tom robbins

The Friday Five | May 15, 2020

This is a collection of things that I’ve been enjoying, doing, or thinking about through the week. Since it’s been a little while since my last gratitude post, I thought this would be an opportune time to share some things that I am thankful for right now.

Please note that some obvious things (family, food, shelter, etc.) aren’t going to be on the list below. It’s not that I’m not grateful for them, it’s that there wouldn’t be room for anything else if that’s all I focused on. So let’s just take those as a given, okay?

FATAL FLAWS. This might seem like an odd one to start off with and probably deserves its own post at some point. Before the pandemic, we’d been in the process of discussing how our business needed to change and/or adapt for the near and far futures. Along the way, we identified some flaws in our business model along with one potentially fatal flaw (to scalability and expansion that is). Now, as we’re hurtling towards week nine of lockdown, it turns out that the fatal flaw has been our saving grace. Just a reminder to approach things from multiple angles.
TOM ROBBINS. Being caught shorthanded with fresh books to read was an example of a problem I’ve been trying to look at from a different angle. The positive being that I dove back into the work of Tom Robbins over the last couple weeks and was reminded how much I love his writing. It’s also been a flashback since I remember clearly the time in my life when each one was read and in some cases, the location. That’s not to say fresh books aren’t on the way, but it’s been a fun spin down Memory Lane.
BLATANT FOOLISHNESS. Another positive of not having many places to go is that I’ve been able to spend every Sunday night recording a fresh episode of the Free Range Idiocy podcast with my friend Tim. We have no aspirations of fame and fortune (which is good being one out of a billion podcasts in the universe), but it’s an excellent opportunity to spend a couple hours laughing our way into the new week.
NEW MUSIC. Throughout my life, I’ve spent a lot of time looking backwards with music instead of looking at what’s coming next. From my elementary school years spent listening to The Beach Boys up until now when I’m more likely to be pulling an old Verve jazz record out of my collection instead of prowling the new release section of iTunes or Spotify. However, the last couple weeks have given me some good excuses to look at the present and even the future, so here’s a couple of recommendations… The new Lettuce album Resonate is absolutely outstanding … Ditto with new Fiona Apple album Fetch the Bolt Cutters (but you probably already knew that one) … And here’s one to look forward to – Maceo Parker has a new album coming out in June, but hit us all up with a new version of his song “Cross The Track” as an appetizer.
PASSION PROJECTS. I suppose the podcast would count in this category, but here I’m specifically talking about the poetry project I’ve been working on. Same as with the podcast, I have no illusions about this book taking the world by storm, becoming a bestseller, or catapulting me to a level of recognition that results in me being taught in a class some day … but … it is fun and it is something to do. Sometimes, that’s enough.

If you’ve enjoyed any of this, I’m glad. Feel like sticking around for a bit? Check out some of my more recent posts below.

Risk Management

I’ve been pondering this section of Another Roadside Attraction enough to commit the page number to memory for reference. Considering I don’t memorize numbers easily (or for fun), that means… something… right?

“You risked your life, but what else have you ever risked? Have you ever risked disapproval? Have you ever risked economic security? Have you ever risked a belief? I see nothing particularly courageous in risking one’s life. So you lose it, you go to your hero’s heaven and everything is milk and honey ’til the end of time. Right? You get your reward and suffer no earthly consequences. That’s not courage. Real courage is risking something you have to keep on living with, real courage is risking something that might force you to rethink your thoughts and suffer change and stretch consciousness. Real courage is risking one’s clichés.”
Amanda speaking to an FBI agent in Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins, page 251

Comfort Reading

As I’ve said in some recent post which I can’t be bothered to go looking for at the moment, this pandemic-stay-at-home thing has caught me woefully unprepared in terms of my to-read pile. Where I’ve normally had four or five books waiting for me, I was almost empty-handed when COVID came a-knockin’.

That being said, I’ve finished up the last book that was in the pile and decided to go backwards. Journeying back to the source you might say. Which yes, is a bit of clumsy foreshadowing.

Lather, Rinse, Repeat

Like most people, I’m caught between the pull of wanting new experiences and the comfort of the familiar. Do I wan to try that new restaurant or stick with my traditional go-to spot? Should I take a chance on that new TV show or go back and binge Parks & Recreation again?

The idea of repetition as a means of understanding is something I’m thinking about today based on a bit from The Art of Noticing newsletter form last week. The concept of repetition as a means of understanding isn’t a foreign concept to me. As a musician, I’ve learned that it’s not just repetition in order to get things correct, but to understand the song itself and how best to serve the song beyond playing the right notes. As a writer, I’m fascinated by the idea of Hunter S. Thompson, as he was starting out, re-typing the works of Ernest Hemingway to feel the rhythm of the words and how they felt under the fingers.

There was a great restaurant in my hometown years ago that was run by an excellent chef who’d been trained in New Orleans. The menu was always changing and was full of things I couldn’t pronounce, let alone identify. However, knowing how good my first meal had been there, I made an active decision to always try something new and not repeat my meals there. Granted, it wasn’t hard because I couldn’t afford to eat there very often. However, it turned out to be a great exercise and helped me get over some picky eating habits from my childhood in the bargain.

Did I stop eating at my other favorite restaurants? Definitely not. So there’s balance – finding the joy and deeper layers that repetition offers while also making room to discover new things. After all, I could re-read the entire Tom Robbins catalog over and over for the rest of my life (and probably will), but I’d have missed out on some killer books the last year if I hadn’t given Neil Gaiman and Zadie Smith a try.

I’m realizing that it has as much to do with mindfulness as it does with the repetition. There’s a lot of things that I can do over and over without much thought, but I won’t get much out of it except marking it off my list of things to do. However, if I’ve made an active decision to look for new things in The Godfather or Charles Bukowski’s Love Is A Dog From Hell as I’m going back for another watching or reading, that’s where the joy of discovery comes in.

Sure, I could stumble on something, but it helps to have my eyes open.

Todd Regoulinsky

tom robbins