Welcome, welcome to another week of The Internet of Literal Things (Week 60, May 11, 2020).
I feel like the things I was doing two weeks ago occurred yesterday. Of course, there are those who believe time is fully linear. And it can exist that way for some — but like I talked about a few weeks ago, time seems to be changing into a series of waves and ebbs and various shapes we don’t have names for yet. I haven’t decided fully if I like this shape of time; it means that any thought I wish to remember needs to be immediately commemorated with its very own sticky note stuck to the closest object my eyes will see when I move onto my next task or when I wake up in the morning. Time in this shape has also made creating difficult because my inputs and outputs have swung like a pendulum: the inputs are the outdoors, as they have been for the majority of my life; the outputs go from zero to two depending on the day. I’ve been writing more in the morning about how I want to structure my day and the uses I have for my own time. Part of that is a mandatory creative session before I jump into my ever-expanding to-do list for the work that actually pays most of my bills. I’m hopeful for a happy medium, but I also appreciate the balance moving towards joy — that’s the goal of it all, right?
(On a walk, 2020)
I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To:
Websites really all do look the same and HumansNotInvited.com. How neoliberalism is damaging your mental health, when blackness is a preexisting condition, and bridging the chronic illness community and the disability rights movement. Ocean Vuong: A life worthy of our breath and reinventing grief. Daniel Beckett or Eeyore with Alan Cumming and Daniel Radcliffe. Jeff Bezos’ wealth shown to scale. An interview with one of the biospherians and the faint cultural memory of the 1918 flu pandemic. How to turn scraps into poetry with Hanif Abdurraqib and “Pyramid Scheme” by Hera Lindsay Bird. “Sorry, I have a walk scheduled then,” your output depends on your input, and Mick Jagger herding sheep and gardening. Silvia Rosi’s self-portraits as her parents, Aime x Suicoke, “Signs that Say What You Want Them To Say and Not Signs that Say What Someone Else Wants You To Say",” Gillian Wearing CBE, 1992 - 93.
For Subscribers Only:
This week, I’m sharing a cover of a song by Pinegrove.
You know what they say — it’s only a party if you bring your friends. So share this with your friends, and let them know that they’re missing LOLs (lots of links).