As a kid, one of my favorite things was spinning in circles—on a merry-go-round, in an office chair, wherever I could. The endless motion was both freeing and intoxicating.
As an adult, I still spin—though less literally.
One of my worst habits is repeating myself. In my online videos. In my real-life stories. It seems my love for nostalgia combined with my less-than-perfect memory is both a blessing and a curse.
One of the biggest complaints I get—on Substack and on YouTube—is that I repeat photos in some of my videos. While I like revisiting old favorites in new contexts, I try my best to use them sparingly…and rarely in the same video.
The issue is I don’t always recognize duplicates unless they appear side by side. To me, they’re just two images I love.
Well, I finally figured out why I’ve been repeating so many photos.
After migrating from my older iMac to my new Mac mini, I realized my Photos library was overflowing with thousands—yes, thousands—of duplicates. Seems iCloud has had some syncing issues between devices and made a big digital mess.
Slowly but surely, I’m clearing out the clutter, which means fewer repeated images in future videos. My spinning—and non-spinning—hard drives are already much happier and healthier. And hopefully, you’ll notice the difference very soon too.
Speaking of spinning, I stumbled upon a clip from performance artist Simon Mayer’s SunBengSitting last night. In the clip, he spins in circles, completely free and nude.
The original video quality wasn’t great, so I reworked it into a black-and-white tribute to my childhood fascination with spinning in circles, as well as my current passion for remixing “found” footage and photos.
As for my stories? Well, I’ve made peace with my tendency to revisit the same tales. Some stories are like old friends—familiar, comforting, and worth retelling.
Maybe my spinning isn’t a problem at all. Maybe it’s just part of who I am: circling back to the things that bring me joy, even if they’re a little repetitive.
Spin me right round, like a record, baby. Or like a merry-go-round.
Either way, we’re all endlessly turning on this spinning globe, grooving and moving through the universe, trying to find our balance.
Thanks for reading!
Clint
FRIENDS + SUBSCRIBERS + SUBSTACKERS
Meaghan Good, the founder of The Charley Project, could use some help and support to continue her “vocation” of helping solve unsolved mysteries.
Read more Meaghan Good and The Charley Project on Longreads
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NEWS + VIEWS
“Donald Trump and Republicans have managed to amplify their bad faith attacks to the point that people do have concerns, as misguided and misinformed as those concerns may be.
So this is a good time for Democrats to self-reflect about what went wrong and what to do better moving forward…. But during that process, it's important not to yield to manufactured panic and to align with the actual facts before making sweeping claims.
Echoing and adopting the panic from the other side is not leading. It's not meeting people where they are. It's simply falling prey to right-wing propaganda without checking the facts first.”
Jen Psaki
November 18, 2024
ON THIS DAY = NOVEMBER 20
BIRTHDAYS
1858 = Selma Lagerlöf = Swedish writer and first woman to win Nobel Prize in Literature 🌈
1908 = Alistair Cooke = British-American journalist and author
1910 = Pauli Murray = American activist and legal scholar 🌈
1920 = Douglas Dick = American actor and psychologist
1925 = Robert F. Kennedy = American lawyer, politician, and US Attorney General
1932 = Richard Dawson = English-American actor and game show host
1936 = Don DeLillo = American novelist, essayist, and playwright
1941 = Dr. John = American singer and songwriter
1971 = Joel McHale = American comedian, actor, and producer
1975 = Dierks Bentley = American singer-songwriter
1977 = Josh Turner = American singer-songwriter
1984 = Jeremy Jordan = American actor
CELEBRATIONS
Movember (November 1-30)
EVENTS
1789 = New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights.
1805 = Beethoven's only opera, Fidelio, premieres in Vienna.
1934 = Lillian Hellman’s The Children’s Hour opens on Broadway.
1962 = The Cuban Missile Crisis after the Soviet Union agrees to remove its missiles from Cuba.
1969 = Occupation of Alcatraz: Native American activists seize control of Alcatraz Island until being ousted by the U.S. Government on June 11, 1971.
1983 = 100 million watch The Day After, the ABC TV movie about nuclear war.
1985 = Microsoft Windows 1.0, the first graphical personal computer operating environment developed by Microsoft, is released.
1998 = John Lawrence and Tyrone Garner are fined US$125 each after being arrested for having sex in their home. They refuse to pay the fine, resulting in a challenge which would eventually lead to the 2003 nationwide repeal of sodomy laws in Lawrence v. Texas.
2003 = The United States Congress passes a resolution condemning all violations of internationally recognized human rights norms based on the real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity of an individual.
2008 = The Supreme Court of California agrees to hear arguments for a possible overturn of Proposition 8.
PHOTO + QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.” Robert Kennedy
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