Something about taking stock of the good things/

Newsletter/

During times of uncertainty and overwhelm, I tend to take stock of the things that bring me joy. 

For example, sometime approximately, oh, 19 months ago, feeling very uncertain about what the future might hold, I made a list of my 100 all-time favorite albums.

This seemed like kind of pointless exercise, and yet I spent months working on the list, and this small act of building and organizing a list of things I knew I loved helped me regain a sense of control over my environment.

This same feeling is what drives me to collage, to cut up old magazines and glue their guts back together. There might be better forms of therapy, but this is what works for me.

Anyway... 

Here are those 100 all-time favorite albums/ According to me. Note: Only the top 30 are ranked in order; the rest are listed chronologically. 

A catalog of collage catalogs/ Again, recently feeling overwhelmed by current events, I decided to take stock of a few of my favorite books about my favorite subject.

Infinitely discardable/ A small bit of text from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale caught my eye as I was re-reading the classic book. It's about the promise old magazines hold.  

Some other things/ My good friend's short story collection—All the Names They Used for God—got a killer write-up in the NY Times Book Review (which, as an added bonus, is accompanied by a stellar collage by John Gall; so win-win-win) ... two killer skate parts dropped on Thrasher this month: Zion Wright and Austyn Gillette ... and this supercut of dancing in movies is guaranteed to make you feel good. 

- Stephen

PS/ I'd love to know what albums would make your all-time list.