projected into this particular prospective past” will appear randomly in the harbor and on the lake as interlocked floating hexes. As with many of the avant garde arts experiences in Duluth, figuring out how to participate is half the fun.
Minnesota Ballet's second-annual Performing Artist Series in Studio 4 on August 2nd at 7pm. Tickets available at the door.
Over 30 years ago, Legendary filmmaker Walter Murch wrote the
best book about film editing ever, and has now published the first in a new trilogy of books about filmmaking,
Suddenly Something Clicked. I pre-ordered it months ago and now that I have the book in my hands, I can't wait to dive in. (It doesn't hurt that it has screenshots from
The Conversation on the cover.)
QUICK LINKS
JOURNAL
Four of the five original Twin Portals crew reunited this week to record a video episode on Gaming and Parenting.
Five years ago (see the Memories section below), we installed a high-efficiency heat pump in an effort to reduce the heating/cooling energy footprint of our house. A month ago, a tiny mouse decided to sacrifice his furry body to fry it beyond any hope of repair, so this week, we replaced the unit with another high-efficiency heat pump. That is the most expensive rodent problem we've ever had.
The smoke from the Canadian wildfires has been really bad again this summer. I'm hoping this isn't the new normal. It does, however, create some amazing mornings where the lake and the sky seem to merge.
My dad didn't want any mention of his 81st birthday this weekend, so we gathered for a work day instead. It was sunny, humid, and 90, but we still managed to cross quite a few things off the work list. Not Pictured: Corey (who broke a crown during our lunch break and had to head home to find his dental insurance documents).
What I watched:
-
Gun Crazy (1950). Secretly written by Dalton Trumbo while he was blacklisted. A bravura in-car one-take bank robbery scene. Even better than I'd heard.
-
The Jerk (1979). Jody and I watched this on the big screen at Zinema with a crowd, which is definitely the best way to experience it. We hadn't seen it in probably fifteen years.
-
Time Without Pity (1957). Joseph Losey beat-the-clock noir starring Michael Redgrave, Peter Cushing, Joan Plowright in her feature debut, and Leo McKern's glass eye.
What I’m reading:
-
Middlemarch, Eliot. I love how much Eliot empathizes with all of her characters.
-
The Mountain in the Sea, Nayler. Great googley-moogley! I'm only half way through, but is this possibly one of the great sci-fi novels of all time?
-
The Starless Sea, Morgenstern. Next month's book club book.
MEMORIES
Five Years Ago:
On an especially calm lake day, Jody and I paddled over a mile out into the lake to check out the Large Lakes Observatory research buoy.
We had a high-efficiency heat pump installed. We were told that this thing should reduce our energy footprint for 20-30 years! (Spoiler: It didn't.)
Ten Years Ago:
Soeren came back from Germany for his first visit since his time with us as an exchange student. We had recently moved to Duluth, so we had fun sharing all the things we love about the city.
Twenty Years Ago:
We were deep into a months-long remodel of our Spooner house, adding two bedrooms, a bathroom, and an upgraded laundry room. Grandpa and Grandma led the effort, but Kaylee was a key element of the project's success.
MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"For in the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little. The story of their coming to be shapen after the average and fit to be packed by the gross, is hardly ever told even in their consciousness..."
- George Eliot,
Middlemarch
That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!
