Est. Read Time: 4 Minutes [A quick one!]. Read Time brought to you once again by the Ashburton Energy + Hair Logistics Group, in association with the Bradley Hills Bureau of Corrections.
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Helloooo, Sternal Journalists!
First of all, I’d like to thank the Sternal Journalists who have sent their bowel pictures from as far-flung lands as Scotland(!). Keep ‘em coming. I’m working on a lot this week, so I’m leaving you with a very short poem thing I wrote sometime this week or last.
I was talking with a friend some months ago and she said, “It’s so cool how you’re always working on projects that aren’t for work.” And it was very nice of her and a nice perspective to get, but I told my friend Joe this, and he said, “She doesn’t understand it’s our disease.” I had another friend who writes phone me at like 945am last week just to ask, “Hey, what’s the point of this writing stuff we do?”
This is all to say that writing is awesome, I’ve loved the Sterney Journey and cranking a thing out into the world every week. But writing in general—the idea that you should (or worse: must) do things with your ideas rather than let them float through or around you and just kinda have a party in your head—can totally take over if you aren’t prepared.
And so, ironically but inevitably, I wrote a little scrap of a thought while processing all of the above, and because I didn’t finish my navel-gazey DMX eulogy, I will present that scrap to you in its stead:
Bagaraw Chicken Poem About Writing
Realizing it’s time to write is like
looking
for the source
of the liquid
on the floor
and realizing
shit
oh
fuck
oh
this bag
of chicken
I’ve had
under my arm
is drippy.
There you have it. What’s it about? I think it’s about ideas and how messy and gross and violent they are, but also about procrastination because boy, do you (the writerly you) not want to write sometimes, and get so pissed when you realize the train of thought you’re choo-chooin on is worth committing to paper.
Also, all of this is to say nothing of comedy, a whole other beast. And again, I do hope to be returning soon to sharing jokes with names like Molly Weasley’s Vag*na and OCDs and Big Dog Ts as soon as humanly possible.
Anyway, to quote Jonny B, “Sternal Journal: You never know if it’s gonna be good til the end!”
Recommendations
[NOTE: I incorrectly called Nomadland Nomad last week. Don’t watch Nomad. I don’t know what it is! Watch Nomadland!]
West Cork. Podcast. I guess I like True Crime again. I’m six episodes into this podcast about a murder in a remote Irish town and truly loving it. I don’t want to give anything away, so I won’t say anything else. But if you like quaint Irish stories, or places about weird towns that people flee to when they’re looking to get away, check this one out asap.
Citizen Kane. Movie. It’s on HBOMax and not as long as I thought it would be! I watched it so I could better enjoy Mank, which I haven’t watched yet. My big takeaway was, “What the heck?! We’ve been this culturally self-aware about the ills of cults of personality for 80 years, and we haven’t gotten any better?!” It’s a fun watch.
Story of Your Life. Story. This is the story that movie Arrival was based on. I loved the movie, but I think I loved the story even more. Check it out.
DMX. Anything! Everything.
For making it this far, here’s a picture I took this week of an architectural wardrobe malfunction:
And a Hollywood lady having some work done on her face:
Okay, that’s all for now! Much love, and have a wonderful week!
Julian