fridayfive 09 : What We Take With Us
Five reflections on identity, creativity, and the art of slow exits.
Hi there!
It’s a strange thing, packing your life into boxes. You start out organizing by category - jackets, office, books - but end up sorting by sentiment. What stays? What tells the story? Lately, I’ve found myself caught between the clarity that comes with leaving and the quiet anxiety of not quite knowing what comes next. Everything feels like a metaphor: the shrinking wardrobe, the 900-page Western on my nightstand, even the YouTube rabbit holes I fall into when I’m supposed to be cleaning out drawers.
This week’s five reflect that feeling of standing in the doorway between here and there. There’s a guide to simplifying what you wear, and a book that suggests nothing about goodbyes is ever really simple. There’s a travel vlog that redefines what it means to go home, and a sharp little essay about looking instead of copying. And finally, a true-crime documentary about a vanishing in the Australian outback.
This Week’s Playlist:
1. The Capsule Wardrobe Industrial Complex
→ https://www.pauljamesknitwear.com/blogs/guide/mastering-the-mens-summer-capsule-wardrobe
We’re mid-summer now, which means it’s apparently time to reinvent myself using just fifteen pieces of clothing. Capsule wardrobes promise simplicity, but narrowing your entire personality down to a handful of shirts and shorts feels like choosing a tattoo.
This guide leans into versatility, quality, and timeless style. But what really got me thinking was the subtext: every item you choose becomes a character in the story you're telling about who you are, or who you're aiming to be.
Right now, I’m not sure if I’m a “breathable linen shirt” guy or the type who keeps wearing the same hoodie until it becomes sentimental. The math of minimalism might be clean, but the psychology is messier.
2. The Lonesome Dove Experience
Available everywhere books are sold, and worth every one of its 945 pages
I’m 400 pages into Lonesome Dove, and reading it while preparing the move feels oddly perfect. McMurtry’s story captures the bittersweet weight of departure: the space between where you’ve been and where you’re headed.
The novel certainly doesn’t rush. It unfolds like the cattle drives it depicts: slowly, deliberately, with dust and silence between the dialogue. That rhythm lets you sit with the characters’ quiet reckonings and gut-punch moments of realization.
It’s more than a Western. It’s about endings, long roads, and how even small goodbyes can rearrange you. The more I read, the more it feels like a map for what I’m living through: the pull to keep going, even when you’re not entirely sure what’s waiting at the other end.
3. YouTube Series: “Kids of the Colony”
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2025/jul/01/how-three-young-londoners-set-out-to-explore-the-countries-of-their-parents-birth-and-redefined-the-travel-vlog
Three 23-year-olds from London travel to their parents’ home countries (Somalia, Bangladesh, and Morocco), documenting the experience on YouTube. What makes it compelling is how personal it feels.
They aren’t staying at resorts or chasing viral edits. They’re eating with relatives, reconnecting with family they’ve never met, and exploring what it means to belong to more than one place. You feel like you're watching something intimate, despite being shared online.
It redefines the travel vlog. Less highlight reel, more home video. They’re not selling a destination. They’re navigating identity, culture, and memory.
Watching it made me think about the stories we inherit, and the ones we create when we return to places we never quite left. That feeling can linger whether you’ve been gone for years or never physically left at all.
Find their YouTube Channel here
4. Look, Don’t Copy
https://dongiannatti.substack.com/p/good-photography-comes-from-looking
Instagram is a useful muse and a quiet thief. One minute you’re inspired, the next you’re subconsciously replicating someone else’s shot. Don Giannatti nails this tension: the fine line between being influenced and being overtaken.
His essay is a reminder that photography starts not with posting, but with noticing. That deep, unhurried seeing we did before likes and hashtags started whispering suggestions.
Earlier this week, I briefly touched on the struggle with creativity and influence on Instagram. Of course, hypocritically just after capturing this photo I’ve seen thousands of times before.
Giannatti’s message lands softly, but firmly: Look first. Then shoot.
5. 🎬 A Long Walk to the Gas Station
https://www.hbo.com/movies/last-stop-larrimah
A man disappears from a tiny town in Australia, and everyone in the town becomes a suspect. Last Stop Larrimah is as odd as it sounds. Part true crime, part character study, and somehow both hilarious and unsettling.
Similar to where I grew up, this town is a place where gossip has a longer memory than police records, and everyone is either a best friend or an enemy. The pacing is slow and deliberate, like the town itself. You don’t just watch what happened. You start to wonder why a place like this exists in the first place and why exactly people choose to stay.
The documentary is less about solving a mystery and more about being immersed in one. Think Tiger King meets No Country for Old Men. You can watch the film on HBO Max.
A Quote I Resonate With:
“Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad. While they are deciding, make more art.”
~ Andy Warhol
Life’s funny. I’ve been meaning to read Lonesome Dove for a while now, but the ~thickness~ of it always made me hesitate. As it turns out, I’m preparing for a move myself, and your review just sold me on it. Thanks for the nudge!