Just A Peck 0006 // APT, Bacon Bonanza, Anniversary
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WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS WEEK
This upcoming week we’ll be making our annual trip American Players Theatre nestled in the hills of Spring Green, WI. It’s one of my favorite places in the world and I look forward to this trip every year. We’ll be there for five days and see six productions: Anna in the Tropics, The Barber and The Unnamed Prince, The Winter’s Tale, Fallen Angels, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Tribes.
QUICK LINKS
- Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2025 Shortlist
- I have watched this music video by The Boojums so many times.
- Demented toys by Obvious Plant
- Can Bluesky say every word in the English language?
- Danny Boyle's Criterion Closet picks
- Michael Chabon on his Fantastic Four pitch meeting 30 years ago
JOURNAL
We voted in our primary election on Tuesday. I hope you did too.
For a kind of pre-anniversary celebration, Jody and I went to see Four Mile Portage at Northern Waters on Wednesday.
Then we took a drive along Skyline. We stopped at Enger, looked out over our pretty city and the lake, and answered questions from tourists. (“What is that long strip of land?”, “How do you deal with the cold?")
On our actual anniversary, we drove to the cities so Jody could catch an early flight out in the morning for a quick East-Coast trip with her sister. We had dinner at Benihana (which is a nostalgic pick for us). More on our anniversary below.
I mentioned last week that I ordered all of Ray Nayler’s books after finishing The Mountain in the Sea. The Tusks of Extinction arrived at my local indie bookseller this week, so I picked it up, got a food truck smashburger, and read in the The Yard at Bent Paddle.
I watched Highest 2 Lowest with my friend, Ian, and as we were commiserating afterwards in the Zeitgeist Atrium, we had a mini-One Act Play That Goes Wrong reunion.
On Saturday, I took a trip to the Materials Recovery Center. The rows of appliances awaiting salvage and recycling made me think of how excited I always was as a kid to go to the dump. Inspired by Explorers, I would bring home control panels, hoses, and other things that looked “science fictiony” to use in the construction of a space ship in my friend Tim’s corn crib.
The Annual Bacon and Chocolate Bonanza was Saturday. It’s always such a joyful gathering of friends with meat, chocolate, and love spilling out in every direction.
What I watched:
- Pickpocket (1997). Jia Zhangke's first feature. Non-professional actors, hand-held 16mm, some stunning shots.
- The Man Who Wasn't There (2001). The Coens, a killer cast, and Roger Deakins making a gorgeous noir in the classical mode.
- Highest 2 Lowest (2025). Spike Lee adapting Kurosawa's High and Low. No comment.
- D.E.B.S. (2004). A ridiculous spy-spoof that played like a campy crossover between Dr. Horrible and Spy Kids.
What I’m reading:
- I finished Codebreaker. A fun, fast-paced YA spy romp with some delightful interactive codebreaking for the reader.
- I also finished Sourdough by Robin Sloan. Bread and robots, culture and capitalism, microbiomes and proprioception.
- Middlemarch, Eiliot
- Tusks of Extinction, Nayler
- Vineland, Pynchon
MEMORIES
Ten Years Ago: The Playhouse’s Summer Youth Intensives were Sweeney Todd and Titus Andronicus. No we did not get a discount on stage blood, yes we used the same pies in both shows.
It’s also the year we took this iconic photo of Kaylee and Spencer at the top of Enger in their show shirts
Also ten years ago this week, Jody was offered a teaching position at ISD 709! A decade of Duluth kids' lives impacted by her brilliance and passion. ISD 709 is so lucky to have her.
25 Years Ago:
I normally keep this Memories section to round numbers but two-to-the-fifth is a round number in binary! That’s right, 32 years ago (!) these two naïve young pups tied the knot, and we’re still having a ball.
MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"My own personal theory is that this is the very dawn of the world. We're hardly more than an eyeblink away from the fall of Troy, and scarcely an interglaciation removed from the Altamira cave painters. We live in extremely interesting ancient times. I like this idea. It encourages us to be earnest and ingenious and brave, as befits ancestral peoples; but keeps us from deciding that because we don't know all the answers, they must be unknowable and thus unprofitable to pursue."
--Teresa Nielsen Hayden
That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!