I’ve cultivated a new ritual for the summer. Every Saturday morning, I bike six miles to a cafe for espresso and a pastry. I spend several hours reading, writing, often just chatting with friends. Then I bike six miles back in the early afternoon.

I don’t know what I’m going to do when it gets cold again.

---

This month’s playlist:

Stray

The “cat game” is worth your time. The mechanics are minimal and the puzzles simple. The experience is exquisite and brief. It’s a wonderfully written interactive short story.

The ending gave me chills. I nearly shed a tear. Left my heart full and warm.

Bound

The Wachowskis’ directorial debut has been on my list to watch for years. I immediately bought a ticket when my independent theater announced it would be playing.

The visual language feels like a rehearsal for The Matrix which was released four years later. Unsurprising, since Bill Pope was involved with both. You won’t see bullet time here. But the staging, elaborate camera moves, and playful shots feel exciting and familiar. A wide, macro close-up down the barrel of a gun. A shot speeding along the coils of a phone line accompanied by cartoonish whipping sounds. An effortless blend of humor, violence, and tension.

Neo-noir well worth the watch.

The Bear

The Bear is not a perfect show. I find its symbolic dream sequences/visions ham-fisted. But this is overshadowed by earnest, humorous characters all trying their best. These downtrodden aspire to hope.

This show pursues the same positive vulnerability that Ted Lasso is lauded for, but does not share its overbearing optimism. Characters grieve, try to share their brokenness, and fail. This is what makes this season’s seventh episode so impactful. Not only is it a brilliantly choreographed continuous shot, it perfectly destroys all the well-intentioned work that built to that point.

It shines brightly in its imperfection.

Mere Christianity

I’ve staunchly refused to read any of C.S. Lewis’ nonfiction. Nonfiction is boring. Theology books are a waste of time. The man already transformed my spirituality with his fiction in Chronicles and The Great Divorce.

But I respect Lewis. So I’ve been picking up and putting down Mere Christianity for over a year. It is a little simplistic and old-fashioned, though I suppose I’m not the audience for this book. I appreciate that fact. The last few chapters caught my interest though. He starts jumbling philosophy, theology, physics, and ends up proposing the Creator is a higher dimensional being to explain the nature of the Trinity. He also concludes humans are less real because of our restricted view of time.

That’s the good shit. Make me feel infinitesimal beneath the eyes of God and the universe.

---

This month I also wrote a short piece of fiction, but I haven’t found the right photo to go with it yet.