Contemplating Blue
Also, the economics of immigration, more uncommon commutes, napping, and an unconventional "Fast Car" cover
Hola mi gente,
I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying fall. If you’re looking for an easy way to support North Carolina in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, check out Cardinals At The Window, a benefit album for flood relief that was just released this week. There are 136 tracks amounting to over 10 hours of music. It’s quite an eclectic mix. You can purchase the album with a donation of at least $10 and either download it or stream it on Bandcamp.
Here are 5 things I thought were worth sharing this week:
I’m missing fall in Wisconsin, but want to embrace all that’s surrounding me in Grenada, so I wrote about it in a post, “Contemplating Blue.” I also created an October Oceans Spotify playlist that blends together fall and ocean vibes. I’m reading Rebecca Solnit’s book, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, which I would say is wonderful for anyone who loves to travel, observe art, or go for long walks.
November 5th is just around the corner so we voted absentee this past week (and even got cool stickers). As always, immigration is a hot button issue. I recently read this article from The Atlantic that challenges the idea that immigrant workers negatively impact American workers by taking their jobs and lowering wages. While this is true, the article points out an important economic benefit that is often ignored:
Immigrants aren’t just workers who compete for jobs; they are also consumers who buy things. They therefore increase not only the supply of labor, which reduces wages, but also the demand for it, which raises them. In the end, the two forces appear to cancel each other out.
The article goes on to cite several economic studies that highlight how immigration even benefits a community in spite of the additional challenges it can create. Ultimately, it paints a more complete picture, which is absolutely refreshing and helpful in the midst of all the one-sided, vile rhetoric we so often hear about immigration.
In my last newsletter I shared why I’m naming this newsletter, an uncommon commute. So one thing I’m going to try to do is to keep an eye out for stories that exemplify living an uncommon commute. This past week, I found the following Henry David Thoreau quote:
In the spaces of thought are the reaches of land and water, where men go and come. The landscape lies far and fair within, and the deepest thinker is the farthest travelled.
I love this and think it encapsulates so much of what I hope to accomplish with this newsletter — connecting the concrete with the intangible, and the cycling of thought with the cycling of movement. My goal is for us to travel further in these spaces and to think deeper as a result. I am continuously inspired by my wife, Angela, who is the reason we are living in Grenada, as she pursues her dream of becoming a doctor in “uncommon” fashion. I read about Offspring’s frontman, Dr. Dexter Holland, who finished his Ph.D in microbiology in 2017 and is “Pretty Fly (For a Virus Guy).” I like how the article ends (spoiler alert):
He’s obviously supremely gifted at songwriting, and at science, too. He’s different. He’s special. He has gifts.
Maybe. But what makes you so sure that you don’t?
I was also happy to see how Norma Geddes, a former nurse who took an art class at the age of 69, is now in her 80s, working with the medium of glass and making pieces that regularly sell out.
I’ve always been a fan of napping. Back in college, I would pop back into my dorm room after a morning class, tell my roommate to wake me up in 4 minutes, and immediately fall asleep. At the apropos time, he’d yell my name and I’d be out the door, on to my next class. To this day I highly value a good, 20-minute mid-afternoon nap and pride myself on the ability to fall asleep almost immediately, even in the most uncomfortable of places. So when I heard the news about Tara Dower running the entirety of the 2,200-mile Appalachian trail in record time (only 40 days, 18 hours; an incredible feat), I was thrilled to find out that she would take 90-second “dirt” naps along the way. But what about the rest of us? If only taking micro naps like this were appropriate for your typical work day. Well in Japanese, there’s a word for taking naps in public places — inemuri — napping in parks, coffee shops, the subway, or even at work. That’s a concept I can embrace. If you’re interested in the versatility of words across languages, two books I’d recommend are The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, by John Koenig and Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World, by Ella Frances Sanders. Both are excellent reads!
I’m a big Jeff Tweedy fan, and “I celebrate the guy’s entire catalog” — especially the Wilco albums from the early 2000s, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and A Ghost Is Born. At the time they were recorded, Tweedy was collaborating heavily with the musician and multi-instrumentalist, Jim O’Rourke. It was O’Rourke who first introduced Jeff Tweedy to Glen Kotche, Wilco’s current drummer who has been with the band ever since YHF. The three of them even formed a side project called Loose Fur that put out a couple of albums during those years. I was recently listening to an episode of NPR’s New Music Friday and learned about a 2002 impromptu concert that O’Rourke did in Japan. He was asked last minute to perform and had to piece together a set using borrowed instruments. I found a bootleg (if the Internet Archives site is down, you can still listen here) of the show, which closes with a beautiful cover of Tracy Chapman’s iconic song, “Fast Car,” one of my favorites. O’Rourke’s drone-infused and atmospheric version goes on for a whopping 33 minutes! In the days of streaming, it’s been a while since I’ve downloaded an album and had to go through the process of adding the files to my Mac’s music library and then transfer them to my phone via a USB cable. It was well worth it.
Thank you all for reading! I hope you found some inspiration for today’s moments, whatever they might be. If you enjoyed reading, go ahead and click subscribe to receive future newsletters.
If you know someone who might be interested in receiving this newsletter, please feel free to pass it along.
Be well and I hope to see you down the road sometime soon!
Eric