Chamblee54

0828-0914 – Rough Stock Department, the path journal entry for last week, is available. … The walk was just another day on the path. It lasted 48:00, with no foot problems. The shiny object was was How Did Roger Avary Write Pulp Fiction? on Tetragrammaton with Rick Rubin. Unless I missed something, PF was not discussed in this show.
“After what I went through, I realize everyone in some way is undergoing a trauma of some kind. And I try to be sensitive to that.” Immediately after this came a commercial for Squarespace. Whatever your trauma, you can build a website to monetize it.
RRA: “Anybody who really knew punk, in that moment, knew that’s a little bit of a lie. But it doesn’t matter. It’s a truth greater than reality. Yeah, it’s a bigger truth.” FJR: “So, yeah, don’t let the facts get in the way.” Reality is for people who cannot afford drugs.
Right after this jewel of wisdom was a commercial for Lectio 365. L365 is based on a Catholic practice, which we will call Lectio Diva. You take a bible verse and meditate on it all day. Repetition, silence, attention to special phrases in the text … these are all part of the practice. While I doubt that I will download the app, the practice of Lectio Diva might be worth looking into.
0829-0956 – The walk today was conducted on gravel. It rained last night, and the path was more washed out today. I did 44:00 with no foot trouble. The show was Cultivated: The Self-Proclaimed Prophet Hiding In Plain Sight on Chameleon. An excommunicated Mormon started his own cult group, with all sorts of nasty stuff going on. Manipulator was the word the show used. Manipulation is common in our society, whether it is for religion, politics, Israel, or lunch.
0830-0953 – The walk today was on track, or more accurately, on the gravel road beside the tracks. I did 1.55 miles in 59:25, with no foot problems. The first canned entertainment was Bundy Clock on 99% Invisible. The Bundy Brothers had a clock factory, and Willard Bundy had the idea of printing the time on a card … the invention of the time clock. Unfortunately, his brother Harlow managed the operation, and reduced Willard to a poorly paid employee.
Instead of the path, I went up to the railroad tracks on top of the hill. A neighbor pulled up in his truck, and said he didn’t see me walking as much. I told him my story. It turns out he has bad knees, and uses a Peloton machine to keep going. Old age marches on.
Before long, I had to step behind the cemetery and pee. I found a monument with weeds growing over it. The Goodwin family had an old house on Peachtree. Eventually, the temptation to sell the land became too great. The graves behind the house were moved a mile north. Unfortunately, nobody has been trimming the weeds. I expanded this into a blog post, The Soloman Goodwin House.
“The Solomon Goodwin House, located at 3931 Peachtree Road, is about .5 miles east of the Atlanta city limits. The house, which dates back to 1831, was the oldest building still standing in DeKalb County … Last fall, the home was dismantled and relocated to an undisclosed location nearby. Sources say the plan is to rebuild the home in the area but a permanent new site for the home has reportedly not yet been finalized.” From 2017.
I crossed over the tracks, and headed south. There is a gravel road, built when the Marta line went through. After a few minutes, a train came by, carrying a few hundred shipping containers.
The second show was Helen Simpson Reads “Lub Dub Lub Dub Lub Dub” on The New Yorker: The Writer’s Voice. A British woman of a certain age talked about life, and the heart malfunctions that threaten to end it. The last line of the story was the lady messaging her friend on Whats App to tell her about something funny she saw. You just can’t get away from modern life.
0831-1020 – Ten twenty is truckdriver code. The dispatcher calls you, says 1020, and you tell them where you are. … Today’s walk was constipated, or at least the canned entertainment. The walking part lasted 56:12, with nuisance level dizziness. While this was a good day overall, it is the monday after a week with no problems seven days in a row. … The constipated podcast was The Artist of Cons: The Unbelievable but Totally Real Life of Milwaukee’s Most Interesting Man on Chameleon. Art Rapkin was from Milwaukee, and claimed to have an interesting life. Before he got into cocaine smuggling, he said he never took drugs. This may be the biggest lie of all. … Art’s book, “Poison for Rats,” is not available on Amazon.
0901 – The walk today was literate. I had two books to return to the library. The walk lasted 1:46:19, covering 3.23 miles in abundant sunshine. You should always be careful where you step.
One book was Shake It Up: Great American Writing on Rock and Pop from Elvis to Jay Z. It was fairly boring, with a couple of exceptions. One was Jim Morrison Is Dead and Living in Hollywood by Eve Babitz. Another one was Ellen Sander writing Inside the Cages of the Zoo about an early tour by Led Zeppelin. “He (Robert Plant) returned from the drugstore with shampoo, a comb, and some creme rinse for his copious mane, but no deodorant, which he needed regularly and badly.”
On June 28, I listened to a podcast based on a book about Liza May Minnelli. I soon got Kids, Wait Till You Hear This! from the library. It is a cliche of recovery that life seems dull after you quit taking drugs. The same is true about books by druggies that have cleaned up … the book is not as much fun after rehab. I found a 2013 post about LMM. Allegedly, she got sober for good in 2015.
The first podcast was Episode 321: Losing The Plot (with Jon Ronson) on Blocked and Reported. Jon Ronson was promoting a new book. The original title was “The Impossibility of Keeping a Harem in the Post Me-Too age.”
The second podcast was “Helen on Eighty-Sixth Street” on The New Yorker Fiction Podcast. This was the story of a girl in New York. She is jealous because another girl got to play Helen of Troy, while she was part of the Trojan Horse. There were a few more details. It was an amusing story to listen to while walking home through the green space.
0902 – The walk today was gravity influenced. It lasted 43:07, and had mild foot discomfort. The show was She Killed the Man Who Almost Killed Her: The Jema Heffernan Story, Part 1 on Gone South. Jema Heffernan is in a Missouri Prison for killling Javon Donahue, her no-good companion. This is common for women … to be in jail for killing their man, before he killed her. This show was sponsored by DraftKings, and their spokesman Dave Porknoy.
0903 – The walk today met the minimum requirement. Some days I am having a great time. Then there was today. It was hot, my feet acted up on a couple of laps, and I felt low energy. On days like this, I do my 36 minutes, and go back to the air conditioned house.
Yesterday at the dollar store, I saw a set of cheap earbuds. I tried them out today. They have a good sound, and had 100% power when I was finished. Cheap earbuds usually don’t last very long, but this will be a change of pace for a while. My bread and butter jbl buds will be there for me later.
The show today was Billy Corgan and the Nelson Brothers: A Conversation on Music and Life on The Magnificent Others with Billy Corgan. Matthew Gray Nelson and Gunnar Eric Nelson talking to William Patrick Corgan Jr. was like being the fly on the wall for a conversation full of respect, good will, and hatred of the music industry.
“Our grandfather Ozzie, nobody knew that he was a lawyer. He had a law degree from Rutgers. So he knew what he was doing when he was negotiating contracts. The family wound up owning the show, because he paid a little extra money. He had complete control of it. … “Well, uh having autonomy I think is really crucial because I just don’t believe in art by committee. I don’t think it works.”
For more about my walking problem, see The Path Journal. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Gordon Parks took the social media picture in June 1942. “Washington, D.C. Elderly couple eating dinner at their home on Lamont Street, N.W.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2026 · selah