Before it became a metaphor of the modern individual, the "summit position" was a literal position of European and Catholic dominance in the early modern colonial world. The Spanish flexed their cultural, theological, and architectural might by building temples on sacred mountains and other temples.
Sounds promising.
Incredible story about Bob Weir who in his old age was out there shoveling sand.
Spent January researching the Virgin Mary's mountain appearances. Started with one book, ended up three hours deep in a database of Nahuatl hieroglyphs wondering where my afternoon went. This is the creative K-hole. The bad books might lead you somewhere you never expected to go. Read more:
Forget to turn off your sprinklers?
🤦♂️
Thanks for all the replies! We’re not alone, after all. I feel compelled to note an obvious point: how many of the hard sciences also need to justify themselves. All disciplines are facing external pressures!
I’ve heard that one before, but I’ve always understood it to be true. Can you unpack for me how it is false? Genuinely curious here.
The fact that we must constantly make the case is tiring, and it speaks to society's failure in seeing the obvious. Worst of all, the "case" we make is out of touch. "It makes us better citizens" is lame. Why do we justify our love for music, poetry, or phil in terms of political virtue?
Are the humanities the only disciplines whose classes begin with modules speaking to the importance of studying the humanities? "Why study the humanities?" and "Why the humanities are important" must be cliches.
This administration is only happy when it has someone by the throat… and other body parts.
Anyone tuning in to watch Alex Honnold free solo Taipei 101? It is called Skyscraper Live and will be streamed on Netflix in a few hours. I don’t think I have the stomach to watch…
My son turns two in a few weeks and his favorite song? Verdi’s La Traviata (Act II: Noi Siamo). Mommy and daddy don’t listen to Verdi, at least not before. 🤷♂️
That's really tight. That said, 25 years ago, I kept a 50mm on my apsc Nikon for about a year. It was fun and fast.
Join us for our first podcast! We talk with the amazing Alexandra Cotofana about landscape sentience in the Romanian Carpathians and the concept of xenophobic mountains.
shorturl.at/DfOrj
@jeremybassetti.com @julianhoffman.bsky.social @willdalrymple.bsky.social @edithmayhall.bsky.social
I can't English today.
What a beautiful and important work the 16th-century Florentine Codex is, available for transcribed from the Spanish and Nahuatl and translated into English. florentinecodex.getty.edu
Wow
Random House’s name comes to mind here. Even they know: what sells and what doesn’t is a bit random.
I chair the acquisitions meeting of @reaktionbooks.bsky.social, an independent publisher. We're open to unsolicited book proposals: history, art, music, film, food, animal studies and any great indefinable non-fiction book ideas you might have. Check out the list and get in touch.
Fare thee well, Bobby Weir.
I wrote about what went wrong and how I'm fixing it in 2026: jeremybassetti.com/fieldnotes/2...
An email magnet sounds like marketing jargon, but it is something of value you give to your "audience" and readers for signing up to your email list. It works.
The formula: create things ("produce content" 🤮) regularly + direct people to your email magnet. I stopped doing both. Bad move. 🧵2/3
⚠️ Gross Platforming Chatter ⚠️
My newsletter lost subscribers at a 3:1 ratio last year. Not great. The main culprit was twofold: not showing up online and removing my "email magnet" — a free PDF I gave people in exchange for signing up. 🧵1/3
Spent 2025 building roots underground while everything looked dead from the surface. Launched On Mountains. Made it to Bolivia. Published 38 posts. The exhaustion is real, but so is the foundation I'm laying. End-of-year review: jeremybassetti.com/fieldnotes/2...
You can edit raws in bridge, but not as powerfully as you can in LR or PS. Not sure if it can read the LR catalog.
Adobe Bridge. Free organization software for the raw files.
The Carpathian Mountains punish invaders and shelter defenders in Romanian national memory. This 'mountains as protectors' idea appears from ancient Mesopotamia to modern Afghanistan.
A modern folktale
Maybe not “crazy,” but when I opened a folio from the early 18th century, pounce or sand fell out… suggesting not many people had opened it between its writing and me.
