Staying Receptive to Beauty
— A messy post about this and that. Starting with some things I’ve read/watched lately.
— Cy Dear is a documentary about Cy Twombly available on Kanopy (which I accessed via my public library card and maybe you can as well). In it he talks about the importance of staying susceptible or receptive to beauty. We watched this in Napoli (I’ve posted some photos on my Insta) and it was kind of the perfect thing to see after looking at art during the day.
— We’ve also been watching The Art of Crime, a French crime show which has, you guessed it, art at the centre of whatever investigation is at hand. I found it oddly soothing to read the subtitles and let the lovely French accents wash over me. Again, this one is on Kanopy.
— I feel like we’ve watched more shows in the last few weeks than we have in the last six months. Thanks to the airplane selections, I finally watched some episodes of Stanley Tucci in Italy and while this review isn’t wrong, I have to say the love fest of it all is quite pleasing and somehow the light touch allows Italy to shine brilliantly. I’m for that.
— The first dinner I made when we got home was from Donna Hay’s Fresh and Light, the spinach ricotta gnocchi with tomatoes, basil, lemon zest, basil, parmesan. I quite honestly haven’t enjoyed cooking since the pandemic but this was easy to make and tasty. Watching Tucci eat food made me want to cook better, so yay to Stanley.
— I read Uh Huh Her by Rachel Cattle while away and loved it. It’s partly about living life as an artist with all the things read and listened to being absorbed by the narrator who seems punk and daring but also full of dreams and damned hopes and freshness. Anyway, you know me, these are my favourite kinds of books. A little bit rock and roll, a little bit stream of consciousness.
— Before we went away (a couple of weeks ago), I had been browsing my “book of the year,” The Art of Resonance by Anne Bogart, again. I’ve mentioned it a lot, so maybe by now you’ve read it too. (Do you like it?) Anyway, this time what caught my eye was her passage on page 30 about temenos. Joseph Campbell talked about this Jungian idea but I don’t know that he named it. Maybe he did and it didn’t stick with me. Bogart says, “Jung imagined temenos not only as an object or place but also as an experience, a virtual, meditative space that can be inhabited by the mind, signifying the inner space deep within us where soul-making takes place.” And she says that it’s a refuge “that allows for the practical regeneration of the soul.” The word soul is really popping for me especially these days as I wait to hear about the fate of my manuscript Repair Manual for the Soul. :) Stay tuned.
— Traveling is decadent, feels all the more so these days. It’s important enough to me and my artist though, that I took 2 weeks of LWOP from work (having started anew at my job I have no paid holidays). I have eaten a peanut butter sandwich for my work lunch for, well, years, now, lol. Partly to save money but also because food is weird. So we all make choices and I know I’m privileged to make even these choices as the world disintegrates around us. I’ll write another post about Napoli soon but I’m going to just sit and process it mentally for a while, and through photographs, which is what I do.
— I’m in that weird jet lagged space so I’m sure I’m not going to be saying anything profound here, but is it just me or did the internet bump just one more notch upward in the weirdness category? Or is it just social media? Or maybe it’s that we’ve all collectively decided to take a step back from it all and it’s throwing all the algorithms for a loop. I mean, it’s exhausting. We all get that. We don’t want to lose our connections and friendships or our tiny little hits of dopamine. Posting vacay photos, I admit, has felt very odd. I get that it looks a certain way, and that people are weary. I’m weary. The world is much. Too hard. Too brutal. Our heads spin — all the hot takes, the people pushing the importance of beauty every day, the people who are traumatized and distressed, do this don’t do that, look at me. All in one swipe. Meanwhile people you know IRL ignore you and even though you know it’s like the weariness or the algo or one of a thousand other possible things, it still feels like they hate you now. (Which is the evil trick of it all right?) Meanwhile do we stop feeding the sloppola machine our lives, our “content.” Leave instagram? Go to SubStack? Where HAVE all the good people gone? All that said, I still believe that the world is made up mainly of good people. And so many people are doing beautiful, meaningful, brilliant things.
— A lot of folks have been talking about getting Brick. I’ve been thinking about it. I use the ScreenZen app but I need to lock it down more.
— So yes, the internet is weird, but it still contains pockets of delight and kindness. I loved getting this shout-out on the wonderful 320 Sycamore Studios. Do yourself a solid and subscribe. Great for librarians, people with kids, and anyone who just loves books.
— I was so happy to hear that the purveyor of Library Joy, Mychal Threets, was named the new host of Reading Rainbow. Even though I never watched RR (I think it wasn’t available in Canada, or at least not on my TV), I just love the whole vibe. More of this in the world, please.
— Speaking of libraries, we also recently watched Party Girl on Kanopy. (Definitely getting my money’s worth out of my free library card :) ). If you became a librarian because of this movie, you’re not alone. Mary is what we nowadays call an “unlikable female character” and she is obnoxious but brilliantly so. A great article here on the movie, and how it stands up these days. I obviously think it’s worth a watch, and even added it to a recent book list I made to celebrate Canadian Library Month.
— Thanks for reading today’s jumble. I’m tired but full of art thoughts. And my suitcase was delivered to my house late today (it hadn’t made the connections apparently), so a day and a half later, I feel like I’m back together. Funny how that works.
