Bench Roundup: January 2025
Mortals are being mortal again
Howdy howdy —
The long first month reaches its final day. Ice flows have clogged up the Clark Fork. Many reports have suggested January has felt like forever. Lucky are we to gather on its conclusion.
Broadly, everything still spins. Either all the systems are broken, well on their way to breaking, or newly governed by uninterested and damaging individuals who don’t particularly care about what happens if something breaks. But surely, somehow, everything still spins. I’ve been seeing the term oligarchy used more and more in the description of the broader events of our time, and it seems an appropriate word. There are people trying in ways honest and true, and there are those with unconscionably more power who, by trustworthy accounts, are not.
Mortals are still answering questions far and wide to make sense of the disconcerted present. Lol best of luck. Reaction traps are everywhere. We’re all chasing this life’s great and heralded societal advancements, like high-speed regional rail or meme stocks or carrot cake. We’re all interplanetary and we’re all out of our minds, swimming in the same soup. It’s Friday, take a walk.
The Benches of January
In January, I blooped south to Scottsdale, played some games with the fellas, and returned north to a lovely winter clime. So far this season, Missoula has been observedly more blue than last year. We’ve had some pleasant days. Here at headquarters, we gently look forward to what this year could bring and what we can always count on: the benches along the way
The Benches of Scottsdale, Arizona
In Maricopa County, on the corner of Main and Scottsdale, a bench sits in honor of Malcom White, the first Mayor of Scottsdale. Former Scottsdale mayor Herb Drinkwater once said that if it weren’t for Mr. White, the sprawl of Phoenix would have succeeded in annexing Scottdale. Decades later, “The West’s Most Western Town” is on display, manicured and sterilized, straying from phrase. Adjacent to this bench is a Buca di Beppo, an art gallery, and multiple souvenir shops. Tiki bars and hat stores. No cattle in sight.
North of Old Town, we stretched our legs. A gentle jaunt in the desert highlands, capitalizing on the seemingly abundant light, surroundings of wild buckwheat and bedstraw. Some endemic flavor with a bench embedded into the stone on the Pinnacle Peak Trail.
Lost Trail Powder Mountain, Chair 4; Sula, MT
In my self-allotted time poking around particular social feeds this month, I’ve observed multiple instances of people taking a picture of the new Rebecca Yarros book and posting it with the caption “I’m so back”. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. However, I am here to comment on the most recent time I have released the soon-to-be-retired phrase: when I spent a Saturday morning on Chair 4 at Lost Trail, one of the most distinguished two-seaters you’ll find in western Montana. I was. So back.
Benches Correspondent’s Network
In a slower season, it helps to have intrepid friends. Dutiful members of the Benches Correspondents Network have ambled far and wide to bring us a surplus of goods. With appreciation, I present a trio.
Smalls; Portland, ME
Submitted by Mitch Morris
Smalls called and they said to bring lumbar support!
33rd St Station; New York City, NY
Submitted by Addie Forrestor
Grimey but acceptable. Would sit.
Old Man’s Surf Break; Isla Carenaro, Panama
Submitted by Mickey Navidomskis
ouuuuu. weeeeee.
Additional coursework
On rural communities, corporate powers, and data centers
It’s unlike anything that has come before. For seven decades, the balance between economic growth and the power requirements to sustain that growth followed divergent trend lines. We had steady growth while our power needs remained mostly flat. In the 2010s, for example, the US economy expanded by a cumulative 24 percent, but electricity demand remained unchanged, according to energy research firm Wood Mackenzie. That balance is now being radically upended. And the unprecedented energy demands of artificial intelligence represent a potentially calamitous divergence. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has said the electricity usage of data centers worldwide might double in just four years. US electricity demand alone could jump 20 percent by 2030, driven mostly by AI, according to a Wells Fargo analysis.
How Surveillance Became a Love Language
Heroic work in Symsonia, Kentucky
“It's not what it used to be. It probably never will be,” she said. “Right now, I have new clientele, which is grandkids and great-grandkids of the people that started out coming in here. They want their children and grandchildren to see the things that they did. Then I got the collectors that are coming looking to buy them. Everything old is new again.”
Adrianne Lenker on Song Exploder
Faye Webster on Tiny Desk. A proper band.
“She inspired me to get a flip phone,” he said, “because I saw all the superpowers it was giving her.”
Wailaree,
— Markus