Root Simple

I just finished Haruki Murakami’s memoir-ish writing/running book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and I think it’s the clearest and most concise writing I’ve read about what it feels like to run.

I’m on the always inspiring Garden Fork podcast this week talking with “East Coast Eric” about my adventures in 3D printing, woodworking disasters, and a really useful note taking program called Obsidian.

I never thought I’d want or need a 3D printer but, somewhat impulsively, I picked one up on a buy nothing group I belong to.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted here.

I helped a friend take two cats she’s currently fostering to Santé D’Or to get their shots and I got to hang out with all the foster babies for a few minutes.

When I see wildly divergent movie reviews I know to head straight to the theater.

One of the many benefits of woodworking as a hobby is the privilege of customizing furniture to fit your house.

Forth of July fireworks here in Los Angeles start up in June with random explosions, including a few at odd hours, like 4:30 a.m.

An errand took me back into Los Angeles from my Pomona pet sitting gig today and I wanted to follow up on yesterday’s post about what’s going on.

To travel from one place to another, particularly in this, our fragmented postmodern age means to traverse liminal border spaces: highways, airport waiting rooms, bus depots, interstate highways–what Fredric Jameson calls the “hyperspace” of late stage ca…

I’ve discovered, as an Apple cult member since the 1980s, that their devices tend to last.

Kelly and I made a pilgrimage this weekend to friend of the blog Daniel Hawkins’ spectacular and improbable Desert Lighthouse.

“East Coast” Eric over at Garden Fork has a new newsletter called Cool Stuff and it’s full of, well, cool stuff–like growing rhubarbs in the dark, waterproof Airtags for your puppers, and lots of pictures of puppers.

Loaf fail!

José García Hidalgo, Levitation of St.

This week I managed to cross off a years-in-the-waiting “honey-do” request from Kelly: fixing the busted drawers in a built-in hallway cabinet.

If you’re a local you can do a favor for two of the many victims of the fires.

I have a goal in 2025 of reducing the number of subscriptions that parasitize my bank account.

I had hoped to begin the year with a few lighter posts about projects around the house, but the events of the past week have started 2025 off on a dark note.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Harrowing of Hell Early this morning a neighbor texted a photo of a charred page from a screenplay that landed on his roof over the night.

When I asked a friend what he was going to do for New Year’s Eve he told me that he was going to go to bed like he always does.

Even though it seems like Christmas cards are less of a thing (we get fewer every year) Kelly and I wanted to send some out.

Detail of a miniature of the Nativity, from the Bedford Hours, France (Paris), c. 1410 via Medieval Manuscripts.

A traveling exhibit from the Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum landed at Japan House this month and it’s both a fascinating look at the intricacies of Japanese joinery as well as a beautiful example of how to do good exhibit design.

“What I always expect from history is surprises, and surprises which I still haven’t succeeded in explaining, although I have made great efforts to understand.” – Jacques Lacan The Structuralist Controversy: The Languages of Criticism and the Sciences of…

I gave a neighbor’s high school kid a ride to school last week and when he got into our beater car he informed me that the interior, “smells like a Jersey Mikes.”

There’s a hole in my late night soul once occupied by the late, great Art Bell.

Our first book The Urban Homestead went to print just as the financial crisis of 2008 hit and its success I attribute, in part, to the well known fact that in times of economic stress people turn to subjects such as growing food, canning, mending, and pre…

Given the outsized coverage of the U.S. presidential reality show in the past eight years it seems that the old cliche “all politics is local” no longer holds.

When we first moved back to Los Angeles in 1998 I had a recurring dream that our house had many more rooms than I knew about.

Friend of the blog Lee sent me this meme and I really wish we lived in a universe where this was real. 10 year anniversary of the Detectorists The joy of clutter On fairy tales

One tip instead of a link this week: Sahara rockers Etran de L’Aïr are touring North American and you should go see them if you have a chance.

I wrote about it earlier this summer but want to remind my California friends to download the MyShake app.

When I was up in San Francisco visiting family my friends there thoughtfully gifted me with a snack for my long Amtrak journey back to LA, Snoop Dogg’s O.G.

James Turrell Skyspace at the de Young Museum, San Francisco.

The before and after horrors of SF Daily Photo.

Meme via @OpenlyGayAliens I was binging the Garden Fork podcast and the host Eric mentioned the importance of colonoscopies.

Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning Oscar Wilde’s house decorating tips Cookies!

When the memes hit.

The last time I was on the Garden Fork Podcast, the host, “East Coast Eric” challenged me to build a Free Blockbuster Little Library and I finally made good on the promise.

The Tomb Effigy of François de Sarrà: A Grim Reminder of Mortality (Via @silverlakelee) Are songs from God?

The problem with watching films by Andrey Tarkovsky is that they make every other film seem like a waste of time.

I’m working on a longer post on this subject that I’ll put up when I’m finished reading the Tanizaki Junichiro essay, “In Praise of Shadows” that this NHK doc is based on.

The price we pay, here in Los Angeles, for not having hurricanes and tornadoes (for the most part) is the ever present threat of an earthquake.

Paintings of cats stealing food Where Facebook’s AI Slop Comes From The tiny gardens of Anne Ashberry Dog starts a house fire in Tulsa, Oklahoma We close with a joke for my LA friends

The Attainment; Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival by Edward Burne-Jones (1891-1894) Back in May I began an overly ambitious look at why we’re all addicted to our devices via the ancient concept of Acedia.

Kelly and I attended a screening last night of a new documentary, seven years in the making, profiling the work of Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam, best known for the book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community.

Vintage Smart (Fully Intact) FM Radio Uncover the Secret Lives of Snakes Strolling in the back alleys where the Enoden runs in Kamakura Help undue medical debt