Five Bullets 2.20.26: Sherlocked
What's capturing my interest this week: Sherlock Holmes, Robert Duvall, vinyl records, where ideas come from, and more.
Hi Friends -
Happy Friday! Here’s what’s capturing my interest this week:
Rewatching the BBC’s Sherlock series finally convinced me to read the first Sherlock Holmes novel, A Study In Scarlet, published in 1887 by Arthur Conan Doyle. With all the detective novels I’ve read recently, I’m surprised it’s taken me this long to get to the world’s greatest detective! Holmes was influenced by Edgar Allen Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin from the short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue, which Doyle references in the first few pages. The BBC series brings Holmes into the 21st-century with modern versions of Doyle’s classics, but if you’re interested in Sherlock Holmes, there’s no better place to begin than the book that started it all.
Vinyl music lovers: when was the last time you changed your turntable’s stylus? I noticed my records sounded distorted in the high frequencies. I hadn’t changed the stylus since I bought the turntable years ago, so I figured it was time for an upgrade. What a difference! My records sound better than ever with more depth and clarity than before. As a rule of thumb, the manual for my turntable (I’ve got the ATLP120) recommends replacing the stylus every 300 hours of use. And of course, I checked out the new needle with Lettuce’s Cook.
For Valentines’ Day last weekend, I shared one of my favorite love songs, John Coltrane’s Naima. While doing some research on the tune, I found a poem by photojournalist and organizer Kwame Braithwaite titled Naima for John Coltrane. Braithwaite founded the artist collective African Jazz-Art Society & Studios (AJASS) which included jazz drummer Max Roach and vocalist Abbey Lincoln.
Actor Robert Duvall passed away this week. Among his iconic roles is one of my favorite movie characters Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in Apocalypse Now. Duvall’s on-screen for just over 10 minutes but his performance is magnetic. Kilgore completely encapsulates everything gone wrong during America’s role in the Vietnam War and it’s hard to imagine another actor bringing this character to life. Here’s Duvall on playing Kilgore.
Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling on where ideas come from:
“Ideas come from the earth, they come from every human experience that you either witness or have heard about, translated into your brain in your own sense of dialogue, in your own language form. Ideas are born from what is smelled, heard, seen, experienced, felt, emotionalized. Ideas are probably in the air, like little tiny items of ozone.”
Serling says ideas are the easiest thing on earth to come up with but the hardest part is just getting them down.
What’s capturing your interest this week? Email me by hitting reply or by leaving a comment below.
Have a great weekend,
Keith
Never knew the needle was called a stylus lol.