Just A Peck 0012 // A Birthday, Promo Pics, PTA
Welcome to the latest issue of Just A Peck. I’m glad you’re here! New issues come out most Sundays. Unsubscribe at any time.
WHAT I'M EXCITED ABOUT THIS WEEK
The first promotional photos for The Shark is Broken came out this week, and they turned out so well! I can’t wait for you all to see this show.
Speaking of which, if you haven’t reserved your tickets yet, DO NOT WAIT. They’re going fast!
The new Paul Thomas Anderson movie One Battle After Another opens wide this week. I’ve been reading Vineland in preparation. I cannot wait to see it.
I love the Criterion Channel. It’s the absolute best streaming service and it’s not even close. If you aren’t already a subscriber they’re offering a 20% discount on new annual subscriptions now through October 5th.
QUICK LINKS
- A giant squid being eaten by a sperm whale!
- A history of Choose Your Own Adventure books
- This year's winners of the Nikon Small World In Motion competition
- The 25 greatest picture books of the century
- 800 years of English Handwriting
- ShouXin's Expressive graphite drawings of cats
- Electromechanical calculating machines from the 1960s
- A smoking, muscular TV responds to your questions with Simpsons clips
- The exacting magic of film restoration
- Worldwide statistics in real time
JOURNAL
Alex turned 33 this week. The kids came home to celebrate and we got to spend a couple of days together.
I hosted our monthly poker night and forgot to take a picture, so here is a photo of my poker chip set instead.
What I watched:
- Inside Man (2006). Spike Lee, a killer cast, and a well-crafted heist flick. Just what I needed.
What I’m reading:
- FINISHED: The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz (audiobook). This was recommended by a friend. I've enjoyed Horowitz's work in the past, so I gave it a shot and had a great time.
- Middlemarch, Eiliot
- Vineland, Pynchon
MEMORIES
Fifteen Years Ago:
Fifteen years ago I attended the first Twin Cities startup weekend and pitched the idea for a location-based mobile game that eventually become QONQR. Over a couple of days, a small team of us built and released a functioning version of the game. We won the competition that weekend and eventually went on to release multiple versions of that game. It’s still going fifteen years later, far exceeding the average half-life of a mobile game.
Twenty Years Ago:
Lots of soccer and high school band, sprinting from one thing to the next. Exhausting and magical.
MY FAVORITE QUOTE OF THE WEEK
I'm not telling you to make the world better, because I don't think that progress is necessarily part of the package. I'm just telling you to live in it. Not just to endure it, not just to suffer it, not just to pass through it, but to live in it. To look at it. To try to get the picture. To live recklessly. To take chances. To make your own work and take pride in it. To seize the moment. And if you ask me why you should bother to do that, I could tell you that the grave's a fine and private place, but none I think do there embrace. Nor do they sing there, or write, or argue, or see the tidal bore on the Amazon, or touch their children. And that's what there is to do and get it while you can and good luck at it.
-- Joan Didion
That’s it for this week. Stay safe, friends. Thanks for reading!