Praise the Sun

Hey friends,

That slogan - Praise the Sun - comes from a very dark place.

If you’re at all familiar with video games, Dark Souls is considered a modern masterpiece. You play as a recently undead character who has to fight through a brutal fantasy kingdom to keep your sanity and - well, the story is very challenging, as challenging as the game itself.

But along the way, you meet a character who is standing in a rare sunny spot in this forsaken realm, encouraging you to keep going.

If that isn’t a great metaphor for these modern times, I’m not sure what is, but literal sunshine is good medicine when and where you can find it.

For me, that meant a recent work trip to Phoenix, Arizona, where I escaped a cold Michigan winter in favor of a warm and bright desert landscape.

And boy, that was a great reminder that the sun is a magic lantern in the sky.

Spring is coming soon. Thank goodness.

Recent Blog Posts

• Talking Musicians in Jackson on JTV: I never shared my interview from the Bart Hawley Show on JTV from 2019. Here it is.

• No Pressure: Where I explore some of the benefits of being a hobbyist photographer.

• Winter Photography Projects: I made another video - this time covering what photographers can do to keep busy in the colder months.

Things I’m Into Lately

• Why are things so crazy, so divided, so tense? David French has some background - and a potential solution.

• Proud dad moment: my daughter Madelyn wrote and performed her own song during the elementary school’s winter concert (above). My wife, Jaime, wrote about working with the school’s music program to empower kids with kindness. We’re proud of what Madelyn accomplished, writing and singing about modern childhood tough spots like anxiety and expectations.

• In TV news, I just finished The Penguin and Shogun - both a lot of fun. There was one moment in The Penguin episode three that was pure magic, involving an almost-industrial Bob Moses song and a nightclub. That took me down the Bob Moses rabbit hole, and now I’m a big fan.

• If you own and use a Mac, an easy way to add some sunshine to your hard drive space is using John Siracusa’s new Hyperspace app.

Write back and let me know how you’re doing.

Grossly incandescent,

Dave Lawrence