mtadkins 2024-08-17T21:00:09Z https://www.mtadkins.com/feed/atom/ https://www.mtadkins.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/cropped-12917834_1163724020327828_2043764134_n-1-32x32.jpg Matt Adkins <![CDATA[Decade]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194732 2024-08-17T21:00:09Z 2024-08-17T21:00:09Z Of course, ‘memory’ is one of the most fascinating elements of life for us… allowing us to grow via perspective but also providing the pitfalls of attachment & nostalgia. This month both of my sons have birthdays, so I’m constantly reminded of the various ‘Augusts’ of my life.

Yesterday, while having some feels, I picked up an old favorite book with a small note inside:

“Smith Family Bookstore, 1pm, 8/18/14”

Who knows what else I had been up to that day? — likely an uneventful work day in Eugene in which I stole away during the lunch hour to wander the aisles — dreaming my favorite dreams for a bit before real life came crashing back in. Perhaps I would have recalled the day anyway while re-reading, or conflated that with another time?

Someday, the boys will have to sort thru all of the detritus I left behind…never fully knowing why this book stayed on shelf after shelf, moving from house to apartment to house, across an ocean no less, only to end up in the ‘donate’ pile that we all leave behind. Maybe it won’t survive that long, as I live on a tropical island now where Nature’s damp, mold, floods, or hurricanes might re-claim the delicate little pages before anyone else needs to concern themselves with whether or not I loved a thing, or simply couldn’t let go.

A bit of melancholy musing, but not sad. I’m here. I’m now.

And there’s even a bit more of this August left still for a re-read…

xoxo,
m

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Matt Adkins <![CDATA[Fancy Footwork]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194726 2024-06-24T02:45:04Z 2024-06-24T02:45:04Z Haven’t seen this video in a while… brought a smile & good vibes.

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Matt Adkins <![CDATA[One Hundred Years of Solitude.]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194721 2024-05-11T20:47:53Z 2024-05-11T20:47:53Z

Oh, ah, hmmm, look at that… I wonder if this can deliver?

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Matt Adkins <![CDATA[“This is our story, simplified: Life. Loss. Transformation. Love. Death. Iteration.”]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194719 2024-05-11T20:37:35Z 2024-05-11T20:37:35Z Wonderful writing in “We Will Teach You How to Read We Will Teach You How to Read” by Caroline M. Yoachim

“…hopefully as you transform our words, you will keep some sense of the vastness of each moment, the illusion of holding more story in your mind than you are actually capable of holding.”

~ xoxo, m

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Matt Adkins <![CDATA[Sometimes, I still need you.]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194708 2024-04-26T20:37:19Z 2024-04-26T20:37:19Z ‘xx day’ … Ah, another day on the calendar that stirs the memories.

I’ve made so few posts here (sigh…maybe for the best… perhaps not?) that anyone giving a quick glance at the prior entries will see these annual items & know the story of them having been my #MostFaveBandEVAR for a dozen years now. Its odd to realize the differences between my life then & to now… the people & things lost somehow loom larger than what’s been gained, & the xx music has so much longing in it — something I know resonated deeply with me upon first listen & still works its magic.

Its been pretty quiet on the site here, as I’ve pulled back from the constant social media posting of years past to dwell instead on personal things, but I think (fingers crossed) that might change this year, as I’ve been re-focused on completing some of those long-simmering projects & conquering my deep, oh-so-deep sense of inertia. More on all of that later…

I moved to Hawaii in Oct’22. Its pretty great, but as a tiny island in the Pacific that’s far, far away from everything, its *ahem* isolated as far as live music goes. Not a decent concert for me from a favorite band in all the time since the move, which is quite a downgrade. I have, however, self-promised to fly over to the mainland when necessary, & by most accounts it seems that the xx are working on new tunes, surely with a tour coming soon after. Also, btw, Romy’s LP was a banger. Loved it.

The last year's top listens, according to last.fm

Another year gone, but at least I heard music.

moar later, babies, xoxoxo ~ m

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Matt <![CDATA[No Tech for Apartheid]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194698 2024-04-10T15:49:27Z 2024-04-10T15:49:27Z “…TIME, which noted that over 13,000 children had been killed by Israeli attacks on Gaza since the beginning of the war; that Israel had fired upon Palestinians attempting to reach humanitarian aid shipments; and had fired upon convoys of evacuating refugees.” — “Google Workers Revolt Over $1.2 Billion Contract With Israel”

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Matt <![CDATA[TGIF]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194694 2024-03-16T00:28:24Z 2024-03-16T00:11:41Z Friday vibes with some Sade.

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Matt <![CDATA[Look out! Its only ‘xx Day’!]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194682 2023-04-26T21:40:14Z 2023-04-26T21:40:14Z Bringing 'Our Song' to my office wall.
Matt’s totally rad office decor.

From 4/26/2012 (my first hearing) til now, #1 on the chart…

Last.fm scrobble chart from the last 365 days
Last.fm stats for the last year

It’s been a busy year, as we moved the family from PDX to an island paradise, & I’ve had old worries & tasks replaced by new projects, but even still there’s a moment every day — at least once, sometimes more — when a wistful shiver passes thru me, like a memory of past wants bubbling up to remind you what it feels like to need something. To miss something. How else do we stay human? Nothing soundtracks that feeling for me like the xx.

Always & forever, babies. #F3

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Matt <![CDATA[Observed /// 20221206]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194666 2022-12-07T17:41:36Z 2022-12-07T17:41:36Z The moon as seen from Matt's yard last night.
Our moon, above the clouds. Dec 6 2022
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Matt <![CDATA[Tidings / 20221207]]> https://www.mtadkins.com/?p=194663 2022-12-07T17:30:08Z 2022-12-07T17:30:08Z “Your debt is someone else’s asset”

…a short film from The Intercept, Mollie Crabapple and co., and Astra Taylor. Via BoingBoing. You can never have enough reminders about the levers of social control…

42

This year marks the 42nd anniversary of the American release of The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy. Here are some wonderful thoughts on its ongoing cultural impact published over at 3 Quarks Daily.

Speaking of social control *cough*

Apple hobbled a crucial tool of dissent in China weeks before widespread protests broke out….borking AirDrop in China on behalf of that country’s totalitarian regime. #ThinkDifferent indeed.

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