2024 / Sep 2-8

Things I Have Enjoyed This Week

Art-O-Mat

A friend texted me that he had seen an Art-O-Mat in a hotel in Milwaukee. He sent some pics. “Ever seen one of these?” Yes! I saw one in Ponce Market in Atlanta years ago and bought something. The machines are beautiful and it’s such a cool idea - old cigarette vending machines are refurbished and filled with small works by local artists. Put in cash, pull a lever, get a surprise piece of art. Delightful AF!

I really love message-in-a-bottle-type-stuff and it resonates so friggin hard for me—make something that is really only for you, then hurl it into the void to see if it connects to someone, anything. We all have something to offer and I think it’s important to put it out there, how ever boldly or timidly. And the more you do so, the more you learn that strangers and people at distance are ready and willing, even enthusiastic, to tune into your radio. And more and more that starts to make some kind of indefinable sense.

I started writing and posting these list things for 2 reasons: 1) regular gratitude exercises weren’t working for me and somehow this made it through the forcefield and 2) I like the idea of contributing a few tiny bubbles to the effervescence of the universe now and then. And as those bubbles float around and make their way through the Big Cosmic Whatever, you have no idea who they’ll connect with or what they’ll mean to people. Maybe nothing, maybe something. Maybe something really meaningful, even. And I love this little piece of art made by someone named John Gall. He had his own reasons and ideas, but it feels like it elbowed its way through the crowd and came straight to me.

Robert Schneider said it best:

“I care about the overall goodness of the universe being increased from moment to moment. Or being maintained. As opposed to being decreased... As much as I can be part of that, I wanna be. And because of that I wanna do something special and I wanna do something awesome.”

Tres Leches Cake

I ordered dinner. I added a slice. Picked it up, got home, opened the bag…there were two slices! I got to have cake 2 days in a row. As an adult. And it was dynamite. I WIN!!!! Suck it, anti-cakers.

Tycho

Somehow, way high up on my list of satisfying things, there is the act of hearing a song I’ve never heard before and correctly guessing the artist. It means my life up to this point has had some purpose, albeit small and dumb. Like one time I was with some folks at a bar and we started asking “what song is this?” I said that it sounded like Robyn Hitchcock, but younger. So I bet it’s the Soft Boys. (I have still never heard a Soft Boys album.) There was debate. Finally someone shazammed it: The Soft Boys. Nailed it.

Same thing just happened to me yesterday. Walk into a bar. A song I’ve never heard is playing. I asked the bartender “is this Tycho?” (I know one Tycho song. And this one isn’t that one.) It’s Tycho. BOOM!!! And the bartender was psyched. I’m guessing he’s spent a lot of time defending his music picks to the “it’s a bar, can’t you just put on some Tom Petty?” folks. Can someone arrange for this to happen like twice a week? It’s good for me and these bartenders. We need it. It’s some kind of wonderful-meaningful-meaningless victory.

The Arroyo Behind the House

I’ve been neglecting it in favor of hiking in higher elevations while the summer is so toasty. But it’s lined with just-starting-to-bloom rabbit brush, Mexican sunflowers, smoke bush, asters, paintbrush and countless other blossoming things whose names I’ll never bother to learn. There are humming birds (no wonder), pinyons, ponderosas (one crowned with a nest, to which, one of the lovely landladies informed me, the ravens return each year). And the arroyo smells sweet when the wind moves through. What a treat.

Apple Seeds and Cherry Pits

Both contain small amounts of arsenic. I knew about cherries, but not about apples. The poison is not enough to really even make you sick. But still. Now every time I eat them, I get to feel like a big shot who’s cheating death. Nice try, fruit! FU, death! And so forth.

Night Time Cloud Photography

Three Shows at Once

I played a show on Friday night in Santa Fe, which was really fun. But then I realized that at the same time I was on stage, my good buddy Indoor Condor was also playing a show in Asheville. And at the same time, our goddaughter Lola was performing in a play in Chicago. That’s some kind of badass righteous synchronicity.

What did you enjoy this week? I’d love to know. Leave it in the comments - thanks!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK! ✌️❤️🤘

Your pal,

Robert