Everything and everyone is saturated to the gills with political commentary, hot takes, discourse, and pissed-off snark. People and the internet are so filled with all of this they don’t really have time or space for anything else. Longtime followers know that I think this whole culture and drift is toxic and erodes the human spirit and the possibility of culture and life. You also know I am most interested in writing about, talking photos of, and exploring life in our modern world. Trying to make, and document, (honest) life as art in our age of clickbait-algo spectator reactive discourse. For the past six months I have been working on compiling a collection of short essays and vignettes I have written over the years into a single print volume and I am thrilled to share it with you. In curating this collection for print I was adamant about a few things. I wanted a classic, simple, beautiful design inside and out. I wanted a book that you could carry around, toss on your bed, put in your pocket, shove in your bag, manhandle on the beach, write in, write on, and everything else in-between. For me, the point of this collection isn’t to produce an epic hardcover tome. It’s something more informal and approachable. Something simpler and relatable. I’ve always loved those little paperbacks. You know, the ones they say they aren’t going to make anymore. Well, I want to still make them or something similar to them. I wanted this collection to be as close as possible to that rugged, personal, carefree spirit. The book itself is about 5 in. X 7.75 in.. About as small as you can get these days. The design is simple and (hopefully) timeless, the font is warm, the margins are ample, and the pieces honest. There’s a link in my linktree / bio to Amazon where you can Buy Modern Lives. Or of course, just search Amazon as we all so often do and that will work just as well. No politics, no hot-takes, no reaction, no discourse; just life.

Today, in anticipation of Sukkot and Shabbat, my wife, @littlebayschool, made - A Whole Chicken Brisket Challah Cupcakes Corn Chowder Potatoes and Carrots Kugel Green Beans ….and I think I am missing something. Jewish mom of the year award. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Signing off

We often take our medical advancement for granted in such an extreme way. We are so incredibly blessed to live in a time when so many of us who would have died before are able to survive and thrive today. We need to remind ourselves of that.

I believe I was there when @owroot took this. You'd think he'd have spent some time finding the perfect angles, the perfect lighting. But he just shot it from the hip like a Wild West Cowboy. And he got this. Wild.

A glimpse of the best brutalism in the U.P. @owroot

Not all ascots are silk. Our Rocco, in cotton. Simple and subdued, perfect for fall. 100% cotton, sewn in NYC. Ascots done right.

Chilly May looks entirely different than Chilly September. The sky is fresher, the grass is younger and brighter, and the light is colder coming off winter. May on Mackinac Island, 35mm film.

Friday at the Root household central command before two days off for Shabbat and Sukkot

Reading the literature and being transported back to the middle school library while my kids do their Suzuki lessons.

Good morning. This morning in our style memo we discuss the secret looking relaxed and natural in whatever you wear.

My wife brought this home tonight. Hate to say it but probably the nicest thing Brooks has put out in years.

Michigan's Upper Peninsula is one of my favorite places to shoot photos of retro signage. Often somewhat faded and dingy, set against a backdrop of woods, the signs stand alone in a striking way. There are so many there and they are amazing. 35mm film

Lost somewhere in the labyrinth of the American Express website.

Feeling very good about my coffee intake right now. 🥂

Sukkah going up this afternoon

Follow Slow House to clear your timeline and clear your mind.

Postcards from the past 35mm film

Camped on Bois Blanc Island in Lake Huron last night with my son. I was visiting for work, shooting awesome photo and video for @mich_enjoyer, but I always try to take a kid or two along whenever I can because if I had a dad who did what I do I would wish he took me too. So I try. It was just us two this time and that was nice. Just the guys. We camped on Bible Beach on the northern end of the island. You can see Mackinac Island and the lights from the Grand Hotel there. The camping out on that shore is tent only. No running water etc... It was just us and a couple down the road. We never heard them and only knew they were there because we walked down that way in the day. It was a great day traipsing around the island on the gravel roads (there are no paved roads). Driving, hiking, shooting photo and video, attempting to fish but catching nothing. It was a great sunny day and chilly night dropping down to about 49 in the middle of the night. We stayed warm though. The sound of the waves in the night were so strong. It was incredible. My parents took us tent camping a lot when we were kids. All over. Some of my best childhood memories are from those trips. For some reason we remember those memories more. Camping, car trips, stuff like that. It's odd, I've talked to others who feel the same. It was special to be able to go just us two. I take the kids on lots of work trips throughout the year but it seems like each year one sticks out for each kid. A couple years ago it was a trip to Beaver Island with one. Last year it was a trip way up to Two Hearted River with another. I think this one will be one of those. It's hard being a dad. I fail a lot, I get ticked off more often than I wish I did, I get stressed, I get less than pleasant and feel like I am not doing enough. Though I try but often fail. That's the story of it. But sometimes it's not hard. Sometimes it's really really fun. The trip out there wouldn't have been very fun by myself. I guess it would have been quieter, and I guess I would have had to answer fewer questions. But it genuinely - and I really mean that - would have been a lot less fun. Sometimes being a good dad is hard, other times it's easy. Yesterday was easy.

Kids get along best with each other when they are being insanely annoying to you as their parent. You can’t stand their antics but they are high as a kite together not fighting at all. There’s a poetry in that.