What’s Another Notebook…?

A handmade leather traveler's notebook with the classic "Ithaca Is GORGES" logo etched on it.

A couple of weeks ago, I was minding my own business, browsing a local bookstore with my writing EDC in tow (various notebooks and pieces of portable tech), and just happened to pass by this. It was the only one there, so I grabbed it like the golden ticket was inside. Hell, this was the golden ticket!

Did I mention I already had notebooks in my bag? Plural. Surely I didn’t need a handmade traveler’s notebook, embossed with a classic logo? Basically, in the time it took me to mentally begin to process that question, I’d already taken it to the register.

Because it’s one of those “cool notebooks,” it took me a few days to figure out what I wanted to put in it. The way it ended up shaking out…

  • Notebook 1 is where I put random bits of writing from my main notebook that I’d mark for me to come back to later, which I almost never do. These are things that tug at something, things I might be able to develop one way or another, and now they’re all in one place… at least until I fill it. Eh, I’ll burn that bridge when I get to it.
  • Notebook 2 is a project notebook where I’m putting a bunch of stuff that I know is… something. There are lists, themes, some blocks of writing that could be part of a short story, an essay, or a collection of one or the other — I don’t know and I’m not going to worry about it for now.
  • Notebook 3 is a bullet journal for all the short projects I’ve been neglecting.

I want to plug the maker, but I get the impression this person doesn’t want to quite put themselves out there quite yet. When they do, though, I’m gonna be a total shill!

I Am the OG Nixonmaxxer!

cropped picture of a 6-year old Filipino boy doing the Nixon "double peace" gesture (even though you only see the right arm).
It’s being called Nixonmaxxing, and it involves a series of slickly edited social media videos that cut archival Nixon footage to rap tracks and turn the 37th president into the sort of stone-cold, sigma male-style antihero that Gen Z bros can’t get enough of these days.

Who wants to bet on how soon we get to Marcosmaxxing or Allendemaxxing? Or on whether we’ll just end up straight at Hitlermaxxing?

Coming Soon: Mammoth Meat Sandwiches…

Yeast has been growing in the guts of a frozen mummy called Oetzi the Iceman for thousands of years, scientists have discovered, telling AFP they used it to make a sourdough bread.

When asked if the scientists were considering using the yeast to brew beer, he responded: “It’s on the list.”

While you’re at it, why don’t you go ahead and say Candyman’s name 3 times in front of a mirror, standing in a pentagram drawn on a crossroads in Appalachia at 3:00 am while whistling?

“So it has to be Good Friday…”

Call it ex-Catholic guilt for feeling about that I totally spaced on Good Friday last year when my boy Rubin has been at it for 37 years straight.

In years past, it’s become the time of year where I reflect on that part of my life, on the role my culture and background have played into my life while listening to the song “Good Friday” by the Black Crowes.

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Hundreds of devotees trooped to this city to witness Maleldo or the reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday.
Ruben Enaje, 65, was nailed to the cross on his 37th year portraying Christ in Barangay San Pedro Cutud. Two other penitents were also nailed to the cross alongside Enaje.

Huney Knuckles feat. Skylar Tang

black and white photo of records for sale at Cleveland's Records Rendezvous in 1951

The last time I bought music after 5 minutes of listening to a band I’d never heard of up until that point was Miss Velvet and the Blue Wolf back in 2021.

But you know how I get when a new-to-me trumpet player catches my ears. After seeing this video of saxophonist Joshua Redman and trumpeter Skylar Tang, I did some fast searching on Bandcamp and found Tang along with the band Huney Knuckles. Two songs in, I was downloading this album, and their first one Huney Knuckle Scuffle.

I haven’t had a chance to do a deep dive on these cats yet, but if I understand correctly Huney Knuckles, at least, is Oakland-based(?). It sounds like it tracks to me!

Analog-to-Digital Underground

Shot of my old Acer netbook running Win95, next to a custom leather Moleskine notebook cover and a Motorola flip phone I rocked about 15 years ago.
My EDC from over a decade ago.

Who remembers Dead Drops, from back in the day when some of us were rocking netbooks in our messenger bags that we’d just bust out at a moment’s notice? Has it really been long enough for folks to start waxing nostalgic?

These cryptic storage drives are known as Dead Drops, taking their name from an anonymous drop-off technique used by spies. It started as a guerrilla art project created by artist Aram Bartholl back in 2010, creating an anonymous file-sharing system that anyone can interact with, in any location. Its premise is simple: all you need to do is take your laptop to one of the Dead Drops and plug it in to either retrieve whatever’s on it, or to leave something there for the next person to find. It’s kind of like a digital scavenger hunt, where you can leave treasure just as easily as you can find it.

I never encountered Dead Drops personally or really went out of my way to find one, but I was always fascinated by the concept. Same with the Pirate Box–remember those?? Different method, but the same concept: a way for people to share curated material anonymously, off of the established grid.

Having come up well after the peak of pirate radio, I harbored a fantasy of being part of one of these networks. This was about the time I got myself an OG Raspberry Pi I never did anything with. In the end though, in terms of my day-to-day life, these were always solutions in search of problems I didn’t have.

Still, who hasn’t fantasized about the thrill of being part of a shady, but not necessarily Dark Web shady underground, sharing cool shit for its own sake, under everyone’s nose?

Submitted For Your Approval…

It’s been awhile since I’ve run into something Rod Serling-related that I wasn’t familiar with.

From the PeriscopeFilm archive…

The writer and actor Rod Serling, best known for his famed sci-fi series “The Twilight Zone”, hosts “The Alcoholism Film” (1974). This color public service film produced by Sandler Institutional Films, Inc. was meant to spread awareness of the symptoms, signs, psychological roots, and dangers of alcoholism. The film is composed of various short interviews with alcoholics, medical professionals, recovering alcoholics, as well as colleagues and family members whose lives have been impacted by alcoholism. The film makes the point that one in ten drinkers, can be considered an alcoholic.

2025 Reading

So, here’s my 2025 longform reading list. Books I actually finished are in bold. Not as many, percentage-wise, as last year, but I exposed myself to a lot of different stuff. And I’m still plugging away!

The Little Green God of the Library Slip. Poster by Magazine & Book Co., 1910. Prints & Photographs Division
  • BITTERSWEET by Susan Cain
  • GUILT & GINATAAN by Mia P. Manansala
  • LET THIS RADICALIZE YOU by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba
  • READING THE WAVES by Lidia Yuknavitch
  • SPRING, SUMMER, ASTEROID, BIRD by Henry Lien
  • NONWHITE AND WOMAN: 131 MICRO ESSAYS ON BEING IN THE WORLD by Darien Hsu Gee & Carla Crujido (eds.)
  • THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER by Lidia Yuknavitch
  • PRANKSTERS VS. AUTOCRATS by Srdja Popovic and Sophia A. McClennen
  • LOVE AND INDUSTRY by Sonya Huber
  • DEAD NOTE by Victor Manibo
  • AUTOCORRECT by Etgar Keret
  • THE BOOK OF ALCHEMY by Suleika Jaouad
  • THE ASK by Sam Lipsyte
  • THE BOOK OF JOAN by Lidia Yuknavitch
  • THE STORY CURE by Dinty W. Moore
  • A CATALOG OF STORMS by Fran Wilde
  • WHIMSY: A LITERARY DOOM AND GLOOM ANTIDOTE by Naomi Daniluk (ed.)
  • UNRELIABLE NARRATOR by Aparna Nancherla
  • POWER: WHY SOME PEOPLE HAVE IT AND OTHERS DON’T by Jeffrey Pfeffer
  • SOME PEOPLE NEED KILLING by Patricia Evangelista
  • WEIRDSCAPES: AN OTHERWORLDLY ANTHOLOGY by Kyle Thompson (ed.)
  • UNCERTAIN SONS by Thomas Ha
  • DEATH BY DUMPLING by Vivien Chien
  • CATCHING THE BIG FISH by David Lynch
  • THE SUBJECT STEVE by Sam Lipsyte
  • FRIDAY BLACK by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyan
  • NEXT OF KIN: A MEMOIR by Gabrielle Hamilton
  • JOYRIDE: A MEMOIR by Susan Orlean
  • THE ANTHONY BOURDAIN READER: NEW, CLASSIC, AND RESDISCOVERED WRITING by Kimberly Witherspoon (ed.)

Looks like I’m going to start 2026 a little behind the 8-ball. And that doesn’t even include the stack I got for Christmas that I have yet to crack open!