2020s
This weekend, I’m revisiting some of David Perell’s writing on writing, thinking, and aiming high. My favorites: Why You Should Write, Learn Like an Athlete, Networked Writing.
That is a beautiful machine. I must have a soft spot for extensive air-cooling schemes. If Windows/PCs were a thing I could get with, I would get with this hardware.
We took all the dogs on a walk today. Even the sixteen year old one who walks janky. I have never seen so many people out walking in our neighborhood. So that’s nice! Add that to the list of things we should considering preserving once we reach the new normal.
Stop the Coronavirus Corporate Coup. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
The aerospace giant of course wants a $60 billion bailout. Financial problems for this corporation predated the crisis, with the mismanagement that led to the 737 Max as well as defense and space products that don’t work (I noted last July a bailout was coming). The corporation paid out $65 billion in stock buybacks and dividends over the last ten years, and it was drawing down credit lines before this crisis hit. It is highly politically connected; the board of the corporation includes Caroline Kennedy, Ronald Reagan’s Chief of Staff Ken Duberstein, three Fortune 100 CEOs, a former US Trade Representative, and two Admirals, one of whom is the board’s only engineer. Using the excuse of the coronavirus, Boeing is trying to get the taxpayer to foot the bill for its errors, so it can go back to making more of them.
The jazz icon Sonny Rollins knows life is a solo trip. Seems like a surprisingly wise, grounded performer.
I watched the various Watchmen
I just finished reading the Watchmen graphic novel and it is amazing. I was drawn in by the HBO series last year, which amplified my enjoyment of the original story. It might end up in my top five works of fiction.
The story is of its time: the Cold War, superheroes as saviors. Even better, it has timeless themes that feel relevant in our weird contemporary situation: growing authoritarianism and nihilism towards overcoming the status quo to tackle other looming problems.
I saw the Watchmen movie first, several years ago. The movie, as I remember it, holds to the first few issues surprisingly well. The ending of the comic is far superior to the one used in the movie. The comic has more space to expand minor storylines and even introduce a whole other comic within the graphic novel. The comic stands head and shoulders above the movie.
I still feel like the Watchmen HBO series was one of, if not singularly, the best shows on television/streaming last year. The graphic novel is the perfect chaser. Lots of plot points make more sense through the lens of the graphic novel: the whole squid attack, Looking Glass being slightly off, Robert Redford as president.
If it turns out they don’t produce more seasons in the HBO series timeline, at least there will always be the comic. (And Westworld, for the time being).