I was going to write about influences today, but before I could get to my computer, I saw an email from my friend Alice Dark, with advice for making Ho Springs more alive. She wondered whether I’d seen the brilliant We Tell Stories — indeed I have — and also said she wished Ho Springs had more visuals, maybe videos of the kind I produced with my friend Alexa Garbarino to promote How Not To Act Old.

Here’s a look at one of those:

There are a couple of reasons Ho Springs is not going to be more like either of those things.

The biggest one is money. We Tell Stories is produced with high-powered design and technology talent far beyond my budget. It’s just me, folks, with the help of Dennis and Katie whenever they can give me a few free minutes away from their own artistic pursuits and low-wage jobs.

I would love it if Ho Springs were a television show — HBO: Call me! — but it’s not, and producing even tiny shoestring episodes with high school kids would be a huge undertaking. Plus, I don’t want photos or actors to give form to characters that, novel-like, I hope exist as much in the readers’ imaginations as they do on the page.

But there was one thing I could do visually, I decided, and that was tell the story of what influenced today’s post. In this case, the talent was free and available, and I just recorded myself with my iPhone. This one’s for you, Alice.