a mix of stuff to read and look at
get your black friday deals elsewhere... we're enriching your mind
RS: hello friends of nmjc. it has been 48 days since october 7th. it scares me to realize that most people around me have stopped paying attention to palestine. our lives continue as usual, while half of all residential buildings in gaza have been demolished. can you imagine half of the homes in your city destroyed in a matter of weeks?
i don’t do a single thing without thinking of the people in gaza. when i brush my teeth, shower, go to work, fill my belly, go surfing, i think of all the people who don’t have any of these simple privileges through no fault of their own. there is certainly an element of tribalism here – when i watch these videos i see myself and my family members – but ultimately we are all human and part of the same tribe in some way.
it’s been over a month since 66% of U.S. voters supported a ceasefire. it is tempting to throw up our hands and give up as our government just doesn’t listen to us. but the people in palestine aren’t giving up, and we should follow their lead:
i’d invite our readers to find a way to keep resisting, be it phone banking or protesting or continuing to have difficult conversations. though i lose hope sometimes, i truly believe every small action makes a difference, including continuing to talk about this on our newsletter.
with that, i’m going to pass it off to harry. this week, we’re sharing a mix of recs across topics…
HK: Today makers the official start of Recommendation Season. Gift guides are everywhere, recently behind more and more paywalls. That being said, I love this stuff. I want everyone to make a gift guide.
RS: We are what we recommend…
HK:
had a line in a recent substack post “Social media is fucked, all we can do is recommend things to each other with our human words.” This is sort of totally obvious, but I also found it to be a little profound. As the algorithms that help shoot information on social media continue to be more and more disorienting and crazy-making, a recommendation from an actual breathing human feels like a return to a simpler social media milieu that I am both nostalgic for, and think is just better than what we have now (I’m talking Facebook 2011). Anyway…some recs from Randa and I…Nothing Much Just Consuming…
HK: An endlessly interesting angle of the ongoing invasion of Gaza is how it unfolding online.
writes the incredible substack Garbage Day broadly about the internet. He had a recent post called “Is the web actually evaporating” that touches on how this conflict is playing out online.My big unified theory of the internet is that the way we use the web is constantly being redefined by conflict and disaster. I brought this up in an interview with Bloomberg last month. If you look back at particularly big years for the web — 2001, the stretch from 2010 to 2012, 2016, 2020, etc. — you typically find moments of big global upheaval arriving right as a suite of new digital tools reach an inflection point with users. Then, suddenly, we have a new way of being online.
RS: I just reread the Ocean Beach chapter of Barbarian Days, a surfing memoir by Bill Finnegan. If you enjoy reading about people who are obsessed with their craft - artists, scientists, athletes, or otherwise – I highly recommend it.
For most surfers, I think—for me, certainly—waves have a spooky duality. When you are absorbed in surfing them, they seem alive, each with a distinct, intricate personality and quickly changing moods, to which you must react in the most intuitive, almost intimate way—too many surfers have likened riding waves to making love—and yet waves are not alive, not sentient, and the lover you reach to embrace can turn murderous without warning.
HK: it is the 60th anniversary of the JFK assassination (by the cia). I encourage everyone to read about this for a FEW reasons.
1) it’s truly just an insanely riveting and insane set of stories
2) for me it was a very easy and institutive / non-wonky introduction to understanding America’s meddling in other countries (Cuba, Vietnam, to name a few )
3) sorry to do this but it basically explains the deep state…
TrueAnon did an amazing set of pods about the assassination that can be found here
RS: This essay, What Happened to the New Internet?, was a validating read as someone who vacillates between thinking “internet Bad” and “internet Good.” The author, Bryan Lehrer, goes through a personal history of trying to reform the internet, and ultimately ending in a place that felt true to me:
I've been thinking about what it might mean for the New Internet to persist as, not a full stack replacement, but a coexisting counterculture, at least for the time being. Maybe the goal is not _the _New Internet, but a series of internets that live alongside a more mainstream, lackluster counterpart. As opposed to a monolithic archipelago these internets could be thought of as autonomous island nations that users jump between. Some of these islands will provide things that others can't. Some will have trade lines and smooth ferries that run between them and some will be unnavigable to everyone but the most experienced of sailors.
HK: The bizarre work of Henry Gerbault
RS: This review of a bar in SF made me feel … something:
HK: This lemon asparagus orzo recipe that goes so crazy….
RS: do we use too many ellipses………………..
HK: I’m always throwing ellipses in my first hinge message to make my intro seem less digitally abrasive. not sure how its landing…