Dude,

Before we officially start this rager, gonna plant a wee seed here: We are less than a year from publication of my Steve Prefontaine biography. Title TK. (We’re changing it.) Pre-orders are the name of the game, so I just want you thinking about it. Dead in the water without pre-orders, friend.

The Riff(s)

I email back and forth with a friend making fun of one person on social media who is particularly obsessed with themself. I wrote to my friend:

“Social media so fucks with my headspace. I just need to be done with it. I don't have the right brain to adequately co-exist with the social media world.”

She replied:

“It's dying anyways. The algorithms are fucked and everything is splintered. Just. Log. Out.” 

And I did!

I didn’t have social media on my phone, and only accessed it through the desktop, but I would still get triggered and my jealousy hackles would spike and I’d get upset that I was ignored or otherwise not considered for things I’d rather not be ignored from.

Then I took a deep breath. (Try it now. It’s magical.)

I’d rather just do work. Make my writing better. Make my podcast better. Make my in-person relationships better. Build better community. Feeling envy? (You could listen to Hanif Abdurraqib say that envy is related to awe.) Go do your work. Make your mark.

There are better ways to channel energy. But we knew this already, didn’t we?

A great lesson we can all learn, in narrative, is to bury the lede. A newspaper covering war-torn Hogwarts and the duel between Harry Potter and Voldemort might go something like this:

In an epic battle at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardly, Harry Potter slayed the Dark Lord Voldemort.

The tendency for those raised on newspaper writing is to start a chapter or a section of a chapter with the result, then backfill details, thus killing all tension. Where my sports writers at!?

Tension is our friend, even when we know the outcome. We know Trudy Ederle swims across the English Channel, and yet, there’s great tension because of the way the writer, Glenn Stout, teased out the granular details along the way, so when she sets her foot down on the beach, the hairs on our arms stand up.

It’s obvious in principle, but not always in practice.

The Books

1 . The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams by Darcy Frey. This book is re-releasing as a special 30th anniversary audiobook by Spiegel & Grau, narrated by J.D. Jackson. It’s a masterpiece. Pair this book with Caste by Isabel Wilkerson. Pod TK with Darcy.

2 . The Storyteller by Dave Grohl. This was … OK. Listened to the audiobook of the Foo Fighters frontman and former drummer of Nirvana. Strangely, the best parts, for me, were riffs on being a dad. I’m not a parent, but I’m often touched when others write about with skill. Amy Poehler’s Yes, Please has a very sweet scene of how she cares for her sons. Anyhoo …

3 . Stories Can Save Us: America’s Best Narrative Journalists Explain How by the late Matt Tullis. Transcripts from some of Matt’s conversations on Gangrey the Podcast. Pod TK with Justin Heckert, who wrote a moving epilogue about Matt for this book.

4 . There Was Nothing You Could Do: Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” and the End of the Heartland by Steven Hyden. I’m not a HUGE Bruce fan. I’ve seen him twice, and he puts on a fantastic show. I do love Hyden’s music criticism and his Break Stuff podcast about Woodstock 99 was epic. Pod TK with Steven (he first came on the show for Break Stuff).

The Other Stuff*

5 . It’s time to move “back to the land,” Internet style.

6 . I’m sure many of you know that the author Lauren Groff opened a bookstore, but here’s a cool story about it.

7 . I’m testing out this notebook by Blackwing (the company that makes my favorite pencils) and comparing it to the Field Notes Heavy Duty. Both are great in that they are about the size of a phone, tuck neatly into a pocket, etc. More TK! Two enter! Who will win!?

8 . Speaking of Blackwing, I also ordered this dot-grid notebook to replace my Bullet Journal when I finish it. I will still use the Bullet Journal Method for to-dos and such, but I hate the paper of the new Bullet Journals (RIP Version 1.0). I’m a pencil guy and the newest BuJo paper is too “slick”; it doesn’t grip. I figured Blackwing, the pencil mavens, would have a more satisfactory “ride” over the page. And it comes with a “free” pencil! I’ll report back in due time…

9 . I can’t remember if I came across this link from Austin Kleon or Stephen Knezovich’s Read This (Happy 100!), but this is a pretty cool blog post about “the attention cottage.”

10 . Not only is Arrival a brilliant movie, the soundtrack is pretty amazing. There are moments that will make your hair stand on end.

11 . This drawer organizer thingy has been pretty great. My stand-up desk doesn’t have drawers. Been toying with the idea of getting a walking pad, too. Maybe I’ll treat myself if I secure another book contract …

The Past Month on the Podcast

Episode 410: Brian Fairbanks and “The Last Shall be First”

Episode 411: The Heart Part and Big Dreams with Isa Adney

Episode 412: Leaving the Emotional Moments Unsaid with Lilly Dancyger

Episode 413: Young Woman and the Sea, from Book to Movie

Episode 414: John Rosengren on Cuts, Note Taking, and Darkness for The Atavist

CNFin’ Happy Hour: Entry Points

Instead of merely hanging out, let’s have a party topic: entry points, ledes, beginnings. Favorite beginnings. The perfect beginning. Bring your favorite one (I will, too!) Can you keep going without a great opener or do you find your true beginning only after you’ve finished?

Thursday, June 20 · 5:00 – 6:00pm PST

Video call link: https://meet.google.com/qhq-ejxp-gpq

Coda

This feels like a satisfactory newsletter, CNFers.

Stay wild,

Brendan

*: I don’t use affiliate links, so I don’t get a cut on anything I recommend you purchase.