Finds: Perfect samba dinner party • Zootopia and couples therapy • Dylan’s favorite Pop song • Piet Mondrian’s glasses

How do I get invited to this mellow samba dinner party? I am very fond of the samba street dancing that emerges towards the end of the video. 

Raw as a bleached bone, this might be the best version of the Saints Go Marching, a song I’ve never enjoyed, sorry. Almost nothing is known about this musician.  

I’ll never forget what Bob Dylan once said about this recording. It’s perfect. I’m paraphrasing. But I think it’s worth recognizing how much pop music can do in less than two minutes. Stay is the shortest song to ever achieve the #1 spot on the Billboards. 

I saw this band play at a Best Western outside of Portland, along the Columbia river, over ten years ago. For me, it captures a particular moment in the Pacific Northwest — a pure chapter in time, before the algorithms caught hold and infected everything. 

"Don't seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will." Written about 2,000 years ago by Epictetus, Stoic philosopher who was banished from his homeland.  

It’s the insurance, it’s the fees. The thing that struck me about this coverage of the Raphael exhibition at the Metropolitan is the author’s lament that the big, toothy, ambitious art historical retrospective are an endangered species. That insurance and packing fees have inhibited large-scale exhibitions in America.

The gooseneck kettle has a perfect visual profile. The silhouette is pleasing. The proportions are pleasing. Asymmetric, yet somehow reminiscent of golden ratio proportions. Everyone should have one. Enjoy the thin flume of water that cascades from the spout. High end watering cans are pretty good too. 

I watched Zootopia 2 the other night. I would like to write a longer piece about this movie, but first, I just want to make the claim that this is a movie about couples therapy. Sure, it has the facade of being a narrative about individual differences and social acceptance (like every kid’s movie from the last decade), but the heart of the narrative is really about a relationship under strain. Also, apparently, a single scene has 20,000 characters staged within it? We are in a new age of maximalist art. Budget = $150 million dollars.

Hello from Bend, Oregon.