How it's going so far in March.
It means summer's are unproductive!
How it went in February
This is memoir.
Think of how awful you'd feel if you had hundreds.
Sounds even more exciting than I thought! 😂
That's really exciting!
When it's Friday night and the feeling's right.
Very cool
"If ecstasy means we are taken over by something, we become an occupied country, the audience to an intensity we are only the proscenium for."
Jack Gilbert, The Great Fires: Poems, 1982–1992, page 112
How it went in January.
I'm reading In A Lonely Place and it's just amazing how Dorothy B. Hughes' prose can suddenly lift off into pure poetry as soon as the rational stops being useful then come back down again in an instant. Such a well written novel.
I keep returning to a question about closeness after isolation—what small groups give us, what they demand, and how they shape who we become.
New essay up: A Question About Closeness After Isolation
adrian-astur-alvarez.ghost.io/a-question-a...
Impossible to explain to non-writers how a very personal rejection letter from a top tier magazine editor is really good news.
Oh man I just tried one. Pretty pretty pretty... pretty good. 😁
I'm always down for that!
I tried my hand at a Levain copycat recipe. It's hard to go wrong with any chocolate chip cookies but I like how these turned out.
How it's going so far in January.
I'm floored. I mean when we left this is where I thought we might be headed but I had no idea things would get this bad this fast. Stay safe. Even the worm will turn.
This is unbelievable. Things have gotten so out of control.
That's a fascinating idea. I love it. Listening is so vital and makes up such an important part of our work and yet I think I've taken it for granted.
What is your most personal theory of writing?
adrian-astur-alvarez.ghost.io/why-is-this-...
I keep thinking about Eephus, the way it crafted atmosphere so beautifully out of loss in the negative spaces between dialogue & plot. It's like how men tend to sit side by side when they talk, the characters aren't allowed to spell out their emotions, just have them. It's so baseball. boxd.it/KzLW
Wow. I guess I need to see The Mastermind!
...and the last activity I track every year: board games. Like 2024, Streetcar Suburb dominated. I played in quite a few tournaments. Otherwise, it was the usual mix of 18xx titles and some others bc of my son, who is finally old enough to be interested.
282 films logged and 200 reviewed. I didn't hit 365 movies this year but I maintained Peter Cushing as my most watched actor so all is well. letterboxd.com/Bazinfan/yea...
Time for all the end of the year stats. Do we like these? Are they useful? I don't know but here's what I read in 2025. Favs: my first Gerald Murnane, everything by Diane Seuss, American Pastoral, and Salka Valka.
Eating sushi in Spain is wild. This roll came with Rice Krispies for some reason.
Thanks Kelly. He was truly tireless when it came to helping others.
