PicoBlog

There is this hilarious guy named Anatoly on social media, releasing videos of himself outlifting humongous body builder types. Guys with huge biceps. Anatoly weighs 170 pounds. He is disguised as a janitor, and is mopping the floor around these guys deadlifting more than 300 pounds. While they are resting, he nonchalantly lifts and moves the barbell with one hand!, while still holding the mop with the other hand. There are hundreds of these examples.

Simple climate action  //   I S S U E   # 4 4  //   FUNERALS The death industry has come up with all sorts of expensive ways to die. One of the most inventive (and at $1,500 a relative bargain) is the mushroom death suit. In theory, as author Eric Bruist explains, it cleanses your corpse and rids the body of toxins as it returns to the Earth. But the truth is our preoccupations with purity (decomposition) or immortality (artificial preservation) get in the way of something nature has already perfected quite well.

“At "Musically Speaking" Jarrod Richey mounts a thorough (and cheerful) defense of traditional church music and hymnody. And he offers practical advice on how to restore to worship congregational singing, how to teach people what has become a lost skill. If you love real church music and want to learn more about it, visit Musically Speaking, where you will find soul-elevating essays and content. ” ncG1vNJzZmiikae%2FsLDRopqhnaljwLau0q2YnKNemLyuew%3D%3D

Back in early July, I foretold the coming of My Neighbor Felix at The Promenade Shops at Briargate. Do you like how I made that sound like I read the future from tea leaves or something, instead of a press release I was sent? (Yeah, me too. Makes me sound smart and important, like “this guy really knows his stuff.”) Anyway, to briefly recap: It’s the fourth location for the brand, with the other three spread between LoHi Denver, Boulder and Centennial.

The Internet can be a weird place. Case in point: If there’s one article I’ve written that’s resulted in the most death threats, it was one describing the raw diet I developed for my dogs three years ago.  The deeply stupid place that social media has devolved into is why I’m building this little newsletter/online community. I’ve developed a really good relationships with a lot of my readers over the years, and a lot of of you guys reach out regularly for help around the topics I write about.

2023 has been another busy year, filled with more flights from LAX to DC than I care to count. Amidst those bumpy flights and late nights, I sought refuge in books, a lifelong practice that helped me survive rough and tumble siblings and being a single mom.  In no particular order, here are ten of my favorite books I read this past year. Several are debut novels, so follow these authors for future books too.

Pitchfork was how I knew the internet was working. Every morning for almost 24 years, my day has started with command-T in the left hand, a quick "pi" in the right. My fingers defaulted to the combination at some point, I don’t know when. It isn’t uncommon for half my browser tabs to be the front page of Pitchfork. My degrees say otherwise, but in college what I studied was the history of recorded music.

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedIt’s my birthday. I am fifteen wishing I was twenty, I am with Julienne walking up Washington Street,  and she is definitely twenty,  or maybe even older,  and I love her, and to me  she is everything, everything, everything. My mom says she is a nymphomaniac- but I don’t know what that means. My best friend Russ and I agree:  a nymphomaniac likes having lots of sex, and I am walking up the street beside Julienne because I want her to have lots of sex with me.

1. ha! (Changed to haR) When I took my best friend Anna to get us matching tattoos for her twenty-fifth birthday, I knew it was the kiss of death. Our friendship had already been tenuous, the stench of resentment emanating from her and desperation leaking from me. I wanted us to be bonded for life, our first initials an acronym for all the laughs we’d shared over the years. But at twenty-three, I was naive to think this could work.