Hello Again
Things from here and Things from there
The seasons are changing in many ways. The spring rain is now summer rain, our baby is a toddler…or at least has been for a bit now, working on work has now shifted head first into working on working (iykykykyk,) and I’m resurfacing to share more stuff that I found interesting lately and hope you do as well.
From other corners of the world…
In May we met in the “middle” to celebrate my Dad turning 70. We threw him a sweet little party at his brother’s house, invited some life long friends, and ate bbq and his requested burnt almond cake. It was lovely.
After that, my little family peeled off and spent a few days in Sausalito. We walked around the beautiful seaside (bay side?) village, we saw redwoods and The Golden Gate, we had a lovely morning in San Anselmo, cut N loose at the coolest coffee shop with a perfectly build kids area in the back and before heading to the airport, took a few minutes to see The Bay Model.
We went in expecting a large dining table display of downtown San Francisco, but instead walked into a 2 acre warehouse housing a perfect topographic model of the entire bay, from the ocean, the bay, the wetlands, and all the way to the inland delta. Built by the Army corp of Engineers, the impressive scale (1/100), which is truly hard to communicate without seeing it in person, is equaled by the feat of using 180,000 gallons of water to display the high and low tides through the entire bay once per hour. Even through the cries of our extremely “over it” 2 year old, I loved it.
From my corner of the world…
I am currently deep in what is now post-ish production on a truly wonderful project about North Nashville and the elders who lived through the time when it was quite literally cut in half by the building of a highway in the 1970’s. Geographically isolated by neighborhood streets with new dead ends, North Nashville paid the economic price for this poor planning. The community survived by taking one little step at a time, which over the last 50 years have added up to a long journey taken by some inspiring people. Every time we film, I am encouraged that little things like getting lights at the nearby parks and pushing for things as simple as sidewalks can make tangible and lasting impact. More on all of this soon…
Currently Reading:
Like so many others, I picked up Lonesome Dove this summer and subsequently devoured it and 2 others in the series. I had to leave one left just to be able to come back to the world sometime later. I’m about to finish Whistler by Ann Patchett and truly in love with it. In so many ways, her writing has brought me right back to my grandparents home after the death of my grandmother. We had stories and memories, good and bad, attached to every single item we tried to sort through as we packed up her life. While only part of the book deals with that same issue, the entire book does the same work of resorting through a life’s worth of memories made and held from different ages and understandings. It’s my first of hers and will probably dive into Bel Canto and The Dutch House next.
Recently Watching:
Well I mean…Widow’s Bay should be on everyone’s screens. I can’t say enough great things about every aspect of it. Patricia is that girl. Matthew Rhys shows is hilarious physical comedy chops. Stephen Root adds another wild character to his long list of perfect roles. We were terrified and laughing the entire time, sometimes at the same time.
Regularly Listening:
While Olivia Rodrigo continues to make the perfect music for the 19 year old girl within me, I always find myself putting on Flock of Dimes’ The Life You Save. A record that I waited for and have never quite left the orbit of since it came out last year, she holds herself and those she loves with both tenderness and warmth while also dealing with addiction and codependency. I have a special fondness for the track Long After Midnight.
Bye again.
-Joe
Life while being observant and creative.