(1) Borax. (2) Tidying up. (3) Aldi. (4) A handful of peanuts. Dry roasted. Unsalted. (5) The Quiet American by Graham Greene. (6) Warlight by Michael Ondaatje. (7) Welcome, Dangerous Life by Ben Gunsberg. (8) Our new house, our son’s laughter ringing throughout. (9) Rest. Healing. Renewal. (10) Returning to dormant — not dormant, hibernating? gestating — projects. (11) @danrather (12) Cara Cara oranges, section by sweet section. (13) Killing Eve. (14) “Astro” by White Stripes. (15) Shape-note singing. (16) “I Go to the Barn because I Like” by Band of Horses. (17) Emmylou Harris’s version of Gram Parsons’s”Return of the Grievous Angel” via Return of the Grievous Angel, the Gram Parsons tribute album (loveable, itself, in toto). (18) @AOC. Which is to say: (19) Smart, hungry young folks, shaking things up. (20) The BLP manuscript consultation program, which allows me to read works in progress by total (and talented) strangers, underscoring the fact that… (21) Good writers, good writing are/is plentiful. (22) “Way Go Lily” and “Wild Saro” by Sam Amidon. (23) “Still Be Around” by Uncle Tupelo, in particular: “If I break in two / Will you put me back together? / When this puzzle’s figured out / Will you still… / Be around? / To say you’ve just been there / Walking the line / Upside down…” (24) “A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall” by Bob Dylan (“O where have you been, my blue-eyed son?” — a line with extra-special (choke back those tears of joy/relief) resonance for me now.) (25) “Tame,” Pixies. (26) “Gigantic,” ibid. (27) “Cripple Creek” by The Band. (28) “New Slang” by the Shins. (29) “Heroin” by the Velvet Underground. (30) All that’s to say: my music(s). Past, present, future. Its sweet, sundry forms.
(Happy New Year.)
TJ BEITELMAN 