A woman on the corner with a cowbell — These Things
Why should we feel anger at the world,
as if the world would notice?- Marcus Aurelius quoting from a lost play by Euripides (via the Daily Stoic)
Outside of Prairie, Idaho. August 2025.
Howdy lovely people(!)
So, I’ve been thinking about all the noise out there these days and I hope, sincerely, to share the wonder I experience when I read or listen or watch something that someone took time and intention to create and so that’s the impulse behind “these things” and why I make these journal entries and send them to you.
This week—after much deliberation for a week—I’ve decided to share about a personal cycling project that culminates next week and so if that’s not your thing, scroll on down and I hope you find as much wonder in “these things” as I do.
A woman on the corner with a cowbell…
It was this time of year a few years ago around 9pm after dinner and drinks in Hyde Park and we were walking back to the car and there was a woman banging on a cowbell not in the way Christopher Walken suggests we need more of but like a bicycle race was going on and then three riders on dusty bikes loaded with bags and dirty smiles rode out of the darkness and a couple of others standing by cheered and those smiles cruising down 13th street still in my mind like yesterday and later I found out it is called the Smoke and Fire 420 and so since April I’ve ridden over 2,000 miles and climbed over 65,350 feet of elevation riding through some wild and remote places in Idaho to get ready to ride Smoke and Fire myself this year starting at 12am on Wednesday, Sept. 3!
The course begins and ends in Hyde Park in Boise and cruises on gravel roads, logging trails, single track, and a little pavement through 441 miles through Featherville to Sun Valley, over Galena to Stanley and then Redfish Lake and up to Cape Horn and Deadwood Reservoir and then drops in to Garden Valley to Placerville and then back toward Bogus and over and then a nice single track ride back to Hyde Park. I’m super excited to get to do this ride with other long-distance wilderness bike riding nerds.
You can follow along on the Trackleaders website once the race starts. I’m taking it easy and plan to finish by Saturday, depends on how I’m feeling. The racer types will finish Thursday!
Whatever your ride is…I hope you get out there for a moment and enjoy it today.
These Things recently inspired me…
Tristan Duke sees things we don’t - Lawrence Weschler, New York Times - Tristan makes camera lenses out of ice to photograph glaciers. I found a copy of his “Glacial Optics” and it’s as beautiful as you can imagine. Let me know if you want to get coffee and cruise through this book with me sometime.
Patterns of Authority: Sound is Spatial (I) - Robin Sparkes, June 26, 2025, via Tetragrammaton.com (Rick Rubin’s project) - From the article, “Space shapes perception. It provides the conditions through which experience unfolds. Before meaning is formed, spatial relationships already guide how bodies move, how attention is focused, and how presence is felt. Architecture organizes these conditions. It defines proximity, enclosure, elevation, and direction. These spatial arrangements establish the grammar of interaction.”
I Just Found Out What Wi-Fi Means and It’s Sending Me - Hope Corrigan - “It’s almost certainly not what you think.”
An Evening With the Central Park Coyotes - Dodai Stewart, NYTimes - “Romeo and Juliet are shy and graceful, leaping over fences, hunting for rodents and catching at least one Canada goose.” - Beautiful photos of them cruising at night.
Something cinematic…
The Unknown Country - This indie film by Morrisa Maltz is slow going, very poetic, and does not follow a traditional plot. If cinematic discovery and a blending of fiction and documentary appeals to you, I highly recommend this film.
Only Lovers Left Alive - by Jim Jarmusch with Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton which may be all that’s needed to recommend this film about two lovers who share a love for the arts who are reunited and then…well, they’re vampires. It’s way more than you think and one of my favorite films of all time.
Waitress - directed by Adrienne Shelly with Keri Russell and Andy Griffith - For a casual evening this movie is super charming about a waitress who makes pies named for current emotional states like, “I don’t want no stinking baby pie.” There’s more here but fun story well told. I wish there were more films like this that are simple good films that are easy to watch.
Listening List…
Music for 18 Musicians - Steve Reich and Musicians. I was first introduced to Steve Reich (and Philip Glass and King Missile and…) by Dr. Ritchie in 1991 or 1992 and still find some of these recordings to be electric in the way a mind-altering experience should be.
All is Violent, All is Bright - God is an Astronaut. I heard this playing in the mechanics space at the bike shop last week—cool post-rock, drone guitar vibe. Good music to write/work to without vocals.
Without Sinking - Davíð Þór Jónsson. I always remember Hildur as the composer to the great Icelandic indie film “Woman at War” but that was of course Davíð Þór Jónsson. She did write the score to “Joker” but when did we first learn of her lovely music…I don’t remember but this is a cool album of her early music and “Woman at War” is worth a watch. It’s drama-action. Really inspiring story of a woman, a teacher, who decides to protest by shooting arrows into…I don’t want to spoil it for you.