SLAY Don't Wait

the online process of Matt Slaybaugh

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Some Favorites from 2017

These are just some lists of culture I encountered this year that I really liked and am happy to recommend to you. It’s not even all from 2017, necessarily. Back in the day, I used to create massive, well-considered lists. It was quite a joy for me. Ha! I guess I didn’t have enough to do!

Any strong recommendations from your 2017?

MUSIC
NEW MUSIC
– Susso, Keira – Oh please, please, please listen to this record. I love it so much. (Even it is from 2016.)
– Four Tet, New Energy
– Juana Molina, Halo
– Thurston Moore, Rock n Roll Consciousness
– Jlin, Black Origami
– Slowdive
– St. Vincent, Masseduction
– Binker & Moses, Journey To The Mountain Of Forever
– Milk Music, Mystic 100s
– Fleet Foxes, Crack-Up
– Kelly Lee Owens

[Read more…]

Winter reading update

bookshelf-march2

Despite the fact that it’s only 40-some degrees here in beautiful Columbus, Ohio, I’m pretty sure that the winter is over. So, let’s check back in on that reading list, shall we?

I finished these books from the list:
H is for Hawk – Helen MacDonald
Creativity, Inc. – Ed Catmull

I’m on the verge of finishing these:
What We See When We Read – Peter Mendelsund
Satin Island – Tom McCarthy
Rebel Bookseller – Andrew Laties

I made real progress in these:
Leviathan Wakes – James S.A. Corey
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS – Joby Warrick

I also read these, which were not on the list:
Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm – Thich Nhat Hahn
Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better: Wise Advice for Leaning into the Unknown – Pema Chodron
Alien Hearts – Guy de Maupassant (trans. Richard Howard)

Conclusions? I’m not good at sticking to the list, cause I’m impulsive. Also, the winter reading list should be good through April.

Winter Reading List

Winter Reading

Here’s a list of books I’m hoping to read before spring arrives. So between now and, say, the Ides of March. Most of these I’ve already started, actually. Maybe this shows how easily distracted I am? I just want to learn everything.

Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades – Clinton Heylin
The Four Hour Work Week – Tim Ferriss
Hir – Taylor Mac
Clarice Lispector: Complete Stories
Madness, Rack, and Honey – Mary Ruefle
What We See When We Read – Peter Mendelsund
A Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
The Collected Frank Stanford
H is for Hawk – Helen MacDonald
Satin Island – Tom McCarthy
The Man Who Sold the World – Peter Doggett
One of Us: The Story of Anders Breivik and the Massacre in Norway – Asne Seierstad
A Guide to the Good Life – William B. Irvine
The Sports Gene – David Epstein
The Secret History of Star Wars – Michael Kaminski
Leviathan Wakes – James S.A. Corey
Creativity, Inc. – Ed Catmull
Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude – Ross Gay
Rebel Bookseller – Andrew Laties
Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS – Joby Warrick

Having listed them here, maybe I’ll be more inclined to finish them all, or at least resist starting others. I’ll check back in on March 15.

Me talking about adapting James Joyce

I had this plan to write about the process of adapting James Joyce. Let’s face it, I was so busy adapting James Joyce (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man) that I was never going to get around to writing about it. So, I set-up my phone and made these quicky videos.

Books I Read (in 2014) and Recommend

Here’s a list of my favorite books among those I read cover to cover in 2014. (I’m keeping a list here. I just made it, but it goes back to the middle of 2010.)

– Jim Henson: The Biography – Brian Jay Jones
– Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
– HHhH – Laurent Binet
– All the Pretty Horses – Cormac McCarthy
– The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America – George Packer
– After the Music Stopped – Alan S. Blinder
– The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap – Matt Taibbi
– Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage – Haruki Murakami
– Star Wars: Darth Plagueis – James Luceno

Well, that’s about half of the books I finished this year, so I was pretty lucky that I mostly read really memorable stuff.

The two that will stick with me the most? Life After Life and The Unwinding. Those go on the list of books I’d recommend to anyone and everyone.

HHhH is one of the oddest books I’ve ever read, and that’s saying something. I read it in a cabin at Lake Hope in a single day. After the Music Stopped is the definitive account of the financial crisis and the aftermath. Trust me, I’ve read more than a few, if you only read one, this is it. The Jim Henson book was charming and inspiring, I’ll certainly re-read it. And Darth Plagueis? I’m not ashamed, it’s a great work of fiction, especially if you’re a Star Wars fan. I’ll definitely read Luceno’s next book.

Currently I’m re-reading Infinite Jest (I often read bits of it, but this time I started at the beginning.) I’m also reading IQ84, which I gave up once when I was a third of the way through. That’s also a 900-pager, so I feels like I’ve been reading just those two forever.

This is Water – cinematically

Suffice to say, this is a piece of writing that means a lot to me. We did a play called “[How to] Stay Human that was in large part, about this… and the environment. There’s a connection there, and we tried to draw it.

It’s amazing that anyone was able to get these thoughts down on paper so clearly, and forcefully, and deliver something with such enduring meaning. And you really don’t know the piece until you’ve heard Dave deliver it himself (as you do in the video.) To get anywhere near this level of positive impact is something worth striving for everyday.

Anyway, enjoy this video.