From Take Me Somewhere Nice:

To the extent that I am an Internet trend-spotter¹, the next big thing is going to be limit my choices.

I don’t want a bookstore with all the books, or a million of the books, I want a bookstore with ten books. Ten good books.

An ice cream store with three flavours of ice cream. Web services with one simple plan (not Essentials, Pro, Essentials Pro, and Enterprise).

MUBI is this, for films: a streaming service with 30 films in its catalogue. Every day one new film joins and one film drops out. There’s a free seven day trial. So you can watch a sultry Bosnian road movie right now, no risk².

1. Which is not at all.
2. Not a sponsorship or affiliate link: I just think this is a good idea.

Jarek Piórkowski on why Toronto needs more open space.

My similar suggestion for Charlottetown has, at least so far, produced no demonstrable result.

We drove out to Victoria this afternoon to try the new outpost of Casa Mia, at the end of the wharf. After a very satisfying meal of bao buns (mine with shrimp, Oliver’s with haddock), I took a moment to sketch the view. A large day.

Being new to button-sewing, I found Simple Sewing Techniques with Sarah J. Gafgen, from Theatre Horizon, very helpful, especially on the “how to make it so to button doesn’t fall off soon thereafter” front.

Travel writer Wayne Bernhardson on the challenges of being a travel guide writer during the pandemic:

Even if the travel and tourism sector re-opens, there’s another obstacle for me (and many other US citizens). Everybody knows, of course, about the notorious vanity wall under construction at the Mexican border, but now the current White House occupant’s minions are taking it to another level entirely. My US passport expires in early September, and I recently learned that the State Department is not processing either new or renewal applications so that, even if Argentina and Chile open up for tourism, it’s uncertain (at best) when we’ll be able to return.

It is impossible not to seek out a film The Guardian calls “a sultry Bosnian summer road trip.”

Update: streaming on MUBI.

How do I set goals if I don’t want anything?:

I said that I didn’t have the answers, and I don’t. I don’t want to goad you into further despair or paralysis, or load you up with all of my considerable anxieties, quite the opposite. It’s not that you have to solve all the scary things in the world before you’re allowed to want a different a job or that you’re not allowed to manage your own daily intake of scariness before you can have nice things. It’s that possibly everything you’ve ever learned about “how to career” told you to tune out the noise of the world and focus on perfecting yourself, and there is a certain point where pretending things in the outside world are not affecting you or that there exists an optimal amount you can perfect yourself that makes those outside forces irrelevant creates a cognitive dissonance so great that it is actually destructive.

(via University of Winds)

Coming from a long line of well-informed rule followers, I was dutifully waiting my turn in the pasta aisle at Sobeys while the person in front of me did their spaghetti shopping. After two or three minutes they turned to me and said “Oh, you’re doing that social distancing thing?” and rolled on.