the best stuff i read & listened to this week

“A cow with a mouth at both ends
chews hell going and coming.”

— Ai / “Guadalajara Cemetery”

“Organic Chemistry: A means by which to make undergraduates cry using only carbon bonds.”

— Zach Weinersmith / Science: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness

“I recommend sitting down anywhere, looking around, and then staring into the middle distance for a while.”

— Dana Margolin / The Creative Independent interview

“I have studied what we have done to the planet and I object. I object to the exploitation of, and the lack of respect for, human laborers. I object to the frantic commercialization of the many realms of daily life, I object to the desecration of what is beautiful, to the celebration of what is venal, and to the ethical obtuseness of the king’s adoring enablers. I object to society’s complacency … I would ask you not to give in to the temptation to despair, not to retreat into cynicism or settle into disaffection…”

— Barry Lopez / Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World

“I loved Leonard Cohen more like a daughter loves a father, though. His music tempered my insanity with a brighter kind of madness. He grounded my heart at a time when I was worried I would jump out the window.”

— Ottessa Moshfegh / “A Brighter Kind of Madness: On Leonard Cohen”

“Every time we check, God appears to be playing dice.”

— Zach Weinersmith / Science: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness

“… And what of the stanzas
we never sing, the third that mentions ‘no refuge
could save the hireling and the slave’? Perhaps,
the truth is, every song of this country
has an unsung third stanza, something brutal
snaking underneath us as we blindly sing
the high notes with a beer sloshing in the stands
hoping our team wins.”

— Ada Limón / “A New National Anthem”

What I’m Listening To:

“I would like to salute
The ashes of American flags
And all the fallen leaves
Filling up shopping bags”

— Wilco / “Ashes of American Flags”