Mark Rushton’s Perseverance in the Arts is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
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This week’s topics:
Revenge of the Jocks
Frozen Effervescence (disquiet0679)
The Grateful Dead - Scarlet Begonias
Revenge of the Jocks
The company gym was busy on Friday. It won’t be in a few weeks.
I did 30 chin-ups. Not in a row, but six sets of five with a lap of walking between each set.
Exercise is the worst way to lose weight, but it’s pretty good at building strength.
A year ago, I could only do one chin-up. That’s progress.
I would like to write a sequel to Revenge of the Nerds. We could call it “Revenge of the Jocks”. The nerds develop a time machine, but the jocks accidentally steal it and repair the web of time. The jocks return to the modern age and discover people are no longer tied to technology. They’re healthy. They’re shopping at the mall. They’re not driving around in stupid looking Cybertrucks. That would be funny.
Frozen Effervescence (disquiet0679)
It’s the 13th year of me participating in, and contributing to, the first project of the year for the Disquiet Junto.
For 2025’s, titled “Ice Age”, I used the ice recording I made back in 2013.
I duplicated the recording six times and loaded them into the Samplr app on the iPad with various settings and coordinates. Then I ran it through my effects rig.
More on the 679th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Ice Age — The Assignment: Record the sound of ice in a glass and make something with it — at https://disquiet.com/2025/01/02/disquiet-junto-project-0679-ice-age/
The Grateful Dead - Scarlet Begonias
I heard “Scarlet Begonias” in the store the other night. When I was younger, the Grateful Dead were never on my radar. Beautiful song. And we could talk about those lyrics forever.