Austin Kleon

Text from This Is Orson Welles: PB: There's a line in Lady from Shanghai, "When I start out to make a fool of myself, there's little enough that can stop me. ... Do you feel that's been true in your life-have there been times when you feel you've made a fool of yourself? OW: That's one of those searching, penetrating questions 1 thought we'd avoid PB: You don't want to talk about it? OW: There've been so many occasions I don't know how to begin. PB: Regrets? OW: Millions. But, you know, I like the people who are ready and willing to make fools of themselves-being, as 1 am, a full member of the fraternity. Still, there are lots of nice felines who just can't. PB: Felines? OW: If spiritually you're part of the cat family, you can't bear to be laughed at. You have to pretend when you fall down that you really wanted to be down there just to see what's under the sofa. The rest of us don't at all mind being laughed at. PB: Then you're canine? OW: I'm a comic, anyway, even if I don't wag my tail very often.

The Truth About Cats and Dogs (Orson Welles, 1996).

Biblioburro: The amazing donkey libraries of Colombia Travelling with his two loyal donkeys, Alfa and Beto, Luis Soriano has been spreading the joy of reading to children in rural Colombian communities for over 20 years.

You know what’s even better than a library bus? LIBRARY DONKEY

One of my favourite photos – dated 12 February 1967, but no other details. From this flickr collection of library buses: flic.kr/ps/oGfN8

City Park, New Orleans

Here's some green for you

You could have a whole segment in the newsletter: Anne eBays

Those rule. I’m making this my new thing

God I hate to say this out loud but I bet you could feed AI a Barbara stanwyck movie and it could make a model you could 3-D print 👀 I’m going to look and see if anybody has done this

You don’t need capitalism — you need some high school pottery students! 😂

The PriceMaster 📖💿🎥 Tuesday Trio: One book, one record, and one movie recommendation

When I was watching THE PRICEMASTER for the 20th time recently, I thought, “That Don Quixote bust is killer.” austinkleon.substack.com/p/tuesday-tr...

We need to bring back busts

I MISSED AGAIN PHIL COLLINS

45

Plus, it’s really fun to play with side A / side B, which isn’t possible with playlists
austinkleon.substack.com/t/mixtapes

the mixtape is superior to the playlist precisely because of its limitations: what selections from the maker’s music collection can fit on a C-90. & it was a labor of love, pushing record, stopping just in time, over & over. not to mention intricately thought-out cover art on the insert

LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching YouTube video by owen reiser

@add-hawk.bsky.social reading THE SCORE in the same week I watched the birding documentary LISTERS makes me think you'd really enjoy it (it's about when a ranking/scoring system takes over a pleasurable pasttime!) www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-w...

Working on a new typewriter interview!

Read them all here: austinkleon.substack.com/t/typewriter...

Gotcha!

The only good online fandom left is Dune As corporations take control of nerd culture, science fiction’s most esoteric epic remains gloriously untamed.

Is DUNE fandom still good or is that what you’re referring to? (I remember really liking this piece) theoutline.com/post/5333/du...

It’s hardcover but it’s the same trim so it should match them nicely. (I don’t know if/when there will be a paperback)

Talk to @atrubek.bsky.social

100%. Also: Craziest shit just happened — after I read that one of my best friends from college texted me a photo of him in the delivery room with his new daughter — I DIDNT EVEN KNOW THEY WERE EXPECTING. What a morning

This is a goofy and childish thing to say, but, the good news is that it has occasioned this absolutely terrific essay!

I really can’t imagine missing it. Being in the room both times. The absolute terror but also the elation — how someone wasn’t there and then in an instant they were? Crazy.

My next book: Don’t Call It Art! 10 things worth sharing this week

New book coming out in June! austinkleon.substack.com/p/my-next-bo...

Dude, Value Capture A phrase that has opened up an educational third eye.

Putting your post here so I can read it later! open.substack.com/pub/tjwilson...

Even better: RSS feed of his blog!

i… should really spend more time here. Just followed him (again)

Been wondering what that dude was up to — several of his old pieces live in my head (“why wasn’t I consulted?” For example)

Typewriter interview with Tom Hart 10 questions for the cartoonist about comics, playing the piano, and rediscovering exuberance in your work

Today’s typewriter interview is A+

austinkleon.substack.com/p/typewriter...

Correct.

“In life, the challenge is not so much to figure out how best to play the game; the challenge is to figure out what game you’re playing.”
—Kwame Anthony Appiah