Commonplace Corner: Phantom Threads

Introducing the "Commonplace Corner", where I drop some links to things that taught me something meaningful or made me think for a bit:

• FWIW: Commonplace journals are notebooks that are kept to collect information and learnings. It's the modern evolution of a zibaldone, which were used in Italy in the Renaissance. If you want to learn more about all that history, definitely check out Roland Allen's The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper, which would also make a nice gift for the analogue-lover in your life.
• On the topic of journals, as we're heading towards the new year and resolutions and new habits and all that jazz, I watch this video whenever I realize I'm in a journaling rut and it really helps me:

• Also this recent one is really good too. I just really like her direct and chill vibe and she reminds me that this hobby is not that serious.

• I watched the new documentary series "Omnivore" on AppleTV while I was cooking on Thanksgiving Day and I ended up staying up until 3am to finish it. It's an outstanding food documentary series narrated by Noma's Rene Redzepi. Each episode focuses on one thing: coffee, corn, bananas, pork, salt, etc., and I learned a lot in each episode. Did you know that only 10% of the corn grown in the USA is used for food? Did you know that there are over 1,500 banana varieties yet 90% of the bananas we eat in this world are the Cavendish banana and that's not a good thing? Did you know that Japan's love for fatty tuna – which didn't really kick in until they started eating beef after the war – pretty much revolutionized how fresh food can be shipped all over the globe?
• My grandfather owned a rice mill in Vietnam so during the episode on rice, my mom watched and explained to me the whole rice harvesting process. At one point I said "Ohhhh...." and then stopped myself. She asked me what I was going to say and I sheepishly said, "Well in Stardew Valley you get extra yields on rice if you plant it next to a body of water and now I see why." Two generations is all it took to get to me, a stupid person.

• This video essay is so good and helped me understand what my eyes have been seeing:

• This very very very long tweet from Joseph Kahn – he directed like 80% of the iconic music videos of the 2000s – is worth clicking through to read.

• Ed Zitron explains "The Rot Economy":

• I am fully a member of the PTA Film Bro cult – it is the second-most Film Bro thing about me, only behind the fact that I forgive David Fincher all his sins – and I'm fine with that, but this Brooey Deschanel video helped me realize that I love PTA movies so much because he is, at his core, a big-hearted optimist:

• If sports betting in America is here to stay, so be it. But my GOD, eliminate prop bets and play-by-play betting:

Have you watched or listened to or read something that taught you something or left a brain impression? Please leave anything you recommend in the comments or join the Discord and drop the links there!