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“Next time is next time. Now is now.” —Hirayama

After last week’s newsletter, Matt Stanley sent me a text: “The Wim Wenders link reminded me: did you see his film Perfect Days? I just watched it the other day and fell in love with it. It ties in nicely with some of the Luddite themes you hit on.” I admitted I had not seen it yet, and immediately found it on Kanopy, and I’m so glad I did. It’s quiet and contemplative, but beautiful. Buddhist even. It’s got an interesting backstory, and like most things on the internet, heavily debated. Some even went so far as to say Wim Wenders’ interpretation of the film was wrong.

A coworker recently mentioned that his favorite thing about snow is “shin shin.”

When I was a staff photographer at the St. Petersburg Times, we’d often be asked to pitch a story in one or two sentences. Any more than that and you were rambling and didn’t quite grasp what the story was about yet. You might have an idea… But not a story. Not yet, anyway. Then as the story was nearing publication, and we were presenting the work, getting edited, and drilling in on the essence of what should be kept and what should be cut, we’d hone in on a theme. Often one word. All that to say, I love how Zied Ben Romdhane talks about his project on Tunisian youth. And he knows what he’s trying to document: malaise.

I heard a podcast interview with Ivan McClellan and immediately looked up his work on black cowboys. Even more impressive than that, he started his own rodeo.

Ah, yes… the perennial question.