Fogust groove

Hey y’all,

Here are the 10 things I thought were worth sharing this week:

1. “Fogust Groove” is a mixtape I made of a bunch of yacht rock and blue-eyed soul I played for my kids while we were driving around the coast of California last week.

   

   I first heard these songs as a kid listening to my mom’s car radio tuned to “Sunny 95” (94.7 FM) out of Columbus, Ohio, so this mix is a bit of, in the words of the poet, “his nostalgic tale.” You can listen to the mix on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube. Here’s a video of me making the mixtape:

3. Anything can be the start of a learning experience if you meet kids where they are: When we were on the Embarcadero and driving around the Bay Area, they got to see with their own eyes how Bob’s Burger’s is set in New Jersey, but actually looks like San Francisco. (We also got to see a bunch of locations from Hitchcock pizza night hit Vertigo!)

4. “You can just choose to believe that most kids are fine and they have a lot to teach you. That’s actually a much more fruitful, more engaging way of thinking about the world than it is thinking the kids are all stupid, like they need to be taught, they need to be corralled, they need to be kept under control.” Earlier this summer online lit mag The Rumpus was rebooted by Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman, so it was my pleasure to be interviewed in one of the new issues about kids, creativity and middle age.

   

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5. Last time we were at IKEA I bought a bunch of paper roll holders and used a Sharpie Paint Marker to turn them into what I’m calling “The Doomscroller.” Here’s a little reel I made using one:

7. I like the idea of writing a letter to yourself and folding it up for later.
   
   

9. A good question from reader Gail: “What inspired the typewriter interviews?”
   
   A few years ago I wanted to interview the poet Mary Ruefle, but she doesn’t use a computer or Zoom. I thought back to how much I liked a typed interview I saw with the poet Joy Williams, so I thought I would steal the idea and suggest it to Ruefle’s publicist. My only real innovation was 1) mailing out small pieces of yellow paper that I thought would show up well on little screens 2) making it into an ongoing series.

10. The latest typewriter interview is with author and illustrator Julia Rothman:

    

    I love the way Julia described the project on her Instagram: “It comes through snail mail and you need to answer on the same papers and mail it back. I was so worried about making a creative family tree and I avoided it until the end. But ultimately it gave me a chance to look hard at what my biggest influences have been from childhood (the ground) to now (the branches). What a great exercise. (I realize I left some people off by mistake- esp Jason Polan)…”

Thanks a ton for reading. This Friday email is free but not cheap. If you’d like to support this hand-rolled publication, buy my books and become a paid subscriber:

xoxo,

Austin

P.S. Thanks to Jo Scott for this painting of Don’t Call it Art!