Steel Wagstaff

Trying to do good things for good reasons

Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #9]

Here’s the ninth disc in a series of mixtapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a couple years gone.

August 17, 2015

Mix Tapes
Three versions of an Objectivist Poetics

“Grandmother, have you ever looked a donkey in the eyes?” “I may have done, my dear boy, I don’t remember.” “In that case you haven’t, because otherwise you’d certainly remember. Grandmother, if donkeys could speak …” “Believe me, my dear boy, they wouldn’t and couldn’t say anything superhuman. They’d ask for good straw and clean…

August 10, 2015

The Objectivists;What I’m Reading
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #8]

Here’s #8 in a series of mixtapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years ago.

August 10, 2015

Mix Tapes
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #7]

Back in the day, I made some mixtapes for Laurel’s birthday. Here’s #7 in that series.

August 3, 2015

Mix Tapes
Joyce Maynard on her mother and adult love

A few months after meeting Sydney Bacon, Joyce Maynard’s mother, Fredelle wrote this, in a letter to a friend: You ask if ‘I’m in love again.’ No, it’s not that. ‘In love’ was the experience with Max, so many years ago and for so long. ‘In love’ was feeling one would go anywhere, do anything,…

July 31, 2015

What I’m Reading
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #6]

Here’s the sixth of several mix tapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a couple of years yon.

July 27, 2015

Mix Tapes
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #5]

Here’s the fifth of the mixtapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years back.

July 20, 2015

Mix Tapes
Ignazio Silone’s Bread and Wine

I just finished Bread and Wine, the second book in Ignazio Silone’s The Abruzzio Trilogy (translated by Eric Mosbacher). The book is a moving, funny, and sometimes unbelievable look into provincial life in Italy under Mussolini. Set near the start of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the novel largely focuses on a character named Pietro Spina, an exiled Communist…

July 16, 2015

Reading Notes;What I’m Reading
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #4]

Here’s the fourth of several mix tapes I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years ago.

July 13, 2015

Mix Tapes
Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara

At the recommendation of my friend Spencer, I recently began reading the Italian novelist Ignazio Silone’s The Abruzzio Trilogy, beginning with his 1933 novel Fontamara. It is an extraordinary bit of social-realist inflected anti-fascist satire, and I found myself quickly devouring it and eager to begin the next book in the series. It’s a very short book,…

July 9, 2015

Reading Notes;What I’m Reading
Eef Barzelay makes a yogurt song sound like something else

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAhNjL49LlM This song is part of yogurt maker Chobani’s most recent ad campaign. And yet, Eef makes it something worth listening to.

July 8, 2015

What I’m Listening To
On the Anniversary of George Oppen’s Death

31 years ago today, the poet George Oppen died in the Idylwood Convalescent Home (now the Idylwood Care Center) in Sunnyvale, California. He was 76 years old, and had been suffering from dementia (Alzheimer’s disease) for several years before his death. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about George or his wife…

July 7, 2015

The Objectivists
From the Preface to Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara

The art of storytelling — the art of putting one word after another, one line after another, one sentence after another, explaining one thing at a time, without allusions or reservations, calling bread bread and wine wine — is just like the ancient art of weaving, the ancient art of putting one thread after another,…

July 7, 2015

What I’m Reading
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #3]

Here’s the third of several discs I made for Laurel’s birthday a few years back:

July 6, 2015

Mix Tapes
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #2]

For Laurel’s birthday a few years ago, I decided to make her a set of mixtapes, one for each year of her life, 30-something in all. The discs didn’t have any inherent connection, just a collection of interesting music on each one. Here’s the second in the series. Enjoy!

June 29, 2015

Mix Tapes
Laurel’s B-Day Mixes [Disc #1]

For Laurel’s birthday a few years ago, I decided to make her a set of mixtapes, one for each year of her life, 30-something in all. The discs didn’t have any inherent connection, just a collection of interesting music on each one. Here’s the first in the series. Enjoy!

June 22, 2015

Mix Tapes
Shake That Thang [Disc #2]

This is the second of two ‘Shake That Thang’ danceable mixtapes I made for Laurel a few years back. A couple of songs are missing from the original mix, but it’s still pretty fun. Enjoy!

June 15, 2015

Mix Tapes
#8: Choosing an Officiant & Getting a Marriage License

It’s been a long time since I started these posts, but now’s as good a time as any to finish them off. The details won’t be as fresh, certainly, but those that remain will have survived three plus years’ worth of memory-winnowing. Choosing an Officiant When it came to selecting an officiant for our wedding,…

June 11, 2015

Wedding Planning
John Mark Nelson, “Oh, Light Within Us!”

‘I’ll be waiting when you call my name / I’ll be waiting at the door’

June 8, 2015

What I’m Listening To
Handwritten note on Lorine Niedecker

Lorine Niedecker Visited her in March (1970)—rumors: total recluse — something wrong with her? Mental breakdown?—ordinary cleaning woman in mental hospital—so, trepidation—fears groundless / “moment I walked in her door, she was opposite of recluse: outgoing, of good cheer, very lively. Time flew. Delightful afternoon—much in common with Al. —House only a few steps from…

June 8, 2015

The Objectivists

About the Author

Hi, I’m Steel Wagstaff. I’m the product manager for Pressbooks, a Canadian company making open source book publishing software.

I live in Eugene, Oregon with my wife, Laurel Bastian, and our elementary-school aged son.

I love poetry, music, libraries, reading, playing pickup soccer, & eating vegetarian food.

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