Sketches and some recommendations from my Substack list
Themes: travel, Vancouver, Italy, illustration and a bit of history
Dear Friends,
This week was full of commitments, some joyful, some not so much. Consequently, time to write was limited, so the format of this newsletter will be atypical. For one thing, we had a family gathering in Vancouver, with my parents and daughter visiting from Toronto, and my brother and family coming up from Seattle. We took full advantage of an amazing stretch of sunny weather on the West Coast.
Some of you may recognize my parents from some posts I wrote about our trip last summer. They are 91 and 85-years-young, respectively, and are still finding ways to grow. Here was an earlier post on their travels.
It was a week full of appointments and serious matters, too. So instead of an article, today I’d like to share some of my sketches and some recommendations related to recent posts from other writers I follow.
Sketches
Recommendations
Here are four Substack newsletters that made an impact on me this week.
On the subject of illustration, I’d like to share Bill Russell’s post about artist-educator Fred Lynch and his vivid drawings from the Viterbo area of Italy.
If you are into history and personalized travel writing, you must read Lois Thomson Bowersock’s entertaining and educational post this week about her visit to Cusco, Peru. It features altitude acclimation, Inca monuments and the sordid history of Spanish plundering at the hands of Francisco Pizarro in the 1530s.
Kent Peterson’s single typewritten page on the contrast between writers Ayn Rand and Walter Tevis resulted in some engaging commentary this week. Kent’s take on the theme of Tevis’s science fiction novel Mockingbird had me smiling and nodding in agreement. He summarized it this way: “help others and don’t be an asshole.” A good reminder. Sometimes we stray.
A fun and down-to-earth read, as always.
Austin Kleon is a fountain of creativity. He loves to share his artistic process online. This week he was inspired by something he and his wife saw on a walk. He recorded a bit of video of an “inflatable man” and created what he calls “A Weird Little Something” out of it. It turns out to be pretty poetic:
Thanks for being here this week. I appreciate our connection.
-Renato.