Friday Inspiration 543
how to help a neighbor living in a car, what The Bear got right, a floating convenience store
I don’t know how the algorithm served this guy’s videos to me, but they’re almost all about 60 seconds long and it’s extremely refreshing to watch something aesthetic and contemplative, compared to all the 60-second social videos that I usually see. (video)
Boy did I get sucked into this story in which a guy living in a pretty nice neighborhood notices a woman living in her car across the street and decides to go talk to her and see how she’s doing. It keeps getting better, in my opinion. (via Kottke)
I attended TrailCon in Tahoe last week, and while I was standing in line at Coffeebar waiting to order, Rachel Entrekin, overall winner and course record holder of the Cocodona 250 and now very famous ultrarunner, made my week by recognizing me as “the guy who draws all those comics.” I almost retired, but instead made some semi-awkward conversation in which I said something like, “Congratulations on, you know, everything.” (I mean, she was on Good Morning America a few weeks ago). Like this newsletter, Rachel is also sponsored by Precision Fuel & Hydration, which just launched a new watermelon flavored chew, which is, if I understand correctly, created for Rachel. I do not think the watermelon chews will enable me to run 250 miles in just over 56 hours and look fresh as a daisy crossing the finish line, but they are pretty tasty [this link will give you 15% off your first PFH order of 2026].
We interviewed Dillon Osleger on The Trailhead podcast a couple weeks ago, and we talked about lots of things, including his new book Trail Work: Restoring the Paths and Stories of America’s Public Lands. One of my favorite parts of the interview was asking him to tell us about how he is able to figure out the date of a piece of old barbed-wire fencing by matching it to a barbed-wire pattern in the barbed-wire fencing patent book, which I find endearingly nerdy and phenomenally interesting. Of course that’s only one of the interesting things in his book, which is also a real treat for map geeks like myself.
I know Father’s Day was almost two weeks ago, which was when this McSweeney’s piece, Unsung Heroes Of Fatherhood, came out, but it’s still hilarious no matter what time of year it is.
I am not caught up to be ready to watch the final season of The Bear, but I loved reading this Eater piece on What ‘The Bear’ Did Right, According to Industry Experts—i.e. “restaurants can be chaotic, but they’re not always THAT chaotic.”
Sometimes I read artist statements in which the artist says that a particular piece of work is intended to encourage the viewer to question something deeper, or that the work represents the human relationship to something, or something like that, and they’re always interesting. But sometimes I think, “Yeah, and also, it’s just fun to say, ‘Hear me out: what if we built a replica of a corner store and put it in the lake?’” And then they do it.
It’s crazy to think that the show Jackass is 25+ years old now. I’ve never looked back on it and thought about it too much—I just thought it was a fun show about guys doing dumb stunts that was perfect entertainment for me when I was in my early 20s. But I read this piece about the making of the new movie Jackass: Best and Last, and now I’m thinking maybe there was something more to it all along—like maybe part of what people loved about it was that these guys had a real friendship. As Alan Siegel writes, “It is the 21st century’s purest depiction of American male friendship. These idiots so clearly love one another, even when they’re smacking each other in the face with a giant hand.”
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I was hustling into the bread section of our local grocery store a couple weeks ago and I almost ran smack into a guy wearing this shirt, which was the first time I’d ever seen one in the wild. I just pointed at it and said, “I designed that shirt,” and we had a nice little conversation. (I believe the shirt can also be a conversation starter even if you did not design it)
In a way, The Bear and Jackass feel like they pulled similar tricks: they got loads of attention from initially being a thing that millions of people watch because it's just so horrifyingly, maddeningly ridiculous and awful, and then the rug was gently tugged away, until we realise we're not watching superhumans, we're watching ourselves.
I love the way The Bear has got there, even though I was finding the middle a bit maddening ("you're doing it AGAIN! You don't need to do this! Grow!"). It got a ton of attention by being a semi-accurate view of the chaos behind the scenes in a restaurant, and made us marvel at how these incredible humans could manage all that stress, a kind of competency p*rn and car-crash TV mashup, the same way Succession was incompetency p*rn and a car-crash - and then from season 2 The Bear said to us: no, dude. We tricked you with that admittedly amazing happy ending to season 1. Let's both agree this whole situation is still awful. Let's both agree these people are brilliant but broken. And let's both agree this is completely unsustainable. Then it gave the characters the time, the space and the growing wisdom to realise these things too, and messily try find their way out, like we have to do.
In a way, two happy endings: the one in season 1 that was necessary to make the show a global phenomenon (DAMN CLEVER MARKETING STRATEGY, guys, and the second at the end to show what happy endings actually look like in the real world.
I absolutely hate artist statements and those damned white descriptions besides paintings in museums that tell me what it is and, worst of all, why I should think it's important.
But hear me out!
A few years back I had the chance to visit Tasmania. Nestled upriver from Hobart is one of the world's coolest art museums. It's called the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA). There are no white foam-board 'explainers' on the wall. Instead, you get a phone app that recognizes which art pieces are nearby. If you feel compelled to learn more about the artist or the piece you can click on it within the app.
After click on a piece in the app, you get a few options. One of the icon options is a penis-shaped icon labelled 'art wank'. Within art wank you will find the artist statements or commentary on the importance of the piece.
One of the other options is to mark whether you love or hate the piece. Empowering the visitor to form their own views about what art pieces are valuable or not. Rather than be lectured to buy those damned artist statements!
After exploring the museum you can enjoy wine from the attached winery, beer from the brewery, have a fancy meal at the restaurant, or stay at the hotel that's built into the museum.