A near-Herculean feat of transcription, if I do say so! Read it here.

“Fogust Groove” is a mixtape I made of a bunch of yacht rock and blue-eyed soul I played for my kids while we were driving around the coast of California last week:

I first heard these songs as a kid listening to my mom’s car radio tuned to “Sunny 95” (94.7 FM) out of Columbus, Ohio, so this mix is a bit of, in the words of the poet, “his nostalgic tale.”

You can listen to the mix on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.

Here’s a video of me making the mixtape:

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An author is never more vulnerable than when they have a book coming out, so I’ll often reach out to their publicists and snag them for an interview. In this case, the publicist reached out to me, and I’m very glad she did, because I’ve been a fan of Julia’s for a long time, and  her answers are just as beautiful as her work.

I also love how she described the project on her Instagram:

“How cool that I got to be part of @austinkleon ‘s Typewriter Interview series. It comes through snail mail and you need to answer on the same papers and mail it back. I was so worried about making a creative family tree and I avoided it until the end. But ultimately it gave me a chance to look hard at what my biggest influences have been from childhood (the ground) to now (the branches). What a great exercise. (I realize I left some people off by mistake- esp Jason Polan)…”

It’s also a bonus when the interviewee is adept at using a scanner — Julia emailed me the images and I was able to post this one while on vacation! (The originals have reached me via snail mail since then and are now safe and sound in my files.)

See my letter, “Inside the man is a teenager.”

Artist and filmmaker Erik Winkowski’s “Zinemail No. 1” and “Zinemail No. 2” (and now “Zinemail No. 3”) are some of the most interesting uses of the Substack platform I’ve ever seen, so I asked him if he’d do a typewriter interview. It’s wonderful.

A blackout I put at the top of my letter, “Summer Catch-up.” I haven’t done these in a while. Takes a bit to get back into them.

My latest typewriter interview is with cartoonist James Kochalka. It’s fun and light and exactly like his comics.

James has long been an inspiration to me — in the P.S. I mention that James’ sketchbook comic American Elf was on my list of 7 books that helped me learn from my kids. I learned from James the other day that collections of the strip are totally out-of-print — not even available digitally! This is mind-boggling to me, but the publishing industry is what it is. (James runs new strips on his Patreon. My own personal archive can be viewed on my “american elf” Tumblr tag.)

Another fun meta way James and I are connected: I used his book The Cute Manifesto (also out-of-print) as the “dummy” book I made for Steal Like an Artist.

I also own one of James’ “Tiny Paintings.” Meg bought it for me a couple decades ago when we lived in Cleveland. It’s about the only snow I see on a regular basis in Texas…

I’ve been trying to go about the summer Friday newsletters with a sense of lightness, the way I make a collage out of scraps in my drawer — I pull out what I’ve saved, push it around until it makes sense (or nonsense), and glue it down. (Hit send.)

Last Friday’s letter was called “The very thing that drove you away,” and began:

Everyone, it seems, is on vacation. My bike gang is on vacation! My bandmates are on vacation! My barber is on vacation! My therapist is on vacation! Heck, you might be even on vacation. One day soon, I, too, will be on vacation, and when I am, I will think of Seneca quoting Socrates in Letters from a Stoic: “How can you wonder your travels do you no good, when you carry yourself with you? You are saddled with the very thing that drove you away.”

Today’s is called “Choose your own Odyssey”:

Will every single item on this week’s list refer, somehow, to The Odyssey? Yes, my friends…

As for the Tuesday letter, I have so many typewriter interviews that have come in, and I think I’m going to run one every week for the next month…

Earlier this month I had the pleasure of getting to chat about Don’t Call It Art with art coach Beth Pickens. I started off the conversation by describing the dream I had after seeing Bob Dylan live:

You can watch the whole thing here.

My most recent typewriter interview — a big hit with readers! — is with author and illustrator Mark Haddon, who said it was the most enjoyable interview he’s ever done and bestowed upon me my new title, “Prince of Analogue.”