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Letter From The Founder
Honestly every week I could cut and paste the same thing here. And I could do this only because the work is both so consistent and so consistently great from the Social Club members.
On any given week you can virtually guarantee that Gav is gonna have a great travel piece, Deepansh is gonna have a pocket-sized uncapitalised nugget of wisdom, Craig and Matt are gonna make you laugh in audio form, Kieran Moran is gonna make you laugh in print form, Brady is gonna blow your mind with some philosophy and Tony is gonna equally but differently blow your mind this the exuberance of his stream of conscience pieces.
Plus you know there is gonna be a piece of genuinely excellent fiction as well as some optimism from Theofuturist and some real perspective on life from Lyle. And you also know Vita is gonna write something that mentions chopping wood or snow or death marches or procrastination.
So this week has no surprises. Exactly what regular readers have come to expect. It’s all as welcoming and comforting as the chair and slippers and beverage that I hope you enjoy as part or your weekly Omnibus ritual.
Until next week,
Live well,
Tom.
Essays
I actually like living in the suburbs, thank you very much by Lyle
The title says it all. In his patented style Lyle lays out why he never did move to San Fransisco after all.
‘The suburbs aren’t complex. There’s no deep truth hidden within them. No pretentiousness. You don’t need to peel back the layers of the onion to unveil their secrets. They’re just there, with their cards laid face up on the table.’
And there’s something to be said for that.
Travel Diaries #22 - Café By Gav
“You spend all your time talking, not working. You are an expatriate, see? You hang around cafés.”
~ Ernest Hemingway
I don’t know about you but this is pretty much the dream for me and one that I am working towards with some diligence. Maybe you can switch cafe for beach on certain days. But Gav’s latest on Vietnam cafe culture is possibly his best work yet. ‘Life is a cafe and it’s cafes all the way down’ is a line that resonated deeply.
Bookmark #300 by Deepansh
A great shirt meditation on artistic greatness, suffering and the nonsense impliedmin both of these idea(l)s.
‘i must try to write more about the days when nothing ever happened—when i walked only to walk, when i drank only to have a drink, and when i was by myself not out of loneliness but happenstance.’
The Barbell Ethics of Modernity by Luke Burgis🔒
As Dickens said ‘it was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’ And as Luke elegantly argues this is especially true today. The present moment is the best and worst simultaneously, as Rene Girard himself argued:
‘Girard knew that markets have lifted more people out of poverty in a shorter period of time than any other era in history. Modern markets have ‘saved’ more people from poverty while at the same time producing more victims, in absolute terms. Victims include those who are locked out of markets, exploited by them, or punished by them.’
This is an in depth piece for subscribers to Luke’s Substack. It is well worth the few $ it costs to sign up.
Friendship is Magic ✨by Theofuturist
The first in a new series from Theofuturist called ‘field notes from the future.’ On the title alone, and on our mans previous body of work, I’m in. This is optimistic (as we have come to expect), thought provoking and deeply practical. I can’t wait for the next instalment.
The Age of Existential work By Vita Benes
‘Technological progress has eliminated much of the mundane-yet-satisfying work, and left us with vague and abstract ideas to somehow bring to life in a useful way. There is also no peace to be found in physical exertion at the end of the day, unlike with manual work.’
Our resident wood chopper/programmer is uniquely positioned to compare what hard graft and moving numbers on a screen do to our minds and bodies. A great piece here.
Let's Get Psychophysical - Newsletter #20 by Kevin Mackay
If you write or spend long hours sitting for work, posture expert Kevin’s work is absolutely vital. Especially this latest piece on ‘posture springs’. Give it a read and implement the advice. Your back will thank you.
Words, Words, Words - Issue #3: “Philosophy” by Brady
Brady is back with another dense BWoT (Brady’s Wall of Text) this time on the subject of philosophy itself. Going from ancient Greece to Dr Johnson’s Rasselas (which Brady correctly identifies as being like Candide but actually good) Brady surveys this massive subject and in doing so possibly adds to your own store of wisdom. Outstanding.
Light Sleeper (1992) by Thomas J. Bevan
Here I review the classic (and under-seen) Paul Schrader film Light Sleeper. A ghostly drug-dealing Willem Defoe wondering around a permanently midnight NYC dreamscape- what’s not to love.
Witching Hour By Tony Zentelis
Nightwalker/degenerate drunk Tony rambles on about tequila, the witching hour of 3am, low phone batteries and other such topics. And like having had a few too many and walking home blindly it turns out that you do always arrive at a destination after all. There is a moral in there somewhere.
Does absinth make the heart grow fonder? By Kieran Moran
I have heard of Valentines. I had not, until I read this piece heard of the rival holiday ‘Galentines’. But now I have you have to learn about it to. Kieran is taking us all down with him. And we’ll have a few laughs as we sink into this particular capitalism induced pit of despair at least.
Against The Novel of Validation By Charles Schifano
‘Most readers, unfortunately, follow Serena’s earlier quote about being the basest of readers—they want a novel that provides a mirror of their world, one that reflects in fiction what they experience in life. And it requires a bit of charity to not consider this a solipsistic desire. What the reader feels and thinks and has already experienced is what the novel of validation delivers.‘
Charles delivers the goods yet again with this exploration of the novel as form and what readers want and need from fiction.
Fiction
Another War By GKGaius
A short dialogue piece of flash fiction on war. Evocative and says a lot with very, very little. Which is a real skill in and of itself.
Rita the Rockstar by Yuelian Hong
A beautiful short story about a young girl and her violin. But there’s much more to it than that. As with all good fiction, rather than describe it I want to simply emplore you to read it. It is an experience, after all.
Podcasts
Counterfeit Culture Continued by Madspace
This week Matt takes us deeper down the ‘your cinnamon is fake’ rabbit hole as well as talking about Japanese wagyu, kissing fingers, the evil of seed oils, the best places to eat in NYC on a food tour and more.
SATIRE INT IT (WA #40) by Craig Burgess
NO LET ME TELL YOU!
We can add this to the list of iconic one liners that alleged satirist Craig has gifted the Social Club. If you aren’t a Wednesday Audio regular ai pity you. Or is it envy you? I can’t be sure anymore. But either way I’m a WA lifer now, for good or ill. It’s multi-layered int it?
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, Craig and I will be recording another episode of the Podcast That Must Not Be Named tomorrow at 8pm GMT. The subject- loosely- is the class system.
We’ll host it and record it live from the Discord and then post it onto this Substack on Monday.
All exclusive for STSC premium subscribers.
So if you want to hear that either live or via recording (and if you want to join our ranks and contribute your work) then click the button below and choose either monthly, annual or founder member.
I look forward to seeing you over at the Social Club Discord.
Cheers!