5SF for 04/02/26

I finished rereading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance this week, and it remains a mandatory read over fifty years after it was published. There is very little Zen, very little motorcycle maintenance. What stands out is the discussion of Quality.

Quality does not exist in isolation. There is no such thing as a high-Quality book without a reader, or a high-Quality bench without a sitter. Quality lives in the experience, in the act. It's this fuzzy sense that arises innately when something has been produced with intention, with care.

"[I]t’s important now to tie care to Quality by pointing out that care and Quality are internal and external aspects of the same thing. A person who sees Quality and feels it as he works is a person who cares. A person who cares about what he sees and does is a person who’s bound to have some characteristics of Quality."

Even before AI was shoved into every aspect of commercial life, Quality was uncommon. It is the opposite of enshittification, of millennial grey, of doomscrolling. It is a great show on Dropout, an unevenly sculpted mug that keeps your tea warm and fits your grip just right, that third jump where Mario does the flip in the 3D ones, a poem written to a partner.

One bastion of Quality is ending soon: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Now, I may be in Colbert's ideal demographic (Catholic, Lord of the Rings fan, etc.) but that show has been important over the last decade for everyone. He did something rare, especially on mainstream media, balancing humor and care.

Colbert created a space on television where rich soil could be tilled, intellectualism without pretension. Grief, fear, and wonder all had a place there, and the conversations were consistently genuine. During the pandemic, the show kept going from his home, with only a few other people in the room. It was rough, quiet, and never stopped feeling like the best of humanity.

The show, of course, has been cancelled in the name of political appeasement, but I don't want to dwell on that. Instead, here's five songs from The Late Show that capture some fraction of its Quality. (Honorable Mention goes to The Lord of the Rings rap)

The Mountain Goats – This Year

Jack Johnson – Sleep Through the Static

Sam Smith – Ain't No Sunshine

Jennifer Hudson, Jon Batiste - (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman

Maggie Rogers -- One for My Baby (And One for the Road)

This one, folks. This one. I'm not much of a crier, but this one got me. For a bit of historical context, know that this was the last song that was performed on Johnny Carson's show.

A few other moments that deserve to be remembered from The Late Show:

Colbert live on January 6, capturing the fear and rage that filled that day.

Helen Mirren reading Tennyson's Ulysses

Paul Giamatti and Colbert discussing books

Finally, I have to end with this: Stephen Colbert talking about how he met his wife. This one makes me smile every time I watch, for it echoes feelings I know well.