Bloomsday, Commonplace Books, Daydream Nation, etc.
In which "we can't change the world, but we can change the subject."
📖 Today is Bloomsday in Dublin, a “celebration of the everyday: walking, eating, thinking, mourning, laughing” inspired by Ulysses, an epic tome I’ve admittedly never read. Going to start this evening and be finished by summer’s end. I say this with confidence, as every time I’ve made similar declarations on the Internet (Infinite Jest, Pale King, The Stand, etc.), I’ve done it.
“Why this date? Joyce chose June 16, 1904 for Ulysses because it was the day he first went walking with Nora Barnacle, the woman who would later become his lifelong partner. It was a deeply personal day for him, and he immortalised it in literature.”
❤️ Not coincidentally, Before Sunrise takes place on this day, and it’s a movie I can’t recommend enough, along with its sequels Before Sunset and Before Midnight. The final film (for now, one hopes) isn’t quite the masterpiece the first two are, so they say, but I do think it is an honest examination of what in real-life would be one of the greatest love stories imaginable.
📽️ Psycho made its debut on this day in 1960. If you’ve never seen the trailer, it’s a bit dry, but interesting if you’re a fan of Hitchcock.
🎬 Some great movie magic: how Muppets break free of their puppeteers.
🎧 (20/50) Sonic Youth, Daydream Nation: Where punk met the avant garde, and shaped alternative rock in the process. Its influence was seismic, inspiring a generation of musicians to embrace raw texture, abstraction, and a sense of defiant creativity. Also: it rocks.
🎼 Wonderful piece by Steve Hyden on Brian Wilson. “I decided to talk about ‘Surf’s Up.’ I told Brian how much I loved that song. How I used to listen to it when I felt alone and rejected and how his music had shepherded me through all that hurt. How I can’t believe someone actually wrote that song, because it seems like one of those properties that magically appears to prove that God is real…
We chatted for a bit more about the film, and the surreal feeling started to fade. Brian Wilson really was just a person. He woke up in the morning, brushed his teeth, ate his breakfast, and tried to make it through another day like the rest of us. He was more fragile and innocent than ambitious and brilliant. His life was hard, and his life was unfair, but it was his. And, in his endless generosity, he shared it with the world.”
📰 Word on the street is The Washington Post is looking to syndicate Substack writing. “Substack’s Hamish McKenzie said he had spoken to the Post about its plans to widen the types of opinion pieces on its website. He said there had been a ‘change in mindset’ from traditional media, which once viewed Substack with suspicion. He said many now saw the platform as an opportunity to adapt to what he described as ‘the most significant media disruption since the printing press.’” This could be a huge opportunity for writers to expand their base and make money in the process.
If any publication wants to post this newsletter on their own site every week, just let me know.
⏰ This “lit clock” tells you the time with a quote.
📔 Commonplace books are “like a diary without the risk of annoying yourself.” “I keep a journal of quotes, lines from songs, poetry. Nothing is my original thought — but all of it struck me as meaningful when I wrote it down.”
✍️ Some “slightly rude” notes on writing: “Most writing is bad because it’s missing a motive. It feels dead because it hasn’t found its reason to live.”
✌️ Keep reading, writing, singing, dancing, keeping that Hoping Machine running.
Love,
Luke
