Like most people, my normal is being bombarded by a steady barrage of media that makes its way across my many screens: I sign up for a million newsletters, I spend too many hours on social media, and I have a long list of blogs that I religiously check--both for my job and just for fun. Yet at the end of the day, there are very few words, phrases, even entire articles that stick.

So when I came across a Thought Catalog piece on "31 Of The Most Beautiful And Profound Passages In Literature You’ll Want To Read Over And Over Again," you better believe I clicked at lightning speed.

There's nothing like coming across a paragraph or phrase buried deep in a book or poem that makes you stop, reread, and highlight/dog-ear/write down/use on your Myspace profile (just me?) so that you can come back to it again and again. I totally agree with the author--rereading these passages helps you remember the power of words.

The Kerouac quote has always been one of my all-time favorites (see Myspace reference above), but several of these quotes and their greater books were new to me and have since made their way on to my to-read list...which I obviously keep a touch away on a screen.

My commute is a quick 12-minute bike ride, but on lazier mornings I treat myself to the 35-minute walk with my favorite podcast--Reply All (also usually coffee... so nope, I am never on time). 

In each episode of Reply All, hosts Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt explore *things* related to the internet. They do an amazing job investigating and uncovering super interesting and, at times, really weird, often-urban-legendy-type stories. 

Their back-and-forth banter makes me feel like I'm hanging out with a couple of friends who are just as into web things as I am. Some of my favorite episodes: #44, where PJ micro-doses on LSD at work for a week; #33, where they trace ISIS's presence online; and #15, where they uncover the world of SWAT pranking.

Photo via Twitter.

On Sunday I made the quick journey downtown, earbuds securely fastened, to the Smithsonian American Art Museum to check out its newest exhibition, Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty.

Somewhere in a dark, cobwebby corner of my mind, I'd known that Penn was a prolific photographer--that his work wasn't relegated to the portraits of severely angled models draped in Parisian couture gracing the covers of Vogue. But I hadn't remotely grasped the breadth of his work, neither its scope in subject nor time. Outside of the high-fashion stuff, I loved his photo essays on African villagers (especially the little kids), tradesmen (including bakers and a Mary Poppins-esque chimney sweep), the 1950s deep South (including "Pause Pause" below), and other portraits of famous 20th century figures like "Miles Davis Hands." 

Roaming the gallery, I couldn't help but think about the passage of time and the differences between media at the height of Penn's career and media now. Through advertisements, photographers back then had to convey so much in a single image, tell an entire story in a single frame--but they were often able to captivate viewers. And that's how artists like Penn made their life's work.

Today we have entire commercials and videos that aim to do the same, but hundreds of images, videos, and stories are fighting for viewers' attention at once. With so much noise, it takes truly powerful storytelling to hold an audience--for better or for worse.

Here are a few of my favorites from the exhibition.