A weekly selection of what I was reading, drawing, writing, and doing.

Look for art everywhere, and sick jumps on Mars:

A great summary of what it is like to run the NYC marathon:

I have never left my house to go cheer for people running any sort of footrace, and I don’t know if I understand what motivates people to do it, but I am thankful that they do it. I don’t know why they care if perfect strangers feel encouraged and/or even loved for a few hours as they struggle through the streets—all I can say is that I have never felt so supported doing anything in my entire life as I have in New York during the marathon. I imagine it’s something like a basketball player feels as they step up to the foul line with the chance to put their team ahead with one second remaining on the clock, and the crowd stands up, cheers, claps, and fills the arena with noise—but when you’re running the marathon, there’s no possibility of letting anyone down. The ball will not bounce off the back of the rim. You just keep moving forward. Even if you staggered and passed out on the street, I have a feeling you’d be immediately carried off the course and to medical assistance within seconds by two to six New Yorkers. Actually, they might just pick you up and half-carry you down the race course until you got your feet under you again, who knows.

Hunter S Thompson was almost certainly an asshole:

This summary of a biography is damning but entertaining, just like the writer.

The case he makes for Thompson’s prose being the equal of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s is both compelling and downright forensic. One of the most famous parts of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the so-called Wave Passage, which compares the rise and fall of America’s hippie movement to an actual ocean wave that swelled, crested, and crashed. Wills examines this passage on a granular level, showing how, by varying the number of syllables per line, Thompson created a passage that, when plotted out on a graph (and he includes the graph), actually describes the rise and fall of a large wave. He demonstrates how the final passage of The Great Gatsby, Thompson’s favorite book, which also deals with waves (“So we beat on, boats against the current…”), describes an almost identical wave pattern.

High White Notes: The Rise and Fall of Gonzo Journalism—A Review

A reminder to take care of yourself and be kind:

Send me everything I want before I want it:

What I wrote and drew about this week:

What I did, was reminded of, or was thankful for last week:

• I met with a friend that I’m helping to build a site for her mural painting business. I love working with friends and/or interesting people and helping them with tech-y stuff. I’m really grateful to be able to do it.
• I started playing around with Affinity Photo and am thinking about getting an iPad + Apple pencil next year to do some digital art with Procreate or Affinity Designer or something else?
• We went out to stay by the beach in Troon and visited Culzean Castle last weekend. Troon and the nearby town of Ayr is one of our favorite areas to go. More on this in a separate post.

Last but not least, check out what I’m up to now.