There are few things cooler than crafting a Book Notes essay for Largehearted Boy. I was thrilled to write one for The New York Stories and I'm honored I get to update it for UPSTATE. Feel free to read it here and there's some excerpt below if that's your jam.
"You were kind enough to have me here back when The New York Stories came out in 2015 and I started that Book Notes post with, "It is lovely to be back."
And so, while I stopped by in 2016 as well for the release of Be Cool - a memoir (sort of), and thank you for that, I appreciate the chance to revisit my Book Notes for the The New York Stories, now that it's been refreshed and is being rereleased as Upstate.
Given the rules of a refresh (as I understand them), I see this as less about cutting things than augmenting them. So, I don't want to toss any of my original ideas, as much as I want to build on them.
Cool?
Right on, and so, what does one listen to while refreshing a book, primarily up to and then during a pandemic?
I've got some thoughts on that.
I've been home a lot, and with my children no less, who are now teenagers and who have their own cultural interests, as well as working and writing, and listening to a lot of music.
A lot of music.
This has involved adjusting to utilizing platforms such as Spotify to access new music, and seek things out, something I really didn't do much of pre-COVID.
But I have to look at these platforms now, there's no outside world to hit. Though even more than that there's nothing new that isn't right here at my fingertips anyway.
Which is kind of a positive.
So, as the Upstate refresh started with the last days of pre-COVID life and then barrelled right into an all COVID life, I charged into trying to find a way to achieve some new traction at home, and that evolved into a full exploration of how all things, especially writing and entertainment, might look when never leaving the house.
Which brings us to now and this Book Notes Redux.
Thanks!