You’ve noticed, I’ve no doubt, this whole rad place has lost all the fire talk. It’s cause, as mentioned, I’m just not fire. I’m water. Actually, more than most things, I am unicorn, which might not make sense, but that’s ok. I am because I love them.
That means, The Matchbook has morphed itself back into what it shoulda always been, Brain Rain, because that’s what my silly mind does. It just pours, and pours, and I hope most often it doesn’t turn to flooding.
Anyway, today’s Brain Rain is back to what it was before. Random rabbit holes, things I loved, things I’m digging in my life, things I’ve found, bought, eaten, seen, heard, or anything else. It’s a distillation of what’s been occupying my thoughts. I really hope you dig it.
Also, keeping this place alive and keeping me able to write here is a full-time undertaking. If you wanna help keep this unicorn of a spot on the internets alive, you can. Click the button. Join the fam. Anyway, onward.
Here’s the brain raining my mind’s been doing. Enjoy:
The Outrun on Netflix - Scottish film set in the Orkney Islands just off the northern coast, and the first film ever shot on Papa Westray. Emotional, heavy, lonely, gorgeous, and reaffirming. Saoirse Ronan is once again a splendor. Watch this one.
Daughter from Hell by Gracie Abrams - Don’t know why, don’t really care why, but this song is f’ing beautiful and haunting and the lyrics are beautiful and the sound makes some itch in me feel scratched. Give it a listen.
Loose-Fit Lived In Pleated Khakis by American Eagle - Apparently I love pants with pleats? I don’t know why, or the mechanics of why they feel better, but these beauties come in some weird old railroad fabric looking herringbone and they feel like I’ve had them 40 years. Comfort is king. Damn the rest. I bought 2 cause they were only $36.
A Missive from Late Season Fishcamp by Chelsey Cook - Stunning piece of writing that celebrates the heart-stretching, nostalgic aching, beauty of all things being temporary. Our time in a place, the place itself, our blink of an existence. All from the point of view of an amazing writer on the brink of leaving her seasonal home.
I Swear on Netflix - Another Scottish film and this one will leave your entire heart soaked and overfilled and frustrated but somehow relieved and hopeful. I grew up with a friend who had Tourette’s Syndrome in the 80s and 90s and so I was intimately familiar with so much of what the main character experiences. True story, told beautifully, shot just south of Edinburgh. Stunner. Watch it.
Altra Torin 9 shoes - Sarah and I have doven (dived? dove? doved? diven?) headfirst into adding more Zone 2 running into our workout routines, and we’ve been running together because we’re
patheticawesome and do all things together, and neither of us have ever had running shoes that didn’t in some way hurt. These don’t. Wide toebox, zero drop, Vibram grips for the weird roads in Montana, and so far we love the hell out of them. If you just want comfy shoes that you can run or walk in, Altra’s seem to be really weirdly rad and have a cushiness that feels like marshmallows but still somehow stable? Science.Payton Tolle Hug - Watching grown men who play professional ball sports be randomly sweet and unconcerned with their egos or how their masculinity is perceived is vital. Red Sox pitcher paving the way, and bringing some sweetness back to the game.
That’s all she wrote this week. I’d love to know YOUR finds in the comments.
I Love you all.
Be good.
Tyler, Congrats to your ever creative flow of ideas and platforms of expression… like “Brain Rain”. The content is stimulating and thought provoking. Love it!
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While up north this past week, we walked through a number of galleries showcasing nature art. So, I took a second look at the haiku I wrote earlier this week on how photography or painting in the hands of artists like yourself is really like a tender rendering of reality - which no machine can duplicate. Here is the haiku suite i re-wrote:
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“Capturing a view: By negotiating with reality, I am not a passive copy machine; I am the darkroom where a view is curated into art.”
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What the Mind Sees
* I. Captured by the lens, Not a mirror reflection— A created world.
* II. Lenses can’t capture A negotiated view— The mind translates it.
* III. Beyond lens or cloth, Unbound by two dimensions— What a mind renders.
* IV. Looking through the lens, I will not copy the world; I choose to curate.
* V. My reality— Filtered through raw perception, I am the darkroom.
I am currently jet lagged from returning from Kauai Wednesday.
All my finds were on that beautiful island, some physical and some things I found within my own noggin.
Topo Designs has dessert shorts and pants. I absolutely wore those the entire time we explored the island. 10/10 comfy af and they made me look like a true explorer.
Pineapple and coconuts. I found them everywhere I bought them. Obsessed.
I also found the beauty of less. The beauty of calm. The beauty of being present.
That island is pure magic and I have never in my life felt anxious to leave a place. I’m taking the simplicity of island life and applying it to my life here in the mainland.
Obsessed with this song: Sage by Joy Oladokun
Love you all. Don’t forget to drink some water.