We spent the rest of the day reading old magazines in dungarees

Of course we are supposed to get a thunderstorm today, and of course we are supposed to get it during the exact block of the afternoon I am supposed to be traveling to/at a potluck at the house of people I have never met before. Of course I have also slept badly and mostly want to spend the day on a couch with a cat. I will bring one of my new books and an umbrella along with the lemon cake I baked last night. I was not designed by nature for parties.

1. I am generally thrilled by this review of Gemma Files' Invocabulary (2018) because I love her poetry, but it doesn't hurt that it makes me feel like some kind of muse.

2. An unpleasant but useful read: Myke Cole, "The Sparta Fetish Is a Cultural Cancer." I did not actually know how far the fantasia had extended among the current crop of Nazis. I have negative affinity for Frank Miller's 300 in any of its forms, but "The Oracles" has always been one of my favorite poems by A.E. Housman, so it feels a little personal.

3. Not recent, but I kept forgetting to link it in the overheated chaos of July: Siobhan Carroll, "For He Can Creep."

I am hoping to catch up on some of the movies I intended to review for July, even if I have to do some of them from memory. I just want August to be less exhausted.

Did I say sixteen of me? I'm sorry, we're only one

Punch line: not only did it not rain on the potluck or even as I was making my way there, after an initial access of Tiny Wittgenstein I had a really nice time. My jaw is rather unhappy with me, and my body overall is reminding me that we cannot run all social interactions on cortisol forever, but I had some very nice conversations and pistachio-flour pastries. It was the kind of crowd where my high school slime mold science project counted as a party piece. I only had to bring half a lemon cake home with me.

I should also mention that I have joined the ensemble of the 29th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony; I will be singing in the mini-opera Creatures of Habit. Please come hear me and various other talented people musically incarnate various bad habits in September. I am looking forward immensely.

I'm going to see what happens if I fall over on the couch now.