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NEXT SHOW: February 17, 7pm: Can’t Even Comedy @ Mama Shelter. Free+outdoor!
Hellooo Sternal Journalists,
Last week, when I was Sternal Journaling on what the metaverse makes me appreciate about Wordle, I was in Joshua Tree, California. It’s a very nice place, especially at a time when outdoors is better than indoors. Joshua Tree, if you don’t know, is in the desert. The desert is quirky.
One of the quirks of the place I was staying is that there was a little old school desk—the kind where the desk and the chair are attached—sitting about twenty feet out into the desert from our little place. It looked haunted and I bet it was.
But I had to go sit out there, and while I was out there, I figured I’d try to write.
Some people might say, “Julian, that is so conceited. You think you’re such a writerly writer that, ohh, wherever there is a desk, you must write!!! Wherever there is space that invites you to put thoughts to paper, you are drawn to it!!!
And to them I say, yes, kind of, one hundred percent. Cuz look. It’s even eye-rollier to not do the things you want to do because you worry they’re eye-rolly. So I did it.
And while I didn’t ask someone to take a picture of me, I hoped I would look cool enough doing it that someone would feel compelled to.
And I nailed that too!
So yeah, eye-rolly thing to do? Check. Conceited to hope someone would take a picture of? Double check. On top of all that, too vain to include the full version of the picture I manifested a friend into taking of me while doing something at least partially because I thought it looked cool? Checks all the way down!
But still! I highly recommend sitting at a cool desk today. Because I liked what I wrote and here it is:
1/16/22
I’m sitting at a child’s school desk in the middle of the desert. This is a fine place and a fine way to be. I wish you, whoever you are, could see this! I’m staying in a house—a compound, really—with 11 of my close loved ones. Does the fact that it’s an airbnb make it any less special?
Does airbnb—on top of all of the driving-up-housing-prices evil—zap things of their romance? It does at least flatten the experience. In the past, on vacations or journeys or general travels, the literal abode you stayed in was so rooted in the place.
Examples: “We stayed in this amazing villa in Italy our travel agent found,” “We holed up in a little ski chalet in Colorado,” “We found this serene ryokan in Kyoto,” “We found an awesome house (anywhere)!”
But now! Almost all of those experiences can be and often are replaced with and flattened by “We got an airbnb,” or at it’s most possibly romanticized, still winking at the joy of discovery, “We found an airbnb.”
And how does this change in language seep into the the ways we talk and think about the places we lay our heads while out and about? I’m not saying it’s definitely a change for the worse, even though that’s definitely just me being polite or hedging.
Quick pause on this train of thought—I hear a rooster. It’s been “going off” for about five minutes, and it’s currently 9:19 AM. There are a few cars, some birds, some horses in the distance.
We’re up on a bit of a hill, and the other hills in the distance provide a sense of containment. Like as if our place, the other homes, the rooster, the birds, the cars, the horses, a runner I see in the distance—like we’re all contained in this little village, a sort of ecosystem. Like this is our little web—fragile maybe, but strong in our borders, robust in that we are untouchable.
So—returning to the original train of thought—that’s why it’s definitely a change for the worse. Because our house, our place, this compound of friends (not really like a cult, but if we stayed any longer, who knows?)—it has to be an airbnb first!
Even if we rarely speak it, we know it. It bursts our little valley, touches our fragile untouchable, makes this place just a little bit more like everywhere everyone has ever stayed in the world.
Makes our experiences together just a little bit more like everyone everywhere’s experiences on vacations and journeys and general travels. Sure, there’s a universality in it, but it’s a false one. Because the truth is this place is unique, our experiences together moreso, and it would be such a shame for us to be convinced, propagandized, brainwashed otherwise.
A dragonfly just went by.
And now I’m sharing my middle-school-levels-of-ennui journaling with you! It truly is eyerolly all the way down. But still—I liked experiencing it, I liked writing it, I like sharing it here, and it’s all because I saw a cool desk and sat at.
So wherever you see a cool desk today, consider taking a seat! Doesn’t even have to be a real desk! Maybe it’s the floor! Maybe it’s a metaphorical desk. You never know what perspective you’ll gain. And in case you’re worried that I’m all mush-mush navel gaze and no more comedy, feel free to check out my new dumbest joke I’ve ever written.
On to the recs!
Recommendations
I Spent Hundreds of Hours Working in VR. Here’s What I Learned. Article. This article—shared with me by the shadow president of the Sternal Journal—details one writer’s experience of using VR as a virtual office. He talks to experts about whether spending eight hours a day in a VR headset hurts your eyes (they claim it doesn’t!) or mental health (much more questionable there). It’s an interesting and at times worrisome, other times funny, read.
Misguided Angel. Song. I think I’ve recommended The Trinity Sessions, the album this Cowboy Junkies song is from, but in case you missed it, I’ve been spinning this one on repeat this week and it’s not a bad way to start the week!
For a French Burglar, Stealing Masterpieces is Easier than Selling Them. Podcast Episode. This one’s a twofer: (1) an exciting, real art heist story (are fine art heists the final frontier of true crime stories you don’t have to feel bad about enjoying?), and (2) a piece of audio that really helped me fall asleep multiple nights in a row this week!
Here’s hoping your desks are cool and you sit in them!
Much love,
Julian
P.S. I spend anywhere between two and twelve hours a week on the Sternal Journal. If you enjoy receiving it (and are RICH) consider becoming a paying subscriber. For just a few bucks a month, you can provide me with a bit more time to come up with fun topics, poems, and interviews; and you with probably fewer typos.