Sam Stephenson
@sfstephenson
Writer. From Washington, NC. Tar Heel. Now based in Bryan, TX. 2019 Guggenheim fellow in nonfiction. Next book about jazz pianist Bill Evans and his wife Ellaine Schultz Evans. samstephenson.org
A great new classical solo piano record. Highly recommended. Unique sequence of material both venerable and brand new, and tremendous performances by Sarah Rothenberg.
Every new novel is now designed by the same person or AI algo. This is the terrific store in Austin TX, BookPeople, yesterday.
Many thanks to @flakphoto.news for snapping this pic and sending it to me this past weekend. My book Jazz Loft Project on display in City Lights in San Francisco. Thank you, Andy.
Passing through downtown Camden, Maine, I came across this small shop. It's now of of my top 5 favorite carefully and beautifully curated shops. There's even a turntable spinning records behind the counter. Link in comments.
My favorite place to sit in the world. Pamlico River, NC, brackish water, it takes a dirt road to get here. This area depopulated by more than 50% since 1900. Bad for tobacco farmers and crabbers, good for nature. Bluebirds everywhere.
One of the great lines. "The only time I have to think is when I take a shit at the office." Julie Delpy. Before Midnight. In an argument with her husband Ethan Hawke, with whom she shares two daughters while having a full-time job.
Eastern N.C. barbecue sauce. Will be ready to consume in 2 weeks.
Just got this ARC of Emily LaBarge's upcoming book. Stoked. She's a brilliant thinker and writer.
My latest interlibrary loan caper. Came from University of Houston music library, which my phone indicates is 101 miles from where I'm typing now. The public library branch here in downtown Bryan, TX is about a 200 yard walk, across railroad tracks. Interlibrary loan makes me feel alive.
Front page of today's Houston Chronicle. We're banning books and running out of drinkable water. Go Humans Go!
I read this slim potent book twice in one day this week. Next day I read it back to front. Some deep stuff in here. Tremendous thinking and writing. Gonna be one I keep close by on small shelf of inspiring mainstays.
In car in College Station TX this morning, listening to radio, a PSA for event at George H.W. Bush Presidential Library. 35th anniversary of Bush 41 signing Americans with Disabilities Act, led by GOP Sen. Bob Dole. Can you Imagine Trump/GOP today supporting a big bill to help handicapped people?
My latest Interlibrary Loan caper. Free, I have this book for 6 weeks. One of the great services our culture provides. Book came from a library in Corpus Christi, 204 miles from my house. If MAGA new about this service, they would seek to do abolish it, and call it socialist.
This is one of few books I still have from high school. Public school in town of 10K people in coastal N.C. My great English teacher assigned me this book to read before watching movie (book sadder, deeper). He next assigned me The Magic Barrel and was forever hooked on Malamud.
This 2005 book, "Findings" by photographer Hiroshi Watanabe, is spellbinding. I can't stop looking at it. 61 square, black and white images spanning the globe from the US (mainland plus Alaska and Hawaii), Japan, Ecuador, Iceland, Burma, Spain, Tahiti, India.
GOD GOLD GUNS. And hair style. That pretty much covers it. Texas!
Been cranking this CD in my car this week. Holy interplay between piano (Angelica Sanchez) and drums (Chad Taylor). Subtle and sizzling music.
Dear World, if you've never streamed WKCR out of NYC before, the next three days are a good time to do it. 72 hours of the music of Charlie Parker and Lester Young. Special note for the posthumous shows of Phil Schaap, who was one of a kind, a true American and NYC original.
Facebook just reminded me of this photo I posted 9 years ago today, rendering an epic edit of my book, Gene Smith’s Sink, in which I carved a more/less conventional biography - 20 years of work - down into something I love more, cutting more than half. (The conventional one would have sold more).
BookPeople, Austin TX. Great store. I spent $97 there today. But dismayed by the similarity of book covers in this section. Coming across this feeling often in good bookstores. It’s like a certain kind of same fog over all of them.
First day of 4th grade for our son today. Last night we gave him choice for dinner. Anything he wanted. He chose Rockfish Stew a family favorite, a traditional dish from coastal N.C. Yum.
Pamlico River near Bath, N.C. looking west this evening. Been seeing variations of this regularly since Day 1. Never gets old.
Me at work. With writer Allan Gurganus. Durham Bulls Athletic Park 2013. I was directing a doc project called Bull City Summer, documenting a season at AAA baseball stadium.