Miami-based Fountainhead Arts, an artist residency and career development organization, has announced the acquisition of a major artwork by San Antonio artist Jenelle Esparza by The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture in Riverside, California.
Ms. Esparza’s three-part weaving and wall sculpture Holder/Receiver 1-3 (2022-2023) was first exhibited in the Soy de Tejas: A Statewide Survey of Latinx Art exhibition that debuted in 2023 at Centro de Artes San Antonio. The 40-artist group show, curated by Rigoberto Luna of Presa House gallery, then toured to Arts Fort Worth in 2024, and recently opened at The Cheech.
A new Fountainhead Arts program, called Forum, facilitates acquisitions by art museums of artworks by alums of the residency program. Ms. Esparza was a Fountainhead Arts resident in July 2023.
Jenelle Esparza, “Holder/Reciever 1-3,” 2022-2023. Carlos Puma/Puma Photography on behalf of The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum
Other Fountainhead alums to receive support from the Forum program in its inaugural year are Ebony G. Patterson (2013), Lucia Hierro (2016), Kennedy Yanko (2017), Amy Bravo (2022), Victoria Udondian (2023), and Gabriela Ruiz (2025). According to a Fountainhead Arts press release, $125,000 in funding will facilitate the appearance of their works in major national and international exhibitions to be announced at a later date.
In a press release, Kathryn Mikesell, Fountainhead Arts Director, explained the practical goals of the Forum program to support artists at pivotal stages of their careers. “We created the Forum because we recognize that museum and institutional exhibitions and acquisitions remain one of the most transformational moments in an artist’s career, and understand firsthand that sometimes museum and institutional budgets fall short of artists’ and curators’ visions. With Forum, I hope our alumni artists will be able to realize their ambitious dreams, carrying their work forward in a way that resonates with audiences globally.”
Artist projects supported by the international program explore material and spatial concerns, address race, social, labor, and gender inequities, and center the work and ideas of diasporic artists.
A. Savage is a songwriter, musician, and visual artist best known for his work with the acclaimed New York-via-Texas rock band Parquet Courts. Born in Denton, Texas, and receiving a degree in painting from the University of North Texas (UNT) before transplanting to New York City, Savage’s development of a distinct visual style can be traced through the cover artwork for his band’s discography. Though he has not pursued a traditional career in the visual arts, Savage’s paintings have been exhibited and collected internationally and he was nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for Parquet Court’s 2016 album Human Performance.
I spoke with Savage from his home studio in Marseille, France, where he recently relocated after 15 years in New York. We discussed topics ranging from his early days in the Texas DIY music scene to being nominated alongside David Bowie at the Grammy’s, participating in a discussion of artist Eva Hesse at Hauser & Wirth, and a recent visit to the site of Vincent van Gogh’s death. The following conversation has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
A. Savage, “Autoportrait,” 2025
Michael Flanagan (MF): I understand you started drawing at a young age. What were some of your earliest influences when it came to visual art?
A. Savage (AS): I didn’t have proper art education until much later in life, so it was cartoons and video games that were the first things I started to imitate and reproduce.
My parents met working at the Denton Record Chronicle, the newspaper in Denton, and I would be there on the press floor. There would be all this paper, so to keep me in one place they would just give me huge reams of paper to draw. Big A0 size broadsheets of paper that I could just fill up one after the other. So that’s kind of where it all started.
MF: The earliest representation of your visual art that I could find is the 2003 cover artwork for a record by a band called Five Pointers. What do you remember about that artwork?
AS: That is a drawing from the newspaper of a guy performing a Shia ritualistic self-mutilation [in which] people take large knives and hit themselves. There’s nothing in the lyrics about that. It’s just a tough looking image that I thought would be good for aggressive music. That is really as deep as I was going in 2003.
Five Pointers cover artwork by A. Savage
MF: What can you say about the significance of hardcore and punk rock in your creative development?
AS: There are a lot of creative people that come out of the hardcore punk scene because so much of it involves autonomy and DIY — doing your own thing. That record that you are talking about, I released on my own. I drew the cover and I drew all the fliers for that band, and other bands, because that’s what you did in that scene. I meet people in all sorts of different artistic disciplines — you get to talking and find out that they were in the DIY punk scene once upon a time. That happens all the time.
MF: You studied painting at UNT at a time when there were some great artists teaching like Annette Lawrence and Ed Blackburn.
AS: I had both of them.
MF: What artists made the greatest impact on you during your time studying there?
AS: One of my best friends that I met in art school, who remains one of my best friends to this day, is the painter Bradley Kerl. He works and teaches in Houston now and is represented in Houston, New York, and in France. He and I played in a band called Teenage Cool Kids together, but we became friends in Robert Jessup’s life figure drawing class and that’s how we started hanging out. Bradley is an amazing painter who I still look to for inspiration.
It’s funny, because I started as a music major. I was an All-State upright bass player in high school. From that, I got a scholarship to UNT, and it quickly became apparent that it was not the environment for me. It was no surprise when I later found out that the movie Whiplash was based around that program. I was watching these 19-year-old boys have mental breakdowns. So I realized it wasn’t for me and I went to the painting program because you get your own studio and you graduate earlier because it’s less credit hours than the music performance major. It seemed like a no-brainer to me.
MF: Were you engaged with gallery or museum culture at all?
AS: No, not at all. Not until I moved to New York, to be honest. I didn’t really have expectations for much, but I didn’t have any expectation to be a visual artist in the gallery sense, selling work like I do now. I took art history classes, and I had to learn all the things you learn when you go to art school, but I didn’t really start thinking about it until later.
I got a job working for a company in New York that sold vintage antique posters. Old French lithograph advertising and stuff. I was selling those original antique posters at Bloomingdales on Madison Avenue, and I got headhunted from that job by this other poster company called Rare Posters. They sold art gallery posters that, for example, Gagosian would have printed to advertise on the subway for a Basquiat show, stuff like that. Rare editions like serigraphs by Robert Rauschenberg or Andy Warhol and rare works on paper. More contemporary and modern art stuff.
I think that was my real art education, because I was working in the warehouse of this company doing all their orders and it was me handling all the posters. I’d look at, and kind of study, a John Wesley for a bit and be like, “Oh, who’s this guy? What’s his deal?” And so that was my real art education, where I could see a history of the New York gallery scene in a way, because all those posters were there. And the art scene in New York is a good way to learn about the art world writ large.
A. Savage’s design for Parquet Court’s “Content Nausea,” 2014
MF: Your band Parquet Courts became your creative focus when you left Denton for New York, and it took a few years for you to get back into a painting practice. Eventually those two things became intertwined, culminating in your Grammy nomination for Best Recording Package for Parquet Court’s 2016 album Human Performance. You designed the artwork for that album, which featured a suite of your paintings along with a silkscreen print. Can you take me through that trajectory?
AS: You can trace my progress as an artist in New York via the Parquet Courts records. If you look at the first records like American Specialties, Light Up Gold, and Sunbathing Animal, they’re cut and paste jobs that I did at my desk in my first apartment in Brooklyn. All of the art for those I did with scissors, tape, and a pen. It’s with Content Nausea that I started working in the studio. If you look at the cover of Content Nausea, it’s a view of Manhattan from my studio that I got in 2013. And I was there until I left New York in 2023.
With Human Performance, the record that you’re mentioning that was nominated for the package design Grammy, that has one of my early New York paintings on the cover. That’s around the time when I started painting again, but really kind of taking painting seriously for the first time. Because in art school it was just the thing that I did — I liked having the studio and going in there and working, but it became slightly different later. I had matured and maybe found my voice a bit clearer.
MF: You were nominated alongside David Bowie.
AF: Well, I was nominated alongside David Bowie’s art director. But I was the only art director who was also the musician.
A. Savage’s Grammy-nominated design for Parquet Court’s “Human Performance,” 2016
MF: It seems like the success with music led to a realization that creativity had the potential to be your livelihood, and that you wanted to explore that possibility with your painting. Is that why you decided to take that leap and get a studio in New York?
AS: Yeah, a bit of that. I just wanted a place where I could go and make a mess. It was a leap of faith. I found this section of a warehouse in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, right across from the Marcy Projects, which was mostly Hasidic businesses. A lot of importing and exporting. I found this space in there, and I subleased it from somebody for a year. Then that person vacated the lease, so I had the opportunity to lease out a whole section of this warehouse.
I had it for ten years and it was one of the best decisions I ever made. It was on the corner, on the fifth floor, and had this amazing view of New York. It was a great decision because pretty much everything that I made from that point until I moved to France came out of that room, including, of course, all visuals, but also lyrics. It was a really special place and it was what kept me in New York the longest. It was the hardest thing to leave when I did. And it was a surreal thing, walking out of that door, leaving the keys behind me for the last time.
For the first time, I had a little bit of money to take a leap of faith like that, and I’m really glad that I took it. My life would be completely different had I not taken that lease.
Original artwork by A. Savage featured in the poster design for the event “Eva Hesse. Diaries,” a discussion of the work of Eva Hesse at Hauser & Wirth, 2017
MF: In 2017, you participated in an event organized by Hauser & Wirth around the work of Eva Hesse. What was your interest in her work, and what exactly was your involvement in that event?
AS: It was a discussion between myself and Jennifer Blessing, who is a curator at the Guggenheim. I had read the diary of Eva Hesse, published by Yale. I bought a copy at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam because I thought it was such a lovely looking book. Speaking of awards, that book won an award called — and I think this is my favorite name of any award — The Most Beautiful Swiss Book award.
Hauser & Wirth read a review that I had written in The Guardian of that book and they liked what I had to say quite a lot. Hauser & Wirth also are the gallerists for the estate of Eva Hesse, so that’s where they come in. They invited me to be in a conversation with Jennifer Blessing about Hesse’s work, which was extremely intimidating, because I am not, nor was I then, an art world guy. I’m not an academic, I don’t have a master’s degree, I’m not a gallery person. Basically what I am, or what I was then, was a guy that played guitar in a band who was lucky enough to be considered an artist by Hauser & Wirth.
What attracted me to the book was that it’s very personal. It talks about the struggles of being an artist, and about the feeling of having a terrible day in the studio and having no ideas and all the self-doubt and self-hatred you go through. And then the joy of the idea and of getting something done and having this work that you’re very proud of. I could relate to that a lot. I think that she’s an exciting artist, but the most exciting thing about that book is just how relatable it is to any artist.
MF: You mentioned not being an art world guy. What do you think about the art world? Are you at all apprehensive about it? Your involvement with a gallery like Hauser & Wirth makes me think of someone like Raymond Pettibon, who started out making flyers and album art for bands in the early ‘80s, and is now represented by David Zwirner. What correlation do you see between the art and music worlds?
AS: I think that the art world and music world are pretty different. Maybe they’re more similar now than they used to be, I don’t know. I’ve largely been outside of the “art world” for a long time. Occasionally I get invited into it, but I’m not linked up with curators. When I meet art world people — people who work at those institutions, people who are curators, stuff like that — they all seem to be very bright people. They seem to be people who are well-educated, who are intellectuals, which I don’t consider myself to be. A lot of times they have this very academic approach to art in the way that they talk about it, evaluate it. I respect that, but I can’t entirely identify with it.
I don’t participate in a lot of the ways that galleries become aware of artists, like Instagram, for example. So, I don’t know how relevant I am to that world. But I sell work, and I make work, and I guess that’s to me what an artist does. And that whole other thing is just peripheral to what I do.
Now, if anyone reading this works at a major blue chip gallery and thinks that I’m going to fit in well there, then by all means—my email is published, get in touch. But, I’m just going to keep doing what I do. My studio is right here, I go in there every day. I’ve got to stretch some canvases after this. I’m going to continue to do that. And the same with making music. If Rough Trade [Records] decided that they didn’t want to do records with me anymore, that would not be the end of my music career. I would continue to make music, whether it was for another record label or whether it was just for my cat. I’m going to do my thing — my music, my art — not dependent on the powers that be or the means of distribution. They are welcome to come find me, but I will be doing it with or without them.
A. Savage, “Neo-Tokyo/Neo York III,” from a series of serigraph prints for the “Golden Week Blues” exhibition at Big Love in Tokyo, May 2019
MF: In an interview for an exhibition at Big Love in Japan, you said that there is a lot of planning that goes into your paintings because it’s important for you to “know what I’m talking about and what I want to say.” Do you aim for the audience to pick up on what it is you’re specifically trying to say in a painting?
AS: No, I don’t, but it’s still important that I know what I’m saying. And the same goes for a song — writing lyrics — or any sort of discipline. If you don’t know what you’re saying, and if the thing that you’re saying isn’t important to you and it doesn’t mean something to you, then it’s not going to be worth a damn.
I need to know what I’m saying before I say it, and the meaning of what I’m saying isn’t the point of the final product. It’s the point of getting started and the process. And so I guess that’s the hardest part of creation for me, is figuring out what I want to say and how I want to say it. If I don’t know exactly what I’m trying to communicate, what the idea behind a painting is, then it’s just going to be an empty exercise.
MF: I just watched re-watched David Lynch’s Eraserhead. That might be one of the most prominent examples of the artist not wanting to get into the meaning.
AS: That’s not the point with him. I don’t know what Mulholland Drive is about, but I love the movie. It’s about something, and what it’s about isn’t exactly the point, you know? But it was the point for him. That’s one of the things that’s different about meaning insofar as being the artist and being the audience.
As long as the artist knows what the meaning is, they don’t have to say. And if they don’t say it, then the audience is never wrong when they decide what it’s about. I like that. When people ask me what something is about, I usually say something along the lines of “I’ve given you all the information—I gave this piece a title, I gave it these colors, I gave it this form and subject matter.” My art is representational, it’s not abstract. So I’ve given you a lot, and then it’s up to you and whatever you think. It won’t be wrong. That’s what I like about Lynch, he gives you everything you need to know, and then he trusts you to come to your own conclusion.
MF: Do you ever find that it is useful to be more explicit about meaning?
AS: Yeah, of course. For example, we know what [Picasso’s] Guernica is about. An understanding about the Spanish Civil War is kind of important to understanding that piece. For me as the artist, there can be as much detail or precision as I want there to be. It depends on the context.
A. Savage, “Observation Deck, New York City,” 2021, acrylic on canvas
MF: I’m looking at a painting of yours now that feels related to what you’re saying about Guernica. It’s a painting from 2021 called Observation Deck, New York City. Is that an example of one of your more explicit paintings?
AS: Perhaps so, yeah. That painting’s definitely explicitly about something for me. Maybe it’s one of the more evident ones.
MF: What stylistic or thematic distinctions do you see within the various bodies of work you’ve explored throughout your career?
AS: In the beginning I was using a very soft line, without many angles. The lines were kind of curvy or wavy. Now my line is jagged and a bit boxy. I didn’t use light at all. Now I really like depicting light, although not in the way that Dutch master painters depict light. In my own way. It used to be form and color that were most important to me. And those are still very important to me, but now, living in the South of France, it’s a great place if you want to depict light. When I look at the older work, it seems like it’s from another lifetime.
A. Savage, “Untitled,” 2025, acrylic on canvas
MF: Speaking of light, I’m looking at another one of your paintings. There’s a man playing guitar, and I love how you’ve painted his shadow in this kind of surreal way on the mountain landscape behind him. It doesn’t make sense, but it’s perfect. The use of color is really beautiful. How recent is that painting?
AS: From last summer. That, to me, is a painting about light and sound. I wanted a painting that you could obviously see, but also hear. It’s one of my best uses of shadow.
The painting that really kind of broke my head apart when depicting light is the one with the film projector, Introducing Valerie. That one is when I got bit by the light bug.
MF: I’ve seen this painting before on the cover artwork for one of your solo records. Is this a self-portrait?
AS: Yeah, it is.
A. Savage, “Introducing Valerie,” 2024, acrylic on canvas
MF: I obviously see you in the projectionist. The longer you look at it, though, the woman on the screen also resembles you. Are you projecting yourself onto the woman in the film?
AS: It’s the projectors shadow, isn’t it? I guess that’s the question you have to answer. What is the source of the light that’s making that shadow? The shadow is itself a projection. The shadow is a projection of the light. And then the projector is doing another type of projection, isn’t it?
MF: You talked about the light in Marseille, where you live now, having an impact on how you work. How else has the transition from the United States to France affected you?
AS: A lot of my work that I’m making right now has to do with my identity as an American here, and being an American in the world right now. That’s just coming out of me. It’s something I need to communicate, because it’s an interesting thing to be where I am and to be who I am. In one sense, there is a level of relief that I had the foresight to get out. But on the other hand, I take no joy in being right about that. It hurts my heart on a daily basis and it can feel alienating. So that’s what is coming out of me at the moment.
I don’t know how much the American news covers this, but they’re pretty well pissed at Americans here right now. Not “Americans,” but the current administration. As an American, I, to some degree, represent that, whether I like it or not. I just take that with me wherever I go. That’s coming out of me right now and it’s probably evident in the painting I sent you called Rue d’Aubagne, 22h. I finished it two days ago. It’s a study for a [larger] painting that I’m going to start soon. It’s about walking home, on the streets of Marseille, after dark.
I like the the paintings that Stuart Davis made when he was in Paris. They’re kind of these amalgamations of different old world symbolism through this American lens that I can relate to. I can relate to Stuart Davis a lot. He did work as a commercial artist, which I also have done from time to time. He lived in Europe, as did a lot of that generation of American artists, and he looked to the past. A lot of those [arists] were looking to the past for answers, and attaching themselves to certain iconography that wasn’t present where they came from. That’s one of the things that I was thinking of when I was making that piece — that era of Stuart Davis’s paintings.
Marseille is one of the oldest cities in Europe, so there is this connection to the past that there isn’t really in the States. And the light is a huge thing here. There’s a reason that Van Gogh came down to this part of the world. Especially in the summertime, it’s like the days just last forever. There’s light for you to paint by, for a long time, and it does things to the colors.
A. Savage, “Study for Rue d’Aubagne, 22h,” 2025
MF: Did van Gogh paint in Marseille?
AS: No, but he worked and died in Arles, which is less than an hour away. It’s also on the south coast of France.
MF: Have you made any pilgrimages there?
AS: I’ve been to Arles, there’s a major art festival there. It’s a really nice medieval city in the South of France. It’s really lovely. The boarding house where he died — there’s a little museum for him there. It’s not far from here, so the light that they get in Arles is the same light we’re getting.
A. Savage, “Untitled,” 2025, acrylic on canvas
MF: What projects are you currently working on?
AS: I’m in French language school. From 9 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon everyday, I’m in class. And so that gives my life a lot of structure. It’s actually had a lot of dividends on my practice because my time becomes more valuable. I’ve always been a pretty orderly guy as far as time goes, but I like this process of being in school. Learning a new language opens up new doors in your brain.
Speaking of Lynch, I read a quote by him recently. He was talking about how important order was in his life. How he ate the same meal everyday for lunch. He had tuna fish, feta, and tomatoes everyday. And he likes to order his life because he considers his art a form of disorder. “From two in the afternoon to ten at night,” I’m paraphrasing, “that’s my time to create disorder.”
I really relate to the idea of that. I keep this book in my pocket everywhere I go — it’s the things that I need to do in a day. There’s always a place in each day for me to get lost in my thing, whether that be at a guitar, a piano, or in the studio working. It’s important to give myself this space to become a freak and be a weirdo, alone by myself. If I can’t do that, then I can’t do my thing. It’s given my day some order, which has had dividends in my art.
I want to do a show, I haven’t done one in a long time. Right now, in the work that’s coming out, there’s an important context that I was mentioning earlier of being an American in the world. That’s sort of coming out of me, and I just want to make as much as I can and see what that becomes. Maybe a show, maybe a book. But I’m very much in the process of making something right now.
When you’re going to a concert or a sporting event, you’re worried about one thing: Will the stadium have an endless parking lot packed with thousands and thousands of cars, making entry and exit a living nightmare?
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You’ve Always Been This Way is a column written by Taylor Harris, a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman and 1980s preschool dropout, who identifies every moment from her past that filled her with shame, and mutters, “Yep, that tracks. I see it all now.”
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Sorry, Silicon bros and people who go to boardrooms. Hands off my links. This year’s guide centers chronically overwhelmed AuDHD-ers and our neurodivergent kinfolk, who came straight outta gifted programs only to be thrown into an even worse program, called capitalism.
We’re talking those of us who compare folding laundry to “herding dead cats” or are constantly trying to get our ducks in a row before the ducks share a cloacal kiss1 under the mistletoe, and create more ducks.
I know everyone—from the cool kids at The Strategist to the guy who bit an Arby’s steak nugget and immediately coded to President Trump’s chic “barely there” ankles—is telling you what to buy this season. But you need me. Especially if you find yourself enjoying small talk at cocktail parties, hoping to catch your neighbor on her porch just to “check in,” or don’t spit your coffee every time a coworker says, “I’ll tell ya what, I don’t think our country has ever been this divided.” You might not understand the social rules of autistic baddies, but you sure can gift like you do.
For Outside the Cave
Every baddie needs a uniform for low-energy, cozy days (i.e., most days).
Nike Killshot 2 sneakers If I’m going to sport normie shoes worn by white guys in Nantucket, they’ve got to stand out. Killshots are relatively easy to find on sale, and you don’t have to buy the white/navy/gum-yellow “J.Crew” style. They do run narrow, so size up if you’ve got flippers.
UGGs I know, I know. What’s next? Crocs? Keens with socks? Hear me out: Cold toes are the devil. Paired with thin, sensory-friendly socks that don’t slip under my heel, UGGs bring a pop of color to my winters and are a staple of my cold-weather uniform.
Madewell Whisper Crew Neck Tee (in memoriam) We’re running this link at half-staff. My favorite soft tee with perfect sleeve and torso lengths and a swoopy-swoop cut in the back is no longer available in any size, except for XXS. “You can tell me the truth,” I nudged the customer service rep over the phone. “You’re discontinuing it, aren’t you?” I imagine she took one last drag before crushing the cigarette under the heel of whatever fancy boots you wear on a street corner in Manhattan or a break room in Michigan and said, “It’s hard to know, Ms. Harris. But I can assure you our inventory is dynamic.”
Hoody with ZIPPER and Strings I met a fellow writer to discuss neurodivergence and the Church, and I thought we got along swimmingly until she divulged her preference for pullover hoodies. Later that night, locked in my bedroom for the friendship conclave, surrounded by plushies, I spoke her name, but no one turned on the smoke machine.
Beanie One time, I wore my Coal-brand beanie to Trader Joe’s, and, apparently, the guy next to me wanted more than bread. He was in search of Christmas banter. “Hey, that’s what I’m getting for Christmas!” he said, pointing to my hat. “Oh, cool!” I said, imagining the plum-colored cap atop his shiny head.
Coffee Shop Accoutrement for the Emerging Artist
Don’t say, “I want to be a writer.” Say, “I am a writer.” Then buy yourself a coffee and start scrolling.
Medieval Autism Sticker When I sit down with my latte and prepare to pretend to write, I can’t have people thinking I’m a fed or district manager type just knocking out a few emails. Before anyone asks, “Do you work for the man?” I flip open my laptop. BAM. Would someone with a diversified portfolio and dry-cleaned slacks own THREE of these bad boys?
Apple AirPods Max I married the guy who gave these to me. Yes, we’d already been married for years, but don’t ruin this. I put these on, and no one talks to me. I hope the next version is for your whole body.
Cotopaxi Allpa Backpack—Del Dia Are you going to the wilderness of Utah or your local café? Does it matter? The color combos are endless, and Cotopaxi made us so many pockets and zippers, like trap doors for secret snacks! Go, people who hike! Go, people who fill their packs with pastries, sour candies, and four books they’ll read at the same time.
Hobonichi Techo Planner If your friend or loved one is the type to spend hours researching a product they’ll never use, this gift is perfect. The minimalist design makes this a planner with thousands of possibilities for customization, and who doesn’t love a little exercise in permutations when trying to figure out their life?
In a Mood: A Sticker Book Feelings wheels are great, but don’t you ever get tired of tilting your head? Sometimes the best way to start my day is by realizing I’m “whelmed” or “sick of your crap” or “having a panic attack.” It’s direct, and there’s a face, so it’s just like real life with neurotypicals, only it’s direct.
Post-it Notes Duh. We have ideas. That are imminent. And timeless. And belong in squares. And now that we’re adults, we can sketch a dog with a hangover riding a bicycle, and no one even cares.
Dry-Erase Paint If your brain operated like the Scrambler at the state fair, wouldn’t you want an entire wall for your ideas? And if your kids or partner ever used a corner to write you a note or play hangman, you could scowl and say, “Do I just show up to your school or job and write on the walls?! This isn’t just scribble scrab. This novel is going to pay for your custom orthotics, Richard!”
Oil Pastels So smooth. No skill needed. Just use and smudge and be happy.
Kuretake Metallic Watercolors When I was a little kid, I never questioned whether I was good at art. I’m trying to bring that little girl back.
Original Art by Avery Williamson My friend gave me a pair of earrings made by Avery. I wore them OUT. Then I fell in love with Avery’s abstract paintings.
Old School Pencil Sharpener It’s giving “back in my day, we carved our own pencils from dust…” but this hand-cranked mystical machine gets the pencils so pleasantly pointy.
Little Spoons The wrong spoon can ruin a meal. Look for smaller spoons that aren’t too blocky or chonky. The biggest red flag in our house is a spoon with a super skinny neck. I can’t eat ice cream in peace if I’m worried about fracturing my spoon’s vertebra.
Miscellaneous Magic
At home or on the go, these gifts slap and cost less than forty dollars.
A Funny Instagram Reel by Malie Mason If Estelle the fox’s jacked-up teeth aren’t enough to make you smile, maybe watching her drink hot tea from a metal straw will do the trick. And it’s free! Except for possible surveillance.
Vaseline Intensive Care Lotion I’m Black, and I got sensory stuff. My biggest fear as a teen was being cast on Survivor and having to choose just one personal item. I would’ve tossed my antidepressants to avoid the awful feeling of dry hand and finger skin rubbing against itself.
Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows by John Koenig Did someone say beach read? If it’s not sad or mysterious, I don’t want it. Sometimes I see people on the beach reading a book that features a person on the beach, and I wonder if these are the last days.
Smaller LEGO Set While the big modular LEGO sets are impressive, sometimes the smaller sets, particularly if linked to a special interest, like books, are even cooler.
NeeDoh Nice Cube If fidgets had been a thing in the ’80s, I’d be the leader of everything now. Instead, as a mom and volunteer ice-cream taster, I never feel guilty about buying a new NeeDoh fidget for our household, because someone will use it, and if a kid manages to rip it apart, then I guess she needed it.
Best Ice Cream Ever I’m from Ohio, and we love our full-fat dairy. Graeter’s makes the smoothest ice cream with boulders of chocolate and other mix-ins. My personal favorite is Banana Chocolate Chip, and I’ll regret this, but you can now find it at The Fresh Market. (Limit one per household if you live in Virginia.)
In brief: A lot to get to today, including some notes on hurricane season and Houston’s chilliest day in nearly 10 months. We are going to briefly warm up before another front brings widespread rain and cooler temperatures on Thursday. Fortunately the weather for this weekend still looks exceptional.
Some news and notes to begin
End of season: First of all, we neglected to mention yesterday that the Atlantic hurricane season officially ended on Sunday, Nov. 30. It did. Truth be told this date is pretty meaningless for Texas since activity really dies off in October in the northwestern Gulf and usually, as we did this year, we can call the ‘end’ of the Texas hurricane season in late September. It was a very quiet season for the Gulf, largely due to a weaker Bermuda High allowing storms to turn into the open Atlantic Ocean. Alas that was not the case with Melissa, a major hurricane that brought devastation to Jamaica at the end of October.
As the 2025 season tracks show, almost everything re-curved this season. (National Hurricane Center)
Very cold day: Monday’s high temperature was just 47 degrees. That was our coldest daily maximum temperature since February 22, when the high topped out at 44 degrees. I guess it’s only fitting because winter began on December 1. Or did it? One of the eternal debates is when winter begins. Is it Dec. 1? Is it the winter solstice later in the month? For us, here, we go with the ‘meteorological’ start of winter on the first day of December. And this year Mother Nature delivered.
No more asking for support: Our 2025 fundraiser ended on Monday night. And I just want to express my appreciation to everyone a final time for the tremendous response. Once again, our readers answered the call in a major way. Y’all took care of us, and we are going to take great care of your weather needs for the next year.
If you think it’s cold in Houston this morning, take a look at the rest of Texas. (Weather Bell)
Tuesday
We are starting the morning out quite chilly. As expected our region has remained above freezing, with even areas well to the north of Houston such as Huntsville, Navasota, and College Station holding in the mid-30s. Most of the rest of Houston is in the upper 30s to lower 40s. We will rise into the mid-50s today, with mostly sunny skies helping to nudge temperatures upward. (This will be our last unbroken sunshine until the weekend). Winds will still be from the north, gusting up to 20 mph this morning before dying down this afternoon. We’re going to have one more cold night, with temperatures probably 1-3 degrees warmer than Monday night.
Wednesday and Thursday
The onshore flow will be in full swing by Wednesday morning, and this is going to rapidly push temperatures to around 70 degrees, with rising humidity. We will see building clouds during the daytime, but I expect rain chances to mostly hold off until Wednesday evening or overnight. Lows drop to around 60 degrees in Houston. We will see widespread showers on Wednesday night and Thursday, as a front approaches and pushes into the region. Some of these will be moderate to heavy, and I think most of our region will pick up 0.5 to 2 inches of rain through Friday. The best chance of rain will come on Thursday, however. As the front moves in highs will top out at around 60 degrees on Thursday.
NOAA rain accumulation forecast for now through Friday night. (Weather Bell)
Friday
We may see some lingering, mostly light showers on Friday. Cloudy skies will keep highs in the 50s, with overnight lows dropping into the upper 40s, probably, on Friday night.
Saturday and Sunday
The weekend still looks very fine. Expect highs in the mid-60s on Saturday, and perhaps 70 degrees on Sunday. Nights will be on the chilly side, likely in the upper 40s although it’s too early to be sure. The best part? You can expect mostly sunny skies for the most part. It will be a great weekend for holiday related activities.
Next week
Overall next week looks to be fairly mild, with highs in the vicinity of 70 degrees, and lows around 50 degrees. Rain chances appear to be low for the most part.
It’s “where are you now?” month at Ask a Manager, and all December I’m running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.
Remember the letter-writer wondering if they were missing red flags at their new job since their coworkers kept expecting them to be miserable? Here’s the update.
I’m still in the job! My boss is still a stickler, that hasn’t changed, but I’ve adjusted to him, and things have stayed pretty stable overall. I’ve now been here about nine months, and I’m hearing a lot less about the dog (thankfully) and a lot less doom-and-gloom about how the job will “turn nightmarish any day now.” It hasn’t.
My team lead and colleagues are good people, and I get along with Jake, the manager. He can be very particular, but once I figured out how to accommodate that, we’ve had no issues.
That said, I’ve learned a lot more about the backstory since writing in. A lot of commenters questioned whether this involved gender or ethnicity or expat/local dynamics, and while they were sort of on the right track, that isn’t the whole story.
As I mentioned, the office is about 60/40 local residents vs expats, with the C-suite being mostly expats. Jake was the first local of his background to ever hold his managerial position, and to hear it told, when he was first promoted, handled it terribly — badly micromanaging, giving himself grandiose titles, even firing a well-liked employee just to flex his authority (which was not only poor judgment but technically illegal in this country). The staff basically had to band together and go to upper management to push back, and he was forced to eat a giant slice of humble pie. That was a few years ago, and while he’s apparently improved a lot, the resentment has lingered. So now it makes a lot more sense why some of the longtime employees are still bitter, and why there’s still an undercurrent of distrust.
I’ve had a few frustrations of my own, mainly that the company really dropped the ball on helping me find housing in a tough market where I had no connections, which made those first few months harder than they needed to be. I’m also just generally burned out on this field; it’s more the industry itself than this particular job. I’ve been trying to pivot into a related area for a while but haven’t quite broken in yet.
As it happens, I’ll be leaving early next year anyway. I’m moving back to my previous country to live with my partner and work with him on projects that are much closer to the kind of work I want to do, as well as growing my side gig.
So, all in all: imperfect but fine. The job never turned out to be the horror story everyone warned me about, and I’m glad I didn’t let their cynicism scare me off.
WASHINGTON—Touting his latest executive order as a historic win for the U.S. economy, President Donald Trump announced Friday that he was mandating a 5,000% increase in all numbers nationwide. “Effective immediately, 100 will now be 5,100 and—I’m reading off the official statistics from my people—500 will be 25,500,” said Trump, speaking from the Oval Office as he told reporters the move would shift decimals “many places” to the right for wages, stock prices, job numbers, gross domestic product, and other vital economic indicators. “Say your net worth is about $20,000. In that case, you’re now a millionaire. And we don’t have to worry about fertility anymore, because this country now has about 17 billion people. These are really tremendous increases that should have gone into effect years ago.” Trump added that if the executive order was as successful as he expected it to be, he might soon shift to increasing some letters.
Rosalía’s fourth studio album, Lux, has been met with critical acclaim, cracking the Billboard top 10 for the first time in the Spanish pop star’s career. The Onion shares everything you need to know about the artist.
Genre: Música
Musical Influences: Traditional Spanish TikToks
Who She’s Beefing With: B-flat
Frequent Collaborator: King Ferdinand V
Controversies: Making Spanish-language music, despite being from Spain
HILLIARD, OH—Reluctantly admitting to the table that she might have been too quick to judge, local mother Janet Greenbaum told family members Thursday that she was actually quite impressed by the manners of their tattooed restaurant server. “When she first came over to give us our menus, I thought she was in some kind of biker gang, but she turned out to be really polite,” said the 63-year-old mother of two, who remarked that the North Side Grill waitress seemed very smart and well-spoken despite having ruined her “cute little arms” with body art that resembled a “half lady, half skull thing” and a “devil-looking guy.” “Between the tattoos, that haircut, and all those hideous piercings, she looks pretty scary, but underneath, she’s sweet as can be. I’m starting to think she’s never even been to prison!” Greenbaum added that she was also impressed to see a wedding ring on the woman’s finger, although she shuddered to think what kind of man “would marry such a thing.”
CHICAGO—In a move making her the latest performer to join the distraction-free trend, New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde confirmed Friday that she was now requiring all concertgoers to stash their boyfriends in locked pouches during her shows. “I understand wanting to share the experience, but I think a live performance is more special when everyone puts their boyfriends away,” said Lorde, who explained that her current Ultrasound World Tour had partnered with Yondr to lock fans’ male significant others in the company’s patented three-by-six-foot pouches before entering the venue. “I don’t want people just glued to their boyfriends for the entire show. Fans should be singing along, dancing, and really getting into the music, so if we see you with a boyfriend, you will be asked to leave. If you need him to get to the venue and get home, we totally understand—just silence him and keep him in the pouch so everyone can enjoy the experience.” According to sources, a fan at a recent Lorde concert was booted from the show after she was caught sneaking in a second boyfriend.
by Jameson Varner, CEO I’m the CEO of a major accounting firm, which means I have my finger on the market’s pulse. Both financial and tech journalists have been predicting that artificial intelligence is a bubble that will inevitably crash, soon bringing the rest of the stock market and global economy tumbling down with it. […]
The resolution, which bears the signatures of 99 precinct chairs, passed the party’s steering committee last week and will be considered by up to 600 precinct chairs at a meeting on Dec. 14.
Tech giant RealPage filed a federal lawsuit asserting that AI companies have a free speech right to help landlords collude to raise rents, part of a broader trend of corporations advancing new interpretations of the First Amendment to protect their power.
The New York lawsuit from RealPage, which is owned by private equity giant Thoma Bravo, comes after the company has been hit with class-action lawsuits alleging that its software has facilitated a price-fixing cartel among landlords. (Scott McIntyre / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Days after ExxonMobil began pressing the Supreme Court to give corporations a First Amendment right to hide pollution, tech giant RealPage filed a federal lawsuit asserting that artificial intelligence companies have the same constitutional right to help landlords collude to raise rents.
RealPage’s case, filed last Wednesday, asks a federal court to overturn New York’s landmark state law aiming to halt algorithmic rent-fixing by artificial intelligence software. In a court filing reviewed by the Lever, the company calls the law “a sweeping and unconstitutional ban on lawful speech specifically intended to outlaw software developed and sold by companies like Plaintiff RealPage, Inc. that provide information and advice to owners and managers of rental properties.”
New York’s law was designed to help combat the $3.8 billion worth of annual rent increases nationwide caused by artificial intelligence software, according to a 2024 White House report. That report cited federal statistics showing that nearly “1 in every 4 rental uses a RealPage pricing algorithm” to set rent prices.
RealPage’s suit is one in a string of cases in which corporations are advancing new interpretations of the First Amendment to try to protect their power. In one set of cases, companies are arguing that the First Amendment prevents the government from compelling them to disclose information to consumers and law enforcement agencies. Other industry groups are now arguing that public health regulators cannot restrict how food products are advertised.
The New York lawsuit from RealPage, which is owned by private equity giant Thoma Bravo, comes after the company has been hit with class-action lawsuits alleging that its software has facilitated a price-fixing cartel among landlords. In a federal antitrust lawsuit, the Biden-era Department of Justice (DOJ) asserted that “RealPage’s pricing algorithm enables landlords to share confidential, competitively sensitive information and align their rents.”
Days after President Donald Trump asserted his commitment to an affordability agenda, his top antitrust enforcer this week declared that “RealPage was replacing competition with coordination, and renters paid the price.” But then the Trump administration agreed to a settlement widely seen as benefiting the company. Indeed, RealPage declared that “we deny any wrongdoing (and) we appreciate the constructive engagement by DOJ and its willingness to bless the legality of RealPage’s prior and planned product changes.”
In the lead-up to the settlement, Thoma Bravo hiredlobbying firm Ballard Partners to represent the company on “issues related to competition in the housing industry.” Ballard previously employed Trump attorney general Pam Bondi.
Trump is now reportedly considering issuing an executive order aiming to ban all state laws regulating artificial intelligence companies.
This article was first published by the Lever, an award-winning independent investigative newsroom.
I appreciated the validation offered by you and your readers, and apologize I couldn’t be available when it was posted for replies. The executive director’s deadline for my “proof” was just a couple days after I reached out to you, so I had to take action before you had a chance to publish your reply.
I thought about replying to the email from my executive director with the verification documents and including my manager and HR. Because of the specter of sexual harassment (nothing easily actionable, but I think we all know it was there) I instead rang a local employment attorney and visited him for a consultation the next day.
He advised forwarding the email to my manager and HR without the executive director included, and provided language quite similar to that you suggested, with the addition of asking if management of the exercise program has shifted to the executive director. He also advised to ask for responses via email.
I did as he suggested. My manager was upset and HR surprised. They came to my office together and assured me management had not shifted to him, that basing the request on my appearance was inappropriate, and that it would not happen again. I sent an email recap to them, and they replied confirming that is how they recalled the meeting.
That was the end of it, until last month. At our fall all-staff quarterly meeting, the director announced he made the decision to terminate the exercise program with immediate effect.
As you ended your reply to my initial letter: he is an ass.
Welcome to “where are you now?” season at Ask a Manager! Between now and the end of the year, I’ll be running updates from people who had their letters here answered in the past.
A heads-up about update season: for the next few weeks I’ll be posting at midnight, 11 am, 12:30 pm, 2 pm, 3:30 pm, and 5 pm (all times are Eastern)* … at a minimum. There will sometimes be additional posts at random times throughout the afternoon as well!
Also, if you’ve had your letter answered here in the past and would like to send in an update, there’s still time to include it so go ahead and email it to me!
* That’s Monday through Thursday. Friday will be unpredictable.
What changed? Republicans long characterized Silicon Valley as a bastion of liberalism. But over the past half-decade, many of tech’s wealthiest titans rebelled against the Biden administration’s criticism and policing of their industry. Last year, many tech barons threw their support behind the GOP, which they saw as more aligned with their often-libertarian ideals and their companies’ economic interests. Trump and his party actively wooed influential tech leaders, embracing cryptocurrency and promising to limit AI regulation. His vice president, JD Vance, formerly worked as a venture capitalist in San Francisco, forging ties to Thiel, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen.
