La Grande Bellezza

The Surreal Beauty Of Backwards In Reverse

This guy walked through Tokyo, for nine hours, backwards. Now he plays you that video in reverse...

Today in Tokyo

Tokyo is world-famous for its urban density, so it’s no surprise that the legendarily packed city subways would capture photographer Michael Wolf’s imagination. Wolf’s work largely concentrates on how people move within metropolises, whether he’s trolling the Internet for Google street views or gazing through the windows of city dwellers. The series that has perhaps struck the biggest chord is the arresting commuter photos in Tokyo Compression—a third volume was just published last month by Peperoni Books and Asia One Books.

No Ego

We all try to impress each other, all day long. Not Wil S. Hylton though. He's a successful longform journalist who didn't even graduate from high school:

I guarantee that I am the least educated person in this room, and I'm totally good with that. And that's the way it should always feel as a reporter. If you are doing the job right, you should constantly be surrounded by people who know much more about the subject than you ever will. There is no point in interviewing people who know less than you. 

Bedtime Story

In #stuffthatwarmsandbreaksyourheart: A local rescue has a program called Book Buddies where kids read to sheltered cats to sooth them.

This Melancholy Life

There is something disheartening about the snappy happiness of a lot of syndicated American podcasts. It can make you feel really lonely.

And you wonder - who are they doing it for? A listener is usually listening alone, in a bubble of quiet, with all receptors for subtle emotions stretched wide...

That's why this personal essay is just perfect. It sounds as if it's made for a tiny audience, not even of one, more private than that. Something as personal as a diary. It doesn't have a strong structure, just like your brain doesn't. And just like your brain it takes leaps of free association, from one thought to the next. Some of them lonely, some happy, some pensive. Some just matter-of-factly.

It's like being inside someone else's mind, just for a bit. I could listen to this stuff all day.

Thank you Jennifer Deer.

* Listen to Sampson here.