Comes with the clouds

The seventh Tropical Depression weekly digest post

Apr 15, 2023

Here’s your seventh periodic digest post reviewing the last few entries and tossing in some recommendations, tidbits, etc.

Via Midwestern Americana, which has an excellent collection of books, photographs, and ephemera for sale, specializing in automobilia and the global Midwest.

Today marks the four-month anniversary of Tropical Depression. This has been among the more satisfying periods of work I’ve had, in no small part because I am hearing directly from readers in a much more consistent way. To sustain this as a main mode of income, I would probably need to increase the number of paying subscribers by something like 15x. That seems a little daunting, but we’ll see. I feel pretty committed to maintaining this pace and volume for a full year and then assess. For now, I can keep that up and still mix in just enough freelance work to (barely) keep the ship afloat. In any event, this has been great, and I look forward to trickling along in the coming months. Thank you for reading.

Here’s something that might help spread the word: Substack has started a Twitter-like service called Notes, and they want me to tell y’all about it. Social media is not good for your health as far as I can tell, and it may well be quietly eroding all the things in this life that I hold most dear. So if this holds no interest to you, good for you. But if you’re already using Twitter or something similar, it might be worth checking out. The one good thing about Notes is that it seems to just be Substack writers and readers participating, so for now the signal-to-noise ratio is much higher than something like Twitter. Hopefully it’s a good channel for finding potential readers, and if you try it out, I’d of course be obliged if you helped me promote Tropical Depression.

Here’s the main bit from the Substack template I’m meant to pass along:

Head to substack.com/notes or find the “Notes” tab in the Substack app. As a subscriber to Tropical Depression, you’ll automatically see my notes. Feel free to like, reply, or share them around!

One other navel-gazing note and then let’s get on with it: I re-arranged the main page online to a “magazine style” layout. I kind of liked the clunkier blog-style vibe of just having a chronological list, but this makes it easier for new readers to check out the most popular old posts, which are on the right of the page.

Vibrations from Behind the Iron Curtain

Lithuanian band with a cloistered electropop feel, but the details are confusing. Teisutis Makačinas is the name of a well-regarded Lithuanian classical composer who doesn’t play on this album. So I don’t know. The album, released in 1982, is titled “Disco Music” but this is a deeply alien vision of disco. I find the combination of childlike synth pop and gratuitously effortful harmonies here sort of irresistible. They seem to be very, very excited about synthesizers, with the zeal of fresh converts—a kind of cadence for the future that they enjoy with unguarded wonder. I believe they’re using Soviet-made synthesizers, which generate a slightly unpleasant sound, put to pleasant use here. Perhaps this could be the soundtrack if the original Star Trek had been a daytime soap opera.

In the news

Absolutely perfect lead1 by Rhett Brinkley in the Arkansas Times:

The trial began today in Cleveland County for Timothy Sled, the man charged with two felonies tied to vandalism for shooting a hole through the crotch of the Johnny Cash silhouette on the Kingsland water tower in May of last year, successfully making it appear as if Cash was urinating on his hometown.

Department of History

Anyone who visits the nations of the West and then goes to Britain will see that everything in that country differs from elsewhere. The manners of administration, the style of life, the institutions of education and technology, even the form of cooking and housekeeping, and the culture of entertaining. In sum, everything has a special form and nature, which is quite different to other countries in the West. The British observe their national rights and social culture and they’re much more insistent than others in retaining their laws and ethics, such that they’re neither quick to anger nor revolutionary in temperament, with the consequence that they do not quickly change their political and social organization. The consequence of this spirit of conservatism is that the politics of Britain changes little. British cabinets last longer, and freedom of thought and opinion in this state is greater than in any other country even though, at the same time, one can witness unprecedented levels of prejudice and superstition.

—From the Persian journal Iranshahr, 1923

IMHO

Recommended: a strange little book; a podcast episode; a book review; a poem; and a painter.
And here is “Paradox of Praxis 1 (Sometimes making something leads to nothing)” (1997). Belgian-born artist Francis Alÿs pushed a block of ice through Mexico City, where he has lived since 1986, for nine hours until it melted into nothing. Edited to a very satisfying five-minute piece. Highly recommend—it’s arresting. I just showed it to my five-year-old daughter. When it was over, she exclaimed, “That was amazing!” Then she verbally explained it to her six-year-old cousin, who seemed bewildered.

NBA predictions

Once I became a parent, I had to steadily cut down my sports consumption and now it’s basically just the NBA for me. But the mono- bit makes it all the more maniacal perhaps. Skip this if you don’t care about hoops; for those interested, here are my surely wrong picks for the full playoffs:

First Round

Bucks over Heat—The best three teams in the East are the best three teams in the NBA and I expect each of them to win easily. Eager to see how Khris Middleton looks—that seems like the swing piece most likely to determine the champion in the end. Jimmy Butler is a force of nature and can will the Heat to a win or two, but they can’t hang with the Bucks this year.

Celtics over Hawks—Celtics are well equipped to embarrass Trae Young and Hawks defense is once again pretty bad. Another easy one, I’d bet.

Sixers over Nets—Again, I think this will be a cakewalk. Good series for Embiid to dominate; for all his gifts, Nic Claxton can’t hang with him on the block. James Harden will surely have a big game when they’re already up 3-1 or something. Interested to see what Mikal Bridges can do as a #1 option in a playoff series. Sixers don’t have great wing defenders.

Cavs over Knicks—I guess this means I’m picking none of the lower seeds in the East. The Cavs have the point differential of a championship contender and I think that’s at least somewhat real. Brunson should be able to go crazy, but as good as the Knicks offense was this year, I don’t buy guys like Randle (who’ll be playing hurt and might miss games) and Barrett in the playoffs; in the end I don’t think they’ll be able to score enough against the league’s best defense to keep up.

Nuggets over Timberwolves—I think there’s a decent chance that Jokic’s defensive limitations will eventually cause trouble for the Nuggets, but not in this one. Maybe the single most delightful player to watch in the league, he’ll eventually pick apart the sad Wolves, who have enough firepower to win a couple, but seem too discombobulated to put up a real threat.

Grizzlies over Lakers—This was by far the hardest one for me to pick and I basically view it as a coin flip. I think I’ll be rooting for the Lakers just because I like watching Lebron in the playoffs and we’re running out of chances. I’d love to see how much he has left in a later round. Betting against Lebron and AD (if they’re reasonably healthy) seems like a bad idea. But D’Angelo Russell is a playoff liability, and during those last couple weeks of must-win games, the Lakers looked like an inconsistent team that doesn’t have the horses. I’m a believer in Memphis and would have felt good about picking them to make the conference finals, but the Adams and Clarke injuries hurt, especially with AD running around. But they play with such an edge—this is the kind of team that can make the Lakers look old and stale. They’re gonna feast on L.A.’s lazy transition defense and this is a good matchup for Ja to go wild. Let’s play seven.

Suns over Clippers—The Clippers are better than people are giving them credit for, even without Paul George, but as long as Durant, Booker, Paul, and Ayton are healthy, I’ll be picking the Suns to win against any opponent in the West.

Warriors over Kings—I don’t put as much credence into the Warriors’ pedigree as most of the pundits. They are now a very inconsistent team; they can probably beat almost anyone in a given series, but also think they could easily lose a series to any of the good teams. Well, except for this one. The Kings are underrated; by raw metrics, they’re the best regular-season offense of all time. This is just an awful matchup, and I’m baffled that they rested their best players in their final tilt with the Warriors; a win would have sent Golden State to the play-in and avoided this hell. With Wiggins returning and Payton in the fold, Golden State’s defense will be good enough. On the other end, trying to stop the Warriors with Fox and Sabonis navigating a pick and roll is a nightmare. The best way to slow Golden State’s attack is to protect the rim and force turnovers and Sac does neither. Golden State in six; wouldn’t be surprised by a sweep.

Second Round

Celtics over Sixers—I’ll be rooting for Embiid and the Sixers but this is a bad matchup for them. Embiid will probably win a couple games by himself, but Sixers will have trouble stopping the Celtics big wings and Boston will be able to clog up Philly’s halfcourt offense enough to slug it out. Perfect storm for a Harden dud.

Bucks over Cavs—Bucks, and Giannis, are just too good. Cavs are on the rise, but they need still need a reliable wing to round out their closing five.

Suns over Nuggets—Just don’t believe the Nuggets can stop the Suns at all. They’ll win a couple shootouts, but I’d take the Suns in six.

Grizzlies over Warriors—Gulp. I’m the rare truther who thinks the Grizzlies would have won last year if Ja hadn’t gotten hurt. They looked so much more athletic and played with so much more force until they ran out of gas without Morant. Jarren Jackson, if he can stay on the court, really spooks the Warriors and mucks up their cutting. (Not sure who I’d pick in a Warriors-Lakers matchup—probably the Ws, but I see all three of these teams as pretty close.)

Conference Finals

Bucks over Celtics—Flip a coin? If Khris Middleton doesn’t look right, I might wind up switching this. (Meanwhile, the biggest swing factor for Boston is how much Robert Williams can play at somewhere close to full strength.) Mostly a gut thing—it just feels like Giannis’s year. Ready for Jae Crowder to randomly hit seven threes and steal a game and Grayson Allen to get overmatched and pick up a pointless tech and lose a game.

Suns over Grizzlies—At this point, we’re in guessing game territory because there will be injuries, but if the Suns’ major pieces are healthy, I’d take them over the Grizzlies, Warriors, or Lakers (though I have the Griz here, I’d give each of those three a roughly even chance of making it to the conference finals in the wide open West… and the Kings at least have a shot, too).

Finals

Bucks over Suns—This would be a vastly more interesting sequel to their 2021 matchup, when the Suns mostly seemed like a solid team that drew a relatively easy path to the finals when other contenders were ravaged by injuries. This time around, the Bucks would have to contend with Durant, who dominated against them in 2021, when an undermanned Nets team almost stopped them on their march to a championship. And now the Bucks don’t have P.J. Tucker to chase Durant around. That would make me nervous if I was a Bucks fan, but I’m still taking them. Wouldn’t bet real money against KD, but they’re the better team. Suns are a piece or two away; their window is small but I think their better shot will come next year when they can fill out the roster.

I will absolutely not use the word inky pseudo-word “lede”—I am not a cretin.

Tropical Depression