What I read, wrote, and painted while traveling in April
Dragons are real and I've seen them
Where in the World?
In April, we decided to utilize the full 60-day window of our Indonesian visas. After Coron, we breezed back through the Grand Hyatt in Bali - where they know us by first name now, and the point conversion per/night rate still remains unmatched - for a few days before hunkering down in an AirBnB in south Kuta. We spent the days working, writing, and ordering an inadvisable amount of ayam lengkuas from a warung nearby. This period was quite productive for both of us - hence the breakneck writing pace and quantity I was able to churn out - but towards the end of our stay, I was plagued with a nasty stomach malady, requiring a few trips to the hospital. I’m better now, but hopefully that explains the abrupt slowdown in my writing (and Instagram carousel production. Do people actually like those?)
After our AirBnB stay, we made good on the ‘we’re going to go island-hopping’ proclamation we’ve been telling our friends and family and actually organized a ten-day hop between Flores and Lombok island. In Flores, we stayed on land at Labuan Bajo at a gorgeous hilltop AirBnb with an insane view of the water and looming islands in the Banda Sea. On probably the best day we’ve had on our travels so far, we snorkeled with giant Manta rays and black-fin tipped baby sharks, saw six (!!!) Komodo dragons on Komodo islands, hiked to the top of some of Indonesia’s most beautiful protected landscapes and walked along a natural beach made of pink sand. We headed to Lombok soon after to relax in a chic hotel with an epic view of the ocean, eat good and pamper ourselves before swinging back through Manila.
I write this now to you from our next stay - a month-long hibernation in a gorgeous wooden house on an island in Thailand. We’ll take this time to write, go to the beach, eat fresh-caught seafood and listen to the geckos at night. It’ll be hard to peel ourselves away from all this for a European jaunt next month followed by time back in the U.S., so forgive me if my writing pace slows back down (mostly because I’ll be napping in a hammock on our patio with a full view of the ocean.)
Reads
The Only One Left by Riley Sager: My chosen thriller for the month, and a fun and twisted one for sure. Told from the view of a caregiver to an aging, alleged perpetrator of a triple homicide, and set in the warbling, crumbling grandeur of cliffside mansion over the Atlantic, the tilt of the surroundings into the churning sea perfectly mirror the story’s slow unraveling. A hard-to-put-down read that I finished in a day and a half.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro: My hopes were certainly higher for this book as my second Ishiguro read, and I still find myself awe-struck by the author’s ability to inhabit the soul and voice of a character like Klara. A fascinating, human story told from both inside and the edge of science fiction.
Talking at Night by Claire Daverley: I picked up this book in a one-off bookstore without expectations; I was pleasantly surprised by Daverley’s forlorn, almost stream-of-consciousness writing style exploring the complex lives of besotted characters before and after tragedy. Online reviews compare the book to Normal People, but as I’ve yet to read Sally Rooney, I can’t aid in the commentary. I can only say this book made me sad, hopeful, and happy in a seemingly impossible loop.
The Coldest Cold Email: Oracle’s 30,000-Person Layoff Is a Preview of What’s to Come by Jacob Ward [Hard Reset on Substack]: This was one of the first and few articles I’ve come across pointing out the clear hypocrisy, misinformation, grift and paper-thin future bets companies are using to justify mass layoffs (a sentiment I find kinship with having suffered that on the federal government side of things.) Shoutout to Hard Reset for being actual people who see the self-mutilation of our labor market for what it is: stupid as fuck.
The Incel Global Order by Seva Gunitsky [Hegemon on Substack]: A phenomenal read that pulls together the fraying threads of a line of we all know and see in our lives - the devolution of empire, the rise of hyper-misogyny and violence, the ascension of men who proudly proclaim they have no idea what the fuck is going on, and the resounding truth that men fear and want to destroy the financial and social gains of women.
Artemis II Is Competency Porn and We Are Starving For It by Liz Plank [Airplane Mode on Substack]": A rare instance of hope-core I will tolerate. And hits the nail on the head of why the Artemis expedition captures so much of what we want to remain amidst a reality of constant decay: innovation, diversity, and science.
Graham Platner Is The Shining Future of Democratic Foreign Policy by Mic Check on Substack: As someone who has been doing a lot of (questionably productive) thinking, writing, and aggressive hand-wringing about writing the next act of the Democratic party around foreign policy, Mic Check does a fascinating study into what makes Platner both appealing to voters and repulsive to the establishment. I appreciate the description of Platner as a foil to the insufferable NatSec-turned young/ish representatives sucking up all the airtime deriding Trump for going to war with Iran without bothering to check with Congress first. Mic Check perfectly dismantles the equally unpalatable talking points that encircle the But now that we’re here, I guess, we need to finish the job sentiment around war that seems to be proliferating the establishment Dems. Platner cuts through that nonsense with such a clear voice that it’s hard not to stop and listen.
Writes
Paints
