Today's newsletter soundtrack: Khan & Polo's new album And in my stead, a garden, which is simply gorgeous. Imagine the garden itself performing a swelling, soaring electronic opera in tribute to dappled light. Auditory vibes of Fantasia x dark ambient.
Past haunts present in the duo's new full length. Mourning the violinist who never grew; erecting walls of a new man, they push through delusion, dissolve expectation, & discover their Sonship
Released on infamous cult label Lovecrypt, which has the best tagline: "Music for outsiders, aliens, time-travellers, and visionaries." Tag urself?
I wrote about humans' permacultural "immune system":
The more time has passed since a given type of tail risk last afflicted a given society, the more vulnerable the society will be to that tail risk. And the more materially devastated it'll be, relative to peers with situation-adapted civilizational immune systems, when that risk actually happens.
Recently one of my potted plants had its near-to-blooming buds chomped off by a deer. (We live on the edge of a large wooded park.) I was so upset, much sadder than I expected to be! It's this year, man, this goddam year. 2020 amplifies everything — my mood bounces like the VIX.
Anyway, I relocated the victim into a small fenced-off area. Lo and behold, it started sprouting new buds:
Isn't that wonderful?
What a relief and a blessing to putter around with succulent clippings — gardening on easy mode! An eminently attainable domestic delight, like a good cup of coffee. That said, I do want a full-fledged garden someday.
Jade plants are the most eager to please, in my experience, with the exuberance of basil or mint but lacking those herbs' rapaciousness. Instead they tend toward typical succulent cuddliness. Here's one of my jade plants looking a bit rough-and-tumble:
I love that succulents grow by emerging from themselves, unfolding outward.
Header image: Girl in the Garden at Bellevue by Edouard Manet.
