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Letter From The Founder
And we’re back again with the highlight of the weekend, with the independent, bottom-up, beauty-seeking and life-affirming replacement for the moribund arts and culture section of the dying broadsheet newspapers.
This week we’ve got new(ish) member Charlie Becker entering the fray with a short piece on Redwoods. We’ve got amateur etymologist/philosopher/wall of text creator Brady back to discuss ‘Positivity’. We’ve got Gavin on his travels, Deepansh with another bookmark (his daily publishing streak is over 100 days now). We’ve got Mr. Schifano inching closer to issue 100 of his incomparable weekly essay series. We’ve got Kieran with the humour and Paul with the forecast. We’ve got stories, podcasts and paintings.
And as always it is delivered to you as a gift, 100% free. You can subscribe to support and in doing so you can access our Discord- the Best Place on the Internet- and join us as a creative contributor.
Or you can sit back, put your feet up, prepare your drink of choice and settle in to a relaxing, funny, thought-provoking, moving and always unique session of reading.
Until next week,
Live well,
Tom.
Essays
Re: learning by Vita
‘I'm also reminded of what true learning feels like. Frustration. Confusion. Rereading of the same paragraph for the 5th time, waiting for it to click. Frankly, I think it's been too long since I dove into the technical intricacies of one of my chosen crafts. Just thinking about it brings the familiar fear of not pushing yourself hard enough.’
Vita is always an insightful read when it comes to learning and mastering your chosen craft. Always a practical lesson, always some genuine insight and I always walk away determined to get better at my craft. Essential reading from an actual practitioner, rather than just another talker.
My Life With Context Switching by Lyle
‘I wouldn’t say I’ve been phoning in this newsletter. But I haven’t exactly been knocking it out of the park either. Like, I probably wouldn’t write those two cliché lines in the previous two sentences back-to-back if I wasn’t writing this at 11:45 pm the night before I’m publishing this piece.’
As well as his skill as a writer (Lyle is selling himself a little short here), what I most admire about Lyle is his searching honesty. We would all do better to take a leaf out of his book. Authentic as always.
The Human Element by Pr0ph3t
‘Reading books like this that reveal the mostly unseen side of any industry can feel a bit disorienting, as what seemed solid is revealed to be anything but trustworthy. When a cultural lightning rod like cryptocurrency is involved, the reactions are predictably heated.’
Pr0ph3t is one of the most interesting voices in the entire crypto space. Without question. Whether the tech excites you or you think it’s all a scam, you need to be reading him. Unique.
The Noonday Demon—Our Metaphysical Laziness by Luke Burgis
‘But ultimately they are proposing technological solutions for what is fundamentally a spiritual problem. A very specific one. Social media is not making us stupid; it’s making us lazy. It is making us a very particular kind of lazy, though.’
Another tour de force from Luke. People use the cliche ‘thinking outside of the box’ all the time, but Luke is one of the few who actually has the tools experience and insight to consistently see around and beyond a given issue. Read this and you will see what I mean.
The Case for Short-Form Storytelling by Frank
Frank gets it. Like Frank, I think short stories are a great and underutilised medium. And the STSC is going to throw our hats into the short story ring and excel at this under-appreciated art form. But before all of that happens you will want to read Frank’s excellent piece here that explores the short story as a medium. Outstanding.
bookmark #376 by Deepansh
‘for a long time now, love has been a fever dream to me. it has been strange, vivid, incomprehensible, and extreme. it has been recovery through an illness i could not yet name, knowing only that i was boiling, seething, sweating as i lay with my eyes closed, unaware of where i was—trapped.’
And to think, Deepansh writes this well and posts his explorations every single day. Extraordinary talent.
Travel Diaries #26 - Pai by Gavin
‘I’ve been told that at the Sunset Bar they serve Happy Shakes, which anyone who’s been to a bar south-east Asia, or even just to some dodgy bar literally anywhere else in the world, knows are milkshakes containing magic mushrooms (I’m not even sure they contain milk to be fair).’
Our man’s South East Asian explorations continue. And fortunately for us he has the keen eye, the wit and the skills to vividly recreate his adventures for us. I never miss an issue.
A Dirge for Eastern Redwoods by Charlie Becker
Say hello to our newest contributor Mr. Charlie Becker. I think he may well be going places. I can’t wait to see where consistency, effort and the feedback of the peerless STSC creative writing braintrust are going to take our man. Up only.
A Distortion of Fact by Charles Schifano
Ostensibly a review/discussion of the book Projections by Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Professor Karl Deisseroth, this is in reality so much more. The amount of insight and simply excellent prose that Charles can fit into such a small space is remarkable. I always learn something and I’m always dazzled by some of his artful sentences. Proud to have him in the STSC.
0 point drinking that by Kieran Moran
Alcohol free alcohol mockery, water-based analogies, puns, bemusement and a surprising amount of good common sense at the heart of it. Kieran is a human bullshit detector given voice. Which is exactly what our confused and confusing times need.
Words, Words, Words - Issue #6: “Positivity” by Brady
Not to pick favourites among all of the STSC regulars (a genuinely impossible task given the breadth and depth of talent on the roster) but I am very, very fond of Brady’s ongoing etymology series. This weeks discussion of ‘positivity’ shows why. Remarkable work. I look forward to having all of these essays gathered into a book some day soon.
Uncanny Abundance by Paul Publisher
If asked, I’m sure most of our writers would not say that they have intentionally strived for originality. And yet here we are. Our resident astrologer and metaphor wielder extraordinaire is a prime example of this. I don’t know of anyone else on earth who does what he does or even could do what he does. As with so many here, he is completely in a league of his own. So put tour scepticism to one side and read what he has to say. You won’t regret it.
Fiction
Before Service by Thomas J Bevan
An old story of mine re-edited and tightened up. Such short glimpses of quiet everyday moments are clearly my forte and my medium so expect many more of them in future months and years. I hope you enjoy this one.
Art
Walking the Grounds by Jeanne Thompson
Podcasts
528hz of Creole Tin by Madspace
It’s got everything Matt fabs have come to love and expect. Southern accents, eating dogshit from Dunkin’ Donuts, manifesting parking spots, naps and lattes, Silicon Valley friggin frigs, high end Ramen noodle instructional videos and much more.
I lost it all (WA #50) by Craig Burgess
After a full day of work and then recording a Tragedies of Modernity episode with me, work horse Craig then recorded his weekly Wednesday Audio episode. His 50th. A cause for celebration until everything went wrong, the file became corrupted and he lost the vast majority of the episode. But our man soldiered on and managed to create a bitter, Muzak filled lemonade from that particular pile of rotten lemons. You have go take your hat off to the man,
TJB Film Recommendation
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949)
D. Robert Hamer
W. John Dighton, Robert Hamer
S. Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood, Alec Guinness
There were some (well one) complaint (I’m looking at you DB) that last weeks film selection wasn’t any good. This may well be true. I was ill and found that all of the ‘good’ films I was attempting to watch were going over my head. But Din Juan DeMarco washed over me in that congested, feverish state quite nicely.
Anyway.
This weeks selection is a stone cold dark comedy classic and I will fight anyone who disagrees. If you have never seen this Ealing Studios masterpiece you need to correct that ASAP. Alec Guinness plays 8 different characters superbly and Dennis Price keeps the whole thing moving as a quintessential Ealing villain ( well spoken, gentlemanly, convinced that what he is doing is right and fair, eventually given to end-of-his-tether anger).
The writing, the performances, the deadpan execution of the (often murderous) gags, everything in this film is as close to perfect as you can get. At 104 minutes and with several genuine belly laughs spread throughout, I’m not sure how this film could be improved. A masterpiece.
Enjoy!
Thank you for reading/listening. Feel free to share this email and the individual authors work and also feel free to leave comments either here or on the authors own sites.
Finally, the latest Tragedies of Modernity episode has been recorded and will be posted up tomorrow at 3pm GMT. As the podcast is such an insider deal we are discussing having it be exclusive to the discord and posting the archive of old episodes there. All the more reason to sign up here as a monthly, annual or founder members and get in on the action.
There are also more changes afoot within the ever-evolving collaborative salon that is the STSC. More news to follow next time. So for now I will simply say thank you for your support and that I look forward to seeing you over at the Social Club Discord.
Cheers!