Welcome! It was the week when Mario seemed Super, indeed. It was the week when people went wild for Barbie. And it was the week when we learned that they are not waiting very long to make the live-action remake of Moana. Let's get to it.
This notebook will change everything
From time to time on social media, you'll see reflections on a now-familiar idea: a blank notebook as a sign of a magical fresh start. Sometimes, this is treated as particular to writers, but not always. Perhaps the notebook is not for large writing projects, but just for journaling, or planning the week. Maybe it's not a notebook at all, but a new rainbow of pens, laid out in a row, next to a blank book with a colored cover -- I favor the Leuchtturm1917, myself, in the dotted format.
Let's be honest: In a lot of ways, electronic calendars are much easier, more efficient and clean. You can click on an appointment and move it around, delete it, copy it. Recurring meetings multiply neatly, and if you like, you can tell your calendar that they continue forever into the future, as if in 2052, you'll still be going to that 12:30 standup on Wednesdays. Filling up a notebook with blue lists, purple appointments, red to-do items, and tiny x-marks populating a habit tracker takes longer. You might even need, I kid you not, white out -- AKA liquid paper -- which we used to use in the olden days to cover mistakes made in pen. They make it in the form of tape now, so you don't have to paint it on like nail polish and blow on it.
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There is always something self-deprecating about these "this notebook will solve all my problems" confessions. Of course the notebook will not solve anything on its own, we know this. But can I tell you something? I really, really love a new notebook. I love drawing lines with a ruler. I have a set of stencils for journaling that I can use to draw rows, as well as columns of small boxes, circles, and hexagons I can color in one at a time as I finish tasks, like a modestly more sophisticated version of the gold stars stickers I always hoped for from my teachers.
When I was in law school, my brain was a jumble, but the notes I made to study for exams were beautiful. I put cases in one color, rules of law in another color -- it got to the point where at the end of each semester, classmates would watch me go to work and say, "Ohhh, here come the pens." I wish I still had those outlines. Not for the information they contained, but for the way they memorialized the most organized moment of my academic life.
For the good of the trees, it is admittedly not ideal to accumulate paper notebooks you don't use up. So I wish I could tell you it scratches the same itch to turn to a new page in a blank book I already have rather than getting a new one, because it would mean less paper, not to mention less clutter. But I think the fact that I itch for it to be a whole new volume connects on a cellular level with the very idea of a new book, and that a new book is a new story. Maybe because I grew up opening books written by other people as starting points for discovery, opening a book hits different pleasure centers than firing up an app -- even if the book is blank.
I wish I were too rational to be heartened by a new book crying out to be decorated by a pretty array of pens, but I never will be. I will always believe in the profound power of this ritual of the new journal, just like so many other people do. This time, for sure, I will gather up all the complicated fragments of planning and controlling and scheduling my life, connecting myself to all the people I care about, and getting myself out of the house now that I work at home. I will put it all in a book, and anything that's in a book ... well, it might not be literally true, but it will feel true.
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We Recommend
The lovely John Moe invited me to appear on his new podcast Sleeping With Celebrities, in which various people explain some topic or other in the most sleep-inducing way possible, to help you drift off. I covered one of the subjects in which I have an unreasonable amount of expertise: the early seasons of Melrose Place.
I strongly recommend this interview with Philadelphia Phillies player Bryce Harper, in which, among other things, he discusses his affinity for the work of the romance writer Elle Kennedy.
Also recommended: Josh Gondelman has a list out of the 12 Most Boston Celebrities, Ranked By Boston-ness.
What We Did This Week
David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah star in Rye Lane/Hulu
I recapped the second episode of this season of Succession, in which karaoke made an appearance. I'll be recapping the one this weekend, as well, so stay tuned.
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