Rob Walker
projects
keepsakes

I consume a lot of great things. Here are my "keepsakes" (non-comprehensive) of the especially great things that have resonated with me over the years.

Books

  • The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
  • East of Eden by John Steinbeck

Poetry

  • "Masks" by Shel Silverstein
  • "The Missing Piece" by Shel Silverstein
  • "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop
  • "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop
  • "The Two-Headed Calf" by Laura Gilpin
  • "Sick Goat" by Mikko Harvey

Videos

  • "MAMA'S EYES" by METTE (ref)
  • "End of the Tour: The Problem of Loneliness" (ref)
  • "Spike Jonze for Apple HomePod — Welcome Home" (ref)
  • "Fred Again...|Tiny Desk Concert" by Fred Again, NPR (ref)

TV

  • Fleabag
  • Arcane
  • Succession

Short Stories

  • "The Heat Death of the Universe" by Pamela Zoline
  • "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster
  • "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang
  • "Burning Chrome" by William Gibson

Music

  • "Think Fast" by Dominic Fike feat. Weezer
  • "LIE DOWN" by Saya Gray
  • "It's Called: Freefall" by Rainbow Kitten Surprise
  • "Painkillers" by Rainbow Kitten Surprise
  • "Ballade No. 1 in G Minor Op. 23" by Chopin
  • "Ballade No. 4 in F Minor Op. 52" by Chopin
  • "Prelude in C-Sharp Minor, Op. 3, No. 2" by Rachmaninoff
  • "24 Caprices, Op. 1 No. 24 in A Minor" by Paganini
  • "La Campanella" by Liszt
  • "Nocturne Op. 55 no. 1" by Chopin
  • "Out Getting Ribs" by King Krule
  • "Ocean Bed" by King Krule
  • "Leonard Cohen" by Boy Genius
  • "Hallelujah" by Jeff Buckley
  • "Disappearing" by Low
  • "Heart-Shaped Box" by Nirvana
  • "warm glow" by Hippo Campus
  • "Mythological Beauty" by Big Thief

Artists

  • Alberto Giacometti
  • Albert Bierstadt
  • Frederic Edwin Church

Quotes

  • "Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." from Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
  • "Why would you believe in something awful when you could believe in something wonderful?" from Fleabag by Phoebe Waller-Bridge
  • "When I am served half an egg at a restaurant, I wonder to myself: who has the other half of my egg? Two strangers; living their lives; sharing an egg." (ref)
  • "pretty shitty how baseline human activities like singing, dancing and making art got turned into skills instead of being seen as behaviors \ so now it's like the point of doing them is to get good at them' and not 'this is a thing humans do, the way birds sing and bees make hivesCat'." (ref)
  • "We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster that we go bankrupt by the age of thirty, and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to make yourself feel nothing, so as not to feel anything — what a waste!" from Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman
  • "We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words." by Ursula K. Le Guin (ref)
  • "For what is grief, but love persevering?" from WandaVision
  • "In romantic relationships, you should always be yourself, because the worst thing that can happen is something that wasn't going to work out doesn't." from a 2018 lecture by Louis Menand in Humanities 10a (paraphrased)