Here’s another new monthly mixtape made from a sealed, pre-recorded cassette I got for 99 cents at End of an Ear. I tape over the cassette’s protection tabs and then I tape over the music and then I tape over the artwork.
This one is a sequel to my Oahu mixtape from last summer. (Like many sequels, it’s probably not as good as the original.)
You can listen on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
Upon returning from vacation, I solicited travel tips from my readers and shared a bunch of the stuff I saw/read/listened to on our trip to the Pacific.
I’m still recovering from a family trip to Hawaii. I survived a surf lesson and a tsunami! Watched a dozen sunsets. Built sand castles. Swam with sea turtles. Befriended lizards. Dodged roosters. Drank mai tais. Despite (or maybe because of) all that, I don’t think I had a single creative thought while I was out there, and my brains only came back to me once I returned the mainland. (I couldn’t help this trip but to think of Socrates, who was quoted by Seneca: “How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you away.”)
Above: some photos of paradise.
Elmore Leonard said, “Writer’s block just means you got up from your desk.”
A few weeks ago I shared 10 things that’ve made my 2025 (so far):
8. How AI slop is making us think about what it means to be human and make art. The more I read about AI, the more it solidifies my feeling that image-making and writing are at their most meaningful — to the artist and to the audience — when they involve the head, the heart, and the hand. As I said in an interview back in April, “I try to bring the hand into almost everything I do, because the hand knows as much as the head does.”
I also shared my 10 favorite reads 2025 (so far):
The year, by the way, is 60% over.
The latest participant in my series of typewriter interviews is writer Liana Finck.
This site participates in the Amazon Affiliates program, the proceeds of which keep it free for anyone to read.